Newcastle United now linked with Argentine defender who caused one fan to protest club to get him sold
Every fan base has their heed the balls, and that's not exclusive to England as one Marseille fan once staged a hunger strike in protest to get the club to sell one of their players.
The player in question was Argentina's Leonardo Balerdi, who is now being linked by the Daily Mail with a move to Newcastle United.
It has been a couple of years since the fan staged his protest outside the club, which was reported by Give Me Sport, following Balderdi's sending off against Strasbourg, and the 26-year-old has gone on to improve dramatically for the French side.
Newcastle are desperate to add depth to their defensive options this summer after missing out on Marc Guehi last year, and Balerdi is thought to be a player the club are keen to bring to Tyneside.
Juventus likely can't afford to move for Leonardo Balerdi, leaving Newcastle to pounce
Juventus are also said to be interested in Balerdi, but their funds are limited, and Newcastle could be looking to take advantage of that fact.
The Mail reports that Newcastle are hoping that a deal for Balerdi could be done for around £35 million.
The eight-times capped Argentina international made 29 appearances for Marseille last season, so it seems he managed to get on with things despite that one fan's protest which involved him holding up a sign saying "The people of Marseille don't want you anymore, respect us, thank you" and tricking a teammate into signing a petition to have Balerdi banned from the club.
Could Leonardo Balerdi be Newcastle's surprise transfer?
This all seemed to be the action of just one fan, though, and we're certainly not short of a few fans who tend to overreact to a bad performance, so we shouldn't be letting this incident put us off the idea of Balerdi coming to Newcastle.
As for how high up Balerdi is on Newcastle's list of potential targets, we aren't sure, but we don't suspect that he'll be high up if this is the first we're hearing of it
That being said, the club are pretty good at keeping their foreign transfer targets secret until a move is about to happen, so could this be one of them?
