Watch: The touching gesture Sandro Tonali made at full-time after Newcastle United thrashed Aston Villa

Sandro Tonali is well on his way to becoming a Newcastle United legend. His story so far at the club is already very unique and he was destined for the history books as things stood anyway.

Now though, after putting all the bad stuff behind him with the gambling issues and the 10-month ban, the Italy international is back and better than ever.

In his new role-playing deeper behind Bruno Guimaraes, Tonali is coming into his own and has become a pivotal part of how Newcastle play.

Not only that, but the Italian, who isn't exactly famed for showing emotion, appears to be enjoying his football again.

The rumours about Sandro Tonali returning to Italy will not go away

There have been plenty of reports claiming that Tonali is homesick and wants to go back to Italy, or that he's going to be sold to appease the PSR overlords, but there's no way the club would even consider letting him go given the form he's in.

The St James' Park crowd have been behind Tonali since his £55 million move in 2023 and have supported him all through his ban, during which he learned English - again, hardly the actions of someone intent on making it a fleeting visit.

Tonali was a key figure in Newcastle United's demolition of Aston Villa on Boxing Day, with his quick thinking and one-touch football.

Sandro Tonali gave one lucky little fan a late Christmas gift

Thanks to the club's official Match Cam video we are able to see the nice moment at the end of the game where Tonali took off his shirt and ascended the steps into the crowd to hand it to a young fan who was holding up a sign with his name on it.

We love seeing things like that, seeing our players give back to the fans whenever they can, especially the kids and double especially at Christmas.

I'm sorry, Italy, he's not coming home just yet, you'll just have to make do with those supervised visits where he's wearing the famous blue.