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Hugo Ekitike of Eintracht Frankfurt

Newcastle United have ended their interest in Hugo Ekitike, who favours a move to Liverpool.

The Magpies had seen a £70m bid rejected for the striker by Eintracht Frankfurt, but the Bundesliga outfit are holding out for closer to £86m.

Liverpool have since held their own talks with Frankfurt regarding a move Ekitike.



While they had been long-time admirers of Alexander Isak, Newcastle remained steadfast in their resolve not to sell the player during this transfer window despite the Reds willing to make an offer in excess of £100m for the Sweden international.

This has led to Liverpool turning their immediate attention to Ekitike, as reported by the ECHO, with a bid now expected after discussions over the past 48 hours.

READ MORE:Liverpool open talks with Eintracht Frankfurt over Hugo Ekitike transferREAD MORE:Liverpool keep Newcastle guessing as Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike transfer intrigue grows

And Fabrizio Romano, among other high-profile journalists, has now reported that Newcastle have ended their interest in the striker, leaving the path clear for the Reds.

Posting on Twitter, Romano wrote: “Understand Newcastle have now already left talks for Hugo Ekitike, deal considered off at this stage.

“NUFC now focus on different targets as since Monday bid got rejected, Liverpool entered race + there were no advances with the Magpies.

On top of that, the Reds are also having to cope with the death of Diogo Jota, who was killed along with his brother Andre Silva in a car crash earlier this month.

While they might end up needing more than one new forward as a result, they have now made their move for Ekitike.

The 23-year-old scored 22 goals in 48 games across all competitions last season as he helped Frankfurt qualify for the Champions League.

Former Liverpool strikers Erik Meijer and Sean Dundee, who currently serve as a pundit and co-commentator in the Bundesliga respectively, are both huge admirers of Ekitike.

“Yeah, Ekitike has a very good season.

The only thing he doesn't have is a lot of experience.

“The last one and a half years he played all the matches at Frankfurt, so his level went up step by step and he was the main goalscorer at Frankfurt after Marmoush left to Manchester City.

“Everybody thought, oh, now Frankfurt is going to have problems, but Ekitike got better and better.

Hugo Ekitike is a very good player.

“Frankfurt, what they've done over the years, they've always had really good strikers, and they're always losing them!

“But he's also a very, very good striker.
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