Center-back Radu Dragusin’s agent, Florin Manea, has said he has had several meetings with representatives of Newcastle United on the possible transfer to the rich Tyneside club of his client.

The 6ft 3ins right-footed center-back was born in Bucharest, Romania, and he now plays for Serie A club Genoa and is yet another right-footed central defender that Dan Ashworth and his team have scouted.

He only moved to Genoa in January after being on loan at the club (with an option to buy) for the first half of last season: the fee was around €5.5M plus €1.8M in conditional bonuses.

It seems like Newcastle and Genoa have agreed that about €30M (about £26.4M) would be needed if Newcastle want to sign the 21-year-old, who started his career at Juventus and has played 54 times for Genoa with 5 goals.

So if the player moves to Newcastle for €30M in January, that’s a profit of about €22.7M (around 400%) in one year for Genoa!

Dragusin’s style of play is said to be the following from Wikipedia:

A tall and physical center-back, Dragusin has cited Virgil van Dijk as a point of reference, with whom he has since been compared for his confidence in possession and positional sense.

Dragusin has also played as a right-back on occasion.

It seems the player was keen to sign for Newcastle, but this week his agent said he will extend his contract at Genoa.

That seems an odd move, but Sport Witness have reported that TuttoMercatoWeb have said that Genoa will still allow Newcastle to sign the defender for around €30M.

After this flurry of activity Romania’s Digi Sport got an update from Dragusin himself, and this is what he said:

“I’m fine, I feel in very good shape. I am going through a moment that can only make me happy.”

“I will not leave Genoa, we are in discussions for a new contract, but these things are secondary,”

“It is important to have results and to have as easy a championship as possible. It’s a very pleasant feeling. It means that your work is also appreciated by the rest.”

“My focus is to develop and evolve as best I can.”

So those comments from the player have certainly muddied the water on any possible deal.

But we do expect one player Newcastle will bring in, hopefully during the January transfer window will be a right-footed center-back as competition for Swiss International Fabian Schar.

From what we can tell, Dragusin seems like the type of player who has the potential to become a top player if he moves to Newcastle and gets coached by (the great) Eddie Howe and his staff.

What do you think?