By admin 
There are reports from Spain, that Newcastle are interested in signing Real Madrid goalkeeper Andriy Lunin in January.
24-year-old Lunin stands 6ft 3ins tall and has represented Ukraine at every level including 9 caps at the senior level.
Lunin has got his chance this season because first-choice Thibaut Courtois, maybe the best goalkeeper in the world at present, is out injured.
And he seems to be preferred recently to former Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Lunin has 9 appearances for Madrid and Arrizabalaga has 16 appearances so far this season.
Back in June 2018, Real Madrid reached an agreement with Ukrainian Premier League club Zorya Luhansk to sign Lunin in a €8.5 million plus a €5M add-on deal.
He has only played a total of 26 times for Real Madrid, and 9 this season with Courtois out injured.
Courtois suffered a torn ACL last August, and he underwent surgery immediately and has been undergoing rehabilitation ever since then.
Thibaut is not expected to return this season and has announced he will not be fit enough to play for Belgium in Euro2024 in Germany, because he wants to concentrate on being fully fit for next season.
This is what Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti has said about stand-in Lunin this season:
“We have total confidence in Lunin who is a great goalkeeper. He’s been very good during pre-season.”
He’s talented and what he lacks is what all young players lack – experience, which he’s going to gain day by day.”
The reports say the goalkeeper is happy at Real Madrid because he’s been playing first-team football.
So our first question is why would Real Madrid want to let Lunin leave in January. if Courtois is indeed out for the season?
Maybe they can rely on Kepa Arrizabalaga, but that would leave them short if Kepa gets injured.
So we have some initial doubts about the reality of this report.
If Newcastle want to upgrade current goalkeeper Martin Dubravka in the absence of Nick Pope out
injured, maybe David De Gea or Aaron Ramsdale would be the ones Newcastle will most likely go after.
If Newcastle are really interested in the long term deal, maybe he could be a signing for us in the summer.