Afner Ca will be the next Newcastle breakout star, he's primed for the first team
Afner Ca's standout showing for Newcastle's youth team shows why he should already be in Matthias Jaissle's thoughts for this season.
Newcastle have enjoyed a relatively strong start to the campaign under new boss Jaissle.
They sit ninth in the Premier League as the first international break of the season gets underway, and are also into the fourth round of the Carabao Cup.
Despite some good performances, the form of Jaissle's strikers has left a lot to be desired so far, with Yoane Wissa, Matias Fernandez-Pardo and Will Osula combining for one goal from nine appearances this season.
Newcastle fans should, therefore, be excited by academy product Ca, who shone in the under-21s' latest EFL Trophy clash in midweek.
Jaissle has already shown trust in their youth players since his arrival, and the 19-year-old may well be the next starlet to make the step up to the senior side.
Afner Ca's latest performance to put Matthias Jaissle on red alert
Jaissle arrived at Newcastle with a strong track record of using youth stars in the first team at his previous clubs.
He continued that theme in pre-season on Tyneside, with the likes of Sean Neave, Leo Shara, Miodrag Pivas and Mason Miley featuring in friendly games.
Miley made the bench for their Premier League trip to Leeds last week, while the likes of Pivas, Kyran Thompson and Michael Mills made the bench against Hull last time out.
Ca could well be the next star to make the step up, as he impresses following a summer move from Levante.
The 19-year-old started against League One leaders Bradford City on Tuesday night, and emerged with an assist, the most touches (7) in the opposition box and the most dribbles (5) completed of any player on the pitch.
He also created one more chance for his teammates and won the second-most duels (6) of any player on the pitch, proving that he can already hold his own against senior players at a decent level.
Ca on track for bright future after Robbie Stockdale comments
There is a clear pathway for young stars to make their way into Jaissle's thoughts as Newcastle transform their view on the academy from when Eddie Howe was in charge.
The former Magpies boss was reluctant to promote too many youth players into the first team, but that has changed and Ca could well benefit this season.
Newcastle under-21s manager Stockdale has tipped the Guinean striker to impress as he gets to grips with the English game.
Speaking last week, he said: "He's a different type of profile player to probably what we've had in the past. And he's getting to know us. We're getting to know him a little bit. And again, it's not easy for a young player that doesn't speak a lot of English to come into our programme.
"There's a lot of work to be done with Afner. But the raw tools of obviously quick, strong, quite aggressive are there and it's trying to polish the edges a little bit."