It must rank as one of the most unlikely redemption stories of this or any other Premier League season.
Signed by Newcastle as a £40m No 9, Joelinton was derided and written off after a meagre return of two goals in 38 games in his first year in England. But reborn and reinvented under the astute tutelage of Eddie Howe as a combative midfielder, the Brazilian is enjoying a renaissance that has afforded him a central role in Newcastle’s post-takeover revival.
It is all the more unlikely when you consider his only previous experience of playing in that position was an ill-fated hour for Rapid Wien in the Vienna derby. Recalling that in Newcastle’s drafty indoor training barn as wind whips at the roof, it is the only time his trademark beaming smile briefly disappears.
“It was the only time before now I played in midfield but it was not my best game. I was sent off,” Joelinton tells i. “But when I was asked to do it, I thought ‘Of course’. Anything to help the team and my teammates.
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“I’m very passionate when I play the game and playing midfield in the Premier League is a different type of joy to being a striker. I like to play the game hard and maybe it suits me. I won’t back down from a challenge.”
The latter part is just as well. Joelinton’s debut year, he freely admits, “did not go well”. A long way from home, in a league which was very different to the Bundesliga and a restless club still mourning the loss of Rafa Benitez, he found himself the focal point of a cold war between an owner who had pushed for his signing from Hoffenheim and a former manager who walked away unconvinced by the size of the fee.
Things got so bad that at one point, after struggling to impose himself on an FA Cup tie at Rochdale and finding himself jeered off by some of Newcastle’s support, the club made discreet pleas to the local media to help protect the striker.
“It was a tough time but I didn’t stop doing the things I had to do – working hard in training, trying to learn and improve every day,” Joelinton says, reflecting on the first half of his first season.
It is a measure of the man that his teammates were always protective, jumping to his defence when he was criticised. “I never stopped smiling, even when things weren’t going well,” he says. “There are people with more serious problems than mine.”
Joelinton’s redemption arc began when, in a moment of crisis after an early red card in a critical relegation clash with Norwich in November, Howe moved him into midfield to compensate for Ciaran Clark’s sending off.
He impressed enough for Howe to try it again in successive games but it was in a dominant performance against Manchester United that he truly arrived as a “No 6”.
To understand the ease with which Joelinton slipped into that position, you perhaps first need to understand that the 25-year-old is a genuine student of the game.
Howe marvels at his innate understanding of what he needs to do off the ball and purrs about his “tactical delivery” in a position that’s new to him. “He just has a way of getting his toe on the ball in difficult moments for us,” the Newcastle manager says.
It is no surprise. He has his own personal analyst, Sao Paulo-based Diego Viera, who runs through analysis of his game over Zoom on a weekly basis but, as he explains to i, his inquisitive mind is whirring even when he is on the pitch.
“When I play in or watch matches I always watch the games completely, not just thinking about my position,” he says.
“I try to take it all in and I am noticing things that the midfielder or defender does, even when I was playing as a striker.
“I try to understand the other positions on the field and how they work, what those players do and the movements so I felt I could play midfield.”
He absorbed much from Julian Nagelsman, who coached him at Hoffenheim.
“Julian is a great coach and I learned a lot from him, tactically. It was amazing to study his methods and what he wanted from players,” Joelinton says.
“If you play midfield, you need more physicality. You need to run more. But you’re more involved in the game, you have more of the ball and you can demand more of the ball – which I like.
“It’s easier to create space with your runs from midfield and I like to help the team defensively too. When I played as a striker I was always aware of my defensive responsibilities, to do the right thing to help the rest of the team. When you’re a midfielder you have to think that way too.”
It says much for Howe that he spotted the qualities in Joelinton, a player who formed a central part of a presentation he delivered to Newcastle’s owners in his managerial interviews. He believed Newcastle had a huge talent to unlock, and devoted a chunk of his Zoom interview displaying how it could be done.
Howe has told the player the “sky is the limit” for his career, checking that high praise with jovial criticism of the Brazilian’s colourful fashion sense.
“The gaffer is a great man, he is a leader, a great character and he has shown so much faith in me,” Joelinton says.
“Since he came here he’s got the respect of every player here because he works so hard. He wants us all to get better and for me, he’s a great man and a great coach.
“He pushes us a lot and that’s very important. I think it’s important the way we train – if you train hard, you’re going to play hard. Since he came here we work really hard in training and that’s important.
“We have a good relationship. The intensity, the passion he brings to job – it’s what we want.”
His travails are a thing of the past on the terraces. Newcastle supporters have adopted him as one of their own – the honesty of his battle back from a desperate start giving him a genuine rapport with the St James’ Park crowd. The roar when he faced up to Dele Alli or, more recently, engaged in a running battle with Brighton’s Marc Cucurella told its own story.
At West Ham last month, a group of younger fans drew the attention of BT Sport cameras with their colourful homemade Hawaiian shirts bearing his smiling face on them.
Touched, Joelinton arranged to meet up with the supporters later on to say thanks for their support.
“It was so funny. I was in the hotel and my babysitter sent me a photo of the guys on the train wearing my face on their shirt and I was laughing so much. It’s so good,” he said.
“I just want to make people happy. Those fans pay a lot of money to watch us and I know that so to make them happy and repay them for their support makes me very happy.
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“They are our 12th man. I love this city, I love the club and the passion they have for it. They fight for it so I want to fight for it.”
The club is transformed from the one that he signed for. Ashley is gone, replaced by a consortium who have made no bones about their ambition.
“Newcastle is a massive club and now it’s coming back,” he says.
“We all know the owners’ ambitions. They want to be big – the biggest club in the world – and when you listen to them you think it can be.
“Now everyone in the world is talking about Newcastle and what it can be. In Brazil they know it now and I’m happy to be here and I hope to stay for many years here to be part of it.”
A move in January for Lyon’s Brazil international Bruno Guimaraes was part of those plans and the pair are now virtually inseparable – despite Joelinton inadvertently blanking Guimaraes when he texted him a couple of days before his transfer asking him for advice on joining Newcastle.
“I kept telling him I didn’t see the message!” he jokes. Before he talked to i, Joelinton had done a joint interview with ESPN in Brazil sat alongside his new friend.
Could they possibly be next to each other in Brazil’s midfield in Qatar in the winter? “It’s a dream. Every player dreams to play for their country and I’m no different.
“I know if I do right here I have a chance. I need to keep going, keep my feet on the ground and work for the team. If I do that my time will come.”
In the short-term the aim is “to keep improving, day by day”. But the long-term? “To help Newcastle win titles and do great things. I’m happy here, very pleased for the fans.
“I love the city, my life is good and I hope to stay here for many years.”
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