Newcastle United are fans of Sassuolo striker Gianluca Scamacca, The Daily Mail's Simon Jones writes.

The lowdown

Newcastle are lining up alternative striker targets after talks with Reims' Hugo Ekitike seemingly broke down.

23-year-old Scamacca signed a new contract with Sassuolo as recently as April, in the midst of a fine individual season.

Even though he didn't start 13 of his side's 38 Serie A matches, the £27million-rated full Italy international managed to score 16 Serie A goals.

The latest

Jones says that Newcastle 'like' Scamacca as an alternative to Ekitike, but they face fresh competition from Atletico Madrid.

And even Diego Simeone's side, who have qualified for the Champions League, may not be able to persuade the player.

'There is a feeling' that the centre forward would prefer to remain in Serie A.

The verdict

Scamacca scored a goal every 134 minutes last season for a side that finished 11th in the table, and that's very impressive.

He out-performed his xG of 10.8 by a full 5.2 and while some might argue that's unsustainable, others would simply say it demonstrates his ruthlessness in front of goal.

And to further boost his reputation, he's racked up seven caps for European champions Italy since his first call-up in the autumn of 2021.

Stylistically similar to Leicester City's Jamie Vardy and AS Roma's Tammy Abraham, he's been called a 'complete' striker by former Italy Under-21 coach Luigi Di Biagio.

Newcastle should do all they can to persuade him if he turns out to be available for a reasonable price.