Newcastle winger Matt Ritchie has praised his teammate Jonjo Shelvey - so much that he could easily see the midfielder playing for La Liga giants such as Real Madrid or Barcelona.
“For me, I've said to him so many times, ‘If you just got your head down, focused solely on football and forgot about golf and whatever else.’
“This guy has the natural ability to just see passes, to receive the ball, to move the ball. Obviously, he's got his moves and he's ended up at Newcastle," he told the 'In The Box' podcast.
"But I say to him very regularly: ‘Jonj, if you had your head screwed on, you could play for Real Madrid or Barcelona so easily’.
“He's that good. He's got everything, he's got the short one, and at Newcastle now, he hits longer passes and tougher passes and he's the one we look to to open teams up and create.
“But - and this is no disrespect to us at Newcastle - I feel like if he was playing for a Barcelona or Real Madrid, you could imagine he'd blow teams away with his ability."
From 2010 to 2013, the 28-year-old made 69 appearances for Liverpool across all competitions, scoring seven goals and bagging four assists. He is currently living the best time of his career, as he's scored a record of 13 times and assisted 19 times since his move to Newcastle in 2016.
