Newcastle linked with French international striker

Much of the talk of a January striker has been regarding Sochaux striker, Modibo Maiga, with some sources even going as far as suggesting that a deal is already sorted for the Mali international.

However he isn't the only player that is attracting the interest of Newcastle as reports in France suggest that another striker could be on the cards. That man is Olivier Giroud who currently tops the Ligue 1 scoring charts with his goals that have fired Montpellier to the top of the French division.

Giroud has a much better goalscoring record than Maiga and has averaged a goal every two and a bit games throughout his career. He was given his France debut earlier on in the season and has since made another appearance for Laurent Blanc's les Bleus.

The 25-year-old has bagged 11 goal already this term, three more than summer Toon target Kevin Gameiro, and his Montpellier total stands at 23 goals in 51 appearances which isn't bad at all. In fact if you look at his career stats you'll see that he's made 168 appearances for Grenoble, Istres, Tours and Montpellier, scoring 69 goals along the way - a goal every 2.4 games.

Standing at 6ft 4in, he is a good all-round striker who can finish from a variety of positions. Just have a look at some of his goals.

Interestingly Sochaux and Montpellier met at the weekend, and it was Giroud's team who took all three points courtesy of a 3-1 win. Giroud scored all three of Montpellier's goals whilst Maiga was left out with the Newcastle scouts, apparently, watching on.

When it comes to a straight up choice I guess it's irrelevant as we don't really have a choice about who the football clubs signs, but as football fans we can have a preference and mine would be Giroud.

Who would you prefer?