Lille's Sven Botman drops biggest hint yet that he could end up at NUFC this summer

On January 15th, Lille president Olivier Letang announced that Sven Botman would remain in France until the end of the season.

Since then, our attempts to sign the highly-rated defender came to a halt, however the Dutchman spoke out about his future - and January interest from Newcastle United - for the first time late last night.

The 22-year-old not only confirmed that the coming months will be his last with Lille - suggesting a summer move is imminent - he also spoke highly of the exciting project at Newcastle United, saying it would be 'very nice' to be part of that.

Here's what he had to say when speaking to Voetbal International:

“I will continue here at Lille OSC and play in the Champions League against Lukaku and this Sunday against Messi, not bad at all.

"But this will be my last months at Lille OSC.”

“I can confirm both Newcastle and AC Milan were concrete options this winter.

"Both were good options for me. I will take a good step in my career next summer”.

“Everyone says about Newcastle: it's all about money. But it's a very nice project.

"If you look at where Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain started. I think it would be very nice to be part of that, but of course Milan is also a beautiful club”

Comments that fee a little bittersweet now we've come out of the January window without landing the 6ft 4' centre-back, however it feels like this one could be highly likely this summer IF we stay up.