WATCH: Anthony Elanga scores in brilliant World Cup cameo for Sweden

Newcastle United winger Anthony Elanga is now officially a World Cup goal scorer. 

Newcastle paid £55 million for the Swedish winger last summer after he had an extremely impressive season for Nottingham Forest. It was the culmination of a lengthy pursuit that spanned a couple of seasons.

With all the scouting and effort that went into signing Anthony Elanga, not to mention the £55 million fee, we don't feel that Newcastle fans were asking for too much when they wanted a winger who could cross the ball and hit the target.

That is not at all what we got, though. We got a player with lightning-quick pace and zero skills on the ball. To give credit where it's due, we did get a couple of half-decent performances out of him - but they were literally just half-decent and literally only a couple.

Elanga stars in superb Sweden cameo

We live in a world where Lewis Hall doesn't go to the World Cup and Anthony Elanga does; it's just not fair.

However, Elanga sent a strong message to his critics on Saturday evening as Sweden were hammered 5-1 by the Netherlands, as it was second-half substitute Elanga who grabbed the consolation goal for Sweden.

Elanga used his pace to run into open space and then applied a cool finish beyond Newcastle target Bart Verbruggen after latching onto Alexander Isak's pass. Watch his goal at 6:10 in the clip below.

Where was this Elanga last season?

Beyond the goal, Elanga looked impressive too, taking on the Dutch backline with the kind of freedom he showed at Nottingham Forest.

Hopefully he will get another chance to shine in Sweden's final group game against Japan, and if he can replicate the kind of display he made on Saturday, that could boost his confidence ahead of the new season.

We've been very harsh when writing about Elanga for all the reasons laid out above, but that's because we are so frustrated by him. We know he's a good player. We've seen it with our own eyes several times. It's as if Forest sold us an Elanga body double who'd never seen a football before, and they sent the real one to the USA for the World Cup.