Newcastle United's next transfer gets Demba Ba seal of approval as £24.6m deal 'agreed'
Newcastle United are expected to sign the France under-21s international.
Former Newcastle United striker Demba Ba has given a unique insight into French goalkeeper Ewen Jaouen.
The Magpies are expected to finalise a move for the 20-year-old after reports in France on Friday claimed a £24.6million deal had been agreed with Stade de Reims.
For those who haven’t watched Jaouen closely, he is somewhat of an unknown quantity, having never played outside of France’s second division.
The Gazette has launched a WhatsApp NUFC channel to bring the latest news, analysis and team & injury updates directly to your phone. Simply click this link to join our NUFC WhatsApp channel.
But one man who knows Jaouen extremely well is ex-Newcastle favourite Ba.
Demba Ba provides Ewen Jaouen as NUFC close in on deal
Ba is the sporting director and part-owner of Ligue 2 side Dunkerque, where Jaouen spent the 2024-25 campaign on loan.
Jaouen had a brief loan spell at Rodez AF before joining Dunkerque, and Ba has revealed how the goalkeeper had to bounce back from an incredibly difficult start before becoming a “different beast”.
“We are a club that develops players – he came to us with just seven senior games but we decided to make him our No 1 goalkeeper,” Ba told the iPaper.
“Unfortunately, his first two games were not great, he had made a couple of mistakes which cost us some points but we’d decided to go with a goalkeeper who was 18 so we had to be prepared for him to make some mistakes.
“After a couple of games he got booed by the fans and our coach eventually decided to take him out of the side to protect him. We had another goalkeeper [Adrian Ortola] who was a little bit more experienced so the coach changed it.
“The kid took it very well, we talked to him and he was like ‘I made mistakes, I need to get better’. Because he’s a very quiet guy you don’t know if he was hearing it the right way or how it felt about it so I paid a lot of attention to him and his confidence.
“I think that was the best thing for him and his career. Why? Because right after this he became the second goalkeeper for a few games, he accepted it, he stepped aside and he grew so much.
“He was looking at the first choice goalkeeper at the time – Ortola – and from my point of view he’s the best goalkeeper in France, first or second division, to build from the back. He learned a hell of a lot from him when it came to playing from back and short passes.
“He looked at the other goalkeeper and instead of being mad because he took his spot he took a step back, looked at how the goalkeeper was doing and well and learned.
“Two months from the end of the season the number one got injured so Jaouen came back in and was a different beast.”
Jaouen returned to Reims following the end of his loan spell and was immediately promoted to their number one following their relegation from Ligue 1.
The France under-21s international’s 15 clean sheets last season were the most in Ligue 2 whilst he conceded just 35 goals in 34 appearances.