Newcastle United summer signing receives hilarious lesson after meeting £2.5m club hero

The 23-year-old midfielder met up with former Newcastle star David Ginola as part of a promotional campaign for Nike in partnership with JD Sports. The pair were filmed at the Portofino Italian restaurant in Newcastle City centre on Thursday night.

Ginola shared an image on his Instagram account along with the caption: “Went for dinner in Toon yesterday with @SandroTonali.”

The Frenchman joined Newcastle from Paris Saint-Germain in 1995 for £2.5million and went on to play 75 times for the club, scoring seven goals before his departure in 1997. During Ginola’s two seasons on Tyneside, Newcastle achieved two second place finishes in the Premier League.

Part one of the ‘Dinner with David’ advert was posted on social media on Sunday, August 6, showing Ginola giving Tonali lessons in the Geordie dialect.

“Do you know that in Newcastle they speak a different language called the Geordie?” Ginola asked Tonali before showing the Italian flashcards with some popular, and some not so popular, Geordie sayings.

The first ‘English’ Tonali has been recorded speaking was fittingly ‘howay the lads’ before saying phrases like ‘why aye man’, ‘am gannin ‘yem’ and several others in the amusing short video.

Since arriving in Newcastle earlier in the summer, Tonali has been taking English lessons with a number of first-team players claiming his English has improved significantly in a short period.

Now, it seems his Geordie is coming along well too!

Tonali has featured four times in pre-season for Newcastle and will be hoping to make his competitive debut in the Premier League against Aston Villa next weekend.