Sao Paulo director of football Carlos Belmonte has revealed that the club’s analytics team identified Newcastle United loan star Jamal Lewis as the ideal player to satisfy the requirements of the squad.
The 26-year-old full-back joined Newcastle United from Norwich City in the summer of 2020 but failed to establish himself in the Magpies starting line-up.
Last season he spent on loan with Watford, where he featured 36 times in the league and with one year remaining on his contract this summer, he secured a loan move to Brazilian side Sao Paulo.
His move to Brazil makes him the first British player in Sao Paulo’s history and their director of football, Belmonte, stressed that the Newcastle star has good experience of English football.
Belmonte added that Sao Paulo’s analytics team identified Lewis as a player who has the characteristics that the Brazilian side were looking for and believes that the Magpies star’s addition will significantly strengthen their squad.
“We used the creativity and assessments of our analysis team to come up with the name of Jamal Lewis, a full-back with the characteristics we were looking for”, Belmonte told Sao Paulo’s official site.
“He is a young player with experience in English football, which certainly gives him important experience.
“He is another player who will strengthen our group in the three competitions we are competing in.”
Sao Paulo have an option to make Lewis’ loan move permanent and he will be hoping to impress them this season to seal a permanent move.
