Newcastle United signed a player on loan in the summer of 2014 who had shot to prominence in Argentina two seasons earlier with 17 goals in 25 appearances for Velez Sarsfield. That same striker netted a further six times in 13 Ukrainian Premier League games the following year as he got to grips with the culture shock of leaving his native South America.
But he didn't play a single minute of competitive football for Newcastle, barely ever even making it to the benchamong the substitutes, and his name was Facundo Ferreyra.
⚒ Facundo #Ferreyra is named #Pepsi Man of the Match of the #ShakhtarKarpaty game! � https://t.co/ScBWCZgqpY pic.twitter.com/zwSAeKRnqe
Manager at the time, Alan Pardew described the young Argentine as "tremendous potential" on the day he arrived from Donetsk, escaping the conflict in eastern Ukraine in the process. Ferreyra himself seemed eager to succeed, expressing personal fondness for the Premier League.
And yet, bar a pre-season run-out against Huddersfield Town, nothing.
Facundo Ferreyra: Saw him play once in a Newcastle shirt, for the reserves. Missed an open goal from a yard. N/A.
In November 2014, Pardew admitted that a 23-year-old Ferreyra still wasn't physically or mentally ready for English football because it was so different to what he'd been used to. The player himself said similar four months later, while adding that an injury had struck him down just when he felt as though as he was getting close to the level required.
The mental strain of what he had left behind in Ukraine, what he described as "strong stuff", witnessing daily violence and armed people in the streets, perhaps also affected him.
Ferreyra appeared as a substitute for Newcastle's Under-21 side that April, a performance that barely registered. By May the Magpies had declined their £6m option to make the loan into a permanent transfer and the player was gone.
But fast forward a whole 18 months, and Ferreyra is back doing what he used to do best. He spent the 2015/16 campaign working his way back to full fitness with Shakhtar, which included appearances against the likes of Real Madrid in the Champions League and Sevilla in the Europa League, and is now in fine form a third of the way through 2016/17.
Ferreyra has scored seven goals in 10 Ukrainian Premier League appearances this season to lead the division's scoring charts as Shakhtar look to claim a first national title since 2014 after two years of Dynamo Kyiv dominance.
Facundo #Ferreyra in 4 previous matches for Shakhtar:
âš½ vs Karpaty
âš½ vs Oleksandriia
âš½ vs Gent
âš½ vs Chornomorets
� https://t.co/2c18UIum0s pic.twitter.com/bb9cMK9VAD
Add to that, a further two in domestic cups games as well as three in four Europa League appearances, and Ferreyra has scored a total12 goals in all competitions this season. It's as if that dire year he spent watching from afar at Newcastle never even happened.
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