Matias Fernandez-Pardo to Newcastle: Signing from Lille is 'very fast' with 'unbelievable power' like Jeremy Doku

There is one special quality that will have convinced Newcastle United that Matias Fernandez-Pardo can thrive in the Premier League. "He is very explosive, very fast," his former coach Arnar Vidarsson tells Sky Sports. "He has this unbelievable power."

Indeed, Vidarsson, who worked with Fernandez-Pardo at Gent prior to his move to Lille, sees similarities with another Belgian winger who has become a Premier League star. "You could compare him a little bit to Jeremy Doku. They have a similar profile," he says.

"It is that power, that speed, that ability to go past people without needing space." That Doku trademark of slowing the defender down and then suddenly speeding up? He has it too. "Matias can go past people in one or two metres because of this explosiveness."

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The reason why Newcastle have been persuaded to pay £51m to bring the 21-year-old Belgium international to the Premier League is that Fernandez-Pardo has shown that he can bring goals too. He has evolved into more of a forward than a winger.

"In my opinion, his best position is central," says Vidarsson. "That is how he scored most of his goals and how Lille scouted him in his last season with Gent." It happened fast. He made his full league debut in March 2024 and played his last game for the club that August.

A run of eight goals in 11 games did that. "The coach started to use him as a striker. Before that, he had always been on the wing. He made a good decision because Matias started to score a lot. After that spell playing centrally, there was big interest in him."

Vidarsson's relationship with Fernandez-Pardo pre-dates that first-team breakthrough. The Icelandic coach, now working in coach development for FIFA, was responsible for talent management at Gent as well as working with the development squad there.

He remembers a quiet boy, one well supported by his family. "His relationship with his father was strong. His father was all in, basically his assistant, driving him everywhere and taking good care of him. Matias did not talk too much." He came alive on the pitch.

The young Fernandez-Pardo was a wide player for Gent's second team. It was a learning process. "His decision-making on the wing was not always the best," Vidarsson recalls. "That is something that Doku, for example, also had when he was at Anderlecht."

He caveats it by saying this was a few years ago. "Players develop. But he was going past people and not knowing when to cross, when to cut inside, when to go outside, when to find space in behind. And sometimes he did not have the mentality to run for the team."

Vidarsson puts that down to the fact that he had probably outgrown the level and was itching for the first-team opportunity that he soon seized. "That is typical of a young player who was being asked to go from the first team to play for the second team."

The breakthrough came in early 2024 when Gent sold three attacking players for significant sums of money. Malick Fofana and Gift Orban both moved to Lyon. Hugo Cuypers was sold to Chicago Fire. "That freed up the space for Matias to play," he explains.

The rest is history and Fernandez-Pardo earned his own switch that summer. "I think it was a great move for him to go to Lille," says Vidarsson. After a promising first season adjusting to the level, he played a key role in qualifying Lille for the Champions League.

Given that achievement, there is some surprise within football that Fernandez-Pardo has been so keen to leave. Certainly, there is a feeling that playing a season of Champions League football with the French club would have aided his development.

Vidarsson himself preaches caution in expecting too much on Tyneside, at least in the short term. "I would say they are taking, not a risk, but let's say giving him an opportunity," he says, rather diplomatically. This is another step up for him, after all.

"He has the potential but I really do believe that he will need one season to adapt before he can shine and become a top player in the Premier League. Because everything in the Premier League is faster, more intense. Everything there happens at a faster tempo."

There is a belief that Matthias Jaissle's vertical style of play could suit Fernandez-Pardo - if he is used in the channel rather than just stuck out on the wing. "It will probably always be better for Matias to play in a system as one of two strikers," argues Vidarsson.

"Because of his speed, he needs space. On the wing, you can direct him in one direction and then he becomes a little easier to mark." That might change, of course. In part, because he can "grow into a bigger club, into a bigger environment" at Newcastle.

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The World Cup felt like a missed opportunity as Fernandez-Pardo was restricted to just three appearances off the bench for Belgium. Tired of waiting, he has pushed for the club move that he craved and the chance now to play in the Premier League.

There is much to learn and much to prove. But Newcastle supporters have reason to be excited. Not because Fernandez-Pardo is the finished article, but because he isn't. And because he possesses that one quality that means he always has the capacity to excite.

"What he has, of course, is that special thing that a lot of clubs are looking for in modern football, that speed, that ability to go past people and do something in small spaces. He has those attributes and they are really difficult to create. You are just born with it."

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