"?Sunderland youngster Joel Asoro is the subject of interest from a host of European clubs - including North East rivals Newcastle United.
"?Swedish news outlet Expressen reported that the Magpies' chief scout Graham Carr, as well as Arsenal's Scandanavian-based scout Bobby Bennett, watched Asoro make his Under-21s debut during Sunday evening's 1-1 draw between Sweden and Spain.
The article also goes on to claim that Carr was even quoted over his praise for the 17-year-old.
Newcastle, Arsenal and EIGHT other clubs keeping tabs on #SAFC's Joel Asoro #afc #NUFChttps://t.co/5gPPyHaeQj pic.twitter.com/vuz7qyVOZI
He said: "He already plays for Sunderland, but I was impressed a lot yesterday."
Representatives for other top European outfits such as Bayern Munich, Inter Milan and Paris-Saint Germain were also present to run the rule over the young striker.
AC Milan, Valencia, Borussia Dortmund, Villareal and Lyon are the other interested parties.
Asoro is highly rated at the Stadium of Light despite only joining Sunderland from IF Brommapojkarna in July 2015.
And his form for the Black Cats youth team, as well as his international exploits for Sweden's youth sides, has caused a raft of other clubs to sit up and take notice.
Sunderland manager David Moyes would be loathe to lose such a prized asset so early into his Black Cats career.
The Scot has already had to contend with speculation surrounding the future of key players such as Lamine Kone, while forward Fabio Borini has been ruled out of action for three months with a groin injury.
And Moyes will no doubt dig his heels in to keep hold of Asoro amid the interest in his services.
Asoro has broken into the first-team set up at the Wearside-based outfit in the early stages of the 2016/17 campaign.
The forward was handed his senior bow in the 2-1 defeat to Middlesbrough on August 21 with a nine-minute cameo appearance from the bench.
Asoro followed that up with his first start in the 1-0 EFL Cup second round win over Shrewsbury Town four days later, completing the full 90 minutes in the process.
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