NEWCASTLE UNITED’S search for the world’s best emerging talent appears to have taken them to the Caribbean, with Jamaican media outlets reporting that teenage forward Dujuan Richards is heading to Tyneside for a two-week trial with the Magpies.

Richards, a 17-year-old attacker, currently plays with Kingston College and Phoenix Academy, and has been granted a visa to travel to Britain for a trial.

Phoenix president, Craig Butler, has confirmed that Richards, who is nicknamed ‘Whisper’, is set to link up with a ‘top five team in the Premier League’ – and the Jamaican media are reporting that that team is Newcastle.

Speaking in the Jamaica Observer, Butler said: “It is one of the top five clubs in the English Premier League at the moment, but this is not something that is new to Phoenix.

“It is something that we have gone through before. We all know that the Phoenix players have been developed the proper way, good technique, good development – and Whisper is one of those that is at the highest level.

“He is going to England to do a trial with a club there, and we are looking forward to seeing him perform at that level and to make his path.”

Richards has just completed a stellar season at schoolboy football level in Jamaica, scoring more than 30 goals for Kingston College. He secured his first call-up to the senior Jamaica squad for a training camp last week, highlighting the rapid extent of his progress.

Butler added: “He is a very talented young player, and a very powerful young player, and a very dedicated young player.

“I believe that it is now the right time to make the move, to go and show what he can do so that when it is time for him to sign, he would have been well-known and well-appreciated by clubs in England and mainland Europe.”

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Newcastle sporting director Dan Ashworth is behind the drive to target the best emerging talent from around the globe, with the purchase of Garang Kuol from Australian side Central Coast Mariners having established a template that the Magpies are keen to follow.

Kuol, who played for Australia at the recent World Cup in Qatar despite being just 18, formally joined Newcastle at the start of this month before being immediately sent on loan to Scottish Premier League side Hearts.