SINGAPORE: Newcastle manager Eddie Howe insisted Saturday that Alexander Isak is still a Newcastle player despite speculation around a move to either Premier League champions Liverpool or Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia.

Isak has not traveled with Newcastle for their pre-season tour of Asia, apparently because of a minor thigh injury, but Howe said the 25-year-old Swedish striker was a key part of his plans.

“Of course, there are always going to be things going on behind the scenes,” Howe told reporters in Singapore, where Newcastle play Arsenal on Sunday.

“He is aware he’s in the news every day, which I’m sure is not easy for anyone in that situation.

“Conversations between Alex and the club or with me will stay private for obvious reasons. We do share a good relationship,” Howe added.

Isak, who scored 23 Premier League goals last season, has been “magnificent for us for as long as he has been with us,” said Howe. “And he is very comfortable in the dressing room.”

Isak did not travel with the Magpies after the thigh injury kept him out of Newcastle’s friendly defeat to Celtic last week.

“He mentioned before the Celtic game that it would be very minimal and nothing too serious,” said Howe.

“But he left training very early and didn’t feel right. So, he’s now back in Newcastle getting that injury assessed.”

Howe remained confident that Isak will be wearing black and white when the new season kicks off next month.

“I said after the game against Celtic that I was confident he would stay. I don’t see anything that is going to change that opinion of mine at the moment.

“It’s football,” he added. “And who knows what the future may bring.”

The Magpies ended their 70-year trophy drought by winning the Carabao Cup and finished in fifth place in the Premier League last season to secure a return to the Champions League.

“I think once you’ve experienced that feeling of winning, you want it again. So, we want to do it again as soon as possible, in all the competitions we are in,” said Howe.

“We set the bar very high, and there’s a lot of ambition within the team.”

DUBAI: A teenage UAE racing star is making a mark at global level as he seeks to achieve his lifelong ambition of competing in the glitz-and-glamor world of Formula One.

Currently pitting his wits against some of the world’s best karting drivers, 17-year-old Omar Ghannoum won the recent third round of the Rotax European Championship, which took place in Belgium.

Ghannoum produced a potentially career-defining performance in Genk to finish ahead of closest challengers Macauley Bishop and Lewis Goff, who took second and third spots on the podium respectively.

It was a hugely impressive display by Ghannoum, and a crucial next step on a journey to what he hopes will be the upper echelons of global racing.

“It was the best moment of my life crossing the finish line in first place, and it is a huge confidence boost going into the next steps of my motorsport career,” the teenager explained.

His victory in Belgium followed another eye-catching win in April when Ghannoum emerged triumphant at the UAE National Rotax Senior Championship, held on the Al-Ain Raceway International Kart Circuit.

What made that particular success all the more impressive was the fact he came out on top in the largest, and most competitive, field in Middle East karting history, with over 75 racers battling it out for glory, subsequently securing his spot at the Rotax Grand Finals, scheduled for Bahrain later this year.

“That win fit perfectly into my journey as I had put in so much work to improve mentally and physically, and obviously on track too,” he said.

“I used the race as a warm-up for getting used to the most difficult karting grid in the world, which I will have to navigate at the Grand Finals in Bahrain.”

Ghannoum is currently thriving in a sport in which he seemed destined to make an impact from a very early age.

His racing career began in the UAE, at Dubai Kartdrome, when he was just 14, although the wheels had been set in motion slightly earlier.

“I have always been a fan of racing cars, but on my 14th birthday I was given the opportunity to drive a professional race kart in America for the first time,” he explained.

“That was the moment when I realized that the sport is perfectly suited for me and my passion for speed and competition.”

Naturally, as well as enjoying the highs, Ghannoum has also had to endure some lows in the early part of his career.

However, 2025 has been an exceptional year so far, and has the potential to become even better as he sets his sights on November’s Grand Finals.

“Competing in the Grand Finals, and being the only one waving the UAE flag in the hardest category, is an honor, and I wouldn’t want it to go to waste,” said Ghannoum.

“To win that race would be an amazing step forward as it would be one of my last karting races, and I would then be setting my sights on cars.

“It would be an additional confidence boost, alongside the win at the European Championship.”

While immediate success is the obvious priority, Ghannoum is fully focused on what he wants to achieve in the long term.

“My ambitions are to carry the momentum of winning against the hardest grid in world karting in the senior category, into car racing, whether that’s GT Racing or Formula 4,” he said.

“My long-term goal is to compete in F1 or the Hypercar category in WEC (World Endurance Championship).”

Given Ghannoum’s impressive achievements to date, few would bet against him meeting, and even surpassing, those objectives.