Newcastle United midfielder Matt Ritchie believes that teammate Jonjo Shelvey could play for Barcelona if he had the right attitude.
Shelvey is Newcastle's top scorer in the Premier League this season, registering five goals from 17 outings as Steve Bruce's side lie 13th in the table amid the coronavirus postponement.
Ritchie thinks that Shelvey possesses enough quality to make his mark at Camp Nou but urges the Englishman to spend more time on the football pitch than on the golf course.
Speaking to the In The Box YouTube channel, Ritchie said: "What a player, I've been at Newcastle four years and I've seen him inside a box no more than 10 times.
"That's how good he is. His natural ability to see passes, to receive the ball, to move the ball. I remember playing against him as a kid - I think he scored a hat-trick, he was unbelievable.
"He's got his moves - ending up at Newcastle. I say to him on regular occasions: 'if you had your head screwed on you could play for Barcelona.'
"He's that good. He's got everything. I've said to him so many times 'if you just got head down and focused just solely on football and forget about golf and whatever else.' He's mad - he'll play golf like three times a week. I'm like 'Jonjo, you can't do that.'
"At Newcastle, he hits the longer passes, he's the one we look to open teams up and create - I feel like, and this is no disrespect to us at Newcastle, but if he was playing at Barcelona or Real Madrid, you can just imagine...he would just blow teams away with his ability.
"You have to have everything in the right place and he likes his golf too much!"
Shelvey has amassed 13 goals from 131 appearances in all competitions for Newcastle.
Ben Knapton
