Injury Changed Toon Player's Future

He claims that seeing Marseille goalkeeper and close friend Cedric Carrasso rupture an Achilles tendon 10 days ago convinced him to take up the challenge of a move to Tyneside.

Beye: "I had the chance to join Newcastle more than a month before the start of the new season.

"I refused it because I wanted to play in the Champions League with Marseille and finish the final year of contract while keeping alive the possibility of prolonging my stay at 'L'OM'.

"The offer from Newcastle, a big club, came again though, and it was a good financial proposal — it would be a lie to hide that fact.

"But seeing the injury to Cedric Carrasso was what really made me reflect.

"Like him, I am 29, and he was not injured because of a tackle, but because of what can happen to the human body as time goes by.

"If that kind of mishap had happened to me in the situation I was in at Marseille with the end of my contract, it would have made things very complicated.

"You have to think of these things and it's for that reason that I accepted the challenge of moving to Newcastle.

"I thank the people at the club and the supporters, even if some of them attacked me lately. I would like to have taken those fans with me.

"I will keep my house in Marseille and go to live there after I retire."