Premier League outfit Everton are reportedly ready to pay £36m for Lille’s Ligue 1 flyer Rafael Leao.
Farhad Moshiri was true to his worth.
After taking over as Everton’s majority shareholder in 2016, the steel magnate promised to spend big and give The Toffees access to players they could not have dreamed of signing during the shoestring regime of Bill Kenwright.
But paying huge sums doesn’t guarantee success. In the last three years, Cenk Tosun, Davy Klaassen, Yerry Mina and Yannick Bolasie all arrived at Goodison Park for over £20 million and struggled notably.
So no wonder some fans are little worried about claims from La Voix du Nord that Everton are ready and willing to pay £36 million for Rafael Leao, a 20-year-old forward who has started just 16 league games in his entire career.
Though the supporters who are a little more familiar with French football know why Leao is so highly-rated – not to mention expensive.
A jet-heeled striker who has been labelled the ‘Portuguese Kylian Mbappe’, the former Sporting Lisbon wonderkid scored eight Ligue 1 goals as Lille stunned France by finishing second behind Paris Saint-Germain last season.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Figo and co developed into truly world class footballers after making their name at Sporting’s famed academy and Leao certainly has the raw talent to follow in their footsteps.
But is Everton the right move at the right time?
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