Everton have joined Premier League rivals Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur in the race to sign Borussia Monchengladbach midfielder Denis Zakaria before the summer is out, as reported by BILD.
With little more than a fortnight left in the transfer window, Gladbach have successfully managed to keep a talented crop of players together.
Florian Neuhaus, Matthias Ginter, Ramy Bensebaini, Jonas Hofmann and the ‘new Thierry Henry’ Marcus Thuram are all expected to stick around for Adi Hutter’s debut season at Borussia Park.
But if one player is going to leave before the August deadline, we’d put all our eggs in Zakaria’s basket.
The Switzerland international is out of contract in 2022 and has shown little interest in signing an extension.
“Denis has made it clear to us he wants to make a change this summer,” Gladbach sporting director Max Eberl said in late July.
Eberl insists the German giants have received a “lot of offers” for the one-time Young Boys starlet, although presumably none have met their demands for a man whose price tag has fallen from £35 million to £18 million as his contract runs down.
Everton and Arsenal battle to land Denis Zakaria
It remains to be seen whether Everton or Tottenham are willing to pay the sort of money Gladbach want.
Arsenal are still reported to be interested, although it’s uncertain how serious the Gunners are at this stage having retained the services of Granit Xhaka while landing Albert Sambi Lokonga from Anderlecht.
It’s believed Mikel Arteta is keen to bring in another midfielder because of Thomas Partey’s ongoing injury problems – but £18 million is a lot of money to spend on an understudy.
Everton are also long-standing admirers of Zakaria.
Three years ago, The Mirror reported then-manager Marco Silva was scouting the technically gifted, box-to-box midfielder after his eye-catching performances at the 2018 World Cup.
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