Everton want Amadou Onana and Frank Lampard may now be on the verge of beating West Ham United to the new Marouane Fellaini.
What a year it has been for Onana.
The Belgian was pretty much unknown last summer. On this day a year ago, Onana was just hours away from leaving Hamburg for Lille.
Onana had only started 14 league games in Germany’s second tier but Lille sensed huge potential in the midfielder.
Sure enough, Onana showed that promise in Ligue 1 last season and is now set for a big move to England after just 11 league starts last term.
Everton want Amadou Onana
After 25 league appearances in his career, Onana is seemingly on the verge of heading to the Premier League.
The Daily Mail report that Everton have matched West Ham’s £33.5million offer for Onana – and he actually prefers to join the Toffees.
West Ham have been chasing Onana for weeks and finally felt like they had made a breakthrough on Wednesday.
It’s now suggested that Onana has better terms on offer at Everton and he would love to play for Frank Lampard.
Those rumours have sparked confusion, with some surprised that Onana would rather join an Everton side who scraped survival last season over the Europa League semi-finalists in West Ham.
Onana may well fancy playing under a former midfield icon in Lampard, and an interesting comparison has now emerged over in his native Belgium.
Former Belgium international Thomas Buffel has told Het Laatste Nieuws that he thinks West Ham have spotted Onana’s potential.
Buffel, who allowed Onana to captain his Belgium Under-21 side, thought that West Ham was Onana’s destination at the time and talked up his calmness and energy.
Buffel added that Onana is reminiscent of Marouane Fellaini for his huge frame and potential to play further forward in midfield even though he has has been described as an anchor man.
“West Ham will not have happened overnight. They pay for his potential, and he has it,” said Buffel. “Amadou is taking steps forward quickly. Amadou is a calm boy – an important quality. Also a leader figure. He is not our captain for nothing. He can inspire his teammates and puts a lot of energy into his game.”
“Amadou is reminiscent of Fellaini, especially in stature. He can also play in the ‘ten’. He won’t do two man dribbling, but with his infiltrations and length he can be dangerous in the box. We’ll see what role West Ham has in store for him. His versatility is an asset. The ‘six’ and ‘eight’ are more his natural positions. He has tremendous athleticism – ideal for the Premier League. As an attacker, you can never get rid of him,” he added.
That’s a very interesting comparison given that Fellaini was a star at Everton but was signed by now-West Ham boss David Moyes at Goodison Park and Manchester United.
Onana hasn’t really shown the goal threat of Fellaini, but Buffel seemingly thinks that he can develop that side of his game moving forward.
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