Premier League outfit Everton are still watching Aster Vranckx after missing out on the midfielder when he joined Wolfsburg for £7 million last summer, as reported by The Athletic.
The Belgium U21 international was linked with Everton’s near neighbours when rising through the ranks at KV Mechelen. Most young players would give up an arm and a leg in order to put pen to paper with Liverpool. But Vranckx had his own ideas.
“I didn’t just want to be a bargain for a European superpower,” the teenager said at the time, before explaining why he took an intermediate step to Germany instead.
“Wolfsburg really have a plan for me. I believe in my qualities and am ambitious. Next season, I want to play as soon as possible.”
Turning down Liverpool; That’s one way to endear yourself to the Everton support.
Everton and Nottingham Forest like Aster Vranckx
The Athletic claim that Jurgen Klopp’s Reds are not the only Merseyside outfit who were keeping tabs on Vranckx as the powerhouse midfielder exploded onto the scene back home in Belgium. Everton’s interest is very much ongoing, too.
The Toffees want an athletic, powerful, box-to-box central midfielder a la Abdoulaye Doucoure. Vranckx – likened to Axel Witsel by some- is not only that, he would also fulfil the club’s desire to bring some of the game’s most exciting up-and-coming talent to Goodison Park. Armando Broja, Conor Gallagher, Amadou Onana and Morgan Gibbs-White are just four other names on Everton’s summer wishlist.
“Mentality, commitment, and skills…He has it all to play in the Premier League or the Bundesliga,” former Mechelen team-mate Igor de Camargo said of Vranckx.
A ball-winner and a ball-player rolled into one, The Athletic claim that Vranckx is also on Nottingham Forest’s radar.
Forest appear to be prioritising Huddersfield Town’s Lewis O’Brien instead, however. Lille’s Onana is another with admirers in the East Midlands.
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