Everton have entered advanced talks over a deal to bring £13 million Atletico Madrid right-back Santiago Arias to Goodison Park, according to the Mail.
While the Colombian international has not exactly found first-team football easy to come by at the Wanda Metropolitano, he has Marcel Brands to thank for setting him on the way to the very top of European football.
Arias was a little known 21-year-old when Brands, one of the most respected talenspotters in the game, took him from Lisbon to Eindhoven in 2013.
When the rampaging right-back bid an emotional farewell to PSV five years later, he departed a three-time Eredivisie champion.
“He is the perfect model of the modern defender: pacy, powerful and attack-minded,” Brands told the PSV website about one of his best ever signings.
“There are not many players with such qualities.”
It almost goes without saying, then, that Everton’s interest in Arias is undoubtedly being driven by their director of football.
The Mail reports that talks with the 28-year-old have now reached an advanced stage, with the 53-cap international expected to replace the departed Djibril Sidibe in Carlo Ancelotti’s squad.
Arias will be expected to compete with Jonjoe Kenny and Seamus Coleman for a place in the team, although the latter impressed in a more withdrawn, central role in recent months, perhaps opening up space for a more adventurous full-back alongside him.
Arias has fallen behind Kieran Tripper in the pecking order at Atletico but, in his final season at PSV, contributed nine goals and assists to a title-winning campaign.
Goal claims that the South American is valued at £13 million.
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