After Kean Everton to sign young Brazilian?
Everton are being urged to move quickly if they want to tie up a deal for 17-year-old Brazilian attacking midfielder Reinier Jesus.
Apparently reports in the Brazilian media claim that Everton are now one of a number of clubs who are casting their eye over the exciting young prospect with a view to concluding a possible deal.
Reports linking the Blues to this player first surfaced in the summer as the Toffees were being associated with a number of young attacking talents.
In the end nothing came of it and Everton ended up signing 19-year-old Italian striker Moise Kean instead.
But now those rumours have re-surfaced. Jesus will be eligible for a transfer in January as he needs to be 18 before he can move to Europe.
The teenager has just broken into the Corinthians side and scored his first goal in the Brazilian championship.
He is one of the brightest young talents in Brazil, and so if Everton are indeed to move for him they will likely face stiff competition for his signature.
A player like this is very much in the mold of young South Americans that Blues Director of Football Marcel Brands is so well-known for finding.
If the Toffees were to secure his signing, it would be another example of the step-change in Everton’s position within the transfer market.
For most of the last twenty years or so, certainly since the start of the Premier League, the Blues have generally been shopping at the middle and even lower end of the market.
It’s true that even so through sound scouting and talent-spotting, Everton have found some very good players such as Tim Cahill and Leighton Baines.
But there was always the nagging reality that the Toffees were never going to able to compete for the best talent either in England or abroad. The club lacked the profile, resources and attractiveness to do so.
Obviously to some extent that changed when Farhad Moshiri took control of the club. His wealth gave Everton real purchasing power at last.
However the Blues were still not anywhere as attractive an option for the best talent out there. Brands’ arrival last summer seems to have changed that.
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His reputation, connections and reach have given the club the ability to punch above its weight to some extent.
Getting a player of the potential and emerging profile of Kean underlines this and represents quite a coup, even if perhaps the jury is still out and just how good he will be.
Although he would be one for the future, if the Toffees do get Jesus it will add to the burgeoning reputation of Brands and further raise the club’s now developing international profile.
Let’s also hope if he comes to Goodison Park he does indeed develop into the kind of world-class attacking talent that can help propel Everton to success.