8 hours ago
What could Barry bring to Everton?
Everton have reportedly entered negotiations with Villarreal to sign France Under-21 striker Thierno Barry.
A Premier League move at the age of 22 would cement Barry's rapid rise in European football in recent seasons. Only three years ago, he completed his first season of senior football in France's fifth tier before moving to Belgian second-tier side Beveren in July 2022.
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Twenty goals in 28 starts were enough to earn a move to Swiss Super League side Basel a year later and he subsequently finished as the club's top scorer on 12 goals in his first campaign of top-flight football.
A flurry of eight goals in the first four matches of 2024-25 convinced Villarreal to pay €15m (£12.7m) for his services in August. The 6ft 5in striker was an instant success, scoring 11 goals to help the Yellow Submarine finish fifth with their highest points tally in 17 years and qualify for the Champions League.
Barry was in an elite group of players aged under 23 to score 10 or more goals in Europe's top five leagues this season, sitting alongside the likes of Leipzig's in-demand Benjamin Sesko, PSG's Bradley Barcola and Eintracht Frankfurt's Hugo Ekitike.
Barry's height makes him a huge threat in the air and he ranked second of all forwards in Europe's major leagues (and top of anyone in La Liga) for aerial duel success in 2024-25, winning 66.7% of his 153 challenges (minimum 100 aerial duels).
[BBC]
It is a facet of Barry's game that has undoubtedly attracted Everton boss David Moyes, whose sides typically get lots of crosses into the box. The Toffees ranked seventh for open-play crosses in this season's Premier League, although they struggled to convert crosses into goals, scoring just three times from such situations – the fewest of any club other than Chelsea (2).
