Segundo Alejandro Castillo

Segundo Castillo arrived at Goodison Park as part of a clutch of last-minute acquisitions before the summer 2008 transfer window brought and end to weeks of farce at Everton. Told to "watch this space" for some crowd-pleasing signings by Chairman Bill Kenwright, Evertonians had to wait until the last week of the window before seeing the first player arrive. Even then, just one, Marouane Fellaini, was signed for any real money; the other four, Castillo, Lars Jacobsen, Louis Saha and Carlo Nash were all loanees or freebies.

Castillo, a season-long loan signing from Red Star Belgrade, received a mixed reaction from the fans, particularly given David Moyes's tacit admission that he was a panic acquisition seeing as he'd only seen the lad in tapes. The hope, though, was that he could become the long-awaited replacement for Lee Carsley if he impressed sufficiently.

The Ecuador international almost joined Blackburn prior to signing for the Blues but a week's trial there was curtailed after just two days. 

He is a defensive midfielder and two seasons ago he was named best player in Serbian league which; given the standard of football in Serbia may not say much, but Castillo is a very professional player who gives 100% and knows how to play football, not just defend.

Castillo, who filled the No 8 shirt vacated by Andy Johnson, presented a somewhat larger physical presence compared to Carsley and is more imposing but he is not really a tough tackling midfielder. He was injured for a large period of the previous season. He is not the quickest, but has good positional sense to compensate. His passing is not expansive and he is not known for taking too many touches on the ball, he merely helps it along and keeps it moving about the midfield. His goal-scoring record is impressive, due to his aerial ability, which come into good effect from set-pieces. He is also renowned for having a powerful shot and there was plenty of evidence of that when he drove home his first Everton goal in the Uefa Cup First Round First Leg match against Standard Liege in September 2008.

He has good international experience (with Ecuador) and has proven himself in European football during his time at Red Star. He was set to sign for Juventus last summer, but ominously failed a medical — the first half of his time at Everton was also blighted by a hamstring injury.

When fit, though, Castillo had his opportunity in one of Europe’s big leagues with an ambitious side, that hoped to feature regularly in the senior European competitions. Only it never really happened for him.  He played very well at Chelsea in April and muzzled Lampard — something that would have been handy at Wembley a month later — and never let the team down. The rest of the squad said he was a pleasure to have around with his happy nature.

Sparingly used, despite yet another campaign blighted by injuries, and rarely performing up to anything like the international standard he showed often when playing for Ecuador, it was inevitable that his loan deal would be ended.  The main reason Everton did not sign him is that Red Star Belgrade wanted £4.5M for him. As Everton had no money in the early summer of 2009, until Lescott was sold, and because Castillo had only done a steady job overall, Moyes decided it was too much money.

The reason Moyes gave when asked was that the Ecuador international just did not do enough for the demanding Scot on the training ground... And so, in June 2009, his loan spell was terminated but later he signed for Wolves and stayed on in the Premier League.

By Michael Kenrick and Lyndon Lloyd
Last updated June 2009