Lewis Dobbin 61

Lewis Dobbin joined Everton's Academy aged 11 and progressed through the ranks to the point where he was named Under-18s Player of the Season in 2019-20 after scoring 11 times in 16 games.

A skilful, pacy striker, the Stoke-born player was rewarded with promotion to David Unsworth's Under-23s side that season and his first professional contract in January 2020, a deal that initially tied him to the Toffees until June 2022.

However, he started the 2020-21 season playing for the Under-18s and suffered a serious knee injury sustained in training that would sideline him for the second half of that campaign. He did return for one game at U23 level but came off early and did not reappear.

Fully recovered by July 2021, Dobbin had a tremendous pre-season for the Under-23s, scoring a remarkable trio of hat-tricks as Unsworth readied his side for another tilt at the Premier League 2 title. But the real thing proved a bit more challenging — Dobbin needed 5 games before he registered his first goal for the U23s.

It was enough to be recognized by first team boss Rafael Benitez and was named as a substitute against Norwich City in September 2021, coming on for a meaningless cameo in the last few minutes to secure his Premier League debut. He would make two more senior appearances off the bench under Benitez for a total of just 29 minutes on the field that season.

As he moved into the final year of his contract, there was much discussion and uncertainty about his Everton future but that was eventually resolved toward the end of January 2022 when the Club secured his signature on a new 3½-year deal that was set to run until June 2025.

Speaking to evertontv, Dobbin said: “It's a huge honour that the Club has put their faith in me with this new deal. I love Everton and I've been here for such a long time now. I'm so grateful for the chances I've been given and to all the coaches I've had during my time in the Academy.

“I'm comfortable in the environment here and I just want to make the people at Everton proud and my family proud. I'm going to keep working hard and keep pushing. Hopefully I can get more opportunities in the First Team and score my first goal.”

He would get no first-team opportunities under new manager Frank Lampard who had been brought in to save Everton from relegation in 2021-22 and relied on the experience of his established senior players. As a result, he eschewed playing any of the youngsters until the final game of the season, after Premier League safety had been assured.

In August 2022, Dobbin secured a season-long loan move to Derby County and in late December, he scored his first goal in League One for the Rams after 20 games and contributing two other goals in the EFL Trophy and the FA Cup. On the whole, it was a difficult assignment at a struggling club.

Back at Everton, Dobbin used the pre-season in the summer of 2023 to impress another new boss, Sean Dyche, and did enough to force his way into the first-team reckoning early in the new season. Appearances off the bench in the first two games against Fulham and Aston Villa were followed by a full senior debut in the third game against Wolves at Goodison Park.

Between then and January 2024, he was a frequent presence on Everton's bench and had his highlight moment in a Blue jersey in December when he came off the bench against Chelsea and swept home the killer second goal in a handsome 2-0 win at Goodison Park.

With Everton battling to avoid further censure by the Premier League for breaches of spending rules, having been deducted eight points that season, Dobbin became the latest academy product to be sold in the summer following the departures of Ellis Simms and Tom Cannon the year before.

He was sold to Aston Villa for a reported fee of around £10m in June 2024, with Tim Iroegbunam coming in the opposite direction for a similar fee.

FactFile