With midfield having been identified as an area of the team that needed an urgent overhaul after Carlo Ancelotti's first half-season in charge, Everton moved decisively in the 2020 close season to bring in three players who could potentially make an immediate impact on club's fortunes. After Allan and James Rodriguez were confirmed as the first new additions in the first week of September, Abdoulaye Doucouré was signed in a deal worth an initial Ł20M.
At one stage reportedly valued by the Hornets at Ł50M, Doucouré 's price was negotiated down by more than half, although a further Ł5M in appearance-related add-ons could eventually bring the transfer fee up to Ł25M.
Born in Meulan-en-Yvelines in Île de France, Doucuoré began his career at Rennes where he played 75 Ligue 1 games and scored 12 goals before the Hornets picked him up for an undisclosed fee in 2016.
He spent a year on loan at Granada before breaking into the first team at Vicarage Road and played 129 Premier League matches there, notching 17 goals.
At one time a target for his former boss, Marco Silva, when he was Everton manager, Doucouré left Watford after four seasons following that club's relegation back to the Championship, which prompted Doucouré to seek a path back to the Premier League.
Identified by Marcel Brands and Carlo Ancelotti as the kind of powerful, energetic presence the Blues' midfield needed, he signed a 3-year contract with the option to add an additional year, and slotted straight in to a completely revamped midfield for the start of the 2020-21 season.
Doucouré would do well, becoming an increasingly important member of a midfield that struggled at times both with and without James – the Colombian was frequently absent through injury but could be a liability at times given the weaknesses in his defensive game – and he was sorely missed when he spent two months out injured in the spring of 2021. It was a time when Everton arguably needed him most as the performances dropped off and Ancelotti battled to inspire the kind of fight needed to secure European football, particularly in home games.
Ancelotti left Everton abruptly after the conclusion of the 2020-21 campaign but it was business as usual for Abdoulaye under his successor, Rafael Benitez. He scored goals against Southampton and Norwich City early in the season as the Blues got off to a good start but Doucouré would join a burgeoning list of injured players in the Autumn of 2021 when he sustained another stress fracture in his foot that would keep him out for 5 weeks.
Everton lost three and drew one of the four matches he missed in the worst part of that injury-blighted period and though he would come back in late November, he rejoined an increasingly dysfunctional side under a manager whose tenure was spiralling out of control as Everton began to slide down the Premier League table.
A groin injury picked up against Aston Villa in January would prevent him playing under new manager Frank Lampard until the end of February 2022 but after he regained match fitness, he played in every game but one as the Toffees eventually won their battle to avoid relegation to the Championship.
Doucouré began the next season playing in defeats to Chelsea and Aston Villa, pulling up with a hamstring injury in just the second match. It would be the New Year before he would make the starting line-up again, coming on for 7 sub appearances as Lampard struggled forlornly to turn around the team's fortunes as Everton slumped into the bottom three once more.
Lampard was sacked in late January 2023 but not before he had banished Doucouré to train with the Under-21s following an alleged row with the manager over the latter's treatment of team-mate Idrissa Gueye.
Appreciating what the newly-minted Mali international could provide in an attacking sense given his physique and stamina, Lampard's successor, Sean Dyche, immediately reinstated him to the starting XI on his arrival and Doucouré was once again regarded as an indispensable part of the side. So much so that his absence following an ill-advised altercation with Harry Kane in a home game with Tottenham earned him a potentially costly 3-game ban that would dent the recovery Dyche had been building.
Doucouré would return again, though, redeeming himself with in a stunning 2-goal display at Brighton in an equally brilliant 5-1 win that pulled Everton out of the Bottom 3 with 3 games left to play and then smashed home the excellent goal that preserved the Toffees' top-flight status again with a 1-0 win over Bournemouth on the final day.
His comeback from outcast under Lampard to linchpin under Dyche was solidified when he signed a 2-year contract extension in November 2023 that would keep him at Goodison until the summer of 2025.
In March 2025, The Athletic broke the news that Everton had decided against triggering the 1-year extension clause in Abdoulaye Doucoure's contract.
As the end of his contract approached, while there was no doubt about the effort he expended as an athlete on the field, there was concern expressed about the value of his contribution, with suggestions leapt on by many fans that he should only have an extended contract if his high wages were reduced, prompting the following reaction in May 2025:
"I don't wait for them because my contract is finished and I have some offers on the table. In the next 3 weeks, I will make my decision. Everton is massive for me but maybe the chapter is finished. I would be happy, at the end of the day, if I leave the club.
"It's funny because now I hear on especially X and Instagram that Everton fans were saying: 'We'd love Doucoure to stay but he has to lower his wages' and I'm amazed. Why are they talking about my salary? To be honest, I deserve to have my salary right now.
"And, to be honest, I won't reduce my salary to stay at the club because I don't think I deserve to reduce my salary. I'm playing every season, I'm scoring important goals, I'm very important for the club. No, I should have an increase. Iâ'm only 33 years old and think I have three, four years easily in the Premier League. For me, to reduce my salary is something I will do. I'm sorry.
"I hear a lot of things about my salary and I'm like: "Guys I see Mo Salah or Van Dijk they have a pay rise because they are playing good. OK I'm not at that level, Everton is not at the level of Liverpool but I'm sorry, I’m playing every game for 5 years. There were a couple of players playing for Everton, I'm sorry, on an even higher salary and not playing as much but people always spoke about me."ť
Before his final game fro Everton against Newcastle Utd, Moyes talked about Doucoure: "We wanted him to stay and made him an offer but he's had a better offer from elsewhere,” Moyes said.
"There are no hard feelings, I've known him from his Watford days and have picked him almost every game. He has been a great servant for the club."
And this is what Doucoure said about his time at Everton in an interview published by The Athletic in October 2025:
“I always gave 100 per cent. I know it was not that beautiful or perfect, but I did my duty for the club. I helped them fight and I left a very good image of myself there. “Even when we struggled, I really enjoyed wearing the blue shirt. I will always be very proud to have played for Everton.
“Dyche was the manager who impacted me the most. He came at a very critical point. In this kind of moment, you just have to be tough. I knew I had a strong mentality but after that, I discovered even more of myself. In three or four months, everything changed. “The problem at the end with Sean was that he is very pragmatic, very straight. Sometimes he said things that the fans didn't appreciate and they would respond on social media. Like (Rafa) Benitez, he was always coming to an end at some point. As soon as the results got worse, everyone was going to turn. “I was sad for him because he didn't deserve to be remembered like that. “Sean was very tough. Sometimes players can't cope with a tough manager and that was the problem. Moyes can be tough sometimes, too, but he doesn't care about the outside details. He just wants people to train well and give everything to win games.“
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