Jack Kiersey 64

Jack Kiersey has been with Everton since the age of 10. He was promoted from the Academy to the Under-18s as a first year scholar in 2015-16.

At the start of the 2018-19 season, he was looking to recover from an operation on his hamstring which kept him out of action for much of the 2017-18 season, with other minor injuries also stopping the midfielder picking up game time. 

Kiersey managed just one sub appearance for the Under-23s that season. The previous season, he had 5 goals in 18 starts for the Under-18s, and after that 'special' season for the club's Under-18s - a campaign which lead the starlet to be named the squad's Player of the  Year - he signed his first professional contract at Everton.

“Winning the award and signing the new contract is special. It is what I’ve always wanted, what I’ve always been aiming for since I joined Everton’s Academy when I was 10 years old.  I’ve always seen photos of players signing their contracts and now it’s a dream come true that I have done the same.   I’ve been here a long time and I know what this Club means.”

After an evidently scintillating season playing under revered coaches Kevin Sheedy and David Unsworth, the newly promoted teenager proceeded by claiming: "I managed to get in and around the Under-23s team this season. I want to kick on now, do as well as I can in pre-season and see where things go from there.”

He was starting to make the transition with a handful of sub appearances for the Under-23s in 2016-17, and was named as a sub in Everton's U23s' final game of North Group A in the EFL Trophy, where he wore the Number 69 shirt, before his injury problems developed that would keep him on the sidelines for almost the whole of the following season.

"Last season was difficult so I'm really happy I got a new deal and now I want to kick on and stay fit," he told evertonfc.com in July 2018, on signing a new one-year contract extension with the club.

"I had an operation on my hamstring that kept me out for a lot of last season and I had a few other niggly injuries. But I'm ready to get back into it now. I'm fully-fit, strong and ready to go.

"I like to get on the ball, I'm box-to-box. I like to score, tackle and pass.

"I think I'm an all-round midfielder. I can go forward and attack and help the side defensively, too. Whatever role I'm given, I'll do everything to make sure I help the team.

"Now I just want to stay fit and play as many games as possible. That's my main goal."

But that didn't really happen. He played no games in PL2 and made just a handful of appearances in the Under-23 cup competitions, two of those being in the Checkatrade Trophy Group F, where he wore the Number 64 shirt. Presumably problems with his hamstring were still denying him game time but it came as no surprise that Everton released him at the end of the season. 

FactFile