Amadou Onana 8

Everton officially unveiled Amadou Onana as the club's biggest signing of the 2022 summer transfer window a week before the midfielder's 21st birthday as he completed a move from LOSC Lille that had the potential to be worth a little over £36m if all appearance-related add-ons were triggered.

The then 20-year-old put pen to paper on a five-year contract in time to take a seat in the stands during the Blues' opening day loss to Chelsea in early August and was announced by the club two days later once all the paperwork had been finalised.

Though the Toffees had had a strong interest in Onana over the summer, he seemed destined for West Ham just a few days prior after the Hammers agreed a €33m fee for the newly-minted Belgian international. However, Everton stepped in with a similar offer and, according to reports and sources close to the discussions, better personal terms than David Moyes was prepared to offer for a player who only made 11 senior starts in Ligue 1 for Lille the previous season  (although he did play eight times in the Champions League).

Everton were able to sort out a deal with Lille that is said to have involved a down payment of less than £10m, allowing the club to sign a player whose total value looked beyond their scope this summer due to the Premier League's profitability and sustainability rules.

Blues boss Frank Lampard and Director of Football Kevin Thelwell had identified Onana as fitting a very specific profile of player and the club were prepared to back that judgement by meeting the Dakar-born man's terms.

It had the makings of a savvy signing for a player who was naturally both-footed and whose relative youth but significant room for growth should, at the very least, preserve his transfer value. 

Though billed as a holding midfielder, Onana described himself more as a “box-to-box” man and his youth and rangy frame would certainly lend itself to that kind of role in the Premier League, but in his time at Goodison Park, he often seemed to revert to type, allowing the likes of Abdoulaye Doucoure, James Garner and Idrissa Gueye to get forward.

He quickly became a fan favourite early on and regularly played the role of on-field cheerleader during his first season with the Toffees but, ultimately, he didn't scale the heights that his clear talent suggested he could. Nevertheless, with his telescopic legs allowing for key midfield tackles and a couple of vital goals he was an important part of the midfield that helped Everton preserve their Premier League safety in both 2022-23 and 2023-24.

Everton always felt like a stepping stone for Onana, though, a notion reinforced by the player himself in quotes to the Belgian press before Euro 2024 where he expressed his hopes of putting himself in the shop window at the tournament. He had been consistently linked with the likes of Arsenal and Newcastle during the 2023-24 campaign and was a reported target of Bayern Munich before eventually joining Aston Villa for an initial £50m in July that year.

FactFile