Sylvain Distin

When Joleon Lescott was belatedly sold to Manchester City for £24m in August 2009, David Moyes was left with just two senior central defenders on the books at Goodison and one of them, Phil Jagielka, was still months from recovering from a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament.

The manager promised to bring in two additional players to cover that part of the pitch and bought experienced Frenchman Sylvain Distin from Portsmouth for a fee of around £5m just three days before the transfer deadline and then added versatile Dutchman John Heitinga on deadline day itself and free agent Lucas Neill later in September.

With a loan spell at Newcastle and a couple of seasons at Manchester City under his belt, Distin joined Portsmouth in 2007 and went on to become the south coast club's captain following the departure of Sol Campbell.

When a protracted takeover threatened to send Pompey into administration and the future looked bleak at Fratton Park, the Bagnolet-born defender jumped at the chance of challenging at the right end of the Premier League and in Europe by joining Everton.

Distin made a solid start to life at Goodison and made an immediate debut alongside Joseph Yobo in a 2-1 win over Wigan Athletic on 30th August. He scored his first goal for the club in a 4-0 win over AEK Athens in th Europa League the following month and generally seemed to be a successful replacement for the departed Lescott.

As the Blues' injury crisis worsened and the team started struggling for results, Distin's form became a little suspect but with few options at his disposal, Moyes was forced to persist with him week-in, week-out and even tried to play him despite a hamstring injury on a swamp of a pitch in Athens in the return fixture against AEK in December. Predictably, the 31-year-old lasted just a quarter of an hour before hobbling out of action for the remainder of 2009.

Distin rturned in the New Year, and Everton's form bucked up as well.  In this period, he pretty much established an effective, if not entirely waterproof defensive partnership with Jagielka, displacing Yobo to the bench.

Much maligned for an early season mistake in September 2010 against Man Utd, Sylvain Distin went on to put in another excellent overall performance in defence that kept World Cup finalist Johnny Heitinga stuck on the bench for most of the season and into 2011-12.

Despite being well into his 30s, the Frenchman had lost none of his explosive pace but he succumbed to a niggling groin injury in November 2011 that disrupted his partnership with Jagielka.  He missed a few games and lost his place, found himself siting on the bench until the busy Christmas period, but then picked up another knock that kept him out for most of January 2012. 

But once fit, he came right back in and was further   rewarded for some diligent and solid performances with another year added to his contract in March that would take him through until June 2013.

By Lyndon Lloyd
Last updated March 2012