As 19-year-old Adam Aznou joined Everton last week, and with rumours swirling that Tyler Dibling is looking to force a move to the Blues, we decided to analyse Everton’s record with recruiting young talent.
Here’s every player under the age of 21 who’s signed for Everton in the last 10 years, from the success stories to those who never made an appearance in Everton blue.
The Good
Jarrad Branthwaite
There’s no doubt 23-year-old Jarrad Branthwaite is one of the most successful Everton purchases in recent memory. The then 17-year-old central defender joined from Carlisle United in January 2020 for a fee of around £1m after making 14 first-team appearances.
Fast forward to 2025, and he’s developed into one of the best defenders in the Premier League. After a successful loan with PSV Eindhoven in 22/23, Branthwaite returned to Goodison ahead of the 23/24 season. Since then, he’s appeared 73 times for Everton, consistently ranking as one of the highest performers in the squad.
Luckily for Everton, the 6’5 Englishman committed his long-term future to the club this summer, signing a contract extension which keeps him on Merseyside until 2030.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin
Despite a decline in performances over his last few injury-riddled seasons for Everton, it’s impossible to deny that Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s time at Goodison Park was a success.
The striker, who signed from Sheffield United in 2016 for £1.5m at the age of 19, made 273 appearances for Everton and now sits third on the club’s Premier League top scorers chart, behind only Romelu Lukaku and Duncan Ferguson.
Of his 71 goals for Everton, none will be remembered more than his diving header against Crystal Palace in May 2022, which sealed Everton’s survival in the Premier League.
Amadou Onana
A success from a business perspective as well as a playing one, Amadou Onana is one of the few players on this list who immediately entered the starting XI. The then 20-year-old Belgian defensive midfielder signed from Lille in 2022 for a fee of £33m.
In two seasons for Everton, Onana made 72 appearances, scoring four goals and adding three assists. A robust number six, with natural talent on the ball, Onana sometimes rubbed Everton supporters the wrong way, and unfortunately, may be remembered most of all for his terrible penalty vs Fulham in the quarterfinals of the League Cup.
However, he was a reliable performer in the centre of midfield. After two seasons at Everton, he is also one of the few players on this list who Everton turned a profit on, joining Aston Villa for a fee of £50m.
Youssef Chermiti
It’s hard to judge 21-year-old striker Youssef Chermiti just yet, but he’s shown glimpses of being a shrewd acquisition in his two seasons since joining Everton from Sporting Lisbon in 2023 for an initial fee of £10.4m.
A relatively unknown quantity at the time, Chermiti joined Everton after breaking into the Sporting first team in 22/23, scoring three goals in sixteen first-team appearances. After some glimpses off the bench in his first season, Chermiti started 24/25’s pre-season well, scoring twice and getting an assist in an opening fixture against Sligo Rovers.
However, injury curtailed his progress, and after a lengthy spell on the sidelines following surgery, Chermiti made just four appearances last campaign. Now fit and ready to go, Everton supporters will hope to see why Kevin Thelwell and the recruitment team were so keen to land the Portuguese striker.
The Bad
Nathan Patterson
It’s probably unfair to say that the signing of Nathan Patterson was a bad one, only that it hasn’t panned out as fans were hoping it would when the 20-year-old Scott signed from Rangers for £10m in January 2022.
At the time, supporters were under the impression that Patterson was the long-term right-back replacement for captain Seamus Coleman. However, since then, Patterson has failed to impress Frank Lampard, Sean Dyche, or David Moyes enough to earn a consistent spot in the starting 11.
After a shaky pre-season, it now looks like Jake O’Brien is certain to start at right-back, despite joining the club as a centre-back. For Patterson, his last chance may have passed him by.
Mason Holgate
Again, it’s unfair to say that Mason Holgate’s time at Everton was a failure. The defender, who signed from Barnsley in 2015 at the age of 18, made 152 appearances in just under a decade at the club.
But after looking like he was going to be the next big thing for Everton during his first Premier League appearances, Holgate never quite hit the heights expected of him. His role never developed past being a squad player, and Everton struggled to sell him when it was clear his future with the club was limited.
In the end, Holgate only officially departed Everton this summer, despite not making a competitive appearance for Everton in almost three years.
Ademola Lookman
When Ademola Lookman came off the bench against Manchester City in his debut appearance after signing from Charlton in 2017, the 19-year-old looked like he’d gotten lost on his way to school. But when he slotted the ball through the legs of Claudio Bravo to make it 4-0, it capped off one of the more jubilant days in recent Everton history.
Unfortunately, after that, it never quite clicked for Lookman at Everton; he made 48 appearances for the Toffees, scoring four goals, but spent several loan spells away from the club before joining RB Leipzig permanently in 2019.
In 2022, Lookman joined Atalanta, and since then, he’s flourished into one of Europe’s most exciting forward players. In 118 appearances for the Italian club, he’s scored 52 goals. In the 2024 Europa League Final, Lookman had the night of his life, scoring three marvellous goals to almost single-handedly lift the trophy for Atlanta.
This summer, it appears Lookman is on his way to Italian giants Inter Milan, in a marquee move for the 28-year-old in the prime of his career. For Everton supporters, it’s hard not to wonder what could have been.
Moise Kean
There was plenty of excitement around Everton when they secured the signature of 19-year-old Italian ‘wonderkid’ Moise Kean, who joined the Toffees from Juventus in 2019 for £29.1 million. After scoring seven goals for Juventus the season before, many analysts believed Moise Kean was the next big thing in European football.
However, he frankly just didn’t seem to like playing for Everton. Kean made 29 appearances in his first season, scoring twice and adding two assists. When Carlo Ancelotti took over the side in January of that year, many felt that the Italian could get the best out of his countryman, but it didn’t happen.
Kean never made another competitive appearance for Everton, spending a year on loan at PSG, and another two with Juventus, whom he eventually joined permanently in 2023. For all the hype, it’s disappointing Kean never made his mark in England; the move probably came too early in his career. The 25-year-old now looks settled back in Italy, scoring 19 goals in 32 Serie A appearances for Fiorentina last year.
The Ugly
Niels Nkounkou
Niels Nkounkou’s move to Everton was a surprising one when it happened in the summer of 2020. The 19-year-old joined when Carlo Ancelotti was at the helm, and was expected to link up with the under-23s.
But the pacey left-back made seven first-team appearances in his first year at Everton, and looked like he could be one to watch for the future, with speed and quality dribbling ability.
After those first few exciting appearances, Nkounkou seemingly dropped off the face of the earth. He went out on loan to Cardiff City, Standard Liege, and Saint-Etienne, which eventually became a permanent move. The 24-year-old now plays in Germany with Eintracht Frankfurt, where he’s made 62 appearances in two solid seasons with the club.
Sandro Ramirez
The infamous summer of 2017. In the first window under the control of owner Farhad Moshiri, Everton shelled out over £200m on new players, and it’s no surprise that three of Everton’s worst young signings in recent memory came during this spell.
21-year-old Sandro Ramirez came in as the replacement striker for Everton’s Premier League record goalscorer, Romelu Lukaku, for a fee of just £5.2m. The Barcelona academy product joined after one year with Malaga, where he scored 16 goals in 31 appearances. His highlight videos at the time made him look like a world-beater.
World beater he was not, and Ramirez made just eight Premier League appearances for Everton in his short-lived career. His only competitive goal came in a 5-1 drubbing to Atalanta in the Europa League.
Ramirez went on loan to Sevilla, Real Sociedad, and Real Valladolid before joining SD Huesca in La Liga 2 permanently in 2020. Ramirez is actually coming off his best campaign since he joined Everton. The now 30-year-old scored nine goals in 31 La Liga appearances for Las Palmas last season.
Nikola Vlasic
Another of the summer 2017 signings, 19-year-old Croatian forward Nikola Vlasic signed from Hadjuk Split after appearing against Everton in Europa League qualifiers that summer.
“He is one of the big young talents in Europe,” Ronald Koeman said at the time. “Nikola is one of those players who can play a big part in Everton’s future and in what we want to achieve as a club.”
He didn’t. Vlasic made 12 Premier League appearances for Everton that season, before leaving the club to join CSKA Moscow on loan. Vlasic never made another appearance for Everton, signing permanently for the Russian side a year later.
Vlasic returned to the Premier League on loan with West Ham in 2021, but didn’t perform particularly well there either. Vlasic now plays for Torino, where he scored five and added four assists in 30 appearances last season.
Henry Onyekuru
Everton signed 20-year-old Nigerian striker Henry Onyekuru from Anderlecht for £7m in June of 2017 after he finished as the joint top scorer in the Belgian Super League the season before. However, Everton immediately loaned the striker back to Anderlecht.
Onyekuru never made an appearance for Everton. The striker was denied a work permit on three occasions, so he went on loan again to Galatasaray before he was sold to Monaco in 2019.
The 28-year-old journeyman now plays for Al-Fayha in the Saudi Pro League, where he scored 11 goals last season.
Shani Tarashaj
Another signing who never played for Everton, Swiss forward Shani Tarashaj, joined from Swiss side Grasshoppers for £3m in 2016. Similar to Onyekuru, Tarashaj was immediately loaned back to the side in Zurich.
Somehow, this move was even less successful than Onyekuru’s. After signing for Everton almost a decade ago, he made only 24 professional appearances, scoring once for Eintracht Frankfurt. Tarashaj retired from professional football earlier this summer at just 30 years old.