Everton could use £50m Amadou Onana transfer to buy their own Jarrod Bowen

Everton have been linked with a potential move for Wilfried Gnonto but what might the Leeds United player bring to Sean Dyche’s side? The Italian international was a target for the Blues last summer but ended up staying at Elland Road for what proved to be the Yorkshire club’s unsuccessful bid to win promotion back to the Premier League at the first time of asking as they were beaten 1-0 by Southampton in the Championship play-off final at Wembley, but now Paul Joyce of The Times reports the two clubs have reopened talks.

Born on Bonfire Night (November 5) 2003 in Verbania, Piedmont, to parents from the Ivory Coast, Gnonto is certainly the kind of explosive player who brings plenty of fireworks. A youth product of Internazionale, he moved to Swiss side Zurich in 2020, netting 12 goals in 74 matches for them before his deadline day transfer to Leeds United on September 2, 2022, for a £3.8million fee.

Earlier that year, Gnonto had become Italy’s youngest ever goalscorer, netting aged 18 years and 222 days in a 5-2 Nations League loss to Germany in Monchengladbach, to break a record that had been held by the late Bruno Nicole since 1958. He has subsequently made 73 appearances and scored 13 goals for Leeds United and won 13 caps for Italy but is has so far yet to find the net again for his country.

In terms of Gnonto’s playing style, Comparisonator’s Similarity Comparison calculates West Ham United’s Jarrod Bowen has being the closest current Premier League player with a 97% match followed by Chelsea’s Raheem Sterling (81%) and then Manchester United’s Alejandro Garnacho (74%). We can also use Comparisonator’s Virtual Transfer tool to correlate Gnonto’s statistics from the Championship last season against players already turning out in his position in the Premier League.

Gnonto, who registered eight times, would come fifth for goals per 90 minutes with a score of 0.41, behind Chelsea’s Cole Palmer (0.72); Crystal Palace’s Michael Olise (0.58); Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah (0.56) and Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka (0.45). When it comes to opportunities converted, his score of 0.41 is second only to Olise (0.51) and as good as Salah while higher than Bowen and Palmer (both 0.38).