Everton confirm that Kevin Mirallas has left the club after seven years. He’s joined Royal Antwerp on a free transfer, signing a one-year deal at the Bosuilstadion. The 31-year-old made 186 appearances in all competitions for Everton, scoring and creating 72 goals.
Mirallas was expected to leave Goodison Park after falling down the pecking order under Marco Silva, and a return to Belgium had been mooted all summer. The experienced winger had stiff competition from Richarlison, Bernard, Theo Walcott and Alex Iwobi, so his departure wasn’t a surprise.
Mirallas hasn’t played in his home country for 16 years since his move from Standard Liege to LOSC Lille. In addition to Antwerp this summer, he also had interest from Club Brugge. Standard were briefly linked but nothing came of the rumours.
As per Transfermarkt, the Belgian international has played for Lille (2003-2008), AS Saint-Etienne (2008 – 2010), Olympiacos (2010 – 2012), Everton (2012 – 2019) and Fiorentina). After struggling for playing time at Everton, he had loan spells at Olympiacos (2018) and Fiorentina (2018 – 2019) but did further damage to his reputation rather than enhance it.
So when Antwerp presented Everton with the chance to remove Mirallas from their wage bill, they accepted without needing a transfer fee. The wide-man was a terrific servant, but the Toffees built a better squad around him which sealed his fate.