According to L’Arena via Sport Witness, Everton are keen on Marash Kumbulla and could battle Manchester City & Chelsea for his signature. The Toffees have been looking for a centre-back to accompany Yerry Mina, Mason Holgate and Michael Keane all season and are targeting players that fit Marcel Brands’ criteria.
Everton’s Director of Football is looking to lower the average age and sign hot prospects who can develop at Finch Farm to become first-team players in the long-term. Their pursuit of Gabriel Magalhaes and Kumbulla suggests they want at least two players in each position, but how much will their latest target cost?
L’Arena via Sport Witness says Kumbulla has a €23m (£20.85m) asking price and his wage demands are likely to be around €1.56m-a-year/€30k-per-week (£1.41m-a-year/£27.1k-per-week).
As per Gazzetta dello Sport via The Turin Crowd, the Albanian international plays alongside Amir Rrahmani, Koray Günter (€1.56m-a-year/€30k-per-week) and Pawel Dawidowicz (€1.56m-a-year/€30k-per-week) at centre-back, so his wages are likely to be in line with his teammates’.
Kumbulla has made 21 appearances in all competitions for Verona since rising through the youth ranks to the first-team in 2018. He’s been a regular at the Stadio Marc’Antonio Bentegodi and continues to impress under Ivan Jurić. As per WhoScored, the 20-year-old has made 18 Serie A appearances and scored one goal.
He’s amassed 1461 minutes of top-flight football, completed 84.2% of his 652 passes, won 49 aerial duels (64.5%), completed 33% of his dribbles, had nine shots with 44% accuracy, blocked 25 shots/passes/crosses, made 53 clearances, given away 35 fouls and averaged a tackle (32) or interception (27) every 25 minutes.
Whether Everton can beat out competition from City and Chelsea to bring Kumbulla to Goodison Park remains to be seen, however.