Everton have announced the transfer of forward Iliman Ndiaye to Manchester City. The Senegal international has been the subject of intense transfer activity over the last few days with Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United all linked with the player at various times.
Though the the transfer fee was not disclosed, it is rumoured to be in the £60 million range with add-ons of another £5m. Everton bought the player for £15m in the summer of 2024 on a five-year contract, so he leaves
with a book value of £9m, representing a profit of at least £50m for Everton.
Having recognized his skill and wizardry that saw him rank consistently as one of the most dangerous wing threats in the league, the Toffees had offered him multiple extension offers all of which the player turned down. Negotiations hit a major roadblock as Ndiaye’s representatives insisted on a release clause in his contract that could be triggered as early as this summer. The Toffees refused to include the clause as they wanted to protect his market value and maintain complete control over the timing and price of any future transfer.
Ndiaye leaves Everton at what seems to be the peak of his career, and with three years left on his current contract, the club will never have more leverage or better value than this. The Toffees would love to get to the situation where they don’t have to sell their best players to reinforce their side, but to some extent they will remain a stepping stone club until they consistently establish themselves as a side that contends regularly for European berths and winning trophies, even domestic ones.
The winger promised to get fans out of their seats when he joined the club two summers ago, and he has managed to do that with his mazy runs and elusive dribbles. Ndiaye has been fun to watch even though his end-product hasn’t quite matched his talent – the nickname ‘Skiliman’ is well-deserved. In his two seasons with the Blues he has managed 9 and 6 goals in 33 and 32 league appearances respectively, numbers that are definitely good but not necessarily great. His corresponding expected goals were 7.09 and 6.14 in that time, so it’s not like he was creating that many chances for himself either. His expected assists per 90 were only 0.07 and 0.14 in that time, which are not elite chance creation numbers. Given that, for Everton to extract a transfer fee similar to what Barcelona paid for Anthony Gordon whose stats are quite a bit better than Ndiaye’s is quite an achievement.
Still, he leaves the club with the best wishes of the fanbase, who are more concerned that we are investing the windfall in strengthening the squad in tangible ways.
Good luck and thank you for all the wonderful moments, Ili.
