He adorned the gossip columns back in January, when Arsenal, Tottenham, Inter and Bayern Munich were all linked with a move for the winger, and Malcom is doing so once more with a Premier League switch in the offing. Spurs are again in the running for the Bordeaux man, but a surprise name in the form of Everton have entered the race to land the attacker and for good reason.
The Toffees are rumoured to have lodged a £30m, plus add ons, bid for Malcom with Marco Silva keen to splash the cash at Goodison Park. Securing his services would be a huge statement of intent by the Merseyside outfit and go some way to closing the gap between themselves and the top six. It also speaks volumes about Silva’s unhappiness at his current wide options.
Last season, Theo Walcott, Yannick Bolasie, Nikola Vlasic, Ademola Lookman and Gylfi Sigurdsson all played out wide at one point under either Ronald Koeman or Sam Allardyce, but Silva is eager to strengthen and improve his wide options. The return of Kevin Mirallas also boosts the personnel count on the wings, yet that won’t stop Everton in their bid to strengthen. With Lookman also the subject of renewed interest from RB Leipzig, Silva is wary at being left short in this area of the pitch.
In Malcom, he’ll be landing one of the finest emerging wide threats on the continent and a player who’ll rectify a problematic position for Everton. Indeed, Malcom is a player who looks to maximise his goalscoring quality from the right as he cuts infield before lashing home with his wicked left. He scored 12 goals and registered a further seven assists utilising this method of attacking, with five of those goals scored coming from outside of the box, more than any other player aged 21 and under in Europe’s top five leagues last season, to reinforce a statistically calculated WhoScored.com strength of ‘long shots’.
Yet while he has a knack of going for goal when he does cut infield, he’s also more than willing to create for others. His return of 62 key passes from open play was more than any other player aged 21 and under in Europe’s top five leagues last season to reinforce a WhoScored.com strength of ‘key passes’. Demonstrating clarity of thought in the final third is a difficult quality to find, particularly in young players, but Malcom showed that last season
With a similar style of play to Arjen Robben, it’s no surprise Bayern have been credited with an interest in a player who completed 2.9 dribbles per 90 in Ligue 1 last term. However if Everton were to secure his services, it would be a coup to say the least. The Toffees are reportedly in advanced talks to sign the Brazilian youngster, but the path to his signature is anything but straightforward at the moment.
He would be an upgrade for most teams and speculation will only intensify now the World Cup is over. Bordeaux did well to bat away any interest at turn of the year, but Malcom has already confirmed his intentions are to leave this summer. Everton are the supposed frontrunners for Malcom, but it would be a real shock if neither Inter nor Tottenham showed their cards in the coming days.
