Everton prepare opening offer for Rooney replacement

Everton are hopeful of winning the race to land Norwich star James Maddison, claims Sky Sports.

Maddison is widely expected to leave Norwich this summer after the Canaries missed out on promotion to the Premier League.

Manchester City and Liverpool have already been linked with a move for the 21-year-old, but now Everton and Leicester have entered the race.

Norwich are resigned to losing their star man and hope to command in the region of £25m for the England Under-21 international.

Everton are preparing for Wayne Rooney’s departure this summer and want to wrap up a deal for Maddison as quickly as possible.

Maddison is currently recovering from a knee injury sustained on the final day of last season but is expected to be fit in time to start pre-season.

The Norwich ace scored 14 goals and provided a further eight assists in 44 league appearances last season.

Not only that, but only Adama Traore (14) and Curtis Davies (10) won the WhoScored Man of the Match award more times than Maddison in the Championship (8).

Finally, Maddison created more goalscoring opportunities than any other Championship player last term (124).