OPINION
18-year-old Everton striker Ellis Simms is on the radar of a number of clubs from Germany and France, according to the Sun.
He has scored 25 goals in 23 games for the Under-18s this season and has reportedly impressed Marco Silva so much that he could be close to a first-team debut.
However, his contract is up in the summer and that’s alerted a number of clubs who are looking for the next Brit-bargain.
That’s no surprise. Man City sold Jadon Sancho to Borussia Dortmund for just £7million in 2017 and he’s now a senior England player. They must be really regretting that now.
And other young talents aren’t getting the chance to showcase their skills in England, such as Callum Hudson-Odoi, who started for England’s senior side before he’s started a game in the league for Chelsea.
Everton’s rivals Liverpool have their own wonderkids, such as Harry Wilson and Ryan Kent, and now there’s talk of Simms being looked at by a number of teams.
The Sun report that Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen, along with Monaco and Lyon are actively scouting the player.
That should be enough to tell Everton that they should do what it takes to get Simms signed up on a new contract as soon as possible.
Simms is another product of the Man City youth set-up that Pep’s side seem to have let get away. He switched over to Everton in 2017 and has been rattling the goals in since – over 40 according to the Sun report.
Everton are badly in need of a striker who can score for fun and they might well have the next star right on their doorstep.
If Silva is seriously considering him for a first-team debut then they need to make sure he’s signed a new contract first. Or they could risk him having his head turned by a big club convinced they could be signing the next international star.