Galatasaray of Turkey attacker, Henry Onyekuru has received another ray of hope for better days ahead of him at his parent club, Everton of England, as The Toffees’ manager, Marco Silva says the Super Eagles stars is always under the spotlight by his team.
Sports247.ng learnt that, few days after Everton declared that the star’s current form will make it easier for them to get a British work permit for him this summer, Silva has now disclosed that officials at Goodison Park are continually monitoring the striker’s situation.
Silva added that, like all other players on loan from Everton at other clubs in and outside England, Onyekuru, who spent last season under similar terms at RSC Anderlecht of Belgium, remains under his radar.
Everton signed Onyekuru in June 2017 from KAS Eupen of Belgium, in a deal worth over £7m, but he is yet to play a single match for the EPL side, who previously had on their cards the Nigerian trio of Yakubu Ayegbeni, Joseph Yobo and Victor Anichebe.
While at Eupen, Onyekuru hit 22 goals and registered nine assists during the 2016-17 campaign to finish as joint top scorer in Belgium’s top flight and spark a race for his signature.
Everton fended off the interest off clubs including, EPL rivals, Arsenal and Celtic of Scotland, but The Toffees have not been able to keep him at Goodison Park due to work permit issues.
However, they now beilieve they have a strong case to present to the UK Home Office and Football Association in order to get the green light to to use Onyekuru by the start of next season.
The 21-year-old product of Qatar-based Aspire Football Academy, was sent on loan to Anderlecht after joining Everton, who agreed two-year deal with the Belgian club.
Sadly, Onyekuru’s promising start with Anderlecht was cut short by a nasty knee injury, which required surgery and then led to him falling out with the Belgian club and their manager, Hein Vanhaezebrouck.
Despite Onyekuru, who turns 22 early June, repeatedly assuring the club that he was fit to platy, and had eyes on going to the World Cup with Nigeria, Vanhaezebrouck constantly kept him out of the squad.
That meant Onyekuru only played once more that season and accused Vanhaezebrouck of intentionally not selecting, thus ruining his chances of playing for Nigeria the World Cup in Russia and stopped his hopes of playing eight internationals in 2018.
However, the lad, who idolises Arsenal legend, Thierry Henry, has gone on to make seven appearances for the Super Eagles and featured in four Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers this year, with high expectations that making the team to Egypt 2019 will strengthen his work permit target.
With that in mind, Onyekuru has now received encouraging words from Silva, who watched a number of the lad’s matches on television, after he failed to turn up at Finch Farm last summer for pre-season training with the tactician from Portugal.
After scoring 19 goals in 56 appearances for Anderlecht and Galatasaray in total, Silva says Onyekuru is top on the radar of Everton, who have a £1m loan fee from the Turkish Super Lig club.
While The Toffees are also be mindful that they could make a tidy profit on Onyekuru, should they choose to sell, Silva has served a strong hint that he could prefer having the fleet-footed attacker-cum-winger.
Silva said: “We are following him like we are all the loan players and, as you know, we have a big number of loan players.
“We are doing our work and are aware of everything he is doing. We have to do that work and take the right decisions for us.
“It is the same with all of our loan players and at the end of the season we will take a decision.”
