Nobody here at Sport Witness is going to say being at Everton has been a joy-filled experience in recent years, but it seems for Imam Jagne it was war.
That’s at least if his latest comments are anything to go by, as he admits he had to learn to fight among the “wild dogs” at Goodison Park.
[Fotboll Skanalen have an interview](https://www.fotbollskanalen.se/allsvenskan/imam-jagne-i-stor-intervju-darfor-foll-valet-pa-ifk-goteborg-blavitt-ar-blav/) with the 21-year-old today after he was announced as IFK Gothenburg’s new signing ahead of the 2025 season.
He’s signed a contract with them until 2028, landing Mjällby around 5 million kroner plus various performance-based bonuses according to reports on the move. That’s a big profit for the side, who had secured him on a free transfer after he left Everton in 2022.
Jagne had returned to Sweden that year after negotiating his departure from Everton after a two-year spell in the Blues’ U18s.
They paid €1.5m to sign him from Häcken in October 2020 but he failed to make the grade, eventually negotiating an early termination of his contract in June 2022 before then signing for Mjällby AIF in January 2023.
He’s now looked back on the spell in England when discussing his time at Mjällby AIF and while he clearly values what Everton taught him, it seems it wasn’t an easy period.
“It has been two very instructive years. I got to meet a lot of people. There are incredibly nice people there. It’s an incredibly nice club that really does a lot of good things,” he said about the Swedish club.
“It has been developing mentally. I have learned a lot about myself. There are some other character traits there. I came there from England, where it was all about sharpening your elbows to try to survive and not be thrown among the wild dogs.
“Then I came to “Lister”. They probably don’t know what wild dogs are there. There were great contrasts. But everyone there has their heart in the right place.
“The years in Liverpool have made me make the most of my time in Mjällby. I have been able to take all the challenges and really tried to get the best out of them, without losing sight of what was most important. Trying to help Mjällby to three points – regardless of whether I was on or off the field.”