Galatasaray and Brazil midfielder Gabriel Sara has been linked with a potential move to Everton
Gabriel Sara of Galatasaray and Brazil
Gabriel Sara of Galatasaray and Brazil
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There may still be three games of the season to go but already the transfer gossip is beginning to ramp up ahead of the opening of the window. And a name who has once again been linked with a move to Everton is Gabriel Sara.
Everton News cites Turkish journalist Ali Naci Kucuk as claiming that the Blues are back in for the Brazi international midfielder. Speaking on YouTube for 343 Digital, he is quoted as saying: “I think Gabriel Sara could be transferring.
“Aston Villa, Everton, and Tottenham from the Premier League have clear interest in the player. If Gabriel Sara also makes the World Cup squad, the club would profit from this too.”
Catching the eye of former Blues boss Carlo Ancelotti, Sara was called up to the Brazil national team for their brace of spring friendlies earlier this year.
He made his international debut as an 84th-minute substitute for Manchester United’s Casemiro in Brazil’s 2-1 defeat to France on March 26 in front of a 66,215 crowd at Foxborough’s Gillette Stadium, where Scotland will play their first two group games against Haiti and Morocco at this summer’s World Cup finals and England will face Ghana.
Born in Joinville, Santa Catarina, on June 26, 1999, Sara started his career at Sao Paulo, making 120 appearances and scoring 17 goals before moving to Europe to join Norwich City for £6million in 2022.
He spent two seasons playing for the Canaries in the Championship, turning out 93 times and netting on 21 occasions, including 14 in his final campaign ahead of making his switch to Galatasaray in a deal understood to be worth £20million plus add ons.
So far, Sara has played 87 times and scored eight goals for the Istanbul giants, but his form could prompt a return to England with the prospect of moving to the Premier League.
In terms of his style, Sara scores 8.6 out of 10 on Comparisonator’s Player Profiles as a ‘regista’, a deep-lying playmaker responsible for building the attack from the base of midfield, who unlike the anchor man, primarily contributes through creative and progressive passing from deep positions.
In contrast, he scores 4.3 out of 10 as a ball-winning midfielder and just 3.4 as a holding midfielder. When it comes to current Premier League players, Enzo Fernandez of Chelsea scores highest for similarity with a 95% match, followed by Eliot Anderson of Nottingham Forest and Tijjani Reijnders of Manchester City (both 87%).
We can also use Comparisonator’s Virtual Transfer tool to correlate Sara’s statistics from the Turkish Super Lig this season against those of Premier League players in his position. Having netted five times this term, his 0.12 goals per 90 minutes would place him seventh in a category topped by compatriot Bruno Guimaraes of Newcastle United on 0.42.
Sara scores 0.94 for playing a scoring attacks, a figure that just Nico Gonzalez of Manchester City (1.05) and Josh Cullen of Burnley (1) can top. He also comes in third for expected assists (0.22) after Declan Rice of Arsenal (0.24) and Guimaraes (0.23) but drops to seventh for actual assists (0.18), a section that is led by Granit Xhaka of Sunderland on 0.27.
Gabriel Sara's statistics for playing in scoring attacks for Galatasaray in the Turkish Super Lig this season compared to Premier League players in his position
Gabriel Sara's statistics for playing in scoring attacks for Galatasaray in the Turkish Super Lig this season compared to Premier League players in his position
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Although he would rank highly for key passes (fifth on 0.59, to edge on Everton’s James Garner on 0.58 in a category topped by Dominik Szoboszlai of Liverpool on 0.85), he is way down in 25th spot for successful passes (36.47 in a section where Rodri of Manchester City is top on 69.89). For context, Garner is 19th on 40.5 and Idrissa Gueye 24th on 38.
Also, Sara’s physical figures pale in comparison to the Blues’ incumbent first-choice pair in the engine room. On average, he covers 8.821km per 90 minutes, while Garner records 10.924km and Gueye, who is the Brazilian’s senior by almost a decade, records 9.848km, more than a kilometre more than him with Guimaraes top on 11.345km.
While he is playing in the slower tempo of Turkey, Sara is also lower on the high intensity run count, when players are recorded as moving at over 20km/h. He clocks that 48.12 times per 90 minutes, but Garner scores 60.52 and Gueye 47.38 with Fulham’s former Everton man Alex Iwobi leading the way with 75.79.
Overall, while Sara, who will be 27 by the time next season starts and seemingly at the peak of his powers obviously offers distinct qualities having been capped by Brazil, it remains to be seen whether he would fit the kind of profile that Moyes requires from his central midfielders.
Although he has already experienced English football in the second tier, it is a considerable step up to the Premier League from both that level and the Turkish League.
*Comparisonator is a football data comparison tool from 271 professional leagues around the world which compares players and clubs by utilising an industry leading 378 different parameters. Click here for more details.