A look at six potential free agent goalkeepers after Everton announced Joao Virginia and Asmir Begovic are both leaving this summer
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Six potential free agent goalkeepers Everton could target this summer
Six potential free agent goalkeepers Everton could target this summer
Everton announced the summer departures of Joao Virginia and Asmir Begovic on Saturday, leaving Jordan Pickford as the only senior goalkeeper on their books next season from the current squad. Given that the pair of understudy custodians were among 14 players at Goodison Park either coming to the end of their current contract or loan spell, it’s curious that the Blues have let them both go, but their respective exits have left manager David Moyes with a hole to fill.
Everton had two young goalkeepers loaned out to Football League clubs this season with Harry Tyrer (23), who has one more year left on his current contract, making 42 appearances for League One Blackpool after a similar spell helping Chesterfield win promotion from the National League the year before. Billy Crellin (24) turned out 38 times for League Two Accrington Stanley but his current Blues deal expires this summer.
Slovenia Under-21 international Zan-Luk Leban’s first team experience is restricted to spending the 2023/24 season on loan at Farsley Celtic in National League North and his current contract expires this summer along with Fraser Barnsley. George Pickford, 18, has got another year to run but like Barnsley, he has no first team experience to date.
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With transfer funds required elsewhere for a potentially major rebuild, here’s a look at some of the potential free agents that the Blues could could take a look at to provide cover for England’s number one.
David De Gea
This is a bit of a wildcard option given that Fiorentina president Rocco Commisso confirmed last month their plans to extend De Gea’s contract by a further year after an impressive debut season in Serie A, where he has rehabilitated his reputation alongside Everton flop Moise Kean.
After sitting out last season, the Spain international, who won the Community Shield with Moyes at Manchester United and was voted Players’ Player of the Year and Fans’ Player of the Year at Old Trafford in 2013/14 under the Scot, has been in fine form for the Tuscan outfit this term, saving two penalties in one game against Milan in October.
De Gea has played so well that last week, former Everton and Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney went as far as declaring that the Red Devils should bring him back because “they have missed him and I think he could still do a very good job.” However, the ball appears to be in Fiorentina’s court as after 41 appearances for them, they can reputedly activate a clause in the 34-year-old’s contract to retain his services by doubling his wages to a reputed annual salary of €2.4million (approximately £39,000 per week).
Freddie Woodman
Perhaps Moyes could raid his first managerial club Preston North End to try and provide some cover? Despite being born in Croydon, Freddie Woodman moved to Newcastle United in 2017 where his dad Andy was goalkeeping coach.
He was part of the England team that lifted the Under-20 World Cup in South Korea in 2017 when Dominic Calvert-Lewin netted the winning goal against Venezuela in the final as part of a four-man Everton contingent, alongside Jonjoe Kenny, Kieran Dowell and Ademola Lookman (before he switched his international allegiance to Nigeria) and received the Golden Glove award for the tournament.
Like Jordan Pickford at North East rivals Sunderland, Woodman was loaned out extensively, going to Hartlepool United, Crawley Town, Kilmarnock, Aberdeen, Swansea City and Bournemouth but unlike the Blues ace, was unable to return and establish himself and after just nine senior outings, joined Championship Preston North End for an undisclosed fee in 2022. Woodman has been first choice throughout his three seasons at Deepdale, playing 116 times in all competitions, but he sustained an ankle injury in the gym on the eve of their FA Cup quarter-final against Aston Villa at the end of March which ruled him out for the rest of the campaign.
Mathew Ryan
Capped 98 times for Australia, Ryan is known to The Friedkin Group having signed for Roma on July 17 last year, but he departed the Serie A outfit in January after just a solitary Coppa Italia outing. Since then, the 33-year-old has been with French Ligue 1 side Lens, for whom he’s played 14 times.
After starting out in his homeland with Blacktown City and Central Coast Mariners, Ryan also boasts experience in Belgium (with Brugge and Genk); Spain (Valencia and Real Sociedad); and the Netherlands (AZ) as well as making 123 appearances for Brighton & Hove Albion between 2017-21 before a loan spell at Arsenal.
Angus Gunn
Maybe Moyes could turn to a fellow Scot – albeit one who was born in Norwich – where his goalkeeper father Bryan Gunn, from Thurso, Britain’s northernmost town, was playing for the Canaries. Gunn junior was part of Norwich City’s youth set-up before switching to Manchester City’s academy, although he later returned to Carrow Road on loan for the 2017/18 season before being sold for £13.5million to Southampton.
The Saints then loaned him to Stoke City in 2020/21 and at the end of that season, Gunn made a permanent return to Norwich for an undisclosed fee. Despite 35 appearances this term and 121 in total since going back to Norfolk, it was announced on April 28 that the 29-year-old, who switched his allegiance to Scotland in 2023 and has won 15 caps after representing England at various junior levels, would leave the club at the end of the season when his contract expires.
Robin Olsen
The Sweden international who has been capped 76 times, has already had a previous spell at Everton, having been brought in on loan from Roma by Carlo Ancelotti for the 2020/21 season to provide competition for Jordan Pickford. Olsen’s presence is credited with bringing the best out of the England number one and he made 11 appearances for the Blues, including seven in the Premier League.
Despite his time with the club being marred by Olsen and his family being threatened by a machete by a masked gang during a raid on their home in Altrincham, with jewellery and a luxury watch stolen, he has had subsequent spells in England with Sheffield United and now Aston Villa, playing second fiddle to Argentina World Cup winner Emiliano Martinez at the latter. Now 35, the Malmo-born player has been tipped with a return to his home city club this summer or going back to Copenhagen – just across the Oresund Bridge – but when asked about it, he insisted that nothing was set in stone.
Fraser Forster
Giant keeper Forster stands at 6ft 7in, some seven inches taller than the aforementioned Ryan who is one of the shortest players in his position in top flight football. Capped six times for England, with all his outings coming before Pickford’s international debut the Hexham-born star started at Newcastle United but despite loan spells at Stockport County, Bristol Rovers and Norwich City, never made a first team appearance.
Forster’s career took off north of the border at Moyes’ first club Celtic, but despite 162 matches for Southampton after a £10million transfer in 2014, he’s generally been second choice at Tottenham Hotspur. Now 37, he has played 13 matches this season though, including seven in the Premier League.