When Takehiro Tomiyasu arrived in Europe with Sint-Truiden following a £720k transfer from Avispa Fukuoka, few will have expected his meteoric rise.
Spending just a season and a half in Belgium, the Japan international was bought by Bologna for a fairly hefty sum of £8.1m in the summer of 2019, where he has continued to flourish.
So much so, in fact, that Everton, always looking for the next confirmed talent under the supervision of Marcel Brands on the transfer market, are keeping an eye on him.
This comes from Gazzetta dello Sport on Thursday, who report that Milan previously made a €15m move for Tomiyasu, which was rejected as Bologna asked for €20m.
While they would ideally like to keep him forever, the Serie A side know that will be a tough ask, seeing how well the centre-back has played for them, and they are now said to be ‘looking around’.
Everton are reportedly ‘following’ Tomiyasu, but face competition from the ever-present Bayer Leverkusen, who have focused primarily on young talent of late.
A fee of €20m shouldn’t be a problem for the Toffees, should that still be Bologna’s asking price for their star, and Gazzetta make it clear that ‘it’s not excluded that in the summer, he emigrates to the Premier League or the Bundesliga’.
