Just a few days ago, L’Equipe in France reported that both Manchester City and Everton were ‘particularly’ interested in Lille’s Boubakary Soumaré.
The 20-year-old has only started two games this season in Ligue 1 (both have come in the past couple of weeks), and he’s shown why the club think so highly of him.
Taking their time to introduce him to the first-team, Lille have nurtured the youngster well, and are expecting big things from him next season, if he’s still there.
The plan, as reported on Saturday, is to have him around for the next 12 months (at least), and La Voix du Nord echoed this over the weekend.
Looking at his evolution, and recalling that the Toffees have been after him for some time, the local newspaper explain an ‘indecent proposal’ would be needed to convince Lille to sell.
Then again, Everton might have the funds for this if they see Soumaré has an ideal replacement for Idrissa Gueye, who came very close to an exit to Paris Saint-Germain in January and whose future at Goodison Park beyond the summer remains uncertain.
Should they sell the Senegalese defensive midfielder in the next few months, they could easily turn their attention to Soumaré to fill the void, even if it would be a huge gamble considering his lack of experience at the highest level.
We’re not sure what an ‘indecent’ proposal means in terms of actual amounts, but you would have to think, considering a first-team star like Nicolas Pépé is likely to go for around €70m, anything above €20m for a player who has barely featured for the first-team would make Lille think.
We’ll have to wait and see.
