Former Everton star Kevin Mirallas has admitted he didn’t want to join the club and told his agent he wanted to leave whatever the cost around a month after his arrival.
The former winger has been speaking to Eleven Belgium about his career after bringing it to an end back in September.
That brought a finale to a career which saw him play all over Europe, featuring for Standard Liege, Lille, Saint Etienne, Olympiakos, Everton, Fiorentina, Royal Antwerp, Gaziantep, Moreirense and AEL Limassol.
His most successful spell was undoubtedly with the Toffees, who he joined in a €7.65m deal from Olympiakos in 2012.
He would go on to spend six years at Everton after that, making 186 appearances in total and managing 38 goals and 35 assists in total.
Those were by far his best numbers at any club in his career, with his second and third highest appearances coming for Lille and Olympiakos.
He made 86 appearances for the latter, scoring 36 times and assisting 15, numbers which eventually convinced those in charge at Goodison Park to move for him and add him to David Moyes’ squad.
It seems, though, if Mirallas had been in charge he wouldn’t have made the move to Merseyside in the first place.
“When I signed in England I didn’t want to go there,” he said.
“I felt really good at Olympiakos, I felt good at the football level, at the family level as my son had just been born so there was stability. My agent really pushed it. I don’t regret it because it was one of my best spells, I spent seven years there, but I didn’t want to go.
“I felt really good, my life was really good, there was a quality of life behind it and in England I had to start all over again. The day I left Olympiakos I cried; I didn’t want to leave.
“I arrived at Everton in August it was 14 degrees, raining, I went ‘wow’. I left ten days after my son was born. I didn’t want to go there but then I saw the training centre and I said, ‘it’s good, it’s structured’.
“In England it was great, the stadium all that. The coach, David Moyes, wanted me to have everything prepared, I had a magnificent welcome and was well compensated but, in my head, I wasn’t prepared.
“Then I got injured and in October I phoned my agent and said I want to leave. He tells me I signed for five years but I say ‘do what you want but I don’t want to stay’. He says to me ‘you’re crazy, everyone wants to be in your place’ but I just said, ‘call those in charge, I don’t want to stay’.”
