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Everton fans may not know the name Halid Djankpata too well, and that is part of the reason he left the club last summer.

That’s at least according to his agent, who Stefano Antonelli, who has been hailing his move to Spezia as a masterstroke in an interview with Gazzetta della Spezia.

Djankpata left Everton in August, moving to Italy to sign for Serie B side Spezia Calcio in the search of regular football.

He had been at Goodison Park from an early age, joining the youth set up in 2021 before progressing through the U18s and into the U21s. He was a regular both set ups, making 33 appearances for the U18s and 25 for the U21s but never appearing for the first team.

He’s yet to get going in Italy either, really, managing just 331 minutes in Spezia’s U19 side to date and failing to make his debut for the first team.

That has largely been due to Spezia’s success this season, with them currently sitting third in the Serie B table with 48 points and chasing down the top two, Pisa on 53 points in second and Sassuolo in first on 55 points.

His agent, though, believes the move has already worked out for the youngster and they’ve been justified in departing Everton.

“I came to watch Spezia play Sassuolo. I saw how the boy has fitted in, how he moves, how, despite his young age – let’s not forget that he was born in 2005 – he has become a man,” he said.

“I was positively impressed. The demonstration that in six months he has made an exceptional leap forward. At Everton he played in the Under 21s, which is the second team, comparable to our U23s, and trained at least twice a week with the big boys.

“Our desire was to complete him as a player. The investment made that brought him to Spezia is to complete the player: to make him important and internationalise him.

“He has to learn many things that he couldn’t learn in England, such as tactics. Furthermore, in the first team, development in England is increasingly less possible due to the monstrous market frequency that leads clubs to buy everywhere.

“For now, these six months have proven us right, given that he is growing exponentially in everything. When we brought him, no one imagined that Spezia could play this type of championship, so today being here is a value.”