A week or so ago, we relayed some of the coverage from Belgium surrounding Everton’s Henry Onyekuru, and how well he was doing in Belgium on loan at Anderlecht.
Scoring four goals in his past four games, the Nigerian winger has been key to keeping the Pro League champions competitive in domestic competitions, and we said such ability to make a difference is something Ronald Koeman could use right now at Goodison Park.
So much so, in fact, that 90minutesgoal.com claim that a source close to the player told them Everton were planning on recalling Onyekuru in January.
Having failed to get a work permit in the summer because he hadn’t played in 75% of Nigeria’s games over the past 12 months, forcing the loan move.
Even the appeal was rejected, which is why an extra season in Belgium, at a club playing in the Champions League (that helps pick up an extra point in appeal system), made perfect sense, and calling him back in January won’t change that.
He also needs to play in 30% of the available domestic minutes, which he has for Anderlecht so far, and probably will do until the end of the season, but we doubt the appeal board will agree that half a season is enough to show he is a ‘special talent’ for the Premier League to grant him a work permit without meeting the criteria.
It is this ‘special talent’ argument 90minutesgoal.com state Everton want to use, but as stated above, that seems unlikely after just a four months with his loan club.
Furthermore, there has never been talk of a clause allowing the Toffees to recall Onyekuru in January, as that doesn’t seem like something Anderlecht would agree to in the first place, wanting to be as competitive as possible throughout the season.
We’ll have to wait and see if this develops into something, but it’ll be quite surprising if it does.
