Manager “was close to” Everton job – Links with other job now seem ‘really strange’

Italy legend Fabio Cannavaro ‘was close’ to securing the Everton job in January, before Frank Lampard’s arrival at Goodison Park.

That’s according to journalist Ciro Venerato, who believes that close call is stopping Cannavaro from taking other jobs available to him.

Everton were on the hunt for a new manager in January after deciding to sack Rafa Benitez, who had arrived the previous summer as a controversial replacement for Carlo Ancelotti.

The Spaniard was a divisive appointment to say the least, but a horrendous run of form mid-season had left Everton fighting relegation and Farhad Moshiri elected to make a change midway through the winter window.

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Lampard was eventually brought in as Benitez’s replacement but not before a long recruitment process that saw Everton linked to several names around Europe.

One of those was Cannavaro, who was a free agent after leaving his role as manager of Guangzhou FC in the Chinese Super League in September 2021.

Several reports in Italy indicated he was among the frontrunners for the Everton job and Venerato insists that was the case.

“I understand he was close to the Everton bench. It seems really strange to me that he would accept such a proposal (Benevento). We’ll see,” footballnews24.it report him saying in a discussion about the situation at Benevento.