Belgian defender Jonathan Legear has revealed he could have joined Everton ten years ago, with manager David Moyes scouting him personally.
Legear has had something of a varied career, starting out in Belgium before a move to Akhmat Grozny in 2011.
Since then he has played for the likes of KV Mechelen, Blackpool, Standard Liège and Adana Demirspor in Turkey.
He now finds himself playing in the Belgian third division with URSL Visé, who he joined on a free in January of this year after finding himself a free agent in December.
His short four-month spell at Blackpool has been his only venture into English football, but he revealed that things could have been very different, with Everton interested in him at the start of his career.
“I think I can be satisfied for 70 to 75%. There would have been more in it if I had stayed at Anderlecht when I was 23,” he told Het Laatste Nieuws.
“Then I would probably have played football in England. Everton followed me during that period.
“Moyes had come to see me in an international match against Austria, just one in which I became a man of the match.
“I am sure I would have had a career like Mirallas or Chadli. I played at the same level then.
“I chose a Russian adventure, and I don’t regret that because I don’t want to live with regrets, but it could have turned out differently.”
Whether Legear would have had any better luck with a move to Everton is something we’ll never know.
Things would have certainly been tough for him at Goodison Park, though, given they already have established centre backs in Phil Jagielka, John Heitinga and Sylvain Distin at the club.
It’s hard to see Legear breaking up that trio at the time, or getting the game time he would have needed either, so perhaps moving to Russia wasn’t such a bad choice.
