Ural Yekaterinburg midfielder Petrus Boumal has revealed Everton and Nottingham Forest have had an interest in signing him over the past year or so.
The Toffees are said to have wanted the player to succeed Idrissa Gueye, who was a target for Paris Saint-Germain in January 2019. The Ligue 1 winners eventually signed the midfielder later that year.
“There was contact [with Everton]. They couldn’t find an agreement with my club. My club wanted to keep me here. Everton’s a big team. We don’t know what will happen in the future,” Boumal told Sport Witness.
When asked if he was disappointed? “For sure. Yeah, of course because I train every day for stuff like that. My dream is to play there [in England]. I like the leagues in England. That’s my dream. It’s always been my dream.
“I believe I have quality to play there. I am free now and I let my agent deal with things. I believe he can bring something nice.”
“In January, I spoke with him [Lamouchi]. But the problem is my club didn’t let me go and asked for a lot of money. Big transfer fee for a player who has six months of contract. Finally, I stayed in my team and I played two games and we had this Cornavirus,” the player added.
“I spoke to him, he liked me very much. He told me how he plans to use me. We spoke a lot about football. My team didn’t want to let me go. The price was huge.”
It’s unclear if Everton and the Championship side are still interested in Boumal and if they are, they can land him for free because of his contract situation.
Ural Yekaterinburg wanted to offer the midfielder an extension, but the player has refused to sign a new deal and has set his sights on leaving them as a free agent in the summer.
