One of the more confusing sagas of the transfer window, Ishak Belfodil’s failed transfer to Everton remained a bit of a mystery, with conflicting reports floating around about who was at fault.
Some claimed Ronald Koeman had decided he didn’t want the player anymore, while others were adamant the deal’s collapse was down to agents meddling where they shouldn’t.
The truth? A bit of both, but mostly the agent thing.
Sport/Foot in Belgium decided to investigate, and got in touch with everyone involved in the deal in order to shed some light.
Starting with Ishak Belfodil’s actual agent Mohamed Al Faiech, the main culprit is one of Belgium’s biggest intermediaries: Christophe Henrotay.
He explained: “Everything he says is false. I’ll tell you what happened. My contacts with Steve Walsh, Everton’s director of football, go back to mid-November. We met in London on the 2nd of January, in the offices of Everton’s owner, Farhad Moshiri, accompanied by Steve Walsh and Bill Kenwright.
“If we’d wanted to, we could have signed everything then, it was all ready. Everton had even reserved the hotel, they didn’t want us to return to Belgium, but Ishak didn’t want to cause a fuss with Standard.”
However, according Al Faiech, Henrotay was then informed of this meeting around an hour after it took place.
Trying to get both sides of the arguments, Sport/Foot then went to talk with Henrotay himself to see what he had to say.
The Belgian magazine claim Henrotay showed them emails and WhatsApp conversations he had with Standard’s chairman, Everton’s Bill Kenwright and a Swiss lawyer known by all parties called Ralph Isenegger.
Henrotay claims that on Christmas Day, Isenegger was pushing to get Ishak Belfodil’s transfer done, as this was the right time.
Contacting Bill Kenwright, the intermediary receives news from the Everton chairman that the club would be prepared to offer €8m + €2m, which Standard refused, hoping for more.
Fast forward to the 12th of January, when a meeting takes place with everyone involved, except Al Faiesh, who refuses to be at the same table as Christophe Henrotay.
This is the moment when Everton make the €10m + €2m offer for Belfodil, which Standard were ready to accept, with Sport/Foot being shown Kenwright’s email as proof.
However, a tiny bit later, Henrotay receives an message from the Everton chairman stating Ronald Koeman doesn’t want Belfodil anymore because he’s heard bad things about the player’s personality.
At this point, the only way to change the Dutch manager’s mind would be to set up a meeting between the Standard striker and the manager, but Bruno Venanzi, Standard’s chairman, refuses.
The reason? “Imagine he breaks a foot coming off the plane?”
The next day, Henrotay tries to convince Farhad Moshiri to change Koeman’s mind, something the Everton owner refuses to do, with the deal ending there and then.
As Belfodil’s agent Mohamed Al Faiech tells Sport/Foot: “No one at Standard had asked for [Henrotay]. He tried to do his thing, with his contacts.”
