With 16 caps for England’s U21s in his career, there’s no denying that Jonjoe Kenny is quite good at the whole football thing, but there’s one man he cannot convince to give him game time, and that’s Rafa Benítez.
The 24-year-old has made a grand total of three appearances under the Spaniard since he took over from Carlo Ancelotti, and even when Séamus Coleman was injured, he preferred Ben Godfrey down the right of his defence over the local lad.
At Everton since he was nine, Kenny has only spent four spells away from his childhood club, spending time at Wigan in 2015, Oxford United in 2016, Schalke during the 2019-20 season and at Celtic for six months earlier this year.
However, he’s never enjoyed himself as much as he did during his time in Germany, where the Gelsenkirchen locals grew a soft spot for the determined youngster, and they are now sorry for his current situation.
Der Westen in Germany have an article on the player, claiming the ‘ex-S04 professional is in crisis’, with his ‘career in descent’.
While he ‘proved his skills again and again’ for Schalke, he ‘no longer plays a role’ at Everton, where Benítez’s decision to use Godfrey over him was a ‘bitter setback’.
‘Popular’ with the German fans thanks to his ‘good performances’, the now 2.Bundesliga side found themselves unable to keep him due to not having an option to buy in the deal.
They certainly can’t afford him now, even if his price has dropped dramatically over the past couple of years, as they claim it has more than halved from €12m in December 2019 to €5.8m now.
