Everton’s Onyekuru admits to having interest from Valencia

Henry Onyekuru is on loan to Galatasaray. That is an established fact. It’s also, now, an established fact that despite this loan Valencia came asking about the Everton winger- if Turkish media is to be believed (and that’s always open to conjecture). Here is what Henry apparently told Turkish outlet Fotomac:

It is true that Valencia is interested in me, I liked this fact, but now I am a player of Galatasaray and I do not think this deal can take place.

It is an odd situation, to be sure. Once players are sent off on loan it is nearly unheard of for them to generate confirmed interest from another club. It is also interesting that Everton could not find a place in the first team for a player that a Champion’s League side from a major league is interested in.

This entire story needs the normal ‘Turkish media’ asterisk. When we see quotes from a player like this, we’re getting something that he probably said in English, was then translated into Turkish for their media, and then translated back into English for our reading here. All sorts of important details could have been lost in translation, all can really confirm is that someone asked Onyekuru about Valencia and he responded.

Onyekuru is of course still coming off a major injury, but prior to that he was really in top form. If he can pick up in Turkey where he left off in Belgium, Everton will really have a player on their hands.

This is a reflection of a player who is good on the ball and brutally efficient, and Everton could really use something like that. Hopefully he continues to develop and we can see a payoff of all of this potential in the near future. Whether he is correctly linked to Valencia now or not, he certainly will be pursued by clubs of that caliber in the future if he continues to grow.