Everton have signed Barcelona forward Gerard Deulofeu on a season-long loan deal, the Merseyside club have confirmed. The promising 19-year-old striker arrives at Goodison Park as new boss Roberto Martinez's first acquisition away from his former club Wigan Athletic, where Arouna Kone, Antolin Alcaraz (though his contract at the DW Stadium had expired) and Joel Robles (actually from Atletico Madrid but on loan at The Latics last season) all switched from. He's also Martinez's fourth signing in three days as he aggressively attempts to mark his own authority on the Toffees following the exit of long-serving manager David Moyes to Manchester United. Spanish U21 startlet Deulofeu comes to England after netting an impressive 18 times in 33 games for Barca's B team. Additionally, he made a handful of first team appearances off the bench and winning enough praise to learn a long-term contract with the Catalan giants this summer. Though with huge competition for places in the La Liga champions' line-up particularly strong (Lionel Messi and Neymar are quite the intimidating pair to be competing with for a first team birth), Barca have decided to ship him out to Everton for a year where he could gain more first team action. Martinez spoke to Evertonfc.com about his latest signing;
"Gerard is a real diamond of Spanish football and a boy with incredible footballing talent and I am delighted that he has chosen to take the next step of his career with Everton," Martinez told evertonfc.com.
source -
teamtalk