Everton Eye £40m Striker As Transfer Deadline Hits Final Hours: Right Choice For Moyes?

Everton Eye £40m Striker As Transfer Deadline Hits Final Hours: Right Choice For Moyes? Everton have made a formal offer to sign Folarin Balogun ahead of Tuesday’s transfer deadline, according to journalist Sami Mobkel . The 25-year-old American forward, currently at AS Monaco, is valued at around £40m by the French club. Moyes’s side are desperate for attacking reinforcements following Beto’s £15.4m departure to Fiorentina, and Balogun has emerged as their primary target in the final stretch of the window. Everton eye a £40m World Cup striker Folarin Balogun with hours left on the clock Everton are not alone in their interest. Tottenham ‘s Richarlison is also floating as a backup option, though the Brazilian is still considering his options and a deal looks far from done. With the window slamming shut in hours, Everton are pushing hard. Balogun’s season at Monaco was, on paper, genuinely impressive. He scored 13 goals and added four assists across 30 Ligue 1 appearances last term, then chipped in with five goals in 10 Champions League outings. He carried that form into the 2026 FIFA World Cup, netting three times in four games for the United States, becoming the first American since 1930 to score a World Cup brace. Monaco want to cash in now. Everton are ready to spend. The question is whether the two clubs can actually agree on a price. Everton’s bid and the brutal reality behind it Everton’s initial valuation of Balogun sat somewhere between €18m and €20m , roughly £15m to £16.5m. Monaco want close to £40m. That is not a negotiation gap. That is a chasm. And while the prospective £60m sale of Iliman Ndiaye to Tottenham does open some financial headroom, committing £40m of that on a single forward represents a significant gamble for a club still operating under the Premier League’s cost-ratio regime. The Everton system and what Balogun actually can’t do SEATTLE, WASHINGTON – JULY 06: Folarin Balogun #20 of the United States shows dejection after the team’s 1-4 defeat in the FIFA World Cup 2026 Round of 16 match between USA and Belgium at Seattle Stadium on July 06, 2026 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Luke Hales/Getty Images) Here’s the uncomfortable truth about this transfer. David Moyes builds his attacks around physical, aerially dominant strikers who can hold the ball up, win duels, and carry pressure off the backline. Marouane Fellaini, Romelu Lukaku, Michail Antonio. That’s the Moyes blueprint, and it’s written in pretty clear ink. Balogun is none of those things. He gets eaten alive by physical centre-backs when isolated. He scored zero headed goals across 30 Ligue 1 appearances last season. His passing completion rate sits at 76%, which tells you he goes quiet when teams sit deep and invite pressure. He is a runner. A penalty-box predator who thrives behind high defensive lines and in transitional football, exactly the conditions provided during his 21-goal breakthrough season at Reims. Everton simply don’t play that way. Balogun’s World Cup wasn’t quite the clean story it looked from the outside either. A red card against Bosnia, a suspension later overturned through murky political channels, and his own public comments about a “chaotic and tense” squad atmosphere; none of that screams the settled, mentally robust profile Moyes needs from his focal point. Balogun’s output rises and falls with his confidence. Disruption deflates him fast. Moyes has better options in this window. Richarlison at £35m is a proven Premier League operator who suits Moyes’ tactics more naturally. Kenny Tete at right-back is another priority. Spending £40m on a system-dependent forward who’s never played a minute of English top-flight football is the sort of decision that looks panicked, because it probably is.