Barcelona: Yerry Mina to join Everton in €32 million deal
The Colombian centre-back appears to be finally leaving the club after a summer of speculation.
Fresh from signing Lucas Digne, Everton want to bring in another unwanted Barcelona player: Yerry Mina, according to Sport. The 23-year-old only joined the club in January from Palmeiras for €11.8 million, but he had issues adapting to the club and isn’t a good stylistic fit.
He may not fit into the requirements Barcelona have for a defender, but he is talented for his age. Aerial prowess, tackling and passing are some of his best traits. Positioning and reading the game are his weaker areas, so it makes sense why he struggled for the Catalans. His passing also lacked the penetration from deep that was needed, although he circulated possession effectively. Barcelona can’t afford to take risks with a long-term project in such a key area, but he has the potential to be a top defender.
Mina will suit a team that plays in a more traditional manner without such an intense focus on keeping possession as well as using the defenders to break through the opposition defensive shape with their passing and dribbling like Barcelona do. His aerial prowess also extends to the opposition box, which provides Marco Silva with a major weapon to use at set pieces.
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This showed at the World Cup where he scored in three consecutive games and ended up being his side’s top scorer. The club has certainly benefitted from his performances at the tournament because it inflated his value significantly and means they come away with a profit of €20.2 million in transfer fees.
His departure will reduce the amount of non-EU players in the squad to four if Philippe Coutinho is able to get a Portuguese passport. Therefore, they will only have to offload one more player permanently or on loan, which will be Marlon Santos because Arthur, Malcom and Arturo Vidal are all summer signings. This is because of the league rule which only allows clubs to register three non-EU players.
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The only potential issue with him and Marlon leaving is that three of the remaining four centre-backs are left-footed. Therefore, there isn’t proper cover for Pique because one of the defenders will have to play slightly out of position, which is likely to be Samuel Umtiti. One of the Barcelona B players could be called up, but that would be a huge risk with the pre-season games highlighting that.