Everton reportedly ‘made a bid’ for RC Lens striker Lois Openda, which has been ‘rejected’.
The 22-year-old is enjoying an impressive season so far, hitting nine goals in his opening 19 matches in Ligue 1, including a hat-trick against Toulouse in October and one against French giants PSG in a 3-1 win earlier this month, where he also managed an assist (Transfermarkt).
His performances earned him a call-up to the Belgium squad for the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, where he featured in their 1-0 win over Canada in their opening group game.
Taking to Twitter, journalist Ignazio Genuardi shared that AC Milan are continuing to ‘closely monitor’ Openda’s performances ahead of a potential move this month:
“AC #Milan continues to closely monitor the performance of Lensois #Openda, who has been supervised several times in recent months. For now, it is a privileged track to strengthen the Lombard attack next summer.”
He added that Everton had ‘made a bid’ for the Belgian, which has been ‘rejected’ by Lens:
“On the Premier League side, Everton made a bid for this winter, but the Sang et Or rejected the offer.”
TIF thoughts on Everton’s Openda bid…
The Goodison Park outfit should not let their opening offer for Openda being rejected stop them from going back in for the striker.
The forward line is a place that they are lacking at the moment, having scored just 15 times in their opening 19 fixtures in the Premier League, the joint-second fewest of any team in the division.
Openda has shown this season that he knows where the back of the net is, and he ranks in the 97th percentile of all strikers in Europe’s top five leagues over the past year for non-penalty xG as well as non-penalty goals, suggesting that he could have scored even more this term.
Nonetheless, the Toffees need a deadly finisher up top, and Openda could be the man.