Does a loan deal for Bayern’s Joshua Zirkzee make sense for Everton?

Stefan Bienkowski

• Updated: 19 May 2021 15:43 BST
• 3 min read

Everton could use the January transfer window to sign up an exciting, young striker in the form of Bayern Munich striker Joshua Zirkzee. 

According to talkSPORT, the Merseyside club are close to a loan agreement with the Bundesliga giants for Zirkzee’s signature.

The temporary deal will reportedly have an agreement attached to it, which would then allow the Premier League side to sign the young striker on a permanent deal if they were inclined. 

But who is the Bayern youth academy graduate and would he offer much more to Carlo Ancelotti’s side than they already have?

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Zirkzee’s struggle for first team football 

Zirkzee first broke into Hansi Flick’s Bayern side last season when late substitute appearances against Freiburg and Wolfsburg resulted in two goals in just eight minutes of game time. A few months later the young striker picked up a goal and an assist in his first start for the Munich side in a 6-0 thumping of Hoffenheim. 

However, despite these early moments of Zirkzee’s apparent talent, the Dutch striker then struggled to pick up much game time towards the end of last season and in this current campaign the 19-year-old striker has managed just 103 minutes of game time for Flick’s side as the Bayern head coach has instead stuck with Robert Lewandowski or turned to the recently-acquired Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting. 

It’s this apparent inability to convince Flick of his merits in Bayern’s first team that makes rumours of a move to Everton for Zirkzee seem a little bizarre. Like the Bundesliga and European champions, Ancelotti’s side have an established striker in the form of Dominic Calvert-Lewin and then a worthy back-up in the form of Richarlison. 

Even if Everton were to sell a number of fringe players this month, such as striker Cenk Tosun, it still seems highly unlikely that a move to England would result in Zirkzee doing anything besides swapping the bench at Bayern for the bench at Everton. 

Everton more likely to sell, rather than buy in January 

Another factor that may get in the way of this apparent loan move is that Everton’s own sporting director, Marcel Brands, has confirmed that the club will be making no signings in January and will instead focus on selling fringe players. 

“We are still working to offload some players for new challenges in their careers,” Brands said at Everton’s general meeting on Thursday. “We don’t expect to sign new players in this window.

“In the current squad we have a good balance of experienced players, young players, and also players with home grown status. 

“The average age squad age is just above 26 years old. This is a big difference with the squad of two seasons ago where the average age was a lot higher.”

Perhaps an inexpensive loan move for a young player like Zirkzee may slip under the radar and be excused from Brands’ suggestions, but it still seems unlikely that the Premier League side would need or even pay for the young Bayern talent in this window or the next.