Who is Evanilson? Arsenal's ambitious new target likened to Lewandowski

Robin Bairner

22 Jan 2024 13:04 GMT
3 min read

Arsenal are eyeing Porto striker Evanilson ahead of the 2024/25 season.

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FootballTransfers learned that the 24-year-old is among Mikel Arteta's targets for the forward line.

Last year, reports in Portugal suggested that Manchester United had launched a €60 million transfer bid for the Brazilian. But clearly, things were not as they seemed at this point as the whole story went quiet.

Indeed, we revealed that Arsenal's new scout has sole focus on Latin American players and he sees Evanilson as a potential prospect for next season.

How good is Evanlison?

At the time, Man Utd were known to be looking at striking options to support then-Red Devils player Cristiano Ronaldo, though their priorities lie in the midfield, where Erik ten Hag was directing much of his transfer focus.

Reports in Portugal stated that they have been watching Evanlison for four months under the advice of former interim coach Ralf Rangnick while they also missed out on Benfica striker Darwin Nunez, who moved to Liverpool for €100m.

Evanilson has been with Porto since 2020, when he moved to the club from Tombense, who he never actually played for after a transfer from Fluminense. The deal that took him to Portugal was worth €8.8m.

Having initially impressed in Porto’s ‘B’ team, he quickly graduated into the first-team squad but was rarely given minutes during the 2020/2021 campaign.

That trend continued at the beginning of the 2021/22 season, with his first goals of the season in the league not arriving until he netted a double against Boavista after impressing in the league cup. He was a regular thereafter, but while he struck 14 league goals in total, he struggled against opposition of any standard. Only one of his league goals arrived against a team that finished in the top half of the table, while he did not net in any of his eight European outings.

What position does Evanilson play?

Evanilson is a striker who thrives in the box, performing as a poacher. His performance is high in terms of finish and also in offensive position. However, he is otherwise unspectacular in any offensive domain.

He does press well in a high zone and actually rates pretty impressively against his peers in Portugal in a defensive capacity.