2 months ago
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€30m fee
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On Wednesday Everton announced their second signing of the summer transfer window with news that the club have completed a deal to bring Villarreal centre forward Thierno Barry to the club. According to Transfermarkt information, the Merseyside club will pay an initial fee of €30 million for the young striker, with bonuses potentially taking the final tally to a total of €35m. If Everton sell the player, the Spanish club will be due 10% of his sell-on fee. The initial fee alone makes Barry the club’s seventh most expensive signing of all time, surpassing the €28.9m the club spend on Yannick Bolasie in 2016, but if the add-ons get included it will push Barry above Romelu Lukaku’s €35.4m move from Chelsea into fourth place.
Everton’s spending on summer signings now stands at €45m, following Carlos Alcaraz’s €15m more from Flamengo. But considering the size of the transfer fee and Barry’s relatively small profile in English football, Everton fans and critics alike will undoubtedly raise at least one eye brow at the club’s decision to sign the young forward. So who is Barry and why have David Moyes and his backroom staff opted to spend a large chunk of their summer transfer budget on the young talent?
Who is new Everton signing Thierno Barry?
Everton fans would be forgiven for not knowing much about Barry, due to the fact that last season was his first full campaign in one of Europe’s top leagues. Last summer Barry made a €14m move to Villarreal after an impressive season at Swiss side Basel, where he had bagged 12 goals and five assists in 37 games across all competitions. That, too, had been the player’s first season at the club, having joined from Belgian side SK Beveren in the summer of 2024 for just €3m, where he had scored 20 goals and assists a further four in 33 games in his first season at senior level. Now, having picked up an equally impressive 19 goals and four assists for Villarreal, Barry has made his fourth move in as many years and now looks set to test himself in the Premier League.
“Although he struggled a bit to adapt at the beginning of the season, in the last few months of the season Barry improved his performance notably, increasing his tally to 11 goals and 4 assists, not insignificant numbers for a 22-year-old who has experienced his first season in a big league,” noted Transfermarkt’s Area Manager for Spain, Ivan Turmo. “He is a classic centre-forward who imposes himself with his physical power, his ability to play in space and his threat in the air. He is a player that is well suited to English football, as much for his youth as for his physical ability and his performance in his first season as a Villarreal player.”
Despite his obvious success in LaLiga, question marks will still remain over the fee Everton have been forced to sign the young striker. However, much of that can be put down to Villarreal’s reluctance to part ways with their talented goalscorer. When we consider that the club sold Alexander Sørloth to Atletico Madrid last season and Nicolas Jackson to Chelsea 12 months before that, this deal represents the third talisman the Yellow Submarine have had to say goodbye to in as many years. And that’s why Everton have had to pay top billing for the young talent.
“Villarreal had no intention of giving away a striker they considered key to their Champions League project, as CEO Roig Negueroles explained in a recent interview,” noted Turmo, when asked about the large transfer fee. “For that reason, it will again be a tremendously profitable deal for Villarreal, as he will leave less than a year after signing with the club for something like double the price he cost.” And while that may put the Spanish club in unfortunate circumstances, it also underlines that they have become a victim of their own success in identifying excellent strikers. “This proves that Villarreal is a productive striker factory,” noted Turmo. “Following the completion of Barry's transfer, five of the club's seven biggest transactions have been for strikers.”
Whether Barry will go on to be as productive in the Premier League as Jackson has been at Chelsea remains to be seen. But there’s little doubt that Everton have signed a young striker that has performed well at each of the three clubs he’s played for in the last three seasons. In each instance, he’s shown an impressive capacity to take the step up to the next level. If he can do that again for Moyes’ team next season, then that sizable sum of money won’t seem like a risk at all and may come to be seen as something of a bargain.
