Everton of England midfielder, Alex Iwobi has surprisingly emerged in the running for two awards at Goodison Park, where AS Torino of Italy defender, Ola Aina has gained connections for a possible summer transfer, megasportsarena.com reports.
While Aina, who previously played for Chelsea and on loan at Hull City, could be heading back to Queensland from the land of the Azzurri, he could arrive at a time his national team colleague is getting crowned as best player or best young player of The Toffees.
This is sequel to reports that Iwobi, who played for Arsenal before joining Everton last summer, has been nominated for The Toffees’ Player of the Season and Young Player of the Season, the first of which is open to all first team member and second for the most outstanding member of the team aged 23 or under at the start of the season.
It is an unexpected lift for the Super Eagles’ star, who has 26 games under his boots since joining Everton on the final day of the summer transfer window and scored in his first two starts but, while he has been quite inconsistent ever since, he shook off a hamstring injury to feature in the starting line-up against Southampton on Thursday.
Although Iwobi again lasted only 46 minutes of the game at Goodison Park, that has not stopped him from being named in an eight-man shortlist for Young Player of the Season; along with the septet of Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Tom Davies, Anthony Gordon, Mason Holgate, Jean-Philippe Gbamin, Moise Kean and Richarlison.
They could all be joined this summer by a former youth team player from Chelsea, as Aina is being tipped to join Everton from Torino, despite similar interest also coming his way from West Ham United and Crystal Palace of England as well as Granata, Fiorentina and AC Milan of Italy.
They are all said to be monitoring the Chelsea Academy product, with a view to a transfer this summer, as the dark-skinned versatile full-back, who shares the same agent with Iwobi, has fallen out of favour at Torino, where he got a full contract last season, following his sterling efforts during the previous campaign, when he was on loan at The Maroons from Chelsea.
Dramatically, Aina has also reportedly been linked with a move to Paris Saint-Germain of France and Torino are willing to sell him for a fee in the region of ten million euros, approximately the same amount they paid Chelsea to sign him on a permanent basis in the summer of 2019.
A report by allnigeriasoccer.com added: “Capable of playing as a left-wing-back, right-wing-back, left-back, right-back and winger, Aina offers versatility and cover across the wings. The 23-year-old has recorded 63 appearances for Torino in all competitions, scoring once while setting up six goals. A return to England has been mooted as his preferred destination should he part company with The Maroons.”
