The former Everton striker has opened up on his struggles in England as a younger player.

Moise Kean has opened up on the struggles he faced at Everton during the formative years of his career.

Aged 19, he found himself in the Everton first-team after signing from Juventus, a deal that was considered a major coup at the time. After all, he had managed six goals in 13 Serie A games after breaking into the Juventus first team and arrived on Merseyside for a fee that could rise to £37m.

It didn’t go as planned as the club went through a few different managers making the environment unstable overall. He was also substituted on and then substituted off in the same game at Old Trafford under Duncan Ferguson and his record of four goals in 39 games represents a failed move overall.

Despite only leaving permanently in 2023, he spent the majority of his time at Everton on loan at the likes of Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus before he re-joined his old club in Turin. He earned a move to Fiorentina in the summer and he has rediscovered his top form, netting 11 goals in 14 games.

Speaking to The Athletic, Kean opened up on how tough it was at Everton as a young player: “Out of all the experiences I’ve had, you won’t ever hear me say I had a bad one. I find positives in all of them. “If I hadn’t spent that year at Everton, I wouldn’t have learned the things I did there. I was a bit unlucky. I went there expecting to play a bit more. I was 19. I joined from Juve and thought I was going to smash it.

“Unfortunately, it didn’t go like that. We went through three coaches that year and mentally… it was all new for me. I was in England, it was a new environment…But England made me learn a lot about myself.

“I matured a lot. When I got there I didn’t play much. I used to think, ‘How am I not getting into this team, at Everton?’ Mentally, it made me evolve. I wasn’t playing and it was in dark times that I knew I had to grit my teeth and train even more.”

Perhaps a clear example of poor business during the Farhad Moshiri era, that money could have been spent more wisely at the time. In the end, they managed to recoup £25m but still ended up making a loss and, despite his current form, he will always be a transfer that failed to work out on Merseyside.