Everton’s director of football Marcel Brands has told the Liverpool Echo that Yerry Mina was always ‘100%’ set on a move to Merseyside this summer.
The Toffees managed to get a deal for the Colombian international over the line on the final day of the transfer window for Premier League clubs, as they spent a fee believed to be worth just under £30m on the Barcelona defender.
Mina had returned to Barcelona off the back of an impressive World Cup campaign with Colombia, in which he had found the net on three occasions.
Following his exploits in Russia this summer, a whole host of clubs had reportedly expressed an interest in landing Mina from Barca, with Everton at the front of the queue.
The likes of Lyon and Manchester United had been strongly linked with respective swoops for the promising centre-back, but Brands claims that there was always a confidence held that Mina had his heart set on a move to Goodison Park.
From the beginning, Yerry was 100% convinced that he wanted to play for Everton but then you guys (the media) messed a lot of bad things for us because Man United was in – I’m not sure how they were in or if Barcelona used it – so I had to be strong and say ‘if United are coming, they are coming in but the player wants Everton’.
