David Moyes hasn’t hidden his priority this summer: Everton need a centre-forward they can build the attack around.
Thierno Barry and Beto have had their moments but neither has made the No.9 shirt their own, and that’s pushed the recruitment team to cast a wide net.
Five names keep coming up — Liam Delap, Taty Castellanos, Ayase Ueda, Gabriel Jesus and Folarin Balogun — and the data on each tells a different story about the kind of player Everton would be taking on. All very different profiles.
Goalscoring data
Liam Delap
| Season | Club | Competition | Apps | Goals | Assists |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | Ipswich Town | Premier League | 37 | 12 | 2 |
| 2025-26 | Chelsea | All competitions | 41 | 2 | 3 |
Delap’s numbers tell the story. A proper Premier League goal threat in a poor Ipswich side, then nothing at Chelsea after his £30m release-clause move. Whether that’s a player problem or a squad-depth problem – Joao Pedro’s form has barely let him near the pitch – is the question Everton’s scouts have to answer.
Taty Castellanos
| Season | Club | Competition | Apps | Goals | Assists |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | Lazio | Serie A | 29 | 10 | 5 |
| 2025-26 | West Ham | Premier League (from Jan) | 18 | 6 | – |
Castellanos joined West Ham from Lazio for around €30m in January and has scored against Burnley and Liverpool, plus a quick brace against Wolves. A decent return for half a season’s work in a struggling side, but he couldn’t keep West Ham up, and a Championship club holding a player with four-and-a-half years left on his deal will rarely sell cheap.
Ayase Ueda
| Season | Club | Competition | Apps | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | Feyenoord | All competitions | 40 | 26 |
Ueda’s numbers blow the other four out of the water on paper. Everton have reportedly scouted him “extensively,” and a return like that in the Eredivisie is hard to ignore. The caveat: the step up to the Premier League has flattened plenty of prolific Dutch league strikers before him.
Gabriel Jesus
| Season | Club | Competition | Apps | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | Arsenal | Premier League | 17 | 3 |
| 2025-26 | Arsenal | Premier League | 14 | 3 |
Jesus has been a bit-part player in Arsenal’s title-winning campaign — 14 appearances, most off the bench, 421 minutes total. The talent has never been in doubt; the issue is that he hasn’t played enough football to remind anyone of it. Arsenal have reportedly cut their asking price to around £20m as they look to move him on.
Folarin Balogun
| Season | Club | Competition | Apps | Goals | Assists |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | Monaco | Ligue 1 | 13 | 4 | – |
| 2025-26 | Monaco | Ligue 1 | 30 | 13 | 4 |
Balogun’s 2025-26 season is the standout. After an injury-wrecked 2024-25, he came back and scored in eight straight Ligue 1 matches between February and April, finishing fourth in the division’s scoring charts with 19 goals across all competitions. At 24, he’s approaching his peak but with still room to grow.
Playing style — What each one offers
Delap is a target man in the old-school sense: strong in the air, happy to battle centre-backs, best served by wingers and wing-backs who stay high and wide and stretch the back line so he can attack the space behind it.
Castellanos sits in between the two extremes. He links play well but also likes to drift into the channels himself, which means Everton’s midfield would need to be comfortable filling the gap he leaves in the middle.
Ueda is built around combination play rather than direct running. He wants 10s close to him who can pick up his lay-offs — a different kind of attacking support to what Delap needs.
Jesus, even at reduced fitness, remains the most adaptable of the five. He can drop into pockets, combine in tight spaces and create for others in a way none of the younger options here can fully replicate yet.
Balogun is built on movement rather than physicality. His value comes from pressing high, making repeated runs in behind, and the kind of relentless off-ball work that shows up in his pressing numbers as much as his goals.
The Verdict
Delap brings resale value and Premier League pedigree, but is hampered by a lost season. Castellanos has proven he can score in this league but West Ham hold the leverage on price.
Ueda has the best underlying numbers of the group, but his biggest unknown is how he’ll adapt to the Premier League. Jesus offers a level of quality the other four haven’t matched in their careers, if his body allows it. And Balogun arrives with the form of his life but, again, is unproven at Premier League level.
For me, it’s Delap. But what do I know?
