Vlasic honoured to play for Everton

New Everton signing Nikola Vlasic has claimed that he is ‘honoured’ to play for the club.

The Croatian joined the Toffees in the late stages of the summer transfer window, signing from Hajduk Split for a fee reportedly in the region of £8 million.

Everton are evidently lacking pace and there is hope that Vlasic will be the man to bolster their attacking threat for the season ahead.

The 19-year-old was quoted by the Liverpool Echo, voicing his excitement at the prospect of linking up with his new teammates and pulling on the Everton shirt.

I can’t describe how excited I am. All day I’m smiling. I just can’t wait to meet all the guys, to meet the manager and all the people in the club. To play for this big club it’s a big honour to me and I know how big a club Everton is.

Vlasic was a standout performer for Split during their clash against the Toffees, with Ronald Koeman’s side having secured their place in the Europa League group stage in a two-legged tie against Vlasic’s former team.

The guys who play here are big names – big stars. The players that came this summer, the likes of Gylfi Sigurdsson, Wayne Rooney and Michael Keane, I’m very excited to play alongside them and for the manager who is a big name in football and I think it will be very good here.

The Croatian will now hope to put himself in contention for the Toffees’ game against Tottenham Hotspur at home on Saturday afternoon, as he looks to make his debut.

There were some other clubs interested but Everton were definitely the biggest and I wanted to go. It’s the best league in the world and Everton are one of the top five clubs in England.