Everton want to sign AS Monaco defender Caio Henrique
Everton are already on the lookout for potential January signings and have identified Monaco left-back Caio Henrique, according to IG Esporte.
The 25-year-old is enjoying a fantastic season in Ligue 1 with five assists and one goal to his name in just 10 matches to help the club from the Principality into seventh in the table.
He’s also played all five group stage games in the Europa League so far while his contract at Monaco runs until the end of the 2026-27 campaign after recently signing a new deal.
The Toffees, though, want to sign him well before that time runs out and have already sent scouts to probe the Brazilian and find out his situation at his current club.
They have been joined in the hunt for Henrique by Brighton and Hove Albion with Nottingham Forest previously interested before signing fellow Brazilian Renan Lodi from Atletico Madrid.
Rival
Vitaliy Mykolenko has been relatively unchallenged at left-back this season with Ruben Vinagre only signed on loan just in case the Ukrainian went down with either a suspension or injury.
With that lack of pressure from behind him, the 23-year-old has been able to relax a little too much knowing that he won’t be dropped anytime soon and that is a dangerous precedent to be in.
Henrique would provide a genuine challenger to the Ukrainian’s place in the Everton starting line-up and either perform better than him or even force Mykolenko to up a gear.
It’s a difficult position to be in when you have a very good player in a position but no backup behind because it can be difficult to convince anybody to sign as an initial backup option.
But Henrique might be tempted by the cash the Premier League has to offer and his performances in France suggests he could even be better than Everton’s current first choice.