Jean-Philippe Gbamin gave up £5m salary to cancel Everton contract, agent says
Jean-Philippe Gbamin walked away from a £5million salary on the final year of his deal to cancel his Everton contract, his agent Bernard Collignon told the Guardian.
Ivory Coast midfielder Gbamnin agreed to cancel his contract on deadline day after a miserable spell at Goodison Park, which was blighted by injury problems.
Collignon has now revealed how much it cost him to walk away from the final 12 months of his deal.
“It was not easy to cancel the contract with Everton. JP left a one-year salary on the table, worth £5m,” he said.
“He didn’t take any money. The club had to wait until the end of the window to see if there was a club who wanted to buy him, but nobody wanted to pay Everton’s price, especially for a player that can sign [a pre-contract agreement] for free in January.
“We found the agreement of cancelling the contract 20 minutes before the deadline, at 11.40pm. Once the deadline is passed, you cannot cancel the contract in the same way.”
Fair play
Gbamin, who the Guardian said in their story cost the Toffees £25m to join from Mainz in August 2019, had a torrid time on Merseyside and the truth is no one was really sad to see him depart the club.
He made only a handful of appearances for Everton during his spell with the team and endured countless injury problems along the way. Gbamin also failed to really impress during loan spells at CSKA Moscow and Trabzonspor.
Everton failed to find a buyer, so it was unfortunate they did not manage to recoup any of their heft outlay for the 28-year-old as any extra cash would have helped with their precarious financial situation off the pitch.
Still, you have to give Gbamin some credit here. He could have sat at home and pocketed a hefty salary for 12 more months, which would have put even more financial stress on Everton. But he decided to walk away and try and find a new club, which he has so far been unable to do.
In other Everton news, Wayne Rooney has hailed Bill Kenwright as a ‘big inspiration’ following his death.