Perhaps Everton could find their replacement for Richarlison in the most unlikely of places with Ben Brereton Diaz. Like the Brazilian, who departed Goodison Park for Tottenham Hotspur in a £60million deal earlier this summer, Brereton Diaz is a South American international who can operate both on the left wing and at centre-forward.
However, while Richarlison came to the Premier League straight from Rio de Janeiro, home of Copacabana Beach and carnival, Brereton Diaz plays for Blackburn Rovers and originally hails from Stoke-on-Trent. Between the ages of seven to 14, he was part of Manchester United’s youth system but after a spell with local club Stoke City, he made his breakthrough in the senior game at Nottingham Forest.
Originally moving to Ewood Park on loan, he made a £7million permanent switch to Blackburn Rovers in January 2019. The son of Martin Brereton, a policeman who was an amateur footballer in the Potteries and District Sunday League, Brereton Diaz – who started using the Spanish language custom of adding his mother Andrea’s maiden name after switching his international allegiance to Chile (she was born in the Chilean city of Concepcion) last year after previously representing England at Under-19s and U20s level.
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Brereton Diaz’s credentials were actually flagged up to Chilean FA through the popular computer game Football Manager! The ECHO’s sister site Lancs Live reported how Mark Hitchen from Great Harwood, who had previously worked as a scout for Blackburn, combines his role as an assistant headteacher with being a Football Manager researcher and had read that Brereton – as he was then simply known – was half-Chilean through an interview in the Rovers matchday programme.
After updating the player’s statistics on the game’s database, a campaign called #BreretonALaRoja came into fruition and his agent, Olly Henry was contacted by Ben Corbyn – son of former Labour leader Jeremy – a football scout who was operating as a recruitment consultant for Chile and the application process for a Chilean passport began. Called up for the World Cup qualifiers against Argentina and Bolivia, he was included in their 2021 Copa America squad and having netted the winner on his first start against Bolivia in June last year, he now has four international goals in 15 matches to date.
But what has Brereton Diaz been doing back in the Championship to supposedly pique Everton’s interest with the Daily Mail reporting that they are ready to battle with French side Nice for him? The Ligue 1 outfit are understood to have made a £10million offer for the 23-year-old but face competition from Frank Lampard’s side who are desperate for a striker.
Although Brereton Diaz, who scored 22 goals last season, can play as a centre-forward, and made 16 consecutive appearances in that position for Blackburn last term, most of his matches in 2021/22 were on the left wing and that is where Jon Dahl Tomasson has deployed him for all three of their Championship matches in the current campaign so far, netting twice. When placing his statistics from last season into the Premier League through Comparisonator’s Virtual Transfer, the Rovers ace fares well in several attacking areas.
His 0.79 goals per 90 minutes is a higher figure than anyone operating in the top flight with Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling, now of Chelsea, and Arsenal’s Emile Smith Rowe both on 0.58; Burnley’s Maxwel Cornet on 0.55 and Richarlison on 0.49. Brereton Diaz reaches such figures by getting in more shots (3.03) than anyone else in his position with the top three in the top flight last term being Liverpool’s Sadio Mane, now of Bayern Munich, on 2.68; Leicester City’s Harvey Barnes on 2.59 and Everton old boy Richarlison on 2.54.
Brereton Diaz also leads the way for shots on target (1.73) ahead of Cornet (1.32); Sterling (1.3) and Mane (1.13) plus shots from headers (0.22), topping Cornet (0.16); Mane (0.15) and Sterling (0.13). All of this give him a higher figure for expected goals (0.66) than the Premier League’s leaders, Sterling (0.6); Mane (0.5) and Richarlison (0.44) but the big question of course remains whether he can transfer such figures to a higher division.
Comparisonator is a football data comparison tool from 271 professional leagues around the world which compares players and clubs by utilising over 100 different parameters. Click here for more details.
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