Crystal Palace have signed Everton’s Cenk Tosun on loan until the end of the season, a little over two years after the Turkey striker expressed relief about not ending up at Selhurst Park.
The 28-year-old was in south London on Friday to complete his medical, with Palace’s chairman, Steve Parish, saying he was delighted to add to Roy Hodgson’s squad.
“We’ve enjoyed a great first half of the campaign and Cenk’s arrival will bolster our squad as we push for a top-half Premier League finish,” Parish said. “Cenk has a proven record as a goalscorer and we’ve admired him for some time, so I’m very pleased to welcome him.”
Tosun was the subject of interest from Palace in the summer of 2017 but rejected their approach before choosing to join Everton from Besitkas for £27m the following January.
“About my transfer to Crystal Palace I can say that I’m very happy the move failed,” he said in 2017. “Because I get to stay at the club and I am doing very well at the moment in both the league and Champions League.”
But having made only two starts for Everton this season and keen to secure a place in Turkey’s Euro 2020 squad, Tosun has signed a deal that is understood to contain an option to purchase him for £20m.
Hodgson has been keen to add striking reinforcements with Palace the Premier League’s second-lowest scorers with 19 goals, despite being in ninth place. Palace are also in initial talks with Tottenham over a potential loan move for the England Under-21 right-back Kyle Walker-Peters as they search for a long-term replacement for Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
