Everton have signed defender Niels Nkounkou from Marseille on a free transfer.
Nkounkou, 19, signs a three-year contract at Goodison Park after spending two seasons with Marseille. He can operate at both left-back or in midfield.
“Niels is a young, talented player with good technical and physical skills,” Marcel Brands said. “We have been following him for months.
“Hopefully he can learn a lot from Lucas Digne and Leighton Baines, as well as Carlo Ancelotti and David Unsworth, and follow the same pathway into the first team the likes of Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Mason Holgate have taken in recent years.”
Sign up for the Liverpool ECHO daily Everton newsletter HERE
Nkounkou has represented France at under-19 youth level and is expected to be part of the u-23 set-up at Everton with David Unsworth losing regular left-back Matthew Foulds after his contract expired this summer.
He becomes the first signing of the summer and the second transfer of the Carlo Ancelotti era after Jarrad Branthwaite was snared from Carlisle United in January.
Before joining Marseille he came through the ranks at Stade Brest and has also been linked with a move to Serie A giants Juventus.
The defender had been included on the bench for Marseille twice this season.
