Everton’s worst Premier League signings of all time

While Everton have made some game-changing signings since the start of the Premier League, the club have also ended up with players who just did not work out on Merseyside.

Several players flattered to deceive after making the move to the blue half of Liverpool, leaving the Everton fans utterly disappointed to the point of one fan running onto the field to give a player a piece of his mind.

Here, FootballWhispers counts down Everton's worst Premier League signings of all time.

5) Marco Materazzi

Long before he became a Champions League winner and World Cup champion, Marco Materazzi was at Everton, moving for just £2.5m from Italian side Perugia.

However, the Italian defender had a serious lack of discipline on the pitch, which saw him pick up eight yellow cards during his time with the Toffees, while he was given his marching orders on three occasions.

Materazzi could not cope with the strength and speed of English football, which was clear in the number of fouls he committed, meaning his time on Merseyside was miserable for both the club and himself.

After just a year in England, Materazzi was sold back to Perugia, and two years later, he got his dream move to Inter Milan, where he spent 10 years winning major trophies, including Serie A among others, but his Everton move just did not work out.

4) Neal Maupay

Signed by Frank Lampard from Brighton for a fee said to be in the region of £15 million, Neal Maupay's primary responsibility was to score goals at Everton, but his Toffees career was not anything to shout about.

There was a serious goal shortage for Everton at the time of his signing, but his leading the line was an exercise that tested the patience of Evertonians, as he could only manage one goal in 29 Premier League matches.

Maupay missed some crucial goal-scoring chances, which left everyone frustrated, resulting in the club sending him out on a couple of loan spells, one of which was to Brentford, which was actually his most successful spell.

The Frenchman alienated himself from Evertonians after congratulating former teammate Lewis Dunk for his late winner against the Toffees and taking a dig at England and Jordan Pickford after their defeat in the European Championship final.

As a result, he was shipped off to Marseille in 2025, bringing an end to one of the worst signings in Everton history.

3) Sandro Ramirez

In the summer of 2017, Everton triggered Sandro Ramirez's release clause at Malaga, which was touted to be the smartest piece of business at the time, considering he was a graduate of the Barcelona academy.

Ramirez had already won La Liga and the Copa Del Rey twice, in addition to a Champions League and Club World Cup title, but all that promise failed to materialise in an Everton jersey.

The Spanish forward only managed 16 appearances for the Toffees during his three-year spell at the club, scoring just one goal and securing two assists in his time with Everton.

After just six months in England, he wanted to go back to La Liga, and the club obliged by sending him on loan to several Spanish clubs over the years, including Sevilla, Real Sociedad and Real Valladolid, until his free exit to SD Huesca in 2022.

2) Cenk Tosun

The expectation from signing Cenk Tosun was clear: he was brought in to help the club with its continuous struggles in front of goal, and seeing as he was doing so for Besiktas, Everton paid the £27m fee for him.

The Turkish international produced some moments of quality, and he can not be faulted for his work ethic, but it just seemed as if the Premier League was a step too high for Tosun.

For that fee, Tosun was expected to deliver more than 11 goals in 61 appearances, which is why it was no surprise that the club loaned him out to Crystal Palace just two years after signing him.

The forward then bounced back between the Toffees and loan spells, and was eventually signed on a free transfer by his former employers, Besiktas.

Everton's worst Premier League signing of all time: Per Kroldrup

David Moyes must look back at this signing with absolute horror, after he forked out £5m to lure Per Kroldrup away from Udinese, only for the defender to suffer a groin injury that required surgery.

The Danish defender finally made his debut for the club against Aston Villa on Boxing Day, where he was completely bullied, and the Toffees suffered a 4-0 drubbing, an indication that he lacked the pace and intensity for the Premier League.

It became apparent quite quickly that Kroldrup was struggling to keep up with his teammates, and he could not come to terms with the aerial presence of the opposition, resulting in Moyes only playing him in one FA Cup fixture after that dreadful Boxing Day performance.

It was exactly 31 days after that Kroldrup was sold to Fiorentina, marking the end of his torrid time on Merseyside, but he will go down in Everton folklore as the worst signing of the Premier League era for the club.