Mauro Icardi Emerges as Everton's Striker Solution
Everton’s search for a striker has taken a familiar turn: late, urgent, and focused on opportunity rather than luxury. This time, the name on the table is Mauro Icardi, a serial goalscorer in Italy and Turkey who has never kicked a ball in the Premier League.
That could be about to change.
Everton turn to the free-agent market
With the transfer window closed and the deal for Folarin Balogun collapsing on deadline day, Everton have been pushed into the margins of the market. David Moyes needs a number nine. Desperately. At present, Thierno Barry stands as the only natural centre-forward in the senior squad.
So the club have turned their attention to free agents. Among them, Icardi has emerged as one of the standout options under consideration at Hill Dickinson Stadium.
The 33-year-old is without a club after his contract with Galatasaray expired at the end of the 2025–26 season. According to TyC Sports journalist German Garcia Grova, speaking on 7 September, Icardi has been offered to Everton, with the player’s camp open to the idea of Merseyside being his next stop.
The move would bring him to English football for the first time, after spells with Inter Milan, Paris Saint-Germain and Galatasaray.
A proven finisher, even in a supporting role
Icardi is no longer the explosive focal point who terrorised Serie A defences at his peak with Inter. But he remains what he has always been: a penalty-box predator.
Last season at Galatasaray, he scored 16 goals in all competitions, largely from the bench, with Victor Osimhen preferred as the starting striker for the Turkish champions. Even in a reduced role, the numbers underline his enduring threat.
In the Super Lig alone, he struck 14 times, posting a goal conversion rate of 24 per cent and outperforming his expected goals tally of 10.53, according to Sofascore. That’s not the return of a fading forward going through the motions; it’s the profile of a finisher who still punishes mistakes.
He also featured in the Champions League, facing heavyweight opposition such as Liverpool and Juventus. Those nights matter. They show he can still operate at a high tempo and under pressure, the kind of environment he would walk into in the Premier League.
Why Moyes might roll the dice
Moyes knows exactly what he is short of. Everton lack a ruthless edge in the box, and Barry, for all his promise, is still learning the craft of leading the line at this level. His recent wastefulness has only underlined that reality.
Icardi would not transform the team’s style. He would sharpen it.
He no longer offers blistering pace or relentless pressing, but that is not why you sign him at 33. You sign him because he attacks crosses, finds half a yard where none seems to exist, and finishes chances that others snatch at. For a side that cannot afford to squander opportunities, that skillset has real value.
He has also shown he can still rise to big occasions, as those Champions League outings suggest. Dropping a player with that experience into a squad crying out for know-how in the final third has a clear logic.
Decision time on Merseyside
Everton now face a straight call. Move for Icardi immediately, or hold their nerve and wait until January in the hope that a younger, more long-term option becomes available.
The risk of waiting is obvious. Moyes goes into a critical stretch of the season relying heavily on Barry and makeshift solutions if injuries or form hit. The risk of acting now is different: committing wages and a role to a veteran whose best years are behind him.
But goals change seasons. Everton know that better than most.
If they decide Icardi is the man to deliver them, the Premier League could be about to welcome one of Europe’s most enigmatic poachers for a long-awaited first act in England.
