Everton have announced the £27m signing of striker Thierno Barry, who is the Toffees’ first new arrival of the summer transfer window.

No relation to Gareth, the French striker joins from Villarreal and has penned a four-year contract with the Merseyside club.

So, let’s look at just how good Barry is, and where he will fit in at Everton. 

THE QUOTES

“I had good conversations with the manager. He told me I have the quality to play in the Premier League. He wants to do good work with me. He wants to help me on my road and I felt the sincerity with him so that’s why I chose to come here as well.

“On the pitch, I always give 100 per cent, I always want to score, I always want to help the team to win. This is my character. For me, this is my meal, my food. When I score, I’m very happy. I will always give 100 per cent on the pitch and try to score goals.” – Thierno Barry

“We are delighted to have brought Thierno to the club. We see lots of potential and we are hoping for good things from him.

“We will give him plenty of time to settle in and we are looking forward to getting started working with him as soon as possible.” – David Moyes

WHO IS THIERNO BARRY?

THE HISTORY + STATS

Barry is a 22-year-old striker who spent the last season in La Liga after spells in Switzerland, Belgium and his native France.

He is viewed as an exciting prospect, with his huge 6’5″ frame key to winning aerial duels and helping him to fit in well with Everton’s physical and no-nonsense style.

FBRef likens him to Jean-Philippe Mateta in terms of profile; not a bad comparison to have made of you.

He’s taken penalty kicks before (five in all, four converted) but not overly relied on them for returns. It’s possible he inherits them at Everton, of course, although he’ll have to wrestle spot-kicks away from Iliman Ndiaye to do so.

WHERE DOES HE FIT IN AT EVERTON – AND WILL HE GET REGULAR STARTS?

Barry plays almost exclusively as a centre-forward, so there’s no mystery what his starting position will be at Everton.

He will thus almost certainly be in direct competition with Beto but given the price that the Toffees paid to buy him, you’d expect starts to be forthcoming.

In fact, he is their most expensive arrival since Amadou Onana signed three years ago. 

The pre-season games will be interesting to see how boss David Moyes decides to deploy him. Moyes could use both Barry and Beto in a 4-4-2 formation, or plump for just one of them in the 4-2-3-1 that he has predominantly used so far on Merseyside.

The latter is the most likely system due to how Moyes has historically lined up, and considering the success it brought after his reappointment.

If and when he establishes himself in the team, Barry will be the target man in a system that heavily favours long balls and crosses.

Last season, Everton ranked a reasonable 8th for crosses per 90 minutes (17.9). They rose to second when considering the percentage of their overall passes (4.56%) that were crosses.

And they were good at it – only Brighton had a better success rate:

This is a huge boost for a centre-forward like Barry, who has a most concentrated presence in the centre of the box.

Above: Thierno Barry’s heatmap from last season, via SofaScore

His hold-up, target man striker role has the potential to reap benefits, then. Although Moyes is slowly trying to instil a more creative style, Everton remain a side with a penchant for long balls and through balls.

Barry, indeed, finished second in all of Europe’s top five leagues for aerial duels last season.

How does Barry compare to other budget/mid-price Premier League forwards? 

In this section, we compare Barry to three other budget centre forwards in FPL: Jorgen Strand Larsen, Evanilson and Raul Jimenez.

We can see that, firstly, all of these forwards post a similar number of goals scored, with Strand Larsen top of the pile.

The Wolves man was actually last for both shots and expected goals (xG): is he just an exceptional finisher or are his numbers unsustainable? Given that he underachieved on the xG front in his final year at Celta Vigo, the jury is out.

Speaking of xG underachievement, Barry, Evanilson and Raul all scored slightly fewer goals than what was expected of them in 2024/25. Perhaps we should expect that from budget strikers.

Barry’s shots indeed tend to be less on target, showing an area to improve on for the 22-year-old.

All in all, however, the numbers are quite similar throughout, indicating that Barry should fit in well among the go-to budget forwards, especially given his physical style seems a good match for both team and league.

Barry narrowly topped the pile for big chances created (seven), and did it in fewer minutes, too. His physical hold-up play could bring others like Carlos Alcaraz and Ndiaye into goalscoring positions, then.

IS BARRY WORTH BUYING IN FPL?

While we await his FPL price, Barry is almost certainly going to be a budget/mid-price forward in the £6.0m mark. This puts him in direct competition with the three strikers we have already mentioned.

Strand Larsen posted very good numbers last year but the concern is that he will not be able to back them up this time around, with the Wolves man overperforming all his expected metrics. He has also lost the excellent service provided to him by Matheus Cunha, as the Brazilian departed for Manchester United. In fact, a massive 42% of his goals last year were assisted by a player who has now left the club (one by Pablo Sarabia, two by Cunha, and three by Rayan Ait Nouri). With those three big losses, there are question marks over how well Wolves will start the season – especially from an attacking perspective.

As for Evanilson, he finished last in goals, assists, big chances created and aerials won in our comparison above. His creative output is less than a third of any of the others. And with several faces departing Bournemouth this summer, you wonder how much of a drop-off there’ll be with the Cherries.

Finally, Raul. In many ways, the Mexican is the most similar player to Barry, ranking much closer to him in aerials won and in shots on target than the others. The Mexican is, however, 34 this year and will be under constant pressure from the younger Rodrigo Muniz.

Barry and Everton have, according to our ticker, the best run of the four clubs over the opening seven Gameweeks. Stretch that to nine, though, and unquestionably it’s Wolves. They are the first Premier League side to face all of last season’s three promoted sides, doing so by Gameweek 9.

So, where does that leave us?

Based on the decent opening fixtures and the seemingly good team match for his physical profile, Thierno Barry could turn out to be a low-key star before the October internationals. This is an Everton side finally looking up, too, following Moyes’ appointment.

For a modest £6.0m or so, Barry could be an interesting differential – especially if you’re Wildcarding in Gameweek 8, which will be a popular window to do so as it coincides with an international break.

However, the pre-season friendlies will be instrumental in making sure that he will be starting. Beto may have some credit left in the bank after a storming start to Moyes’ tenure, although two goals in his final 12 appearances of 2024/25 perhaps showed him regressing to the mean.