From Everton Flop to Italy’s Main Man: The Ex-Juve Wonderkid Shutting Critics’ Mouths

From Everton Flop to Italy’s Main Man: The Ex-Juve Wonderkid Shutting Critics’ Mouths

I was going to start by saying that we all remember Moise Kean’s short stay in the Premier League, but in all honesty, it was quite the opposite – unmemorable.

Viewed as a serious coup for Everton when they signed him as a 19-year-old in 2019, Kean came with the highest possible compliments of then Italian juggernauts Juventus. The season prior, the youngster had set the Serie A on fire with seven goals in 17 appearances for the Old Lady, exploding in a way that only the very top talents can on the big stage. For context, he only started in six of these games.

However, it quickly became clear that the Italian still had some work to do upon his arrival in England’s top flight. His scoring instincts may have been propping him up while at Juventus, but faced with Premier League defenders, Kean simply couldn’t match their physicality, aggression or hunger.

As a result, any momentum he had managed to carry over from his home country quickly vanished, and after an unsuccessful first season, he would end up making only six more appearances for the club before heading back to Juventus in 2021.

And yet now, through a remarkable series of events, that same Moise Kean is leading the line for the Italian national team - and more remarkably still, he finally seems to be delivering on the huge promise he showed as a youngster, scoring six goals across the last four internationals.

🇮🇹 Moise Kean is the first Italian to score in 𝗙𝗢𝗨𝗥 consecutive World Cup qualifying matches since Filippo Inzaghi in 2001.

Esteemed company. pic.twitter.com/VgDhJh8NcY

— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) October 11, 2025

So what changed for Moise Kean? Was it simply a case of moving to a new league too early? Or is he a classic late developer?

Toothless for the Toffees

By all accounts, Kean was viewed as one of world football’s hottest prospects when it was announced that Everton had signed the teenager for the not insignificant sum of £24 million six summers ago. It speaks volumes that Jose Mourinho said that he was excited to watch the young striker while being a guest pundit on an early Super Sunday broadcast.

OFFICIAL: Everton confirm the signing of Moise Kean from Juventus on a five-year deal pic.twitter.com/BsuHmNmWA4

— B/R Football (@brfootball) August 4, 2019

Impressing in his full debut season for the reigning Italian champions, many clubs wanted to get ahead of the curve, signing him before his value skyrocketed. So it surprised many that Everton had managed to wrangle his signature when more illustrious vultures, including Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal, were circling.

Big things were expected from the pacey frontman, but the Blue half of Merseyside was quickly disappointed. Despite a clear instinct for positioning himself in high-traffic areas, Kean showed little to no end product, his tally of two goals and two assists an extremely poor return on Everton’s significant investment.

His struggles were epitomised when then-interim manager Duncan Ferguson introduced him for just 18 minutes in a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford before taking him off again before the game reached its 90th minute.

The 2019/20 season would prove to be Kean’s only full season at Everton - he would be loaned out to PSG in 2020/21, before the Toffees finally folded and cashed in on him the following season, with the low-on-confidence striker heading back to Juventus on a loan deal which would later be made permanent.

PSG Purple Patch and Juventus Homecoming

Prior to a much-needed loan move, Kean started the 2020/21 season in fine fettle for Everton, netting twice in the club's opening four games. Fans started to believe that the youngster simply needed a bedding-in season in order to flourish at the club, and with that out of the way, that they were finally going to see the best of him that season. However, with little warning, it was soon announced that he would be spending a year with the reigning French champions Paris Saint-Germain in a bid to develop into the complete striker Everton knew he could be.

During his loan spell in Ligue 1, Moise Kean immediately looked more confident. Surrounded by the likes of Neymar, Angel Di Maria, an up-and-coming Kylian Mbappe, and Marco Verratti, the Italian was provided with ample service, and as a result, he started to thrive in the French top flight.

Moise Kean for PSG so far:

✅16 games
⚽️10 goals
🅰️1 assist

He is finally reaching his potential after a horrible season in England. pic.twitter.com/VJXKzuynJl

— Football Talent Scout - Jacek Kulig (@FTalentScout) January 6, 2021

He would end the season with 17 goals and a single assist to his name, a tally which included a goal every other game in the league. These were the numbers Everton had paid the big bucks for, and while he missed out on the league title, he did earn himself a Coupe De France and French Super Cup winners medal for his efforts.

With numbers like those in a lineup as stacked as the Paris outfits’, one would have expected him to walk back into Everton’s starting lineup with little to no bother, particularly with the increasingly frequent injury lay-offs to Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

But the opposite proved true - Kean only managed two further appearances for the Toffees at the very start of the 2021/22 season before his boyhood club Juventus came knocking - they clearly “wanted their ball back.”

Moving on an initial season-long loan, Kean was expected to carry over the momentum and form he had exhibited in Paris - his movement, first touch and finishing had undergone significant development while in France, and without a Manchester United-bound Cristiano Ronaldo, Juventus needed a new starting striker.

However, once again failed to meet expectations, netting just six times in 42 games. Despite this, coach Massimiliano Allegri saw enough about him to extend his loan for another season, which saw his output undergo a miniscule uptick as he scored eight in 40.

🇮🇹📈 Moise Kean (25) has now scored as many goals for Fiorentina this season than he did in 100+ games for Juventus. 🥶 pic.twitter.com/zBMfCgslad

— EuroFoot (@eurofootcom) April 6, 2025

Again, Juventus decided to keep him on for another season, this time making the move permanent for just £2 million more than they sold him to Everton for. This move soon looked misguided - in the 20 games he appeared in throughout 2023/24, he failed to notch a single goal or assist, and finally, the Old Lady had seen enough. At the end of the season, he was shipped off to Fiorentina for just £10.8 million.

The Resurgence of Moise Kean

The masses (and that is what they were) can be forgiven for thinking that this was the last we would hear of Moise Kean in any significant capacity - he had shown he just couldn’t cut it at the top level unless he was surrounded by world-class players like he was at PSG.

So it was to the surprise of almost every Italian football follower (including myself) that we saw the 24-year-old rip up the Serie A with new side Fiorentina. Given the leading role and made a focal point of the team, it suddenly seemed as if the stumbling, bumbling ex-Everton flop could do no wrong.

Barring one impressive season alongside Neymar and Mbappe at PSG, Moise Kean’s career had been a case of big reputation, poor output.

But this season? 17 goals in 27 games for Fiorentina.

It’s clicked, in a big way! pic.twitter.com/QvvU58A2Mk

— Dougie Critchley (@DougieCritchley) February 4, 2025

Across 44 games last season, he accumulated 25 goals, his best scoring tally to date, and combined them with a further three assists (also his best creative stats in a season). His vital firepower in front of goal saw him drag Fiorentina to a sixth-place finish, the club's best end-of-season standing since 2016, and one which saw them qualify for the Europa Conference League qualification rounds.

Even more impressively, Kean guided the club to the semi-finals of the same competition that year. He scored five goals along the way, and his side only failed to reach a final matchup against Chelsea thanks to some extra-time heroics from Real Betis’ Abdessamad Ezzalzouli.

His remarkable form at club level saw him become of increasing interest to the Italian national team, currently under the watchful eye of ex-Milan midfield general Gennaro Gattuso. Clearly seeing a long-term solution at the top of the pitch, which has been an issue for the Italians for a number of years now, Gattuso gave Kean his first international call up in 10 months in September of 2024.

Scoring in the second game of that international break, it is safe to say Kean made a good impression, and one which has lasted - of the last 13 international games Italy have played, Kean has failed to make the squad on only four occasions. Where was he for these four games? Injured.

Moise Kean for Italy:

11 starts
11 goals pic.twitter.com/8vIatBfvtK

— StatMuse FC (@statmusefc) October 11, 2025

It speaks volumes that from his immensely difficult time on Merseyside, Kean has morphed into a striker that is guaranteed to make the Italian team sheet when fit. Yes, six of his last eight international goals may have come against Estonia and Israel, but the now 25-year-old has shown that he can decide big games as well, netting a brace against Germany back in March as the Azzurri narrowly lost out in the Nations League quarter-finals.

Considering that Kean is battling for a starting spot against last season’s Serie A Golden Boot winner in Mateo Retegui, the Fiorentina fan favourite is doing a remarkably good job earning reliable minutes for his country, even when faced with one of the world’s best strikers on current form.

Which begs the question - can Moise Kean now be viewed as an elite striker? The analysts at 90Min certainly think so, as in March of this year, they ranked him 24th in a list of the world’s 25 best strikers. This list was made at the peak of the forwards' powers last season, so it is no surprise he made the list.

And while things may have started slowly for him this campaign (he has netted just once in seven for Fiorentina), his current form for the national side serves as a reminder of Kean’s immense talent. 90Min certainly got something right - “Not the most technically clean of strikers, Kean is an opportunistic operator who is hard to stop when confident.”