An aerial threat with eye for goal - Villarreal's Barry set for Everton

Thierno Barry scored 11 goals for Villarreal last season

Everton are close to ending their striker search with Villarreal's Thierno Barry expected to fly into Merseyside for a medical before completing a £27m deal.

The formalities are not completed yet, but the move is progressing with manager David Moyes ready to clinch Everton's biggest deal of the summer so far.

Barry had a £34.5m release clause in his Villarreal contract, but Everton expect to pay a lower fee for the 22-year-old, who scored 11 goals and provided four assists in 38 games last season as the Spanish club finished fifth in La Liga to qualify for the Champions League.

He will add to Everton's attacking resources after Dominic Calvert-Lewin left at the end of his contract.

Forward Armando Broja also exited when his loan ended, returning to Chelsea without the deal being made permanent.

Barry was born in Lyon and left French club Sochaux aged 19 to play in the Belgian second division with Beveren.

The following season he moved to Swiss Super League club Basel, before joining Villarreal in August 2024 in a deal worth about £13m.

An aerial threat - what Barry could offer Everton

A Premier League move at the age of 22 will cement Barry's rapid rise in European football in recent seasons.

Only three years ago, he completed his first season of senior football in France's fifth tier before moving to Belgian second-tier side Beveren in July 2022.

Twenty goals in 28 starts were enough to earn a move to Basel a year later and he subsequently finished as the club's top scorer on 12 goals in his first campaign of top-flight football.

A flurry of eight goals in the first four matches of 2024-25 convinced Villareal to pay €15m (£13m) for his services in August.

The 6ft 5in striker was an instant success, scoring 11 goals to help the Yellow Submarine finish fifth with their highest points tally in 17 years and qualify for the Champions League.

Barry was in an elite group of players aged under 23 to score 10 or more goals in Europe's top five leagues last season, sitting alongside the likes of Leipzig's in-demand Benjamin Sesko, PSG's Bradley Barcola and Eintracht Frankfurt's Hugo Ekitike.

Barry's height makes him a huge threat in the air and he ranked second of all forwards in Europe's major leagues (and top of anyone in La Liga) for aerial duel success in 2024-25, winning 66.7% of his 153 challenges (minimum 100 aerial duels).

It is a facet of Barry's game that has undoubtedly attracted Moyes, whose sides typically get lots of crosses into the box.

The Toffees ranked seventh for open-play crosses in this season's Premier League, although they struggled to convert crosses into goals, scoring just three times from such situations – the fewest of any club other than Chelsea (2).