Folarin Balogun pulled out of a £40m move to Everton because of how he was treated over his medical, according to Monaco’s chief executive, Thiago Scuro, who also defended the late decision not to sell Lamine Camara to Chelsea. Balogun signed a deal sheet shortly before 11pm on deadline day to allow Everton to complete his transfer only to reject the move shortly after. Everton had renegotiated the structure of the fee with Monaco after discovering an issue with the USA international’s medical and failing in attempts to sign Joshua Zirkzee or Tammy Abraham on loan.
Everton sources have claimed the 25-year-old arrived later than scheduled from France and that Monaco were slow in sharing the appropriate medical records, giving them less time to resolve the problem. But at a press conference in Monaco on Wednesday, Scuro insisted it was Everton’s treatment of the striker that caused the deal to collapse. I signed the contract, Everton signed the contract.
At the last moment, the player decided not to sign. And basically, the allegation of Balogun is that: ‘I’m not feeling well by the way the club treated me. I’m not feeling well by the way the medical department of Everton brought doubts about my future or my health.
I have nothing [wrong with me], so I’m not comfortable to sign a long contract here.’ And that’s the way we finished our transfer window.” Scuro insisted he did not want to “create war” with Everton or Chelsea over their failed deadline-day deals but disputed the former’s concerns over Balogun’s medical results. He said: “At four o’clock Balo was in Liverpool making his medicals. Everything was going pretty well.
Around 7pm we were contacted by Everton, raising questions on the medicals of Balo, which for our medical staff, [and] for the personal medical staff of the player, made totally no sense. The explanations were not enough to justify or bring concerns of the future of the player. It took Everton around two, three hours to go deep on the assessment, check with other doctors; this is a normal situation when the doctor of the club raises concerns … meanwhile, as everything on the last days, this was in the press quite quickly.
I would say around half an hour after we were contacted, it was already in the media that Balogun is failing the medicals. And then of course Chelsea saw the opportunity.” Chelsea struck a £47m deal to sign Camara as they looked to replace the Manchester City-bound Enzo Fernández, with a written agreement believed to have been in place. However Monaco, who wanted to raise funds but preferred to sell Balogun, reneged on the Camara deal with Chelsea once Everton decided to proceed with their move for Balogun.
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