One Night in Cyprus: Part 1 - Scotland
Generally speaking, the less that is said about Everton’s 2017 Europa League campaign the better. It ended with a dead rubber game in Cyprus against Apollon Limassol. While Cyprus looks like a lovely place, newly appointed manager (ugh) Sam Allardyce decided to not attend the game to focus on the Liverpool upcoming match*. This left Craig Shakespeare and Duncan Ferguson to take charge. Given how worthless of a game it was, Everton send a young squad that included a mix of fringe and academy players. In fact, 11 academy players were sent and I will be taking a close look at all of them. Everton won the game 3–0 with 2 goals from Ademola Lookman and 1 from Nikola Vlašić, who also chipped in with an assist. Neither of these players managed to get things going for Everton, but they did turn a profit for the club and are the kind of players the club should be targeting. To get things going looking at these 11 youth players, I will be starting with the striker who started this game, Fraser Hornby.
*Despite being dominated and not deserving anything, DCL earned a PK that Wayne Rooney buried to earn Everton a 1–1 draw
Everton fans have a soft spot for tall Scottish strikers. That made the prospect of 6 ft 5 in (1.95 m) striker Fraser Hornby exciting. Hornby entered the Everton academy at the age of 15 when he joined from Northampton Town on an initial fee of £65,500. This fee could’ve risen to £1.3m based on Premier League appearance, but spoiler alert, it won't. While he initially started his career as a midfielder, (Scottish Fellaini anyone?) he was quickly moved further up the pitch and success followed. At the start of the 2017–18 season, he made his way into the u-23 setup. Despite only just moving to the u-23s, he received the call for the Europe League game. Against Apollon Limassol, he was tasked with leading the line. By all accounts, he acquitted himself nicely in the game and played 82 minutes before being replaced by Nathan Broadhead (more on him later). This appearance seemed to have increased confidence as he started to put up decent goal numbers at the u-23 level. The biggest boost was his play for Scottland’s youth teams. From 2017 to 2020, he scored 12 goals in 24 appearances spread across the u-19 and u-21 teams. In fact, he is the record goalscorer for the Scottish u-21s.
With Hornby's success, he was handed a contract that went through the 2021 season. To gain experience and harness his game, he went out on loan during the 2019–20 season with the Belgian club KV Kortrijk. His time in Belgium was mostly positive for a 20-year-old in his first professional setting. In 14 appearances in all competitions, Hornby scored 4 goals. While he joined Everton in the preseason setup the following year, his Belgian success caught the attention of the French club Stade de Reims. With this interest, and Hornby wanting to prove himself, a deal was made. Hornby joined the Ligue 1 side for “an undisclosed fee”, Everton’s favorite (the rumor is he was sold for £1.4 million). His first season at Reims did not go according to plan. He missed much of the season with injury and illness and ended up only playing 32 minutes in France. In order to get some playing time, he went on loan with the Scottish side Aberdeen FC. While he was able to play over 500 minutes in Scotland, he didn’t score once. This is not an ideal start to his professional career, though Hornby is still just 22 years old, and the potential is still there.
Despite his only previous appearance for Reims being a 45 minute run out with their B team, he has recently made his way into the Reims squad. In their Coupe de France 4th round game on January 2nd, he came on as a sub in the 93rd minute. He instantly scored the winner, which is an impressive goal-to-minutes ratio. Since then, he has made the bench in 4 of their last 5 games and has come on as a sub in 3 of those. Reims is a club that could use some goals as they have only scored 27 in their 24 games, the 6th worst in the league. They are stout defensively only conceding 28, but goals are needed. There will be opportunities for Hornby to show himself and regain the confidence needed to lead the line. With his age, height, and potential, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him eventually force his way into a future Scottish team. His frame would work nicely for the crosses offered up by their LBs.
As far as Everton are concerned, Fraser Hornby is a successful development story. He came to Everton, made his way through the youth system, made a senior appearance with the club, and was sold for a profit. His development path is one that Everton should use as their blueprint. Hornby showed he has accomplished enough at the youth level and went on loan to prove himself. It also served as a place to advertise his talents to the footballing world and resulted in a transfer move to a major league. This is what Everton needs to do more of and in this case, resulted in a solid transfer fee. Best of luck in France Fraser!
