European heavyweight manager says ‘no’ to Everton after approach

Rafael Benitez was sacked as Everton manager after just 22 games in charge.

The departing Spaniard used his social media account to say thank you to the fans and to take a pop at the board for not having more patience with him.

The Toffees are now looking to fill the vacant manager position and many names have been linked with the job.

There are a list of favourites with the UK bookies, but here we take a look through the European and global press to see which managers they are linking with the Goodison Park post.

We kick off with Portuguese sports newspapers, ABola, which reports that José Mourinho has already been contacted by Everton.

However, the Roma manager’s answer was a clear ‘no’.

According to the same newspaper, two other Portuguese managers are linked with a potential move to the Toffees: Paulo Fonseca and Marco Silva.

Elliot Lafleur, from the French newspaper Onze Mondial, suggests members of Everton’s board are considering two other names for the position: Duncan Ferguson and Niko Kovac.

Toffees legend Ferguson has stepped up as interim head coach before, following Marco Silva’s departure in 2019, and will do so again now Benitez has left.

On the other side, Kovac is without a club after leaving Monaco at the beginning of the year. The Croatian has never managed, or played, in the Premier League but was head coach at Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich.

However, French media outlet Foot Mercato mention a different name. They report that the Everton board would consider Rudi Garcia as their new manager.

Garcia’s last job was at French side Olympique Lyonnais and he has been a free agent since he left the club last May.

Spanish newspaper Marca, say Wayne Rooney is the man to replace their ousted compatriot Rafa Benitez.

The newspaper highlights Rooney’s great work at Derby County and, of course, he has a ‘beautiful history’ with Everton.

Earlier on Tuesday, Brazilian media outlet GE published an article saying Everton had already ‘had a conversation’ with the Belgian FA about their national team manager Roberto Martinez.

GE say the former Toffees boss was the ideal candidate to return to Goodison Park but the Belgian Football Federation rejected the bid.