9

Cenk Tosun

Player Stats

Appearances
61
Goals
11
Assists
6
Yellow cards
5

Cenk Tosun joined Everton in January 2018 after scoring 41 goals in 96 Super Lig appearances for Turkish powerhouse outfit Besiktas.

The Turkey international striker was an instant hit with the Goodison Park crowd and struck five times in 12 Premier League starts in his debut Toffees campaign.

His first full season at Everton in 2018/19 saw the 28-year-old make 25 top-flight appearances in total, starting on 10 occasions. He scored three goals, including the Blues' last of the season in a 2-2 draw at Tottenham Hotspur. 

He also struck in home wins over Fulham and Crystal Palace and supplied three assists during the campaign.

 

In January 2020, Tosun joined Crystal Palace on loan for the second half of the campaign, after eight games and one goal for Everton between August and December.

He made a bright start with Palace and scored in a 2-2 draw at Manchester City.

But Tosun's stay in south London was curtailed after only five games when he sustained a cruciate ligament injury and returned to Everton to undergo rehabilitation.

 

Five Premier League apearances in 2020/21 all came from the bench but Tosun marked his lone start in the campaign with the opening goal in an FA Cup third-round extra-time victory over Rotherham United at Goodison.

 

Tosun rejoined Besiktas on loan midway through the season but after three goals in only four appearances a ruptured patella tendon ended the temporary arrangement.

 

Knee and thigh problems blighted the player's 2021/22 and he was restricted to three substitute outings across the competitions.

Tosun's 20 Super Lig goals in 2016/17 propelled Besiktas to a second successive Turkish title – and he maintained his terrific strike-rate the following season, netting eight times in 12 league matches before switching to England.

Tosun bagged four goals in the 2017/18 Champions League group stage – including both in a 2-1 win at the previous campaign’s semi-finalists Monaco – to help Besiktas into the competition’s last-16 for the first time in 31 years.

The pull of Everton proved irresistible, however, and Tosun completed his move to Merseyside before the 15-times Turkish champions took on Bayern Munich in a two-legged tie.

A powerfully-built, two-footed forward, Tosun’s rare talent was spotted by hometown team Eintracht Frankfurt when he was just five years old.

He was a star of the German club’s youth ranks, scoring 20 goals in 40 matches for Eintracht’s Under-19s, before adding 12 in 17 for their reserve side.

But after making one first-team appearance for the Bundesliga team he was lured to Turkey in January 2011 by Gaziantepspor, where he made a lightning start, scoring six goals in his first six matches.

He ultimately scored 39 goals in 92 starts for the mid-table team and won his first full Turkey cap in a World Cup qualifying match against Holland in October 2013 – before being snapped up by Besiktas in summer 2014.

Tosun represented Germany at every age-group level from Under-16 to Under-21 – and scored in a 2-0 victory over England on one of his two Under-21 appearances – before pledging his allegiance to Turkey, the birthplace of both his parents.

He represented his country at the 2016 European Championship and scored five goals in seven starts during the Turks’ 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign.

Tosun scored on his farewell Besiktas appearance – a 4-1 cup victory over fellow top-flight team Osmanlispor - and on signing for Everton was widely acclaimed as Turkey’s premier striker.


Contracted until: June 2022