Everton eye January move for Eintracht Frankfurt forward Paciencia

Everton will target Eintracht Frankfurt’s Goncalo Paciencia in January after manager Marco Silva asked the club to bring in a striker, Goal understands.

The Toffees have once again found goalscoring hard to come by in the Premier League this season, with only five sides scoring fewer than their 13 so far.

Richarlison and Dominic Calvert-Lewin are the club’s joint top scorers with five goals each in all competitions, though neither player is seen as a regular goalscorer.

Cenk Tosun, a £27 million ($35m) signing from Besiktas in January 2018, has scored just once while Moise Kean, whose €27.5 million (£25m/$31m) summer arrival from Juventus generated much excitement among the supporters, has yet to hit the back of the net for his new club.

That lack of cutting edge has proven costly, with Everton languishing down in 15th despite beginning the campaign harbouring hopes of European qualification.

As a result, Toffees boss Silva has asked director of football Marcel Brands to bring in a striker when the transfer window re-opens in January, with Paciencia a prime target.

The 25-year-old, who joined Frankfurt from Porto in the summer of 2018, has scored nine goals in 23 appearances for the German side so far and is the only player to feature in all of the club’s matches this campaign.

His first season at the club was hampered by a knee injury that ruled him out for six months. Upon his return in February, he found himself fourth choice striker behind Luka Jovic, Sebastien Haller and Ante Rebic, who scored 57 Bundesliga goals between them and led the club to within a penalty shootout of the Europa League final.

All three players left Adi Hutter’s side in the summer and Paciencia has taken his opportunity to become the club’s central striker, forming an effective new-look front three alongside Bas Dost and Andre Silva.

His performances in Bundesliga earned him a recall to the Portugal squad and a second international appearance, two years after his first, against Lithuania on Thursday.

Paciencia went on to score his first international goal and contribute an assist in a comfortable 6-0 win for the European champions.