In his breakthrough season at Everton Academy, teenage defender Kyle John was rewarded with his first professional contract at Everton. The 18-year-old right-back put pen to paper on a deal in March 2019 that runs until the end of June 2021.
John broke into the Under-23s set-up in the Autumn of 2018 and featured in the mid-season friendly with Gor Mahia at Goodison Park.
The young defender followed that experience up by playing for David Unsworth's U23s later that week and earning high praise from the coach.
“Kyle did great for Paul Tait in the Under-18s at the start of the season,” Unsworth said in November 2018.
“John Ebbrell, Franny [Jeffers] and I have watched him, and we thought he had the ability and physicality to step up.
“He started training with us a couple of months ago and he's cemented that right-back place. He looks a real class act. He is a great boy and if he continues to progress as he has done since he's been with us, he's got a very bright future."
John has been at Everton's Academy since the age of six.
He would get a good run of games for the Under-23s in the 2019-20 season
before it was curtailed by the Coronavirus pandemic.
The next season allowed Kyle John to consolidate his position in the
U23s defence, with 16 appearances and some solid performances that got
him included in the first-team squad for training and onto the enlarged
bench for half-a-dozen Premier League games under Carlo Ancelotti. Would
he get similar or even better recognition under Rafa Benitez? A new
2-year contract signed on 21 June 2021 suggests that he will.
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