Digne set to sign contract extension at Everton, claims Ancelotti

Stefan Bienkowski

• Updated: 19 May 2021 15:43 BST
• 2 min read

Everton manager Carlo Ancelotti has confirmed that left-back Lucas Digne is set to sign a contract extension with the Premier League.

Digne joined the Merseyside club in 2018 from Barcelona for a fee reported to have been around £18 million. 

Since then the French international has made no less than 94 appearances for the club, scoring five goals and creating 19 assists along the way. 

Although Digne’s current contract still has some way to go, with it not expiring until the summer of 2023, it seems as though Everton were keen to tie one of their key players down to an even longer deal. 

And on Friday Ancelotti confirmed in his media conference that the club are on the cusp of agreeing a new deal with the full-back. 

“I’m not in there but I know, they agreed, and next week they are going to sign the new contract officially,” said Ancelotti. 

Why are Everton already extending Digne’s contract?

The news will be music to the ears of Everton fans, who have watched Digne take to the Premier League like a duck to water. 

So much so, that the £18 million the club paid for the full-back’s services in 2018 now looks like something of a bargain. 

Indeed, despite missing much of the season through injury, Digne has still managed to provide six direct assists from the left flank in just 13 Premier League games. 

Not only does that mean the defender is currently averaging 0.47 assists per 90 minutes of Premier League football, but it also confirms that he’s providing more assists per game than any other full-back in the English top-flight. 

To put that into context, it’s twice as much as Andy Robertson’s current average of 0.22 per 90 and three times as much as Trent Alexander-Arnold’s average for this season of just 0.15 per 90.

Which may go some way to explaining why Everton have been so intent on extending his contract long before the current one expires.