Mauro Icardi Offered to Everton as Moyes Seeks Striker

Mauro Icardi to Everton? Free-agent sharpshooter offered as Moyes hunts a No 9

David Moyes needs a striker. Badly.

With the window shut and only Thierno Barry as a natural centre-forward in the senior squad, Everton have turned to the one market still open to them: free agents. And in that pool, one name stands out like a floodlight in the fog – Mauro Icardi.

The Argentine, 33 now, has been offered to the Merseyside club, according to TyC Sports journalist German Garcia Grova on 7 September. Talks are not reported as advanced, but his representatives are understood to be open to the idea of Goodison – or more precisely, Hill Dickinson Stadium – being his next stop.

A proven predator on the move

Icardi’s career has already taken him through some of Europe’s most demanding dressing rooms. He made his name at Inter Milan, then moved into the star-studded chaos of Paris Saint-Germain, and most recently led the line for Galatasaray. His contract with the Turkish champions expired at the end of the 2025-26 campaign, leaving him free and available at a time when Everton’s need is acute.

He is not the force he once was at San Siro, when he bullied Serie A defences and wore the captain’s armband. But he has not stopped scoring.

Last season, Icardi hit 16 goals in all competitions for Galatasaray, often starting on the bench with Victor Osimhen preferred as the first-choice striker. In the Super Lig alone, he scored 14 times, converting chances at a rate of 24 per cent and outperforming an xG of 10.53, according to Sofascore. Those are the numbers of a finisher who still knows exactly where to stand and exactly how to punish a mistake.

He also showed he can still live at Champions League pace, facing the likes of Liverpool and Juventus last season. The stage is familiar, the pressure routine.

Everton’s failed gamble and the Icardi pivot

Everton’s current situation up front is the product of a deadline day that went wrong. A move for Folarin Balogun collapsed late, leaving Moyes without the extra No 9 he had planned for. The club have since been scouring the free-agent market, and Icardi has quickly emerged as one of the few options with genuine pedigree.

Barry, talented but raw, is still learning the craft of centre-forward play in one of the most unforgiving leagues in the world. He has been wasteful in recent matches, his movement promising but his finishing not yet at Premier League level.

That is where Icardi makes sense.

He will not stretch defences with searing pace. He will not dribble past three men or press like a 22-year-old. But in the penalty area, he remains ruthless. One chance, one touch, one goal. For a team that often has to scrap for every opening, that kind of economy can change games and, over a season, change a league position.

A fit for Moyes’ Everton

Moyes has always valued structure, discipline and clarity of roles. Icardi, at this stage of his career, fits into that. He lives between the posts, works the line of the centre-backs and thrives on service from wide areas and cut-backs from the edge of the box.

He is not a long-term solution. Everton know that. This would be a short, sharp fix: a proven goalscorer to carry some of the burden while Barry develops and the recruitment team reassess the market ahead of January.

The risk lies in legs and intensity; the reward lies on the scoreboard.

Now or January?

That is the decision facing Everton. Move now for Icardi and secure a veteran finisher who can step in immediately, or hold their nerve until January and hope other targets become available, with the season’s early weeks entrusted to Barry and makeshift options.

The Argentine has been offered. The door is open.

The question is whether Everton walk through it now, or wait and hope they are not left chasing goals – and regrets – by the time the next window comes around.