With the takeover by the Friedkin Group now complete, Everton are eyeing new faces, and a report claims the Blues are eyeing a January transfer swoop for a striker who has been the Bundesliga’s surprise package this season. Tim Kleindienst has netted nine times in 15 matches for Borussia Monchengladbach and after making his international debut for Germany aged 29 in a 2-1 win in Bosnia and Herzegovina in October, he now has four caps and bagged a brace in a 7-0 romp against the same opponents the following month in Freiburg.

Sport Witness cite Bild as reporting that Everton and Premier League rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers, where former Goodison Park managerial candidate Vitor Pereira has this month replaced Gary O’Neil, are interested in the frontman, saying his form “arouses interest” from both clubs, who have asked about him.

Gladbach are currently eighth in the table but only three points off third place Eintracht Frankfurt and their managing director Roland Virkus has stated there’s been interest but doesn’t go into details.

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He said: “Of course there are requests, that’s completely normal if you perform well but we don’t want to let any of the top players go because something is happening here.

“We have stabilised and are now winning games that we would have lost in the previous season. But we are far from having reached the end of development.”

Late bloomer Kleindienst was born in 1995 in Juterbog, an historic Brandenburg town, close to the site of the 1813 Battle of Dennewitz in the Napoleonic Wars, where the victory for Prussia and its allies marked a turning point in thwarting the French leader’s attempts to capture nearby Berlin. After starting his youth career with local club Viktoria Juterbog, Kleindienst's professional breakthrough came with Energie Cottbus.

The 6ft 4in centre-forward went on to turn out for Freiburg, endured a disappointing season with Gent in 2020/21, netting just once in 15 Belgian Pro League matches, and repeated the pattern of Steven Pienaar at Everton, having four separate spells with Heidenheim in terms of loan, permanent, loan, permanent. It was during the latter that he helped the Baden-Wurttemberg outfit to top-flight promotion for the first time in their history in 2023, plundering 25 goals in 2. Bundesliga in the process.

After helping the new boys to an impressive eighth-place finish in 2023/24, hitting 12 goals in 33 Bundesliga matches, Kleindienst moved to Gladbach for €7.5million (approximately £6.22m) and penned a four-year contract. But with his continued rise attracting interest from the Premier League, there could be a timely opportunity for them to make a profit on the player. Just what kind of attributes could the striker bring to Sean Dyche’s side though?

Using Comparisonator’s Virtual Transfer tool, artificial intelligence reckons that Kleindienst would actually be a better fit at centre-forward than the current incumbent at every single Premier League club other than Erling Haaland at Manchester City, even though the Norwegian ace was of course thwarted from the penalty spot by Everton’s Jordan Pickford last time out. Comparisonator calculates the German as having an A.I. Suitability Weight of 363.69 and for context, Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s score is 217.4.

The Virtual Transfer tool also enables us to correlate Kleindienst’s statistics in the Bundesliga this season against those turning out in his position in the Premier League. In terms of goals per 90 minutes, he would be placed seventh on 0.5 behind leader Haaland on 0.72 but there are several categories where his numbers are more impressive than anyone in the English top flight.

Kleindienst’s 0.36 goals per 90 minutes with his head is higher than Premier League leader Chris Wood of Nottingham Forest (0.22), who Everton face next, while he also leads the way for duels (26.14), ahead of the Blues’ own Calvert-Lewin who is top in the Premier League on 25.12 and duels won (11), to better the English top-flight’s best performer Anthony Gordon on 9.33. Kleindienst (4) can even better Premier League leader Calvert-Lewin (3.71) for aerial duels won and a further category he tops is picking ups – when a player wins a loose ball – with 6.36 per 90 minutes, to edge out Ipswich Town’s Liam Delap (5.53) and Calvert-Lewin (5.35).

Other areas where the Gladbach man performs well include assists, where he’d be third with 0.29 behind Jarrod Bowen of West Ham United on 0.36 and Joao Pedro of Brighton & Hove Albion on 0.33; and shots on target, again third on 1.36 behind Haaland (2.11) and Alexander Isak of Newcastle United (1.38). Kleindienst’s figures would put him fourth for shots (2.5), behind leader Haaland on 3.72; fifth for playing in scoring attacks (0.93), where Isak leads on 1.13; and sixth for both shot assists (0.79), behind leader Bowen on 1.73; and passes (18.29) with Pedro on top (26.22).

With Calvert-Lewin’s future looking uncertain as he is about to enter the final six months of his current contract, Kleindienst’s numbers suggest he could offer a potential upgrade as a player of a similar profile. But while those figures are higher in the Bundesliga, it must be noted that Everton’s current number nine is a proven Premier League performer and the German would be coming into the world’s toughest domestic division at a relatively late point in his career with his only other foreign experience having proven a big failure.

*Comparisonator is a football data comparison tool from 271 professional leagues around the world which compares players and clubs by utilising over 100 different parameters. Click here for more details.