Tottenham Hotspur have reached an agreement in principle to sign Iliman Ndiaye from Everton, putting the Senegal international on course for another Premier League move if the last formalities are completed.
The deal is not done yet. Personal terms and medicals still have to be cleared, but the timing gives this weight: the agreement comes in the closing days of the transfer window, when clubs move fast and mistakes are expensive.
Ndiaye has become one of Everton's most watched players since joining from Marseille in 2024 for £15million. He started Everton's first three matches of the season and set up a goal in the opening 2-0 win against Crystal Palace. Across 73 games for the club, he has scored 17 goals and added four assists, while club sources have maintained through the summer that he has stayed professional even as his future was being tested.
That future had been in doubt for months. He declined multiple new contract offers last season and still had three years left on his Everton terms, which only sharpened the sense that a move was possible. Manchester City had shown interest, and The Athletic reported on June 2 that Everton were already facing a fight to keep hold of him with expected interest over the summer.
The Richarlison side of the story has been reported alongside Ndiaye's, but the two moves are separate and not linked. Everton also have an agreement in principle for Richarlison to return from Tottenham, where he has scored 32 goals in 134 appearances since arriving from Everton in the summer of 2022 in a deal worth up to £60m. On Saturday, after Tottenham's 2-0 loss against Newcastle United, Roberto De Zerbi said Richarlison, Kevin Danso and Pape Matar Sarr had been left out because the forward had asked to leave in the final days of this transfer window.
For Tottenham, Ndiaye would be another piece in a front line that is already being reshaped. Spurs would make him their ninth signing of the summer if the move is completed, and the arrival would add to a group that includes Dominic Solanke and Mohammed Kudus, both recently back from injury. Tottenham looked light up front against Brentford, and a finished deal for Ndiaye would go a long way toward fixing that problem, provided the medical and contract talks do what the clubs have now agreed in principle.
