Everton have completed the signing of left-back Lucas Digne on a 5-year-deal.
Digne is Marco Silva’s second signing since taking charge of Everton and will provide much needed competition for Leighton Baines on the left hand side of the Toffees’ defence.
The former Lille, Paris Saint-Germain and Roma player was unable to dislodge incumbent left-back Jordi Alba in two seasons at Camp Nou, managing 29 La Liga starts and 46 appearances over that span which did him no favours as he missed out on a place in France’s World Cup squad.
Digne told evertontv: “Everton is a big club with a great history. I want to play games, win games and excite the fans with the quality of our football.
“I played good football in Rome and I played well, too, in Barcelona. I progressed a lot as a player and as a person by playing with the best players in the world.
“When you play with the best players it helps you build your character and, of course, it helps on the training ground and during games, too, because you want to give the best of you.
“I want to show my best football here and discover the best league in the world. Everybody loves the Premier League. I am loving the fact I am coming here.
“I am not afraid, I am excited. For me, it is a new challenge to discover a country, a league, people and a great club such as Everton. It is fabulous.
“My first impression on meeting the new manager was really good. I had a great feeling with him when we spoke.
“Immediately I said, ‘I want to come to Everton.’
“The Club has brought in a lot of players and we are building to bring some success in the Premier League.
“We will work together as a team to try to make this happen. That is what is important and I could not be more excited about this challenge.”
Marco Silva: “It is important to say that he is a player who, from the first moment he was contacted, showed enormous desire to play at Everton,” Silva said.
“He is a high-quality player, aggressive, with good technical ability and in the past five seasons he has played two years at Paris St-Germain, one in Roma and for the past two seasons he has demonstrated his clear quality in Barcelona.
“Lucas is a player who will add competitiveness in a position where we only had Leighton Baines last season and he is accustomed to winning. This is his mentality having captured titles in his career and having these on his résumé.”