Folarin Balogun rejects Everton transfer over medical treatment, Monaco CEO says

Folarin Balogun pulled out of a £40m move to Everton because of how he was treated over his medical, according to Monaco’s chief executive, Thiago Scuro, who also defended the late decision not to sell Lamine Camara to Chelsea.

Balogun signed a deal sheet shortly before 11pm on deadline day to allow Everton to complete his transfer only to reject the move shortly after. Everton had renegotiated the structure of the fee with Monaco after discovering an issue with the USA international’s medical and failing in attempts to sign Joshua Zirkzee or Tammy Abraham on loan.

Everton sources have claimed the 25-year-old arrived later than scheduled from France and that Monaco were slow in sharing the appropriate medical records, giving them less time to resolve the problem. But at a press conference in Monaco on Wednesday, Scuro insisted it was Everton’s treatment of the striker that caused the deal to collapse.

“The Premier League has a mechanism where you can request one extra hour to finish the paperwork,” he said. “This was done five minutes to the close of the transfer window there. I signed the contract, Everton signed the contract. At the last moment, the player decided not to sign. And basically, the allegation of Balogun is that: ‘I’m not feeling well by the way the club treated me. I’m not feeling well by the way the medical department of Everton brought doubts about my future or my health. I have nothing [wrong with me], so I’m not comfortable to sign a long contract here.’ And that’s the way we finished our transfer window.”

Scuro insisted he did not want to “create war” with Everton or Chelsea over their failed deadline-day deals but disputed the former’s concerns over Balogun’s medical results. He said: “At four o’clock Balo was in Liverpool making his medicals. Everything was going pretty well. Around 7pm we were contacted by Everton, raising questions on the medicals of Balo, which for our medical staff, [and] for the personal medical staff of the player, made totally no sense. The explanations were not enough to justify or bring concerns of the future of the player. Which there isn’t.

“This discussion started between the medical departments here and there. It took Everton around two, three hours to go deep on the assessment, check with other doctors; this is a normal situation when the doctor of the club raises concerns … meanwhile, as everything on the last days, this was in the press quite quickly. I would say around half an hour after we were contacted, it was already in the media that Balogun is failing the medicals. And then of course Chelsea saw the opportunity.”

Chelsea struck a £47m deal to sign Camara as they looked to replace the Manchester City-bound Enzo Fernández, with a written agreement believed to have been in place.

However Monaco, who wanted to raise funds but preferred to sell Balogun, reneged on the Camara deal with Chelsea once Everton decided to proceed with their move for Balogun.

Scuro said: “Around 10pm, in our time here, maybe a bit earlier, Everton realised that OK there is no problem: ‘We are ready to do it. Let’s sign the contract.’ As soon as we got the information, yes, we did come back to Chelsea and told [them]: ‘OK, we have our deal there. There is no deal on Lamine.’ Because it’s also fair to do this. It’s also part of the game.

“There is no reason that this kind of discussions or dynamic on the last day of the transfer window, which all of us decided to be on the last day, trying to find solutions, with the clock ticking on our neck, [makes Monaco] the bad guys in the room; that Monaco is not fair, Monaco is not right. Everybody is very fair and nice in the football industry, just Monaco is not. Too much.”

Monaco are under pressure to sell to meet financial regulations in France and could offload a player to a country where the transfer window remains open. On Camara’s future, Scuro said: “I’m very confident that soon he will have even better options and offers than the one he had yesterday.”