Everton have signed versatile defender Ruben Vinagre on a season-long loan deal from Sporting Lisbon, with the option to make the move permanent next summer.
The 23-year-old previously moved to England from Monaco in 2017, joining Wolverhampton Wanderers initially on loan before signing on a permanent basis for around £2m at the end of the 2017-18 campaign.
Despite being tipped with a huge future at Molineux, Vinagre struggled for regular game time and was sent out on loan spells to Olympiacos and Famalicao, before making the move to Sporting last summer, who triggered the clause to sign him permanently at the beginning of this month.
The Portuguese full-back will join up with Frank Lampard's side ahead of the 2022-23 Premier League campaign, though, and will provide competition to Vitaliy Mykolenko on the left-hand side of the Toffees' defence.
Speaking to evertontv following the official announcement, Vinagre said: "It's a dream come true to join a big club like Everton. The opportunity to work with very good players and a very good coach in Frank Lampard made me excited to sign."
Vinagre's new boss added: "I'm looking forward to working with Rúben this season. He's a player with Premier League experience who will add quality and depth to our squad. It's important to have competition for places and bringing Rúben in gives us more options."
Everton director of football Kevin Thelwell has now signed Vinagre on two separate occasions, having also been responsible for bringing the defender to England when in the sporting director role at Wolves back in 2017.
Vinagre becomes Everton's second signing of the transfer window following the arrival of James Tarkowski from Burnley earlier this summer, and the former will be available to make his debut for the Merseyside outfit when they take on Dynamo Kyiv in a friendly at Goodison Park on Friday.
Matthew Tranter
