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-sm.jpg>) Melvin Matos warming up prior to the FA Youth Cup Quarter Final match between Manchester City and Everton in March 2026 Everton have secured the future of highly rated midfield prospect Melvin Matos, tying the 17-year-old down to his first professional contract until June 2028. The tenacious central midfielder who holds English and Ghanaian nationality, has earned widespread praise across Finch Farm for his consistency, work rate, and defensive discipline since joining the Blues in 2024 from Norwich City. The contract reflects Everton's ongoing commitment to protecting their core Academy talent as they build depth through the age groups. Academy Record & Progress Matos has steadily established himself as a fixture in the youth setup: - Matos made 43 appearances for Everton U18s across all competitions, establishing himself as an essential engine in the centre of the park. - He has captained the U18 side on 5 occasions. - Matos scored his first goal for the club during a 1-1 league draw against Blackburn Rovers. - His performances earned him a call-up to Paul Tait’s Under-21s squad, making his Premier League 2 debut as a second-half sub against Brighton. Style of Play & Profile Speaking about his style of play, the energetic box-to-box midfielder noted that he models his game on defensive midfield legends N'Golo Kanté and Claude Makélélé. His main strengths centre on ball-winning, pressing intensity, and quick recovery runs to break up opposition attacks — traits that have made him a standout figure for the Finch Farm coaching staff. The brother of former Chelsea midfielder Alex Matos, Melvin now looks set to continue his development with the U21s as the new Premier League 2 season gets underway next week, with the aim of course to make that huge step up to first-team consideration. Reader Comments (2) Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer () 1 Posted 15/08/2026 at 10:24:10 We do get the odd standout player over the years but we seem capable of having 25-30 players in our U18 and U21 set-up and none of them make the first team. Worse, we don't even seem to be able to sell them for any money and just keep releasing them on free transfers. I've always felt that we seem to just ‘hope' players will develop rather than maximising their potential. 2 Posted 15/08/2026 at 10:37:28 Improving the standard of Academy competitions should be something the Premier League and FA should be looking at once they have sorted out Man City's PSR problems and the standard of refereeing in England. As a matter of interest, does anybody know how many juniors we have at each age level, given about 10 players was it were let go at the end of last season, and others seem to enter at 7 or 8 years of age? Add Your Comments In order to post a comment, you need to be logged in as a registered user of the site. Or Sign up as a ToffeeWeb Member — it's free, takes just a few minutes and will allow you to post your comments on articles and Talking Points submissions across the site. How to get rid of these ads and support TW