23-year-old Everton defender Mason Holgate has signed a new five-year deal that will keep him under team control through the summer of 2025, the club announced on Tuesday.
After riding the bench for the first nine Premier League games of the season, Holgate took over for Michael Keane and has started all but one of the 19 league games since.
“This is my fifth year at Everton and my development as a person and a player in that period has been massive,” Holgate told the official club release. “The direction the Club is going, it is a great Club to be at and I am really excited about it. We want to move to the next step and push for bigger and better things. I want to win things – and winning some silverware is where I see us. It is definitely a positive time to be here and I am looking forward to seeing how far we can go.”
Arriving at Everton from Barnsley in the summer of 2015 for just under $2 million, Holgate has risen through the Everton ranks, making his Premier League debut in August of 2016 to begin what would be a breakout campaign where he would register 18 league appearances. He made 15 appearances the next season before falling out of the squad thanks to the arrival of loanee Kurt Zouma. He was eventually loaned out to West Brom in January of 2019 to get playing time, and has returned with a renewed importance.
Holgate has drawn outside interest in the transfer market, with The Athletic reporting back in January that talks for an extension were taking place but both Wolves and Sheffield United were circling, and reports elsewhere have indicated even Manchester City has taken note. An appealing part of Holgate’s game is his positional flexibility that allows him to play at left-back, right-back, or defensive midfield despite seeming most comfortable at his natural center-back slot.
