Jean-Philippe Gbamin

Jean-Philippe Gbamin's career is defined by two and a half years he barely spent on a football pitch. A run of injuries to his thigh, Achilles and knee then kept him out for roughly 597 days between 2019 and 2021, and he never held down a regular place in the side. Everton eventually released him by mutual consent in September 2023.

Born in San-Pédro, Ivory Coast, Gbamin came up through French football, breaking into the first team at Lens before Mainz signed him in 2016. While his fitness kept failing him in England, he had loan spells at PAOK and then Trabzonspor.

Since leaving Everton, Gbamin has moved on a series of free transfers, to Dunkerque, then Nantes, then Zürich, then Metz, and most recently to CSKA Sofia. Earlier in his career he was a runner-up at the 2013 European Under-19 Championship with France, but he has represented the Ivory Coast at senior level, making his debut in a 0-5 defeat to the Netherlands in 2017. He has since played at three Africa Cup of Nations tournaments, and remains without a goal in 24 caps.