I signed Thierno Barry two years ago - Everton will have a lot of fun with him

I signed Thierno Barry two years ago - Everton will have a lot of fun with him

Exclusive interview with talent spotter Patrick Dippel, who signed Everton new boy Thierno Barry for FC Basel

Thierno Barry completed his transfer to Everton this week as his rapid rise continues (Image: Everton FC )

Everton’s acquisition of Thierno Barry is one of the club’s most exciting in recent years. It’s a move that’s emblematic of the Blues' more bullish outlook in the market, underlining the optimism that the new owners and stadium have instilled.

Barry could prove to be a shrewd purchase. The 22-year-old’s career is undoubted on an upwards trajectory following an impressive season in La Liga, which convinced Everton to part with an initial £27m.

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It’s the club’s most expensive transfer since Amadou Onana’s arrival in 2022, and the highest fee David Moyes' has ever spent on a player during his two spells in charge of the club.

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It’s a particularly important move in the market given Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s exit, although Moyes has called for fans to show Barry patience, to afford him time to settle and acclimatise.

Supporters are eager to see the France Under-21 international in a royal blue jersey and there’s real belief that he could thrive at the Hill Dickson Stadium and that he could blossom into one of Europe’s elite no.9s.

It’s a feeling Patrick Dippel can relate with. The 44-year-old handed Barry his first taste of top-flight football two summers ago, when he decided to take a chance on an unpolished diamond playing in the French fifth tier.

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“He’s something special,” Dippel, who spent two years as FC Basel’s Head of Scouting, told the Liverpool ECHO in an exclusive interview.

“We watched him in the scouting videos and he was very raw. We saw some great things and some unorthodox things, but what you could see was his physical constitution.

“He's tall, he's fast. We saw the coordination was rough. He had some one-on-ones where he kept running directly into the opponent, but what you could always see was his mentality. With his physicality and his energy, he was worth the risk.”

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Dippel developed a habit of unearthing hidden gems across Europe and convincing them to join him in Switzerland. Tasked with discovering up-and-coming youngsters, ready to make the next step, Renato Veiga was signed in the summer of 2023 by Dippel and quickly moved on to the Premier League with Chelsea.

Plucking Barry from relative obscurity, and providing him with the platform to succeed, may be his greatest achievement of the lot. After just one season in the Swiss Super League, Villarreal had seen enough to sign the Frenchman.

But it wasn’t all plain sailing for Barry, who was sent off in each of his first two appearances for Basel and failed to score a league goal by the mid-season winter break.

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“He struggled at first,” said Dippel. “But, and this is the most important part, he kept going; he tried to get better. He did a lot of individual work.

“Then you could almost feel during the winter break that something would happen. He had his situations and moments, it just didn't work out. But at some point, when he keeps on going, keeps on working, then he will take these chances.”

That’s exactly what happened. Nine goals in the final 17 league matches convinced Villarreal to take a punt on the burgeoning talent - and justified Dippel’s recruitment gamble.

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Not every decision will come off, but during his intriguing career to date, Dippel’s approach has tended to result in success. He began working in football nearly 20 years ago as a consultant for Fifa and the German Football Federation and went on to help a Germany side that featured the likes of Mario Gotze and Marc-Andre Ter Stegen win the European Under-17 Championships in 2009, before joining Bayern Munich in 2015.

There, he implemented a youth analysis model, helped with academy infrastructure and played a role in opposition analysis for the first team during Carlo Ancelotti’s spell as coach. Well respected in Germany and Austria, roles at Sturm Graz and Hamburg followed, before joining Basel in 2023, where he became the ‘first face’ new signings meet.

“Players who come to Basel, they are not fully developed players,” Dippel explained, although the decision to bring former Liverpool attacker Xherdan Shaqiri back 12 months ago was a rare exception to the rule.

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Barry is the perfect example of his preferred transfer strategy. “He asked all the right things,” Dippel said, reflecting on the recruitment process two years. “He explained he was not educated as a striker and wanted to be a no.9. ‘How can you help me to be better no.9?’. And this was impressive. Then we decided, yes, let's give him a chance.,”

“When he started scoring, he never stopped,” Dippel added on the 6ft 5in striker who played for France in this summer's European Under-21 Championship.

“With Thierno, he was always trying things even if they were not working, even if it looks a bit, let's say, funny. He is a guy who can go where not many other players can go because of his speed, because of its height, because of of his mentality.

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“It's so crazy to see a guy like him because he has not been developed in one of the top youth academies. He has had a rough way.

“You can see the potential: being focused on the pitch, being responsible for things you do, having the mentality to not think too much, but just do it. And the physical constitution.

“This is a lot, you know, and these are… let's say weapons, special abilities. So, this is why I believe that at Everton, they will have a lot of fun with the guy.”

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Dippel describes Barry as ‘not a loud guy’, and is always ‘focused and aligned with the team’.

“When Villarreal came, there was no way of keeping him,” he added. “Then you could think, ‘okay - La Liga, wow’. After the Belgian second league, Swiss league, now La Liga. And he basically did the same thing in La Liga, which is a much higher level.

“Now, this summer, the next step to the Premier League is crazy, but I think he will adapt as well because he adapted so much during this time.”

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Everton fans will hope Dippel’s hunch once again proves correct - that the man who has gone from the French fifth tier to the Premier League in just three years can fire the Blues back to the big time.

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