Where are they now? Everton’s 7 wonderkids from Football Manager 2015
Things were looking good at Everton when Football Manager 2015 was released a decade ago, having recently finished fifth under Roberto Martinez.
But the Toffees were undermined by defensive frailties in the following two campaigns, with Martinez sacked in 2016 and Everton never truly troubling the big guns again.
Despite the gloom around the corner, the club possessed some promising young talents and we’ve checked how the cream of that selection are faring 10 years later.
John Stones
Signed from his boyhood club Barnsley for a modest £3million transfer fee, Stones soon established himself as one of the best young defenders in the country during his time on Merseyside.
Everton rebuffed Chelsea’s offers in the summer of 2015 but couldn’t resist the massive profit-making £47.5million bid from Manchester City a year later.
Stones hasn’t always been one of the first names on City’s teamsheet but he’s racked up over 200 appearances for the club and developed into one of Pep Guardiola’s most entrusted lieutenants.
The defender has won every major trophy at club level and has been a stalwart of England’s defence for the past four major tournaments as well.
Jonjoe Kenny
Football Manager 2014 identified Kenny as one to watch when he was just 16 years old and was yet to make his debut for his hometown club.
The right-back had been part of England Under-17s’ European Championship triumph in 2014 and would later feature in the Under-20s’ World Cup victory of 2017 and the Under-21s’ Toulon Tournament winners of 2018.
Kenny showed some flashes of quality as he racked up 50 Premier League appearances for Everton but never quite refined his game to become a first-team regular between intermittent loan spells away.
Everton reportedly offered him a contract extension but he turned it down to join Hertha Berlin on a free transfer in 2022, where he remains to this day.
“At first, I had to get used to not being an Everton player anymore,” Kenny recalled in an interview with The Athletic.
“But it’s about thriving here now. I didn’t come here to sit on the couch and mope about the Premier League — it was to perform in the Bundesliga and be my own version of myself.
“I felt like I didn’t play freely at Everton. I felt like I had that stereotype when people can just talk about you as the homegrown lad who will ‘have a go’. I let it limit me a bit.
“That was on me, the idea I was just a Scouse kid who was made up to be there. But I felt I had more than that. I had knowledge and more in the locker than just running.”
Liam Walsh
Walsh never made a first-team appearance for Everton, but the midfielder wasn’t without talent – he scored a memorable goal from the halfway line during an Under-18 game against Derby in November 2015 and won the club’s Goal of the Month competition.
Since leaving Goodison in 2018, Walsh has carved out a solid Championship career with Bristol City, Hull, Swansea and Luton Town.
He has made nine appearances for Luton in 2024-25, but the Hatters have struggled to re-adjust to life in the second tier after their relegation from the Premier League and Walsh currently finds himself in an unexpected dogfight to avoid dropping into League One.
Ryan Ledson
Ledson had caught the eye in Everton’s youth set-up and represented England from Under-16 to Under-20 level.
But the midfielder’s first-team experience for the Blues amounted to one solitary appearance, a 1-0 defeat to FC Krasnodar in a Europa League dead rubber in December 2014.
Ledson left Goodison in 2016. He joined Oxford United for an undisclosed fee and has since found his feet at Championship outfit Preston North End, for whom he’s made over 180 appearances.
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Ross Barkley
Barkley had already been on the scene a couple of years and had spent a couple of forgettable loans with Sheffield Wednesday and Leeds United before returning to Everton and really breaking through in 2013-14.
He turned 20 that season and was already among the standout players in Martinez’s squad, undoubtedly the pick of their homegrown talent.
The midfielder kicked on and remained a regular for both England and Everton for another three seasons, eventually earning his big move to Chelsea in January 2018. He had one or two moments at Stamford Bridge but never fully convinced at that level.
After a difficult few years, Barkley enjoyed a surprise renaissance at Luton Town in 2023-24 and earned himself a move to Aston Villa to play Champions League football.
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George Green
A highly-rated prospect at Bradford City, Green joined Everton for a £300,000 in 2011 – but that early move set the tone for a career of lots of moves and very little action.
The 28-year-old never made a senior appearance for Everton and has been on the books of 16 different clubs, rarely playing over 10 games for any of them.
Nowadays the non-league journeyman is turning out for Thackley, who compete in the Northern Counties East League Premier Division.
Kieran Dowell
A winner of the Toulon tournament with England in 2018, Dowell only broke through to make a handful of appearances for his boyhood Toffees.
Most of his early experience came out on loan in the Championship – Nottingham Forest, Sheffield United, Derby County and Wigan Athletic before he left for good to join Norwich City in 2020.
The midfielder was part of the Canaries’ squad that went up with 97 points in 2020-21 but was also part of the side that came crashing back down just as emphatically.
He now plays for Rangers.