Everton interested in Galatasary forward and Newcastle United target Garry Rodrigues

Everton are reportedly interested in Galatasary forward and mooted Newcastle United target Garry Rodrigues and have sent scouts to monitor the Cape Verde international throughout the current campaign.

Rodrigues, capped 21 times by his country, joined Galatasary from Greek outfit PAOK in January 2017 and has proved pivotal to his side's surge to the summit of the Turkish league table, though they are being hotly pursued by Istanbul Basaksehir, Besiktas and Fenerbahce.

The 27-year-old, who started off his professional career with Dutch minnows XerxesDZB, has scored five times and provided eight assists in the league this season, and his form for Gala has led to interest from Newcastle and now Everton, according to a report from Turkish publication Fotomac, relayed by SportWitness.

Newcastle were keen on signing Rodrigues in the January transfer window and had an offer of €8m (£7.05m, $9.85m) rejected by Galatasary [Gunes], who are said to be willing to sell the right winger for around €20m (£17.66m, $24.66m) in the summer.

Everton have not been credited with a formal offer for Rodrigues but the Merseysiders have been sending scouts to run the rule over the former ADO Den Haag star, the report claims, though their need for a wide player was quelled by the arrival of Theo Walcott from Arsenal.

Along with the recent capture of Walcott, who has enjoyed a fairly encouraging start to life at Goodison Park, Everton may think twice about signing another player from the Turkish league due to the struggles of £27m forward Cenk Tosun; the former Besiktas hitman has started just two matches for his new club and his travails have been discussed at length by manager Sam Allardyce in recent weeks.

While it remains to be seen if Everton decide to follow up their apparent interest with an offer, Galatasary are reportedly expecting Newcastle to submit another bid for Rodrigues when the transfer window opens again in the summer, though much will presumably depend on which division Rafael Benitez's side will be playing in next season.