{"id":22643,"date":"2022-07-03T21:00:24","date_gmt":"2022-07-04T01:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2022\/07\/03\/everton-shot-stopper-ready-to-battle-pickford-for-no-1-spot-im-at-the-same-level\/"},"modified":"2022-07-03T21:00:24","modified_gmt":"2022-07-04T01:00:24","slug":"everton-shot-stopper-ready-to-battle-pickford-for-no-1-spot-im-at-the-same-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2022\/07\/03\/everton-shot-stopper-ready-to-battle-pickford-for-no-1-spot-im-at-the-same-level\/","title":{"rendered":"Everton shot-stopper ready to battle Pickford for no.1 spot: \u2018I\u2019m at the same level\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Everton goalkeeper Joao Virginia has, on Sunday, spoken out regarding his situation at the club, and prospects for the season ahead.<\/p>\n

For those not aware, shot-stopper Virginia has been on the books on the blue half of Merseyside since all the way back in 2018.<\/p>\n

To this point, though, the 22-year-old has managed just a solitary league appearance. Faced with the prospect of another season watching on from the sidelines last time out, Virginia, in turn, was farmed out on loan last summer, returning to his home country of Portugal with Sporting CP.<\/p>\n

The ex-U21 international, though, endured an equally underwhelming stint at the Estadio Jose Alvalade.<\/p>\n

Sitting behind Antonio Adan in the pecking order between the posts in Lisbon, Virginia was condemned to appearances solely in cup competition, en route to a paltry 8 outings across the campaign\u2019s entirety.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\"Everton<\/p>\n

Liverpool, UK. 13th Mar, 2021. Joao Virginia of Everton in action (Photo by Simon Whitehead\/News Images\/Sipa USA) Credit: Sipa USA\/Alamy Live News<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

His difficult stint in Portugal, though, has evidently not dented the shot-stopper\u2019s confidence too badly.<\/p>\n

This comes with Virginia, as alluded to above, having today provided an insight into his current prospects at Goodison Park.<\/p>\n

Speaking in an interview with Goal<\/a>, the Faro native was first drawn on his place in Everton\u2019s setup, ahead of being afforded the chance to impress Toffees boss Frank Lampard in pre-season training this coming week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings will be resolved in pre-season. Everton is like a family to me, so whatever they want me to do, I will do,\u201d Virginia responded.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever happens I will be there fighting to be that No.1. I know that I am ready to play games and I think I have shown that, especially in the last two years.\u201d<\/p>\n

From here, the goalkeeper was then pressed on the specific challenge of competing with current Toffees no.1 Jordan Pickford for game-time.<\/p>\n

And Virginia did not at all shy away from the prospect, revealing his belief that he is \u2018at the same level\u2019 as England\u2019s first-choice, before assuring that he is \u2018more than capable\u2019 of carving out game-time on Merseyside this coming season:<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to believe in my own ability first and foremost, and I do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see it every day in training, I feel I am at the same level and I don\u2019t see any reason to believe otherwise. I work hard, I dedicate myself and I know I\u2019m more than capable of doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Sunday transfer rumours- Ronaldo, Hickey, Dembele, Bellerin, Firmino and more<\/a><\/h4>\n

Tottenham prize Gretar Steinsson from Everton as new performance director<\/a><\/h4>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everton goalkeeper Joao Virginia has, on Sunday, spoken out regarding his situation at the club, and prospects for the season ahead. For those not aware, shot-stopper Virginia has been on the books on the blue half of Merseyside since all the way back in 2018. To this point, though, the 22-year-old has managed just a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,7],"tags":[13,14],"class_list":["post-22643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football","category-sport","tag-football","tag-soccer","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22643\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}