Jonas Lossl is viewing Everton’s groundbreaking clash with Kariobangi Sharks as an opportunity to demonstrate the quality he will add to the Club’s elite goalkeeping pool.
Everton tackle Kenyan team Kariobangi in their opening pre-season fixture on Sunday, the match representing a return to East Africa for the Blues two years after visiting Tanzania to face Gor Mahia.
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Denmark international Lossl was snapped up by Marco Silva following the expiry of the 30-year-old’s contract with Huddersfield Town this summer.
He joins Jordan Pickford and Maarten Stekelenburg, owners of a combined 77 international caps, and talented teenage Portuguese Joao Virginia to complete a quartet of first-rate senior keepers on Everton’s books.
Lossl, then, recognises the imperative of seizing every chance to show off his wares, beginning with this weekend’s match in Nairobi.
“I do hope this will be my first chance to show people what I can do,” Lossl told evertontv..
“The next game is always a game I hope to play!
“But it is going to be an interesting match and, of course, I can't wait to get out there. I can't wait to get on the pitch with the team and just play some football again.
“It has been some weeks since I was on the pitch and to play the first game [would be good]... I really hope that's going to be my first encounter with the team.”
Lossl’s most recent outing was in Huddersfield’s 1-1 draw with Manchester United on 5 May, a match in which he recorded his second Premier League assist – and second against United, to boot.
The player is confident he can use his bank of experience to avoid being caught cold in Kenya, with Everton’s game against Kariobangi coming 63 days after he stood up to a United side which aimed 23 shots at goal.
Lossl was ever present in his first campaign with Huddersfield when the Yorkshire club defied expectations to retain their top-flight status following a 45-year absence.
He had two seasons in France’s Ligue 1 with Guingamp before joining Mainz for one Bundesliga campaign.
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The keeper, who started out at Midtjylland in his homeland and played European football with all three of his teams on the continent, believes he has accrued a breadth of skills since making his senior debut more than nine years ago.
And Lossl, who added 31 Premier League appearances for Huddersfield last term, insists he has a responsibility to help maintain Everton’s elevated ‘keeping standards, regardless of who wears the gloves.
England number one Pickford, a World Cup semi-finalist 12 months ago, has played every minute of Everton’s 76 top-flight games since joining from Sunderland in summer 2017.
Stekelenburg, who went one better than Pickford on the global stage when his Holland team reached the 2010 World Cup final, arrived in 2016 and has made 26 appearances.
And asked if Everton’s premium stoppers – including Virginia, who added to his already burgeoning reputation with a series of fine performances to help Everton Under-23s land an unprecedented double last season – could spur each other to greater heights, Lossl added: “Yes, definitely. I remember back in 2010, I'd just got my senior debut and I watched the World Cup in South Africa with Maarten in the final.
“I'm looking forward to being part of that goalkeeper team, which I think is really strong, and I'm really looking forward to coming in and bringing my game so that the keeper who is in goal on matchday will perform the best way possible.
“I would say I have some experience now from different leagues.
“I've tried a couple of things in my career and I'm at the height of my career age-wise, so I will bring in what I can.
“I'm comfortable playing out with my feet from the back, I'm comfortable in the area and in the box claiming crosses, so I'll come in and bring what I have.”
