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In Profile: Dwight McNeil

Dwight McNeil joined Everton from Burnley in July 2022, the winger signing a five-year contract to keep him at Goodison Park until at least summer 2027.

A product of Burnley’s academy, McNeil played 134 Premier League games for the Turf Moor club and was twice a top-flight ever present.

McNeil, who joined Burnley at the age of 14 following time in the academy at Manchester United, made his senior professional debut, aged 18, on the final day of 2017/18.

He would achieve a meaningful breakthrough midway through the following campaign, the attacker one of five players introduced to the side for a game against West Ham United after a 5-1 Boxing Day home defeat by Everton.

McNeil marked what was only his second first-team start by scoring in a 2-0 victory and would not be dislodged from manager Sean Dyche’s side over the remainder of the season.

The player began every one of Burnley’s 38 Premier League fixtures in 2019/20 – he was on the pitch for all but 75 minutes of the campaign – scoring two goals and providing six assists.

McNeill, whose dad Matty played as a striker for multiple clubs, including Stockport County and Chester, additionally supplied 257 crosses, the fifth highest number of any top-flight performer.

He would inch up that category over the following two seasons, McNeil the fourth most prolific crosser with 242 in 2020/21, with only two players supplying more deliveries than the Lancastrian in his final Burnley season of 2021/22.

McNeil contributed two goals – including an absolutely sublime strike in a match at Goodison – and added six assists from 36 Premier League games in his penultimate Turf Moor campaign.

The progressive forward completed the second highest tally of successful dribbles (90) of any player in England's top division in 2021/22 to go alongside the 199 crosses he provided across the season.

The player, born in Rochdale in November 1999, won the first of 10 England Under-21 caps in October 2019. He figured in all three of his country’s matches at the 2021 European Under-21 Championship in Slovenia.

McNeil played six times for England’s Under-20 team. Following his maiden call-up in March 2019, the then Burnley teenager stepped up to train with manager Gareth Southgate’s senior England squad, adding one more notable achievement to a whirlwind period when McNeil began forging a reputation as a footballer capable of consistently influencing Premier League matches.