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Wanderers stand to get a financial boost if Dapo Afolayan’s St Pauli secure promotion to the Bundesliga in the coming weeks.
The £500,000 deal that took the popular attacker to Germany in January 2023 also contained clauses which could mature further down the line, including a “substantial” payment if they got promotion.
Afolayan has been a success for the Hamburg club, helping them to a record 25-game unbeaten run earlier in the year and scoring his eighth goal of the campaign in Sunday’s win at Hannover.
Evatt is delighted to see him closing in on promotion.
“I spoke to him a couple of weeks ago and I’m actually going to go out and see him some time in May,” he told The Bolton News. “I am so happy for him, he’s a brilliant young man who did fantastically well for us, and he could potentially end the season being a Bundesliga player which is one of the top leagues in Europe.
“He deserves it, and I am really proud of him. We have a good relationship, and I am looking forward to catching up with him.”
Afolayan’s departure proved a controversial one at the time, with the former West Ham United man unable to pin down a regular place in the team after a formation switch to the current 3-5-2 system.
This season, Brentford loanee Paris Maghoma has delighted Bolton supporters with his dribbling ability in a similar fashion.
Evatt sees similarities in the way both players operate and why they have proved so popular on the terraces.
“They are slightly different in that Paris is more of a central player,” he said. “Dapo, one v one, was dynamite. We had to get him on the ball in wide areas on the last line and let him do his thing.
“With Paris, he is able to receive centrally really well, he has played as a six and had success, but really kicked on being an eight for us which gets him into more productive positions.
“I think he can still improve his last bit – but he has a way of dribbling past and beating players with that acceleration, so he is hard to lock down. He can take the ball in tight spaces and then dribble and go either way and has really good athleticism.
“There is loads more to come from him. The defensive side of his game is improving all the time, his reactions to adversity, giving the ball away, and the positivity to go and counter-press is getting better every week. He is going to be a top player if he continues on this curve.”
“But they are dribblers. The ability to drive past opponents is a game-changer.
“The difference for Paris is because he is naturally a central midfielder he can receive in those areas and twist from those central pockets of space.
“I always felt Dapo was better wider and then drifting back inside the pitch rather than receiving in the middle of the pitch. Again, that is something he is working on and improving his game.
“I think if you put Paris out on the wing he wouldn’t be able to do what Dapo does, so they are slightly different but in terms of being able to change the picture and take players out of the game, they do a similar job.
“Teams that are sitting in low blocks, Paris or Dapo having the ability carry the ball and go past opponents, especially on the edge of the box, draws people around them and leaves space for others. I think that has really benefited us this season.
“Kyle Dempsey has that ability to dribble as well, albeit in a slightly different way.”
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