Everton sign Chelsea striker Armando Broja

On-loan striker Armando Broja has been pictured training alongside his Everton team-mates in a session at the club’s Finch Farm complex in Halewood ahead of Saturday's trip to West Ham United. The Slough-born Albania international joined the Blues in a late deal on transfer deadline day on August 30 from Chelsea with an option to make the move permanent.

Broja has made 38 appearances for Chelsea, scoring three goals, and has had previous loan spells at Vitesse Arnhem (34 games, 11 goals in 2020/21), Southampton (38 games, nine goals in 2021/22) and Fulham (eight games, zero goals in the second half of 2023/24).

However, he hasn’t made a competitive appearance since a 31-minute cameo off the bench for his country in their 1-0 defeat to eventual tournament winners Spain in Albania’s final group match of the European Championship at Dusseldorf on June 24.

The 23-year-old has been sidelined with a knee injury but he is now stepping up his comeback and was photographed playing alongside his Everton first-team colleagues in a training game on Tuesday.

Broja was shown alongside centre-back Jarrad Branthwaite, Nathan Patterson and club captain Seamus Coleman, while another shot shows Vitalii Mykolenko doing some enthusiastic man-marking by tugging his bib in a light-hearted manner.

Speaking in his last pre-match press conference ahead of Everton’s 1-0 defeat at Southampton last Saturday, Blues boss Sean Dyche said of Broja: “Yeah, he’s back, he’s working hard, his stats are good, but he’s still with the Sports Science team. The crossover will start to occur maybe even next week, where he’ll just start with the light stuff with us, join warm-ups and possession games, and then build into a kind of journey back to playing.”