Dedryck Boyata admits he rejected the chance to join Everton | OneFootball

Celtic and Belgium defender Dedryck Boyata joined Manchester City’s youth academy in 2006 with Premier League dreams.

After Sheikh Mansour took over City in 2008 and started bringing in world-class talent, Boyata should have figured his chances at City were slim-to-none.

The Belgian made his first-team debut in 2011 and endured unsuccessful loan spells with Bolton Wanderers and FC Twente before landing at Celtic in 2015.

However, Boyata admits that he had a chance to move to Goodison Park with Everton in 2012, but rejected a move in favour of trying to cut it at City.

After making just six appearances with City in the 2014-15 season, Boyata finally left the Etihad for €1.7m.

“I should have taken that step of joining Celtic even earlier,” he told Belgian newspaper de Zondag. “Under Roberto Mancini, I got my first chances. I was 19 at the time.

“After that season I was able to go to Everton. I should have done that.

“City became bigger and bigger every year. That does not make it easy for a youth player to continue to grow.”

The now 27-year-old Boyata impressed for Belgium at this year’s World Cup in Russia and is set to be a free agent this summer.

He is rumoured to desire a move back to the Premier League.