Sports Scientist Jason O’Keefe has left Everton and joined Manchester City in the new role of Rehab Performance Coach, according to Training Ground Guru.
The report (4 January) shares that O’Keefe left Goodison Park after a decade of service at the club having joined as an intern in July 2014, working for the club’s Academy before moving up to the first team in January 2022.
O’Keefe took to his LinkedIn account to post that he’s excited about the opportunity and “can’t wait” to start in his brand new role at Etihad Stadium.
Manchester City has become the envy of every football club on the land given their state-of-the-art facilities at their stadium, training ground, academy and even within Pep Guardiola’s work desk and trophy cabinet.
It’s certainly a blow for Everton to lose such a decorated staff member who’s worked at Goodison Park for years but no one can blame him for jumping ship to join one of the country’s biggest entities.
Some people may have had a problem had he gone on to join Manchester United given their torrid state right now but O’Keefe has certainly chosen the perfect route on the blue half of Manchester. It’s no wonder why he cannot wait to start.
There will be hope that his absence doesn’t affect the first team sports science department having only joined in January 2022 and given the gruelling nature of turnaround in games these days, the Toffees need all the staff and help they can get in that department.
If Everton are to become a state-of-the-art club themselves which will happen via their own brand new stadium development at Bramley-Moore Dock, they will need high-performing and expert staff members too but that becomes a huge problem when they’re setting sail to join Manchester City.
