Ishan Hawari hasn’t signed with Everton; joins Everton Football College instead

Former RFYC youngster enrolls in College affiliated with Premier League club to continue his football and studies.

Football social media still has not learned from the recent Xavi saga. Too many handles skim headlines, skip basic checks, and push half-baked updates for engagement. The latest example: sixteen-year-old Ishan Hawari, an Indian youngster now based in the UK, posted an update from a family-managed account about “joining Everton U-17.”

Within hours, major Indian football pages amplified it as an Everton academy signing without verifying the context.

I have followed Indian football since 2007 and keep saying this: value original sources and read them fully. Hawari’s post lacked technical detail, which is understandable for parents. The onus was on media and aggregator accounts to seek clarity before turning it viral.

“Ishan Hawari is not registered with any of Everton youth teams and people covering youth football in the UK are surprise with the news spreading in India without doing any verification,” said a source covering youth football in the UK.

What actually happened?

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ishan Hawari (@ishaan_hawari_official)

Ishan Hawari has joined the Everton Football College programme, which is affiliated with Premier League club Everton. He will pursue A-Levels over two years while playing competitive college football. The college team is coached by former Everton midfielder Joe Parkinson, and Hawari has received a scholarship that covers tuition.

“Everton Football College program is a very decent program for the footballers to continue playing football alongside their studies, and the level of football is better than what is offered in India in a similar age group,” added the UK-based source.

The pathway so far

Back in 2019, a clip of a ten-year-old Ishan Hawari twisting past boys bigger than him did the rounds online. Minver Academy called soon after, and in 2022 he stepped up to Reliance Foundation Young Champs (RFYC).

Over the next two seasons, he trained there and featured in multiple exposure tours including one in Europe.

In 2023, his mother moved to Oldham, Greater Manchester, for work, while his father and younger brother stayed in India so he could finish the 2023–24 season.

Initially, the family was reluctant to move Ishan to the UK because he had a settled, full scholarship at RFYC; after conversations with his coaches and the technical staff at RFYC, they were convinced regular football in England would serve his development better, given how few competitive matches exist in India for the 14–18 age group. 

Usually, UK academies cannot sign overseas minors, but when a parent relocates for reasons not related to football, it can create a lawful route to keep studying and training.

After the move, Ishan Hawari trained with Halifax Town’s academy and also played with grassroots sides Uppermill FC and Heyside FC. In January 2025, he featured in a friendly for the Everton Academy, which led to an offer from Everton Football College.

“It was only after I started training at Heyside and Uppermill that I realised, in India, we were in a comfort zone. At RFYC, we used to train with seniors to get more competition. But here, I’m feeling that I’m being tested to my core,” Ishan told TOI. He idolises Cristiano Ronaldo.

Why did the reporting go wrong?

Ishan Hawari’s original social post did not spell out that this was the college programme, not a direct registration with Everton’s academy squads. Instead of checking several pages and aggregators ran with “signed by Everton,” which is misleading and takes away from what is still a solid step for a sixteen-year-old.

Hawari’s move to Everton Football College is an achievement. Unfortunately, by inflating it to “signs for Everton,” the same handles risk downgrading his real progress when the facts surface. He is a talented Indian footballer.

If he keeps working, he might receive an offer from Premier League clubs in the future. For that to happen, the Indian football community also has to be more responsible with news, especially around minors and development pathways.

For more updates, follow Khel Now on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube; download the Khel Now Android App or IOS App and join our community on Whatsapp & Telegram.