Crystal Palace Ace Insists He Is 'Very Happy' at Selhurst Park Amid Everton Interest
Christian Benteke has distanced himself from reports of interest from Everton by insisting he is 'very happy' to stay at Crystal Palace.
The Eagles striker has been touted as a future Toffees player after Ronald Koeman's side sold Benteke's international team-mate Romelu Lukaku to Manchester United for a potential world-record £90m fee.
However, speaking to the press during Palace's pre-season tour of Asia, Benteke explained why he wanted to be part of Frank de Boer's plans for the 2017/18 campaign and why he was giving no thought to the rumours of a return to Merseyside.
ISAAC LAWRENCE/GettyImages
He stated: "I'm very happy. I want to be part of the project of the manager and I'm looking forward for this new season.
"I want to perform and to score more goals and to really help the team to reach where they want to be. Since we came back for pre-season I didn't really want to talk, but I want to be here.
"There's the World Cup and that's an important aspect of being with the club and you have to perform to be part of that group."
Benteke had been on the books of Everton's fierce city rivals Liverpool for 12 months but, after an unimpressive spell at Anfield that saw him net just 10 goals in 42 appearances, the 26-year-old moved to Selhurst Park last summer.
A return of 17 goals in 40 games showed that the frontman was back to his best form, and led to speculation that Blues boss Koeman wanted to bring him to Goodison Park as Everton's new target man.
However, de Boer claimed that Benteke would be going nowhere this summer regardless of how much money Everton could offer and, with the ex-Genk man also revealing his intention to stay in London, the Toffees will need to look elsewhere for a new striker.
Benteke will next be in action for Palace when they face off against West Brom in their next Asia Trophy match in Hong Kong on Saturday.
