TOTY Evo Star VI issue

Hi,

I have been evoing my Saliba to get him to a TOTY Star, however I cannot put him into the final TOTY Evo Star VI evolution, I have no players to put in there, I am confused on why this is happening.

I applied the red ultimate team champions cosmetic evo on him so he is now red however I thought this would still qualify him as a TOTY Honourable Mention player, is this not the case?

Please let me know what I can do, whether if you can remove the red cosmetic off him as I don't care about that, I just want to have the best stats for him.

Thanks,