Everton F.C.

Full name	Everton Football Club
Nickname(s)	The Toffees
Founded	1878
Ground	Goodison Park
Ground Capacity	1
Chairman	Bill Kenwright
Manager	Marco Silva
League	Premier League
2016/17	Premier League, 7th of 20
Home colours Away colours

Everton's stadium, Goodison Park.

Everton Football Club or Everton F.C. are an English football club from the city of Liverpool. The club currently competes in the Premier League and have played more seasons in the top league of English football than any other team.

Everton were founded in 1878. They have a long rivalry with Liverpool, whose ground is nearby. When they play each other the match known as a Merseyside derby. In the 1890s Everton played at Anfield, which later became Liverpool's stadium. But the owner of the stadium put the rent up so much the club decided to leave and build their own instead.^[1] Everton were then based at a new stadium called Goodison Park. They still play there today.

Many famous players have played at Everton including the English World Cup winning Alan Ball and legendary goal scorer William 'Dixie' Dean. Dean still holds the record for most goals in one season scoring 60 in the 1927/1928 season.^[2]

History |

The league winning Everton team of 1891

Everton started out in 1878 with the name St Domingo's FC. At first it was only for people who went to St Domingo's church, but so many people were interested they let people from the local are join as well.^[3] A year later the club was renamed Everton Football Club, after the area.^[4] Everton Football Club's first ever match was against a team called St Peter's in 1879. Everton won 6-0.^[4]

Everton entered the FA Cup in the 1886/87 season. They were beaten 1-0 by Rangers in the first round. As football became more and more popular around England, the clubs realised they needed an organised league. In 1888 the Football League was founded. Everton were one of the 12 founding members. Preston North End won the first two leagues and Everton won the third in 1891. They won their second ever trophy, the FA Cup, in 1905 but did not win another until 1916. It was not until 1927 that Everton had their first period of long success. In 1925 they signed Dixie Dean and in 1927 he scored 60 goals in 39 games, setting a new world record and taking Everton to another league title.^[5] Everton were relegated, or sent down, to a the second division in 1930/1931. Within a year they were promoted again, and the club has not been relegated again since, apart from in 1950/51 (which resulted in three seasons in the second tier). This makes them the English football team with the most consecutive seasons in the top league of English football, apart from Arsenal who have been in the top flight continuously since 1919/20.

Everton's second successful period came after 1961 when Harry Catterick was given the job of manager. With Catterick in charge Everton won two league titles and four cups between 1961 and 1970. This success did not last however, and after three years of low league finishes Catterick quit his job. The club finished in middle of the table, or mid-table, positions for the rest of the 1970s with a line of unsuccessful managers. In 1981 the club appointed Howard Kendall to be the new manager. He turned Everton around and eventually became the most successful manager in the clubs history, winning two league titles and three cups between 1981 and 1987.^[6] This era also brought Everton's one and only European trophy win, the Cup Winners Cup in 1985. The semi final saw Everton beat German champions Bayern Munich 3-1, a match voted the greatest of all time at Goodison Park.^[7] The final saw another 3-1 win for Everton against Rapid Vienna, crowning them European Cup Winners Cup Champions; their first and only European title to date.

In 1985 several Liverpool and 39 Juventus fans died when the crowd started fighting at a stadium in Heysel, Belgium.^[8]UEFA decided that Liverpool fans were mainly to blame. Because of this all English clubs were not allowed to play against European teams untl 1991. This denied Everton the chance to defend their European title and the team gradually broke up, selling many of their best players to other European clubs. The club did not do very well in the early 90s, nearly getting relegated twice and going through lots of money problems. However they still became one of the first members of the new English Premier League when it started in 1992. They were quite successful under a manager called Joe Royle,who took over in 1994. In his second season in charge he kept Everton clear of relegation and won the FA cup, the club's first trophy in seven years. The club had steady improvement under Royle, finishing 6th and 7th in the 1996 and 1997 seasons.^[9]

After two seasons however the club's performance went downhill and Kendall was sacked after only narrowly avoiding relegation in the 1998/99 season. Former player Walter Smith took over for three seasons, but failed to perform, spending a lot of money but not getting the team to good league positions. David Moyes took over in 2002 and has been one of the club's most successful managers to date. Under his management the club has become a regular top 10 side, finishing 4th in 2005, their highest ever Premier League finish.

Under his management Wayne Rooney was brought into the first team and he was quickly sold to Manchester United for £27 million, a club record fee.^[10]
Since 2005 Everton have enjoyed regular top 8 finishes and reached the last 16 of the UEFA Cup in 2007 and the FA Cup final in 2009.

Kit |

Everton usually wear Royal blue shirts with white shorts and white socks.

They wore many different kit colours in their first few years. At first they wore white shorts and white shirts with blue stripes. However many players who moved to Everton still wore the shirts of their old team, so things quickly got confusing. To solve this the club introduced an all black kit to the club, as black dye was cheap and easily available.^[11] However many fans thought this was quite boring and slightly morbid so a red band was added across the chest.^[11]
It was not until the 1901/02 season that the colours of royal blue and white were first introduced. This kit has stayed, with a few small changes, almost exactly the same from then until the present day.^[12] It was changed for one year in 1986, to light blue, but the fans did not like this at all and it was quickly changed back again.^[12]

Sponsors |

Everton's current shirt sponsor is Sportpesa, they are an African online betting firm, Based in Nairobi, Kenya. Previous shirt sponsors have included, Brewing firm Chang Beer, electronics company NEC and food maker Danka. Everton were the first Premier League team to take off shirt sponsors from their child shirts because they did not like advertising alcohol to children.^[13]

Nickname and traditions |

Everton take their name from the district of Everton in Liverpool where it was originally formed.

Everton's nickname is the Toffees, or sometimes the Toffeemen. This comes from one of two toffee shops that were located in Everton village at the time the club started.^[14] Both Ye Anciente Everton Toffee House and Old Mother Nobletts Toffee Shop claim to have started off the nickname.^[14] At first Ye Anciente Everton Toffee House was very popular with fans because it was near to their stadium in the Everton district. Old Mother Nobletts Toffee Shop sold sweets called 'Everton mints', which proved even more popular. Faced with going out of business, Ye Anciente Everton Toffee House got a licence to throw free toffees to the crowd inside the ground, before the match.^[14] This tradition continues even today. A teenage girl is chosen from the crowd to throw toffees to the crowd before the match, at half time and after the match.^[14]

At other times in their history Everton have also been known as 'The Black Watch', 'The Blues' and, in the 1980s, 'The School of Science'.^[15]

Like many Premier League football clubs, Everton's players walk out onto the pitch to a particular song at the beginning of every match. With Everton it is the theme tune to a 1960s television series called Z-Cars.^[15] Z-Cars was about police working in a made up town, which many people believed was based on real life Liverpool.^[16]

Players |

Current squad |

As of 17 January 2018^[17][18]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Jordan Pickford 2 MF Morgan Schneiderlin 3 DF Leighton Baines (vice-captain) 4 DF Michael Keane 5 DF Ashley Williams 6 DF Phil Jagielka (captain) 7 FW Yannick Bolasie 9 FW Sandro Ramírez 10 FW Wayne Rooney name=Theo Walcott 11 FW Kevin Mirallas 15 DF Cuco Martina 16 MF James McCarthy 17 MF Idrissa Gueye

No. Position Player 18 MF Gylfi Sigurðsson 19 FW Oumar Niasse 20 MF Davy Klaassen 21 MF Muhamed Bešić 22 GK Maarten Stekelenburg 23 DF Séamus Coleman 25 DF Ramiro Funes Mori 26 MF Tom Davies 27 FW Nikola Vlašić 29 FW Dominic Calvert-Lewin 30 DF Mason Holgate 31 FW Ademola Lookman 33 GK Joel Robles 43 DF Jonjoe Kenny

Out on loan |

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 46 MF Joe Williams (at Barnsley until 30 June 2018)[19] — DF Matthew Pennington (at Leeds United until 30 June 2018)[20]

No. Position Player — FW Henry Onyekuru (at Anderlecht until 30 June 2018)[21]

Notable former players |

• Dixie Dean


• Peter Reid


• Gary Lineker


• Tony Hibbert


• Joseph Yobo


• Mikel Arteta


• Phil Neville


• Tim Howard


• Tim Cahill


• Wayne Rooney


• Duncan Ferguson


• Alan Ball

League positions |

Former positions |

References |

Other websites |

• Official site


• Everton Former Players' Foundation


• Everton FC - Premierleague.com


• List of Everton links including unofficial websites