Dominic Calvert-Lewin says he is wholly committed to Everton’s bid for glory under Carlo Ancelotti and wants to “go down in history” at Goodison Park.
Striker Calvert-Lewin’s goals inspired an exhilarating start to the campaign when Everton won seven straight matches.
Talking to Everton’s matchday programme for Sunday’s meeting with Sheffield United, Calvert-Lewin admitted supporters’ reaction to that perfect beginning remained at the front of his mind.
The 24-year-old Englishman, who was “underwhelmed” by the response of social media companies to the recent boycott of social platforms, is contracted to Everton until at least June 2025.
He has 25 goals for Club and country this season and insists his ambitions on the former front belong exclusively with Everton.
“Absolutely,” asserted Calvert-Lewin. “As a club we have not achieved for a long time.
“To be one of the players in this squad to win a trophy, to win a league, would be massive.
“You would go down in history, at a club with a very rich history, which is striving to be back up there.
“For me, it is that personal connection with Everton and the raw emotion winning for this club brings.”
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Calvert-Lewin scored 10 goals in his opening seven games this term as a team buoyed by new recruits James Rodriguez, Allan and Abdoulaye Doucoure captured fans’ imaginations.
Spirit of the Blues topped the UK iTunes chart and the first shoots of Ancelotti’s evolving Everton were apparent.
Everton are in the European argument with three Premier League games remaining and the Italian manager expects to strengthen this summer.
“I have been thinking about that [perfect start and fans’ response] all season,” says Calvert-Lewin.
“When I have been scoring goals and we’ve been winning games, it’s felt like, ‘This is what we’ve been waiting for, this push, this squad, this manager’.
“The new stadium is under way, and to have Carlo Ancelotti guiding and leading us, you couldn’t ask for more.
“All that has been missing is the fans, the passion they bring rubs off on us players.
“Everything is in place for us to move into that top-six category.
“But it is down to us to turn our ambitions into reality.”
Calvert-Lewin uses social media as a vehicle to engage with supporters, sharing insight into an engaging and unaffected personality.
He intermittently deletes the various platforms, however, reasoning that extended periods on Twitter and Instagram aren't conducive to general wellbeing.
Football was joined by multiple sporting bodes in a three-day social media boycott from 30 April.
Raheem Sterling of Manchester City, the former Nottingham Forest and England striker Stan Collymore, and Rabbi Matondo, the Manchester City winger on loan at Stoke City, were all racially abused online shortly after the boycott.
“It is like Groundhog Day,” said Calvert-Lewin.
“We can have these boycotts all we want but they are just that unless there is action to go with it.
“I was slightly underwhelmed by it.
“It is all well and good having a weekend’s social media boycott but what happens when it is Monday morning and people are being racially abused again or receiving general online abuse?
“Until people are held accountable for words they type into their keyboards, things are not going to change.
“It is more deep-rooted than, ‘Right, everybody stop being racist, everybody stop abusing people online’.
“I am not a politician, I don’t have all the answers.
“But I believe more can be done higher up [in Government], and higher up in social media companies, to counteract this.
“There will be victims until true changes are made.”
Calvert-Lewin continued: “I use social media sparingly.
“I go through periods when I take the app off my phone to have a break from it.
“For your general health, it is not good to be on it too much.
“I like to try to live in the real world, in my real world.
“You have a good game and people tell you how good you are.
“You have a bad game and it is the other extreme.
“How do you read that all the time and have balance?”
