Everton and technical partner hummel are proud to collaborate to present My Everton, a weekly series of first-hand accounts describing the most-treasured memories of fans, players, and staff both past and present.

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I turned 42 this month and only nine months of those years, a tiny fraction, were spent with Everton.

But my season with this club was, unquestionably, one of the most special periods of my life.

The love I received from Evertonians was unlike anything else I have experienced and even now I don’t understand it. Only they can tell you why they treated me with such warmth. 

I wasn’t performing but it was unconditional love. The Everton fans gave more to me than I gave to them and I will always be so grateful for how they accepted me.

I said in an interview with the Club’s matchday programme for the game against Newcastle later this month that if God could give me a last 90 minutes on my legs, I would play at Goodison Park one more time.

Hand on heart, this is the truth.

Goodison isn’t the best stadium I played in but the atmosphere is amazing, so intense. I always felt that if you gave everything for the shirt, the fans were there fighting with you.

The passion for Everton was huge and, yes, the supporters were desperate to win. But if you lost a match, they were still completely with the team, as long as there was commitment and desire in the performance.

I didn’t expect to develop such a connection to Everton.

The chance to join came out of the blue, I was playing for Roma and wanted to stay to impress the new manager but they made it clear that wasn’t possible.

I told myself that things happen for a reason, that I could have a new start. I just followed my instinct.

If I am honest, I didn’t know a great deal about the Club, only that it was always in the Premier League and often fighting in the top half.

I learned little-by-little about the history and the supporters and the rivalries.

Everton, to me, meant family. When I missed games, I felt I was letting people down.

The mood was low when I came. We had lost in the Champions League qualifiers and the team wasn’t performing.

My first appearances were at left-back – I am naturally a centre-half – and I knew my own performance level was very low.

I was trying to adjust to other things off the pitch. Days in Liverpool were unfamiliar, with a lot of rain and wind and the dark afternoons. The food was different and so was the English accent… my English was poor.

These are subtle factors but all influence how a newcomer settles.

I should reiterate, here, that I was very happy every day at Everton. I like experiencing other cultures and ways of living and the challenge of adapting to new surroundings.

Those issues all contributed to my slow start, though. Fans wouldn’t have seen these things but they didn’t once question me, they just continued showing complete love and support.

I never worried about the team’s ability to change our results. I saw the effort and quality in practice every day. We were winning games when I came back from injury after Christmas and my game was improving.

But I suffered a hamstring problem, which, I think, was a result of trying to adjust to the workload, especially in the gym.

I never expected to have my worst season with injuries, nothing prepares you for that.

We are conditioned to say we have no regrets in life but I wish Everton fans saw the real me.

I played a poor number of games and when I got on the pitch, I never felt more than 50-per-cent fit.

The ironic thing is I didn’t want to leave Roma and I didn’t want to return. 

My thinking was to stay at Everton and show everybody what I could do when I was healthy and in condition, but I had no say in the decision.

Perhaps it was fate sending me back to Rome because we had an excellent season, winning the Italian Cup and reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

But I will always wish I had at least one more year feeling the passion of the Evertonians.

Today, I am one of them. If I look at the Premier League table, the name Everton leaps out. I always need to know what is happening with Everton before I can even see the rest.

I won’t get that last 90 minutes on the pitch, unfortunately, time has seen to that. But one day I want to come back to Goodison Park to be with my Everton family again.

By Matteo Ferrari, 13 appearances for Everton (2005/06)