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I cover Premier League football on Belgian TV and when Everton are playing it is impossible to remain impartial.

I have been reminded a few times by the programme director that I am there to commentate and analyse, not to support. I worked on the first game of this season, against Southampton, then went months without being allocated an Everton match.

But I always want Everton to win, I can’t help it. How can you switch off such powerful feelings?

The Club and its supporters provided me with an unforgettable experience. My only regret – and it is a big one – is that it didn’t last longer than three years. That was entirely on me and I will talk about the blow-up around me leaving later in the article.

My connection with Everton began in a very unlikely setting, about seven months before I joined.

I was in Paris recording a commercial for the FIFA 2001 video game.

Alan Ball was at the shoot and we got talking. He told me, ‘A guy like you would fit perfectly at Everton, if you give 100 percent the fans will love you and you will go a long way’.

I had never spoken to Everton at that point. When Walter Smith contacted me later in the year, I thought back to that conversation with Alan.

They way everything unfolded, I think me signing for Everton was written in the stars. I was meant to play for the Club.

It felt like I had to wear a rain jacket in training every day for my first few months, but I didn't care.

I loved playing for Everton from the beginning. I remember sitting in the dressing room after my full debut at Goodison Park and thinking, ‘I belong here’.

We beat West Ham United 5-0 and I scored. The atmosphere was electric and I felt appreciated by the other players, I didn’t know them so well yet but I heard a few whispering, ‘He made a difference’.

I thought, ‘This can be a beautiful marriage’.

I was asked recently about the explosion of noise when I scored a winning goal against Southampton deep into stoppage time.

But the ground exploded every time we scored.

This was the beauty of Goodison. The fans never took a goal for granted, it was special, and it made you want to score and create goals.

I am getting goosebumps right now thinking about some of my goals. Scoring for Everton was an experience like no other.

You feed off the energy and atmosphere in that stadium, it gives you wings.

The way the whole ground got behind you made you do more. You didn’t dare stop until the final whistle.

Goodison gave me so many joyful moments and there will be a sense of loss when it’s gone.

Evertonians deserve a top-class venue, though, and I will be as excited as anybody to visit the new stadium.

I was a striker, so people inevitably expect one of my goals to qualify as the highlight of my Everton career.

For me, though, the team always ranked above personal success.  

You are an individual, passing through in most cases. The Club is more important than any one person.

I would rather provide five assists and win 5-0, than score and win 1-0.

And nothing in my time at Everton matched the elation of Wayne Rooney’s goal to beat Arsenal in October 2002.

I wasn’t even on the pitch, Wayne replaced me with 10 minutes to play.

A draw would have been a good memory for me because I scored our equaliser and Arsenal were a brilliant side, the champions. They’d not lost in 30 league matches.

To beat them at home, with a goal like that, is something I will cherish forever.

I loved living in the city, too.  It had everything, great people, restaurants. I would eat at 60 Hope Street and go to the Living Room for small concerts.

I initially had an apartment on the docks where my neighbours were Paul Gascoigne and Abel Xavier. Thankfully, Paul was keener on making Abel the butt of his jokes - and I was okay with that and didn’t interfere!

I will always be grateful to Walter Smith for making me an Everton player. If it wasn’t for him, I might have been nothing.

I had enormous respect for Walter and will never forget him. It was a dark time when he died last year, really sad.

The football community lost a great, great man.

I admire David Moyes, too. He recently reached 1,000 games as a manager. It is a fantastic achievement and I am proud I was part of it.

There was always great camaraderie at the Club and it really took off when we started regularly winning under David.

Why did I leave all this, then?

I asked David for two more years on my contract. I’d given everything and played well and scored goals during a difficult season for the team and thought the extension would be a reward.

I wanted to stay longer and not be in the same situation 12 months down the road, with one year left on my contract, worrying about the future and not concentrating on football.

But I was offered one extra year and that was a blow to my ego.

I had no family around to advise me, no agent to speak of. I was making football decisions alone.

Things got out of hand and I said the wrong things.

I have regretted it ever since.

It wouldn’t have happened later in my career, when I was older and wiser.

Right now, I understand why David Moyes didn’t want to give me a longer contract.

I was approaching 31. It was not unusual for players from Continental Europe to struggle to play at a high intensity later in their careers.

David knew there was a time to look for fresh blood. You don’t see that as a player, it is something you grasp later when you go into the management side.

Hats off to David Moyes, he saw it. That’s why he’s managed all those games.  

I can’t change what happened, however much I want to.

Evertonians should know I didn’t intend to hurt anyone at the Club with what I said. I was focused on myself.

Of course, I wonder what more could have been possible if I’d stayed with Everton.

But I am so happy and proud I played for this special club and to call myself an Evertonian today.

By Tomasz Radzinski, 101 appearances + 26 goals for Everton (2001-2004)