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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It took me nearly half my life to finally start supporting a team.
I started playing football as a small child and have never ever really stopped playing, not even now when I am way past my prime.
Growing up in Sweden – a small place called Enköping near Stockholm, to be precise – I always thought that playing football was more important than being a supporter, but that changed drastically when I moved to England 21 years ago.
I still remember that day in 2002. I was sitting in a crowded, local pub in Liverpool watching the games – as always. I used to drink the same beer, sit with the same people, and listen to the same banter.
At that time, my partner and I followed every goal, pass, and save being made in the Premier League and I really enjoyed the quality and passion. For me it didn’t matter who was providing the skills.
It was the quality of the play that I yearned for, as well as socialising with other football-interested people in the pub, where the atmosphere was something that I never experienced in Sweden… Even the grandmothers would be expert football pundits.
That day in the pub, Liverpool fans started aggressively shouting “send him off” at the TV screen about the Everton player who had made a tackle on a Newcastle striker.
He was, indeed, shown a red card. It was Joseph Yobo – he looked remorseful, apologised and left the pitch.
But I had a strange sense of feeling defensive over him. I didn’t like the arrogance of the people supporting Liverpool sat next to us and it was at that moment that everything seemed to click into place in my mind.
It struck me, like lightning from a clear blue sky – I was an Evertonian. Right there, as I sat on that wooden bench in the pub.
It was like an epiphany.
This also happened at a time where I, and the rest of the world, had been watching the progress Everton were making under David Moyes and when Wayne Rooney had become the youngest-ever goalscorer in Premier League history with his goal against Arsenal.
There was a fresh and positive feeling about the Blues and now I was one of them.
After five years of football in Liverpool, I returned to Sweden. All the way home, actually – to the countryside, where I grew up.
I now have two children: Leon (13) and Shona (15) and we live in the middle of the forest by a beautiful lake.
I love it here, but obviously miss spending the entirety of a Saturday in the pub watching football.
I have made several mistakes as a parent, but I am very proud to say that both my children are staunch Evertonians. Where they go to school, we know of two other people who support the Blues, which is fantastic.
We are also, of course, part of the Swedish Supporters’ Club – Swedish Toffees. It feels great to be part of this larger Blue community.
As an Evertonian you must overcome the blues to be a Blue.
You have to be in there for the long haul, cherishing the joy of watching a football game together with your beautiful children.
When my daughter started a new year in school, it became clear that one of her new classmates supported Liverpool. Her father is heavily involved in a local Supporters’ Club and, on one of his trips to Merseyside, he had bought a pair of Everton shorts that had been worn by Phil Neville. He told us about this and said he never knew what to do with them until he met us – now they are displayed on a wall in our house!
Unfortunately, there are plenty of Liverpool supporters at my football club here in the countryside, STIK, which stands for Södra Trögds Football Club.
My kids play for STIK. Shona is the only girl in the team. When they train, both of them often wear their Everton kits and nothing makes me prouder than to see the two Blues on the pitch.
Just before lockdown in England in March 2020, Shona, Leon, and I visited Merseyside and we were at the 1-1 draw with Manchester United, when the referee controversially disallowed a late winning goal for us. Despite the unfair result, the kids were over the moon with their first visit to Goodison Park.
It is such a special memory for me – and one that kept us going during the long haul of the COVID pandemic.
By Kristin Karlsson, Evertonian and member of Swedish Toffees
