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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My fellow Toffees,
My name is Arran Bradley, I am 31 and hail from Wishaw, Scotland.
My love for Everton began in 2002. I was on a cruise for a summer holiday with my family and, as it happened, the boat was packed with Scousers.
Naturally, I kept seeing a beautiful Blue shirt around. It had an exotic sponsor (Kejian).
My interest in football had only really developed a year prior, when I started following Motherwell - my local team - so I didn’t know what club it was.
I spoke to one of the fans in one of the shirts and immediately the raw passion, love and sense of tradition that radiated from him was enough to convince my impressionable young mind that this is a very special club. Much to the chagrin of my father, who follows Liverpool, the poor soul.
The rest of that summer was spent learning all I could about Everton… The legendary Scottish players past and present, the emergence of a young superstar in Wayne Rooney, the history of Goodison and why Everton is ‘The People's Club’.
Then, almost as if David Moyes thought that wee guy from Scotland needed one last push, Everton signed James McFadden from my beloved Motherwell.
It was fate.
Later that week I was at Motherwell’s stadium, Fir Park, to buy the new shirt. On the back wall was that beautiful Royal Blue shirt with the exotic sponsor from my holiday weeks before, only this one was a centenary one and, somehow, even more beautiful.
Suffice to say, I did not leave with a Motherwell shirt that day. I was now the proud owner of an Everton shirt (with that exotic sponsor!) and I have never looked back since.
Everton, for me, is truly the sense of being part of something bigger. Whenever I meet fellow Toffees home or abroad they welcome you in like you’re from the Gwladys Street rather than Glasgow. It is truly the People’s Club.
Just writing this down feels extremely fulfilling. Being an Evertonian is something very special.
Up the Toffees.
By Arran Bradley, Evertonian
