I first moved to England from Canada in August 1999 with the hope and prayer of living with a woman I met while working in the Cayman Islands.
I had heard about Liverpool, the city. I remembered the Hillsborough disaster from my middle school days, which felt the world over, but football, as I naively called it at the time, was really just a sport I played when I was a very young boy.
I quickly found that in England one of the first questions people ask you, even in job interviews, was ‘which team do you support?’… I didn’t have a right answer but I figured it as we live in Newcastle drank But as a youngster in Canada, Newcastle was an answer to the inevitable question.
My first football game ever was Everton vs Newcastle. It happened to be Big Dunc’s first game as a Newcastle player at Goodison Park and at the time I didn’t understand the importance of that game.
I had strict orders from my friend to keep my mouth shut when supporting Newcastle, who emerged 2-1 winners that day. To be honest, I was just blown away by the whole matchday experience.
Over the next few years, I attended all sorts of games whenever and wherever I could. I’ve seen Wigan and Everton and even the neighbors who lost to Roma at home in the UEFA Cup.
In 2009 I somehow managed to get a free ticket to an FA Cup replay between Everton and Liverpool on Gwladys Street.
When Dan Gosling scored the winning goal, that was it for me. What a moment – and I finally had my team.
We were moving to Canada this summer and who would be in town? The mighty blues. It was as if everything was meant to be.
What a ride it’s been since then. Both of my children who were born on Merseyside are Evertonians too. Their first game was Ross Barkley’s senior debut against QPR. Most of my wife’s family is Red, but I’m glad there’s a beautiful blue vein running through the family.
We are addicts for life.
By Niall Wolfram, Evertonian
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