60 Fun Facts About Everton

Under what name were Everton founded in 1878, so a Methodist congregation could play sport year-round?

St Domingo's FC was meant for the chapel's own cricketers, but so many outsiders wanted to join that in November 1879 it was renamed after the district, at a meeting in the Queen's Head Hotel.

Everton's first league title, in 1890-91, ended which club's run as champions of the Football League's first two seasons?

Preston North End finished two points behind: Everton had played all but one game by mid-January, then waited two months and lost their last match, 3-2 at Burnley, yet still took the title.

Everton won their first FA Cup in 1906 by beating which north-east club at Crystal Palace?

Newcastle United won three league titles that decade, yet a single goal 13 minutes from time made this the second of three FA Cup finals they lost in four years.

Which Everton striker scored 25 seconds into the 2009 FA Cup final, then the fastest goal in final history?

Louis Saha beat a record that had stood since 1895, yet Chelsea came back to win 2-1; his mark fell only in 2023, when İlkay Gündoğan scored inside 15 seconds.

Everton signed Dixie Dean in 1925 from which club?

Tranmere Rovers banked £3,000 for an 18-year-old who had just scored 27 league goals for a side that finished second from bottom.

How many league goals did Dixie Dean score in 1927-28, setting an English record for a single season?

60, reached with a hat-trick at Goodison on the final day: his third, a late header, beat by one the record George Camsell had set in the Second Division a year earlier.

Which club did Everton beat 3-0 in the 1933 FA Cup final?

Manchester City wore 12 to 22 and Everton 1 to 11, the first time shirts were numbered in an FA Cup final; City came back a year later and won the cup.

Which Italian club, co-owned with Everton since 2024, bid for T. G. Jones in the 1940s?

Roma's deal for the Welsh centre-half collapsed at the eleventh hour over post-war currency complications, and he stayed at Everton.

Everton were first relegated in 1930, two years after doing what?

Won the league title in 1928, then finished bottom two years later; they answered by winning the Second Division, the First Division and the FA Cup in successive seasons, and were next relegated in 1951.

Which manager, appointed in 1961, won Everton the title in his second season and the FA Cup in 1966?

Harry Catterick got the job after chairman John Moores sacked Johnny Carey in the back of a London taxi, with Everton fifth in the table; the title followed two years later.

Everton came from two goals down to win the 1966 FA Cup final 3-2 against which club?

Sheffield Wednesday led 2-0 before Mike Trebilcock, surprisingly picked ahead of England forward Fred Pickering, scored twice in five minutes and Derek Temple ran through for the winner.

Everton's 1969-70 'Holy Trinity' midfield was Howard Kendall, Colin Harvey and who?

Alan Ball joined weeks after winning the 1966 World Cup and the trio won the 1970 title by nine points, yet Everton finished 14th the next season and within two years he had been sold for a British record £220,000.

Which Everton left-back was the oldest member of England's team in the 1966 World Cup final?

Ray Wilson was 31 when England beat West Germany, weeks after winning the FA Cup with Everton; once he retired he left the game behind and ran an undertaker's business in Huddersfield.

Which Everton striker topped the First Division scoring chart with 30 goals in 1977-78?

Bob Latchford went into the final game two short of the 30 league goals that carried a £10,000 newspaper prize, and got there with a penalty 12 minutes from time in a 6-0 rout of Chelsea.

Which club did Everton beat 3-1 in the second leg of their 1985 Cup Winners' Cup semi-final?

Bayern Munich led at half-time at Goodison after a goalless first leg, but Everton scored three in the second half and, three weeks later, lifted their only European trophy.

Everton's only European trophy, the 1985 Cup Winners' Cup, was won 3-1 in the final against which club?

Rapid Vienna were beaten in Rotterdam by goals from Gray, Steven and Sheedy; three days later Everton lost the FA Cup final in extra time, one win short of a treble.

Whose arrival in 1985 led champions Everton to sell striker Andy Gray back to Aston Villa?

Gary Lineker scored 30 league goals in his only Everton season and put them ahead in the FA Cup final, yet they finished runners-up in both and he left for Barcelona that summer.

After winning the 1987 title, Howard Kendall left Everton to manage which Spanish club?

Athletic Bilbao got him that June because English clubs were banned from Europe after Heysel: his champions had no European Cup to play in, and he wanted to test himself abroad.

Which manager won only six of his 35 games in charge of Everton before being sacked in November 1994?

Mike Walker had saved Everton on the last day of 1993-94, when they beat Wimbledon 3-2 from two goals down, but they went the first 12 league games of the next season without a win.

Who scored the only goal when Everton's 'Dogs of War' beat Manchester United in the 1995 FA Cup final?

Paul Rideout headed in after Graham Stuart's shot came back off the crossbar on the half-hour, the high point of a season in which Everton had been bottom of the league in November.

In 1997-98 Everton stayed up only on goal difference at the expense of which club?

Bolton Wanderers began the final day a point ahead, but lost at Chelsea while Everton clung to a 1-1 draw with Coventry, surviving a missed penalty and a late equaliser.

Wayne Rooney's first league goal for Everton, in October 2002, ended which champions' 30-match unbeaten run?

Arsenal were beaten 2-1 by a last-minute long-range shot from a substitute five days short of his 17th birthday, which drew the commentator's line: "Remember the name: Wayne Rooney!"

What nickname did Everton's new manager coin at his first press conference in March 2002?

The People's Club was his line on the day he arrived: the majority of people you meet on the street, he said, are Everton fans.

Which player became Everton's record signing on transfer deadline day in September 2008?

Marouane Fellaini arrived from Standard Liège at almost the last minute of the window; five years later, again on deadline day, he left for Manchester United to rejoin his old Everton manager.

Which on-loan striker scored 15 league goals as Everton reached 72 points in 2013-14, their best in 27 years?

Romelu Lukaku, borrowed from Chelsea, scored the winner on his debut at West Ham; Everton finished fifth and made the loan permanent that summer for a club-record fee.

Which manager was sacked in October 2017 after a 5-2 home defeat left Everton in the relegation zone?

Ronald Koeman had spent well over £100 million that summer, yet Everton won only two of their first nine league games, and he was sacked the day after the 5-2 defeat.

Which former player won his first game as Everton's caretaker manager 3-1 against Chelsea in December 2019?

Duncan Ferguson raced down the touchline at each goal and swung a ball boy in the air; unbeaten in his three league games in charge, he then stayed on as Carlo Ancelotti's assistant.

Which former Anfield manager was appointed by Everton in June 2021 and sacked less than seven months later?

Rafael Benítez was the first man to manage both clubs since William Barclay in the 1890s, but nine defeats in his last 13 league games ended the experiment.

Everton's ten-point deduction in November 2023 broke a Premier League record of nine, set in 2010 by which club?

Portsmouth, punished for going into administration, were relegated; Everton's ten was cut to six on appeal, a second case cost two more, and they still stayed up.

Which American billionaire completed his purchase of Everton in December 2024?

Dan Friedkin's group bought Farhad Moshiri's 94 per cent stake after a sale to Miami-based 777 Partners had collapsed; Moshiri lost hundreds of millions in eight years as owner.

Early Everton dyed their mismatched shirts black to save money, then brightened them with what?

A scarlet sash was sewn on after every shirt had been dyed black: new players had been turning out in the colours of their old clubs, and dye was cheaper than new kit.

Which right-back, later Everton's captain, cost just £60,000 when he signed in January 2009?

Séamus Coleman came from Sligo Rovers in the League of Ireland while other interested clubs dithered; he went on to make more than 400 Everton appearances and took the armband in 2019.

Which landmark on Everton Brow has featured on Everton's crest since 1938?

Prince Rupert's Tower was never a prince's: it is a lock-up, built in 1787 to hold drunks overnight, and named for the Royalist commander whose army is said to have camped at Everton more than a century earlier.

Which Latin motto was added to Everton's crest in 1938?

Nil satis nisi optimum, "nothing but the best is good enough", first appeared on a club necktie worn on the opening day of 1938-39, and took another 40 years to reach the players' shirts.

Everton's 2013 crest redesign dropped the motto and which other feature?

The laurel wreaths went along with the Latin motto; the club apologised, and a replacement that brought the motto back won almost 80 per cent of a fan vote.

The best-known explanation of the 'Toffees' nickname involves Mother Noblett's, a shop that sold what?

Everton Mints came from Mother Noblett's shop in that story; a rival story credits Ma Bushell's toffee house, and either way a Toffee Lady has long thrown sweets to the crowd before kick-off.

After Everton quit Anfield in an 1892 rent dispute, what did landlord John Houlding do?

Formed a new club, Liverpool, but only after the football authorities refused to let him keep the Everton name for the side he had left at Anfield.

John Houlding, the Anfield landlord who fell out with Everton in 1892, had made his money in which trade?

Brewing: he owned the Sandon Hotel, where the club's meetings were held, and as owner of Anfield he more than doubled the rent within a few years, one of the grievances behind the split.

What did the 12,000 crowd at Goodison Park's official opening in August 1892 watch instead of football?

An athletics meeting, followed by music and fireworks and attended by Lord Kinnaird of the FA; within two years the new ground was staging the FA Cup final.

Which World Cup star scored six goals at Goodison Park in 1966, including four in one match against North Korea?

Eusébio scored twice there as Portugal beat the holders, Brazil, then four more after North Korea had gone 3-0 up in the quarter-final, which Portugal won 5-3.

Everton's walkout song 'Johnny Todd' is better known as the theme to which TV series?

Z-Cars was a BBC police drama set in a fictional new town modelled on Kirkby, on Merseyside; when the club tried different walkout music in 1994, supporters objected so strongly that the old theme soon came back.

Who designed Goodison Park's 1909 main stand and the Bullens Road stand opposite?

Archibald Leitch built both even though a terrace he had designed at Ibrox collapsed in 1902, killing 25; his criss-cross steel balcony is the Bullens Road stand's trademark.

Which 1960s Everton legend's nickname gave Ken Loach's TV film 'The Golden Vision' its title?

Alex Young lent the 1968 film his nickname and appears as himself, but its story belongs to a group of Everton fans whose lives revolve around following the team.

Goodison Park hosted the climactic fight in which 2015 film, with Tony Bellew as the opponent?

Creed's makers filmed at Goodison during a league match against West Bromwich Albion; in May 2016 Tony Bellew won a real world title in the same stadium, knocking out Ilunga Makabu.

Which 1985 Everton single reached number 14?

"Here We Go" peaked the week after Everton lost the 1985 FA Cup final, by which time they had already won the league and the Cup Winners' Cup.

Which Beatle called his family 'officially Evertonians'?

Paul McCartney added that in a derby he would have to back Everton, but that after striking up a friendship with Kenny Dalglish he had decided to support both of the city's clubs.

Chile's Everton, who played their English namesakes at Goodison Park in 2010, are based in which city?

Viña del Mar's Everton were founded in 1909 by an Anglo-Chilean group led by David Foxley; the usual story is that they took the name of the English club then touring South America.

Everton's Hill Dickinson Stadium, opened in 2025, was built on which infilled dock on the Mersey waterfront?

Bramley-Moore Dock was filled in during 2021 and the ground built on top; that July UNESCO named the planned stadium among the developments that cost the city its World Heritage status.

Which team made Goodison Park its home from 2025-26, sparing the old ground from planned demolition?

Everton Women had been playing at 2,200-capacity Walton Hall Park; the club's new owners scrapped a plan to replace Goodison with houses, shops and a care home and gave them a ground of almost 40,000 seats.

Which forward scored Everton's last Premier League goal at Goodison Park and their first at Hill Dickinson Stadium?

Iliman Ndiaye scored both goals in the 2-0 farewell win over Southampton in May 2025, then struck first against Brighton three months later, set up by Jack Grealish, in another 2-0 win.

Which manager returned to Everton in January 2025 to replace Sean Dyche?

David Moyes came back almost twelve years after leaving for Manchester United, took over a side one point above the relegation zone and lifted it to 13th by May.

Who was Everton's 1985 PFA Players' Player?

Peter Reid had joined for a fraction of the fee once mooted, a run of injuries having cut his price; his season at the heart of midfield brought Everton the eighth of their nine league titles.

Which goalkeeper holds Everton's appearance record, with more than 700 first-team matches?

Neville Southall went from hod carrier in non-league football to the First Division in two years when Everton paid Bury £150,000 in 1981; in 1985 the football writers voted him Footballer of the Year.

Who is Everton's second-highest goalscorer of all time, behind only Dixie Dean?

Graeme Sharp cost £120,000 from Dumbarton in 1980; the best remembered of his goals is the dipping volley in October 1984 that gave Everton their first win at Anfield since 1970.

Everton's record home attendance of 78,299 came in 1948 against which opponents?

Liverpool drew 1-1 in front of the biggest crowd any Merseyside derby has drawn, packed into a ground that had needed £5,000 of repairs from the War Damage Commission after wartime bombing.

Gylfi Sigurðsson joined Everton for a then club-record fee in 2017 from which club?

Swansea City let him go only after a summer-long saga, during which Sigurðsson skipped their pre-season tour of the United States because of the uncertainty over his future.

Which captain led Everton to two league titles, the FA Cup and the Cup Winners' Cup?

Kevin Ratcliffe took the armband at 23. His side were twice champions but never played in the European Cup, because English clubs were banned after the Heysel disaster.

Which Spanish midfielder joined Everton from Real Sociedad in 2005 and twice won the club's Player of the Season award?

Mikel Arteta had dreamed of playing for his hometown club Real Sociedad but lasted only a few months there. A loan to Everton turned into a £2m move and six more seasons.

Hill Dickinson, the sponsor named on Everton's new stadium, is what kind of business?

Law firm Hill Dickinson was founded on Merseyside in 1810, 68 years before the club. Its lawyers acted for the White Star Line at the British inquiry into the sinking of the Titanic.

Everton lent its name to a professional team called the Tigers from 2007 to 2010 in which sport?

Basketball: Everton Tigers grew out of Toxteth Tigers, a long-running community club. A year after Everton's funding ended, the renamed Mersey Tigers won three trophies in one season.