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I turned up to Liverpool trial in Everton kit - I upset fans but I had a good reason

fasika zelealem
·3-min read
Jamie Carragher speaking on Sky Sports.
-Credit: (Image: Will Palmer/Sportsphoto/Allstar Via Getty Images)


Jamie Carragher revealed he rocked up to his Liverpool trial still sporting an Everton kit - admitting that that his choice of attire was out of desperation. The Reds legend famously grew up a Blues fan alongside the rest of his family but as we know now, his future was destined for Anfield.

While the 46-year-old is a regular on Stick to Football podcast, he was a special guest on the show back in October as he discussed his footballing career with Gary Neville, Roy Keane, Ian Wright, and Paul Scholes.

The former England defender delved into his love of Everton growing up, who he followed home and away before joining Liverpool at nine years old. But even that didn't stop his support of the Toffees.

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He opened up about the situation that caused him to turn up to his Liverpool trial whilst wearing an Everton kit but explained he did so because he had no other choice.

Carragher recalled: "The first team I played for was my school’s football team – Bootle boys. The scouts would come and watch Bootle boys, Liverpool boys, Wirral boys – and the best players would get picked to play for Liverpool.

‌"I can still picture it now – we were in the dressing room of a school in Bootle on Friday. Four of us went down to Liverpool – but I was a massive Everton fan! When people ask why I wore my Everton kit – it was the only kit I had! I didn’t have another kit. Everyone wore their own stuff and threw bibs on."

Michael Ball Like fellow Scousers Rooney and his team-mate Jeffers, Ball was a lifelong Evertonian who’d progressed through the Blues academy ranks. He joined Scottish side Rangers in 2001, a couple of months shy of his 22nd birthday, but over two decades later, the ECHO columnist revealed Goodison Park chiefs were prepared to sell him to local rivals Liverpool. Ball said: “I was 21 at the time and it was 21 years ago but I’ve never spoken about it before. Liverpool had a first bid rejected but then they came back in and had an offer accepted so if I’d have been willing to go then they would have sold me to Liverpool and that’s what really hurt the most. “I’d been away on holiday, having agreed a new contract but when I came back I was told that the board had changed their mind, they’d received offers for me, would speak to my agent and I could pick the club. “There was no chance I was going to join Liverpool though. I just couldn’t do it. “Nick Barmby had made the same move just a year before and look what happened over that – and he was from Hull while I was a local lad.”
Despite his Evertonian background, Carragher went on to become a Liverpool legend -Credit:Getty

Carragher admitted to Neville that it was only when he broke into the Liverpool first team in 1996 that his love of Everton began to subside. He added: "[On when he stopped being an Everton fan] When I was in the Liverpool first team – I was still a fan in the youth team.

‌"We won the Youth Cup, and the next season it went from three to five subs. The first game of the season, Liverpool were away at Middlesbrough – the day that Fabrizio Ravanelli got a hat trick on his debut for Middlesbrough, and I was on the bench.

"It was also Alan Shearer’s first game for Newcastle that day – but it was at Goodison Park. Everton were winning 2-0 at half time. I was warming up at half-time, I saw my dad in the crowd, so I signalled ‘It’s 2-0!’ Even my dad said that after that it had to stop."

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It was a swift remark from a historical figure in Liverpool's history that encouraged Carragher to seriously tone down his passion for the Blues. "Before that, Ronnie Moran had pulled me and the youth coaches," he revealed. "We were playing for Liverpool reserves, and Everton were playing a replay against Stockport in the FA Cup.

"Stockport score, and everyone went ‘Get in’, and then Everton scored, and I went ‘Get in’. Even the youth team coaches pulled me and told me to calm down.

"How could I possibly still be an Everton fan if I was playing for Liverpool? What Liverpool have done for me and my life – my family, the trips, the memories - how can I not be a Liverpool fan?"