It Hurts, Even From Afar

There are times when I feel being an Evertonian really means you have to be born and bred in Merseyside, and have that BLUE BLOOD flowing through your veins from the minute you were born. But unfortunately, I am not as privileged as you "Scousers", bacause I wasn't born on Merseyside. Heck, I'm not even born in the UK. I'm actually a Malaysian-Chinese and have been living my whole life in this country of my birth.

And to say that I was born with Blue Blood in my veins isn't exactly true either. The only way I related to football during my early childhood was because of the name Kevin (I was born in 1973), and everybody called me Kevin Keegan because of that. And I didn't even know Keegan was playing Redshite back then. So I just went along with it.

It was during one fine afternoon, when I was about 8 years old (1981-82), I went to one of my mates house (and his dad is a football player himself and support none other than RS), and they were watching the only program we could get access to back then "BIG LEAGUE SOCCER", and the match on highlight was between then famous Liverpool team against a Blue coloured team.

Growing up, Blue was my favourite colour. And when I asked my mate's dad, who is playing? He replied "Liverpool". I asked, "what about the Blue team?". He said "Oh, that's Everton". It was on that sacred moment that I fell into a deep coma and supported Everton eversince. (And oh, Everton won that match that day, btw).

My point to this whole story is this, as much as all Evertonians who were actually born on Merseyside get hurt everytime we lost to Liverpool, my hurt and my sorrow is 10 times worse than you can imagine. I have prided myself in being an Evertonian living in Malaysia all my life (Since I was 8, now I'm 35), and I tell you, there aren't exactly a great fan base for Everton over here. I am pretty much ON MY OWN. You'll see people who support the big 4 (for obvious reasons), and I'll be the only Evertonian over here.

When Derby day comes, it freaks the hell out of me seeing the likes of Gerrard and Torres tormenting our Everton team. It gets even worse when Liverpool scores or wins the match, and I'll be getting a hell lot of text messages from my RS mates who I wished didn't exist.

And the worse thing is, when I attend Sunday Mass at my local church the next day, the RS supporters would come with their Red Tops to taunt me (everybody in church knows I'm the only Everton supporter here). Even the PRIEST is a RS fan!! Cos after mass he came out with his CASSOCK and removed it in front of me, and it was a bloody RS Jersey he was wearing.

Trust me fellow Evertonians, I get it as bad (or even worse) over here in Malaysia, and I would give an arm and a leg to be with you guys over there. I really would.

So what I would like to say is, I've been supporting Everton since 1985, and went through the whole bad spell throughout the 1990s (except for that FA cup win over MU), and I'm still standing here as an Evertonian, all by myself.

Like they say, One Evertonian is Worth "How Many" Liverpudians?

I am certainly the ONE Evertonian from where I am.

COYB!

BY Midnight Rocker