Everton football club was originally founded 1878 as St. Domingo Football Club and, as such is one of the oldest and most prestigious clubs in the world. They play their football at Goodison Park which was opened on 24th August 1892.
The capacity of the stadium is 39,572 and the venue is usually full for home games. Everton FC is mainly owned by Farhad Moshiri (49.9%), Bill Kenwright (12.2%) and Jon Woods (8.9).
Everton, nicknamed The Toffees, is one of the most successful teams in England and have been in the top flight for over 110 consecutive seasons. They have a massive trophy haul of nine league titles, five FA Cups and nine Charity Shields.
Their main European triumph was in The Cup Winners Cup in the 1984/85 season.
On 15th April 1985 they contested the final of the competition against Rapid Wien of Austria in the Feijenoord Stadion, Rotterdam.
Possibly the strongest team in Everton’s history dominated the game and went 2-0 up through goals from Andy Gray and Trevor Steven. They did suffer a scare when Rapid pulled a goal back in the 85th minute to set up a grandstand finish. But Everton quickly and brilliantly doused the flames of hope by responding with a goal through Kevin Sheedy just a minute later.
And this was a period of Everton success which hasn’t been replicated since. In the 80s Everton went toe to toe with pre-eminent team of the era and local rivals Liverpool. Everton beat their powerful neighbours to the 1984/85 and 1986/87 titles and also won the FA Cup in 1983/84.
Most of their greatest successes came under the visionary guidance of manager Howard Kendall who pulled together a largely home grown team of supreme ability and resilience.
That Everton team was littered with household names likes Kevin Sheedy, Trevor Steven, Gary Stevens, Peter Reid, Adrian Heath and many other solid international footballers.
Like their famous rivals Liverpool, a fallow period followed this serial success. Everton did win the FA Cup in 1994/95 in a hard fought victory against Manchester United with the only goal coming from Paul Rideout in the 30th minute.
But they have struggled to stay apace with the top teams in the Premier League as financial difficulties took their toll.
But Everton have enjoyed for greater financial stability over the last few years and have a solid squad and brighter outlook under the current owners and visionary manager Ronald Koeman who took charge of the club at the start of the 2016/17 season.
Charged with taking Everton back into the Champions League Koeman continues to strengthen a promising looking side with the likes of English midfielder Ross Barkley increasingly coming to the fore.
Everton have had some super players through their glorious history but perhaps the most iconic of those was Wayne Rooney. He only stayed at Everton for a few years before his move to Manchester United. But the sense of excitement that surrounded his time at the club, and his emergence as a world class talent, had no equal.
His big money move to Manchester tainted the feelings of many fans about the player and many would point to Gary Lineker as a better example of a great Everton striker.
He only played one season for Everton before a move to Barcelona in 1986 but he scored 30 goals in just 41 games in a sensational campaign for the club. His movement and ability to arrive in the right place at the right time was remarkable.
But the undoubted striking legend at Everton, and their top scorer of all time, was the prolific Dixie Dean who bagged 383 goals for Everton over the space of twelve years between 1925 and 1937.
Brian Labone is their record appearance holder to date with 534 games followed by another hero from the 1980s, Dave Watson, who managed 528 games for The Toffees.
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