TONY (^) B
ELLEW
EVERTON
UPFROnT
BAD TIMING A Houston Dynamo fan proposed
to his girlfriend mid-match – but LA Galaxy then
ruined their moment by scoring seconds later
20 December 2021 FourFourTwo
burglars once, too...] He did – two guys
broke into his house and he smashed
them to bits. It was very well deserved,
in my opinion. They never came back
again, did they?
On that note, which player would
make the best boxer?
Dunc likes to shy away from all of that,
but I’ve watched him on the bag when
I’ve been doing training sessions. He’d
make a fantastic fighter, although not
necessarily based on his technique –
there are other lads who might nudge
ahead of him there. Tony Hibbert would
have made an unbelievable boxer, and
I reckon Seamus Coleman could have
been a good fighter. It’s more about
the temperament with these boys, the
nastiness in them. Dunc’s got that.
I shouldn’t say I’m all for headbutting
another player like he did, but listen:
when you’ve got to do it, you’ve got to
do it. [Laughs]
What was your finest moment as
a player?
I played at a decent level for Edge
Hill’s first team and scored a header
from outside the box once. The ball
was leathered in as a cross, I was
What was the first game that you
ever attended?
I don’t know the game, but I do know
Peter Beardsley scored two goals, so it
would have been in the early ’90s. You
don’t forget that kind of noise when
you see your team score for the first
time. My dad was a Liverpool fan and
my eldest brother was an Evertonian.
I was a rebel and wanted to go against
my father as always, just to prove him
wrong. Once my brother took me to
Goodison Park at about nine or 10,
that was it. I 100 per cent believe that
I was chosen because, let’s be honest,
who chooses to support Everton?
Who was your childhood hero?
I absolutely loved Duncan Ferguson
[right] when I was slightly older, and
the mad thing is he’s now my friend.
That’s absolutely round the bend. He
was someone I looked at to possibly
replicate out on the pitch – he’d give
someone a belt when he didn’t agree
with them, he was big, he was strong
and always got stuck right in. He was
perceived as having limited football
ability, but he really didn’t – he had
great feet, which is often overlooked
because he was so good in the air.
[FFT: He had to sort out a couple of
running onto it and somehow nodded
it into the top corner – that was in the
quarter-finals of a cup. I was always
a centre-forward – a big man to
hold the ball up. I wasn’t
bad from free-kicks either
you know, and pretty decent
at penalties. My mates would
beg to differ – there was one
season where I took about 13
and missed six of them, which
was embarrassing. But I carried
on taking them because I refused
to let anyone else.
Which player from the past would
you bring back to star in the current
Toffees team?
[Pauses] Hmm... a leader, maybe at
the heart of defence. It’s hard to pick
one, but right now we could do with
somebody like Dave Watson [below].
Where’s the best place you’ve ever
watched a game?
When I was making the movie Creed,
I went to an Irish pub in Philadelphia
and watched a Merseyside Derby there.
I can’t remember the result, but I’d
say it was a draw because I came out
happy – the best part was that no one
had a clue who I was, so I enjoyed it
with a couple of pints.
Who’s the worst footballer you’ve
ever seen?
I feel bad saying someone, but I’ll go
for Alex Nyarko, a Ghanaian midfielder
we had back in the early Noughties.
We were booing him once because he
was playing terribly, and he just walked
off the pitch and whipped his shirt off.
Who has or had the hardest shot?
Andy Hinchcliffe once smacked a ball
so hard that he knocked out a kid from
my school in the year below. It was
a free-kick, and f**k me... it knocked
him sparko’d. That was incredible and
we took the piss out of him for years.
What was it like when you got to
fight at Goodison Park in 2016?
It was my life’s ambition coming true.
I originally wanted to play at Goodison
for Everton, but the fact is that I was
too fat and not good enough. So the
closest I was ever going to get was
sticking a ring in the middle of the
pitch and fighting for the dream belt
I always wanted – the green and gold
WBC. I did it once in a movie, then for
real a few years later. When I close my
eyes and think about boxing, it’s the
first thing that comes into my mind.
Which player would you choose as
your room-mate?
If I wanted a bit of a joker, I’d say Leon
Osman [above], but if I wanted to get
my head down I’d go for Sylvain Distin:
The ex-boxer and WBC
cruiserweight champion
explains why Big Dunc
wouldn’t make the best
fighter, why he’s woeful
at penalties... and how
Andy Hinchcliffe once
KO’d a pal from school
maropa
(Maropa)
#1