For four years of his career, Andy Van der Meyde was an Everton player.
The problem was that, during that time, things didn’t go to plan with the Toffees, meaning the Dutch winger only ever made 24 appearances for the club, making him one of their biggest flops in recent times.
Now 42 years of age, the former forward has never hidden that his spell at Everton wasn’t the best of his time as a football, but he always maintained that he enjoyed England itself.
This is something he echoed once again in an interview with Revu, where he was asked about his life in general, as well as the ‘darkest period’ he has faced so far.
He said: “The time in Liverpool, when I played football at Everton. The life I had there was grey and dark black. A cocktail of problems, with a kid in the hospital, arguing with my ex-wife, arguing with my manager. Everything was taken from me, really everything.
“A real shame, because England is a beautiful country, the people in Liverpool are very humorous and I was making tons of money at the time. I think I was on 45,000 euros a week, that was not normal. But it didn’t bother me at all, quite different. When I look back on it afterwards, it has passed me by as if in a blur.”
Following his time at Goodison Park, Van der Meyde was without a club for nearly a year, before signing for PSV Eindhoven, in a spell that would only last a few months.
He then took a career break before returning to football in January 2012 with WKE Emmen, but that also only last half a season before he called it quits for good in July of that same year.
Before moving to Everton, however, he had enjoyed successful spells with both Ajax Amsterdam and Inter in Italy, which is where the Toffees bought him from for £8.1m at the time.
