Frenchman talks of ‘great experience’ at Everton, and how he bonded with Toffees teammate

Former Everton midfielder Olivier Dacourt has labelled his time at the club as a ‘great experience’, thanks to his relationship with Marco Materazzi.

Dacourt joined Everton in a £5.4m deal from Strasbourg in July 1998 but would only last a year on Merseyside before returning to France with Lens.

His time in the North West was not a particularly happy one, having arrived to the usual big expectations but failing to live up to them.

He would manage 31 appearances for Everton that year, scoring twice, as the Blues finished 14^th that season.

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The Frenchman joined a squad that was largely made up of homegrown talent, with Thomas Myhre, Marco Materazzi, Peter Degn and Slaven Bilic the only non-British players in the squad.

It was the Italian Dacourt befriended, and despite only lasting a year at the club, he insists it was a positive experience for him because of that.

“It was a great experience,” Il Posticipo report him saying.

“Marco and I were the foreign players in the team. We got on well straight away.

“Then we met again in Italy a few seasons later: it was Materazzi who pushed me towards Inter after I left Roma. He told me it was the right team to win. That’s what happened.”