Crossing the Divide: Ranking 5 Best Players to Represent Everton and Liverpool
It's Merseyside derby time again on Saturday, when Liverpool and Everton will take to the field at Anfield both in desperate need of a win.
Both sets of players will be determined to do their best for their team, but what about those players who have experienced wearing both a red and blue shirt on one of world football's most iconic fixtures?
Here we take a look back at some of the best players to ever play for both sides of the Stanley Park divide.
Just Missing out
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The privileged group to have donned both the blue of Everton and the red of Liverpool is a small one, but it’s not small enough for us to leave out some very talented players.
The most recent example of a high-profile switch between the clubs came when Nick Barmby left Everton for Liverpool in a hugely controversial £6 million move in the summer of 2000.
Typically, Barmby scored with a header in his first ever Merseyside derby in the red shirt, putting his side on the road to a 3-1 victory over his former side at Anfield. However, injuries were to get the better of him at Liverpool, and he never quite hit the heights he achieved in four years at Everton—despite playing a part in the Reds’ treble cup success of 2001.
Defender Gary Ablett—the only man to lift the FA Cup with both clubs—is another player to be considered for our top five, with the Scouser becoming favourite at both Goodison Park and Anfield.
Ablett broke into the Liverpool team as a 21-year-old in 1986 and would go on to play over 100 league games for the club, winning two league titles and an FA Cup before a switch across Stanley Park to Everton in 1992, a spell which included over 100 league games and the 1995 FA Cup.
After a long spell at Birmingham City, Ablett would return to both Everton and Liverpool in coaching roles, guiding the Reds’ reserves to the Premier Reserve League title in 2008. He left a year later to pursue other coaching opportunities, but his career was tragically cut short when he contracted non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a form of blood cancer, in 2010.
After a brave battle, Ablett died of the disease on New Year’s Day 2012 aged just 46, with both clubs paying their respects to a popular figure.
5. Steve McMahon
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One of only two men to have captained both clubs, Steve McMahon broke through at Everton in 1980 having previously been a ball boy at Goodison Park.
A supporters’ favourite at Goodison, it wasn’t long before he took the captain’s armband despite his relatively young age, but after 100 league appearances and 11 goals he moved to Aston Villa in 1983—a year after the Villans had won the European Cup.
After two years there he became Kenny Dalglish’s first signing as Liverpool manager in 1985, with the combative midfielder going on to be a hugely influential figure in what many consider to be some of the greatest Reds sides of all-time.
McMahon won three league championships and two FA Cups with Liverpool (including the Double in 1986) as he forged a reputation as one of the toughest characters in the club’s history.
4. Kevin Sheedy
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Irish international Kevin Sheedy remains an all-time hero among Everton fans, partly because his spell at Liverpool was so brief.
The Reds signed Sheedy from Hereford United in 1978 but he was to play just three competitive games in four years for the club before switching sides to join Everton in 1982. A golden period followed.
Sheedy scored 97 goals from midfield across his 357 appearances for Everton, with many of the strikes trademark free-kicks, which he was regarded as a specialist in.
He won two league titles with the Blues, as well as the 1984 FA Cup and the Cup Winners’ Cup a year later.
Liverpool were doing pretty well at the time too, of course, but they must regard Sheedy as the one that got away.
3. David Johnson
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Like McMahon, forward David Johnson holds a privileged record when it comes to these two clubs, as he is one of only two men to have scored for both Everton and Liverpool in a derby match (we’ll come to the other later).
Scouser Johnson’s career started out at Everton in the early 1970s, but the Blues weren’t enjoying one of their better periods and it wasn’t long before he left to try and make his name with Ipswich Town.
After four years there, Liverpool beat Tottenham to Johnson’s signature in 1976 and the forward moved back to Merseyside to provide striking competition for John Toshack and Kevin Keegan. He would play a key role over the next six years as the Reds won three European Cups and four league titles.
In 1978 Johnson scored in a Merseyside derby for Liverpool, seven years after he’d done the same for Everton, and he remained in the Liverpool picture right up until the time that manager Bob Paisley decided to give a chance to a young Ian Rush in 1982.
2. Dave Hickson
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Dave Hickson didn’t just settle for scoring goals for both Everton and Liverpool, he even managed to fit in a few for Tranmere Rovers right at the end of his career, thereby becoming the only man to play for all three professional Merseyside clubs.
Hickson broke through at Everton in the late 1940s, scoring goals well into the next decade before a brief move to Aston Villa and then a 1955 switch to Huddersfield Town, where he’d come to play under a certain Bill Shankly.
Not even Shankly could stop him moving back to Everton in 1957, though, but the pair would soon be reunited at Liverpool when the Scot joined the club in 1959 and teamed up with Hickson, who had made an unpopular move from Goodison Park just months before.
Hickson would go on to be a crucial figure in the early days of Shankly’s Liverpool, scoring the goals which almost earned the club promotion from the Second Division on two separate occasions as the new, and eventually legendary, manager imposed himself on the club.
Hickson died after a short illness in July 2013, with his funeral service attended by both Everton and Liverpool officials and supporters at Liverpool Cathedral. The above image shows Everton’s players and fans paying tribute to him at their first home game of the 2013/14 season against West Bromwich Albion.
1. Peter Beardsley
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Geordie Peter Beardsley takes the No. 1 spot as he was surely one of the most naturally gifted players to play for both sides.
Beardsley joined Liverpool from Newcastle in 1987 and immediately took his place in what many describe as the most entertaining Reds side of all time alongside the likes of John Barnes and John Aldridge.
The Reds won the title that year and again in 1990, with Beardsley key to both successes as he shone almost effortlessly, scoring a hat-trick against Manchester United and another two goals against Everton a week later.
Often linking up well with the returning Ian Rush, Beardsley scored 59 goals in all competitions for Liverpool before a somewhat surprising move to Everton in August 1991, with his final competitive goals for the Reds coming in a crazy 4-4 FA Cup draw with Blues a few months before his switch.
He was the Everton’s top scorer in his first season, and joined Johnson as one of the only men to have netted for both sides in Merseyside derbies, but financial troubles at Everton meant that they had to accept a £1.5 million bid for him from Newcastle in 1993, and Beardsley left the Blues after 95 games and 32 goals.
He certainly made a mark on Merseyside.
