LONG READ
A TOUCH OF CLASS
By Mike Taylor
In an interview that first appeared in the Official Matchday Programme for the visit of Nottingham Forest, KIERNAN DEWSBURY-HALL reveals the toughest battle he faced to reach the top, two childhood nicknames and his all-time hero and midfield reference, as well as why he believes Everton is "on a different level" to anything he's previously experienced...
It can be cruel how much context can affect moments of individual brilliance in football.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall provided two of those in the space of six days, with very different results.
The summer signing from Chelsea sent 3,099 Evertonians into raptures at Old Trafford after superbly curling the ball into the top corner of the net on his weaker right foot for what proved to be the decisive goal on a memorable night as the 10-man Blues triumphed 1-0 over Manchester United less than a fortnight ago.
Then, the very next game, came the strike Dewsbury-Hall had been openly chasing – a first goal at Hill Dickinson Stadium. This one was arguably even more impressive, instantly controlling a long diagonal James Tarkowski pass over his shoulder before squeezing past a pair of Newcastle United defenders and delicately clipping the ball home in front of the mammoth South Stand.
It was the brightest moment of a largely forgettable night for the Toffees, but another example of the fruit of Dewsbury-Hall’s labour.
It’s no accident Everton’s No.22 is so technically adept – on show again in another impressive individual performance in the 1-0 win over Bournemouth on Tuesday night. In the absence of imposing physical attributes as a teenager, it has always been a necessity – his weapon and a way to stand out from his peers.
“Coming through at Leicester, I was the shortest in the academy from probably age 12 to 16,” he explains. “That was probably the most difficult part of my childhood. When you’re a young lad growing up around other young lads at a high level of sport, having those sort of problems makes you feel very vulnerable and you feel very weak.”
Mum, Vanessa, who would drive her son to and from the family home in Shepshed to Leicester’s training centre several times week, was his confidant.
“There were quite a lot of dark times where I had to talk to my mum to basically just say, ‘What’s happening with me? Why am I not growing? Why am I not like the other [players]?’ She was always reassuring. She told me to be patient and it would happen in time.
“In that time, it really taught me to hone in on the technical side of the game. I had to, because I had no physicality to compete with other players.
“Looking back on it, it also gave me that mentality of no matter what’s going wrong, no matter what’s against you, just always have that determination to give it everything.
“That approach has stuck with me ever since and it’s not going anywhere. Everything I ever do, I’m going to give it all I’ve got.”
Vanessa was the architect of getting her son into football early, calling local newspaper – the Loughborough Echo – who subsequently wrote an article calling for a local team to take on a four-year-old Kiernan, who they nicknamed “Baby Becks”.
“My mum wrote to the paper because she couldn’t find a team who would take me on with me being that young,” he explains, with a smile.
“So they came to our house and watched me ping footballs into my little goal and wrote a piece, which led to me joining Shepshed Dynamo, where I started playing with the older kids.
“Football has been my life ever since then, really. It started with little soccer schools, then Shepshed Dynamo, then I got into Leicester and I’d also just be playing football with friends on fields by mine constantly as well.”
It wasn’t long before others start to realise his precocious talent, leading to another nickname – the Pocket Rocket.
“Maybe from playing up a year or two but I think I realised from early on that I might be a bit better than my peers around me,” he says. “I was a striker in those very early days. When I was that young, football wasn’t really a game, it was more a case of score as many goals as you can!
“I got thrown up there and they gave me the nickname the Pocket Rocket because I wasn’t tall but I was quick and I scored 40-odd goals in my first year of playing for the year above.
“As the years went on I dropped a little bit deeper but that’s where it all started for me – as a striker.”
As Dewsbury-Hall matured and his appreciation for the technical and tactical aspects of the game grew, an admiration for Paul Scholes began to form.
“First and foremost, it was probably because he was a phenomenal footballer,” explains Dewsbury-Hall, who named Scholes as the first player in his dream five-a-side team during a feature upon signing for the Club in August.
“I think I also saw some similarities with myself in terms of his small stature and I don’t think he would mind me saying he wasn’t the most athletic, the quickest or the strongest – but he would always get stuck into anyone and he used his brain to play football, which I love.
“It’s something I really appreciated because I felt like I was in that position, too. I was never going to be a big 6ft 4in midfielder who could power his way through people, I needed to be more like Scholes, so I’d watch clips and clips of him for hours on end.
"The more I watched of him, the more I was just in awe of him. The more I understood football, the more I saw how clever he was in everything he did on and off the ball.
“For me, yeah, Paul Scholes is the best midfielder. He’s my favourite midfielder of all-time.”
“There were quite a lot of dark times where I had to talk to my mum and basically say, 'What's happening to me? Why am I not growing?' She was always reassuring”
Four months into his Everton career, things have started positively for Dewsbury-Hall, with five goal involvements (three goals; two assists) in 13 Premier League outings to date.
But there is an evident hunger for more – on both an individual and collective level.
"I love it here,” he reveals. “I had a fair few options in the summer and, after speaking to my family, people I trust and, obviously, people at Everton, it quickly became clear this was everything that I wanted... a new project, a new stadium, big future plans.
“I know this is an important chapter in the Club’s history, we’re hopefully at the beginning of something here and to play my part in that would be huge.
“Look, I could have easily stayed at my previous club and just gone through the motions, but I wasn’t willing to do that because that’s just not in my DNA. I want to play a big part towards something and I genuinely feel like we can have exciting times here in the coming years.
“The feeling of the Club... it feels like a proper family club. The fanbase here is huge and it means so much to the people, which I love because football is my life – and it feels like it’s theirs, too. So we’re on the same page there. I see how passionate they are and how much they want to win and that resonates with me because that’s how I live my life.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall
“I’m not saying the other clubs weren’t like that, but I just feel like Everton’s on a different level.
“I was speaking with someone the other day and I was saying, ‘Imagine playing for Everton when we’re pushing for things and trying to win things. It must be one of the best places to play’. So, yeah, that’s what I want to get to.
“You see how good the Evertonians are in the tough times over the past few years, so imagine what it’d be like here when things are going better. It’d be amazing to be part of that.”
Rumours have been rife regarding Dewsbury-Hall’s international future, with the 27-year-old pouring cool water on suggestions he could represent the Republic of Ireland in the near future.
Instead, his immediate focus is fixed on bringing success to Everton and, if that can be achieved, so too could a childhood dream of pulling on an England shirt.
“As much as I respect the Irish people and their fans and the way they are, playing [for the Republic of Ireland] is probably not where I’m at,” he insists. “It just wouldn’t feel right for me.
“I feel English. I want to give myself a chance of playing for England, which is a lifelong dream, and I feel like now there’s a great opportunity in terms of playing for a massive club that’s on the up, hopefully playing regular football. Then it’s just down to me. I still believe I can do it.”
That’s not through the want of trying on Seamus Coleman’s part, whom Dewsbury-Hall has struck up a close bond with since arriving on Merseyside.
“I don’t want to sound like a broken record and say what everyone else says, because I think everyone knows what a top captain and player he is,” he says. “As a person, he’s just as good. I’m really thankful we’re so similar, which has made it very easy to get on with him.
“It’s funny because he actually annoyed me a few times when we’ve played against each other in the past and I wasn’t sure how we were going to get on but it couldn’t have been better. We have the same banter, we laugh at the same things, we get annoyed by the same things. I have so much respect for him.
“We’ve spoken about [playing for the Republic of Ireland]. We had a bit of a laugh with it but I told him where my head is at. He’s the sort of guy to respect your decision and say, ‘Go on, I trust that whatever you want to do is for a good reason and you’re going to go all-in to get it’.”
As well as a strong bond with Coleman, a previously-held familiarity with Jack Grealish has quickly blossomed into a close friendship – and fruitful on-pitch partnership.
On the dynamic he has found in the Blues’ dressing room, Dewsbury-Hall continues: “Honestly? It’s top. There are lads with a lot of experience in the team and passionate about Everton as well.
“Every club has different dressing rooms – my previous club was a very young one, whereas here we’ve got players like Seamus [Coleman], Jordan [Pickford], Tarky, Gana, who have all played 300-plus games in the Premier League – and you have to be a high-level player for many years to do that.
“They’re such big personalities and really help to drive standards and make sure it’s known what it means to play for Everton. That’s so important.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to come into it and really get along with them. I’ve built some really good relationships already and I’m thankful to them for letting me bring my bit to it and for them helping me settle quickly.”
Built with Shorthand