Dixie Dean

Arguably the greatest goalscorer ever to grace the English game, undeniably the greatest Everton player of all-time, William Ralph Dean's name was the first enstalled in the Everton Millennium Giants roster. His selection provoked the least debate. The only argument concerning a man whose achievements spanned two decades was, in what period?
He scored 164 of his 383 Everton goals in the 20s. In the 1930s he captained the club to an unprecidented treble of Second Divison, First Divison and FA Cup triumphs. But the achievement for which he is best remembered is the individual goalscoring record of 60 League goals in a season - a record set in 1928 and never beaten since.
For that reason Dean was selected in the decade in which his unparalleled powers first emerged - and peaked.
Signed from Tranmere Rovers for �3,000 in 1925, he scored 32 League goals in his first full season as an Evertonian. That was just six goals short of the League record of 38, held by another former Everton centre-forward, Bert Freedman.
But his chances of of eventually overtaking the record were severely doubted during the summer of 1926. Indeed, his ability to play football ever again was questioned, following a motorcycle accident in which his skull an jaw were fractured.
Thomas Keates' Jubilee History of Everton Football Club recorder: "Doctors were afraid he could not live for many hours. His survival astonished them. When recoverywas assured the medical pronouncement was 'This man will never be able to play football again.'"
Play again he did, to such startling affect that romantic tales began to surround his spell in hospital.
Quick, sharp and intelligent in his centre-forward play, his greatest quality was undoubtedly his astonishing aerial ability.Such was his success that envious contemporaries began to suggest that surgeons had left a steel plate in his skull following his life-saving surgery. The stories, of course, were nonsesical, but indicate the aura which surrounded the man.
His record breaking season of 1927-28, when Everton claimed the League Championship, was a Roy of the Rovers style saga. Dean scored in each of the first nine matches of the season - including all five in a 5-2 defeat of Manchester United.
By Christmas he was halfway to his target. Goals 41, 42 and 43 came at Anfield in a 3-3 draw, but then a four game drought when nobody in an Everton jersey scored seemed to put the brakes on the record charge. With nine matches remaining, Dean needed 17 goals for the record - a seemingly impossible target. But after doubles against Derby, Blackburn, Sheffield Utd and Aston Villa were netted, a sparkling four goal haul at Burnley put the record in sight again. Worryingly Dean had to leave the Turf Moor pitch through injury and he was nursed diligently through the next seven days by trainer Harry Cook. He was eventually declared fit for the final match of the season, at home to Herbert Chapman's legendary Arsenal side, but needed a hat-trick for the record. He got it in typically swashbuckling style, with an 85th minute header into the Stanley Park End net.
This was only the first significant achievement of Dean's long and successful playing career - but it is still the most memorable.

He captained Everton to a further title success in 1932, scoring an astonishing 45 League goals in 38 games, then in 1933 he led Everton to FA Cup glory at Wembley.
Typically he scored in every roundexcept the semi-final - and with shirt numbering intorduced for the first time at Wembley to aid radio listeners, became the first Everton number nine.
He continued to score regularly throughout his career. Revered for his sportsmanship as well as his burgeoning talent, he was never once booked or dismissed - despite the kind of provocation which once saw him lose a testical in a match.
For a man whose life was linked so indelibly with Everton Football Club, it was fitting that he died at Goodison Park in March 1980, minutes after the final whistle of a derby match.