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Loyalty isn't just a word to Tim Cahill

Article by Roger Bennett, ESPN

We couldn't pass up this excellent article on Tim Cahill's Everton career and move to MLS that appeared today at the ESPN website, and begins: "The first thing you notice upon shaking hands with Tim Cahill is that he has surprisingly soft palms. It's a jarring fact only because it undermines the scrappy, blood-and-guts persona he earned over eight seasons boxing Premier League corner flags at Everton."

Other Selected Excerpts

"Professionalism" and "Loyalty" — two values which have defined his career trajectory.

Everton fans will be the first to vouch for that. Cahill arrived from Millwall for $2.3 million in 2004 and stuck by the cash-strapped club with unusual devotion through the peak of this career. The new Red Bull even admits one of the reasons MLS made immediate sense was because, "after Everton, I had no interest in going to another Premier League team."

The late runs Cahill made into the box were no secret, yet more often than not, his opponents could do little to stop them. Over the course of the past five EPL seasons, the 5-foot-10 Australian used his head to score 21 goals.

Cahill can't pinpoint the first time he realized he could leap higher than all those around him. "I always scored goals with my head," he said. "Even as a really young kid, when it was a fairly unusual thing to be able to do. My family, being Samoan, loved rugby and because it is a fearless culture, I was encouraged simply to stick my head in anywhere, even when the boots were flying. People always talked about my lack of height, but I believe I showed them that how tall you are does not matter. It is the size of your heart that counts."

Few Everton fans will forget the 90th-minute bicycle kick with which Cahill rescued a point against Chelsea in 2007-08. He talks animatedly about the goals he scored in crunch derby games that ensured even rival Liverpool fans treated him with respect as he walked around the city. "I bet they're happy I left," he chuckled. "I scored a fair number of goals against them."

The Australian remains proudest of the immediate impact he contributed upon his arrival. "Wayne Rooney had just been sold to Manchester United, yet we still managed to finish fourth with a small squad of older players taking the field week in, and week out." Cahill pauses to think about the nature of that achievement before slouching back in his chair to declare, "You will never see a Premier League squad like that be able to qualify for Europe again."

Cahill explains that the lack of finances [at Everton] were his motivation. "It made you work even harder, to help bring young players through, and to help the manager," he said. "Don't get me wrong. It would have been great to have had more money. But every year we developed a new young player to fill whatever gaps we had and found a way to win."

Such collective sentiment is all too rare amid the climate of calculated greed which has gripped English football. I remind Cahill of a quote he once gave the Guardian: "I don't need an armband to captain my team; I feel I am already a captain." Then I asked how he asserts that authority in a strange locker room with a new team in a foreign land. "That's easy," he said. "I train really hard, become part of the group off the field, and during games I lead from the front by working hard, tracking back and closing down defenders."

"I'll miss the quality of play, the fans and the atmosphere of the Premier League," he said, "but I am a professional and my goals right now are to be consistent and become part of this group. Everton will always be a part of me, as will Millwall, but from now on, me and my kids will simply be their biggest fans."

Quotes or other material sourced from ESPN

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