Everton supporter who went viral makes incredible revelation after Man United clash

Everton supporter who went viral makes incredible revelation after Man United clash

The ECHO tracks down Vince Gil, a.ka. 'The Everton Cowboy' who entertained the crowds at their Premier League Summer Series game against Manchester United at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta

‘The Everton Cowboy,’ Vince Gil, at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta

Dubbed ‘The Everton Cowboy,’ Vince Gil, who unwittingly became the star of the show in the Blues’ final Premier League Summer Series fixture, has made an incredible revelation.

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Ahead of Everton’s game against Manchester United in Atlanta, the ‘fan cam’ at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium kept panning around the 71,000 capacity venue, zooming in on various spectators. While supporters of both teams featured – plus others wearing replica shirts of Premier League rivals – prompting good-nature pantomime booing, after picking out one particular Blues follower, those in charge of the ‘Halo’, a 58ft-by-1,110ft ring-shaped video board beneath the rim of the roof kept coming back to him.

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Compelled to put on a show for the cameras, this individual and the fan cam fed off each other and after the action on the pitch, he became the main attraction that evening. Sporting a moustache, glasses and hat, the fan in question resembled something of a 21st century Teddy Roosevelt and following an online question to track him down, this correspondent has lassoed his man.

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He happens to be Vince Gil, a 30-year-old from Phoenix, who just happened to be attending his first Everton game! Vince told the ECHO: “It was incredible. I’ve been a fan for a number of years now, I’d I’ve always wanted to get over to Liverpool to see them and I was hoping to get there before they moved but things didn’t work out.

“When I heard they were coming to the States, I was like: ‘Man, I’ve got to go and see them in person.’

“I wasn’t really following soccer/football until the 2014 World Cup. As an American, I watched the US national team, and I saw Tim Howard put up that performance against Belgium.

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“Even though the US ended up losing that game, I decided I was going to follow wherever Tim Howard is playing, like a lot of other American Evertonians. I tell people: ‘I came for Tim Howard, but I stayed for the Toffees.’

“Once I started following the club, it became more about Everton than it did about Tim Howard. For me, it was that 2014/15 season that I really dived headfirst into what it means to be an Evertonian and everything about the club.”

So, what prompted Vince to unleash the showman inside him when the cameras pointed his way? He said: “There were a lot of Manchester United supporters there and plenty of red in the stadium, so when the camera panned onto me, I thought: ‘I’ve got to do something for the Blues.’ The first time, I was like: ‘Ok, that’s cool.’

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“Then they kept coming back to me and I thought: ‘I guess I’ve got to ham it up a little bit?’ I had to do something, so it kind of went from there.

“The folks around me, some had made the trip from Liverpool while others were Americans like myself, but from all across the country, and they were all saying: ‘You’ve got to stand up.’ I did, and it became something that I never expected.

“I had to twirl the moustache. It’s one of the few things I’ve got going for me.

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“It’s been crazy. It took me at least 45 minutes to leave my seat at the end of the game.

“People were coming up, saying ‘hi’, shaking my hand and taking pictures. It wasn’t just Evertonians, it was United fans, Bournemouth, West Ham, and I think I even had a Tottenham jersey in there – it was an experience.”

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So, the hat never made it to Goodison Park, but might we be seeing it on the Mersey waterfront sometime soon? Vince said: “I live in Arizona, it’s a desert, so it gets really hot out here and yesterday it was 110 degrees Fahrenheit. In the summer, it’s not uncommon to wear the straw cowboy hat and when it gets colder, we wear the felt.

“I figured, it’s summer, let me represent Arizona while I head over to Atlanta. But I was not expecting that reaction at all.

“It’s been an ambition of mine for a while to get to Liverpool for a game. Things haven’t quite worked out, I moved to Arizona and was originally from southern California, and I’ve had some work stuff come up in the last few years.

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“Hill Dickinson Stadium, Bramley-Moore Dock, Liverpool, it’s on the list. I’m hoping either this season or the following one.

“I want to get out there and see it. I want to feel the true experience of what it means to be an Evertonian.

“I even got myself one of the bricks on the Everton Way, so I want to go and take a picture of that too.”

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Although Vince was initially drawn to Everton on the back of Howard’s heroics in Brazil some 11 years ago when the USA custodian made 16 saves against Belgium – the most on record for a game in the tournament – who are his current favourites as he looks forward to what should be a bright new dawn after some of the most traumatic seasons in the club’s history? He said: “They say that you’re born a Blue. I guess I was born a Blue, I just didn’t recognise it until just over a decade ago.

“We’ve had some tough stints, some battles where every point matters and we’re fighting for a draw or biting our nails in the last minute of the final game, watching other games closely to see who is getting the points. It’s been difficult, but I’d rather be a Toffee than anyone else.

“I don’t know If I’m just partial to keepers, but you’ve got to support England’s number one. Jordan Pickford has been there, through it all, and in my opinion, has in some cases, single-handedly kept us alive.

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“You’ve got to love James Tarkowski with his last-minute goal to even out the derby last season. Seamus, who can say no to Seamus? They’re my top-three at the moment, I look folks who fight for the badge and in my opinion, those guys have always done that.”

Vince has already proven himself to be quick-witted with his response to appearing on the big screen. When it’s put to him that Dr David France, the Everton superfan who sold his 10,000-item collection of memorabilia to the club at a heavily discounted price so it could be kept for posterity while also founding the Everton Former Players’ Foundation, is a fellow resident of Arizona, he once again responds as quick as a flash.

Having been told all about 77-year-old Widnes-born former oil and gas executive who has travelled over 2 million miles from North America to follow his beloved Blues back in the UK, Vince quipped: “Toffees don’t melt in the desert – there you go.”

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