Only two Everton players have ever won BBC Goal of the Month twice and they’re arguably the two most-gifted graduates of the club’s academy in the Premier League era.
One of them, Wayne Rooney, who went on to win every club honour in football and was Manchester United and England’s all-time leading scorer when he hung up his boots, received the Goal of the Month honour on a record eight occasions. A brace of those came with the Blues in his two different spells, over 15 years apart – his first ever Premier League strike against Arsenal on October 19, 2002 and then the long-range effort from his own half to complete a hat-trick against West Ham United on November 29, 2017.
The other is Ross Barkley, who in contrast, struck his pair in the same year – again both at Goodison Park – against Manchester City on May 3, 2014 and Queens Park Rangers on December 15 (* Here’s a quiz question for you, how many of the other seven can you name? Answers at the foot of the article). In between those two crackers, a then 20-year-old Barkley went to the World Cup finals where he featured in all three of England’s matches in Brazil.
