A 'massive Everton fan' flew over 3,000 miles to make "one of his biggest dreams" come true.
Childhood friends from Connecticut, USA, Logan Brennan and Andrew van de Mark made the "impulsive decision" to book a trip to Liverpool after growing tired of their routine. Both 19, this was Logan's first time leaving the US, so they were "intimidated" by the prospect of jetting off alone. But a trip to Liverpool offered more than they expected.
In a viral TikTok video with more than 230k views and nearly 26k comments - including three love hearts from the official Everton FC account - Andrew said: "One of his biggest dreams was to see [Everton] play in person, so it made sense to make the trip to Goodison Park and watch them play a Premier League game while we were in England, so that's what we did."
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It shows footage of the "surreal" moment Logan walk up to the stadium and watched the match with "all these fans who shared the same love for the team that he did". The voiceover continues: "The stadium was charming and historic. Watching the players run out onto the field and hearing the crowd chant was unforgettable."
Logan, who played in goal as a kid, became a fan of Everton through its former keeper Tim Howard, who he idolised after reading his autobiography, The Keeper. Speaking of the moment he got to Goodison, he said: "It was better than I could have ever imagined. Like, watching it on TV my whole life, it doesn't do it justice. It was amazing. I was just in shock."
A "huge fan of Steven Gerrard", Andrew has backed rivals Liverpool FC since he was eight or nine, so it made sense for the pair to plan a trip to the city when they made an "impulsive decision" in October to escape the "repetitiveness of day-to-day life".
They made a TikTok account - ftweekends - where they post videos of their adventures to "embody breaking out of that 'living for the weekends' mentality" of nine-to-five lives. Both at university, feeling "nailed into a routine", they wanted to "go out there and experience things that make life worth living", according to Andrew.
He said: "Whether it's going to a football game, going to a new restaurant, exploring the city, those are the moments that you really live for. I was just feeling kind of stuck and feeling like there was nothing else out there, so making the trip was a great decision - being able to explore the possibilities of what's out there in the world and not just you being stuck here in the US."
Once in Liverpool, economics student Andrew realised "there was also a lot more to Liverpool than we were expecting". He and Logan spent six days exploring the city's museums, history and food - including the iconic Casa Italia restaurant.
Andrew said: "From an American perspective, you only really think about Liverpool from a sports aspect. It's obviously known for their two football teams, and that's what people anticipate when they go there. But when we went, we realised there was a lot more, there's a lot more culture.
"I think one thing was just the accents, the Scouse accent was something that we picked up on - unlike any accent I've ever heard. It was just really cool. Once we got there, we felt very immersed a whole new culture."
He added: "Both Logan and I were pretty intimidated because we're just teenagers travelling by ourselves. I was expecting a lot of people to be, not necessarily mean, but maybe not as nice. But I was just overwhelmed how nice the locals were."
Logan, who studies business administration, said: "I loved every day, every minute that we were there. In our first video, we saw this little double-decker diner [at Albert Dock], and there were just so many comments about places we should go, places we should see, where we should eat. We thought we had seen a lot while we were there, but we hadn't even scraped the surface of things to do in Liverpool."
Sadly for Logan, Everton lost the game 4-1 to Brighton and Hove Albion. Their TikTok said "It was obviously disappointing" to travel all that way "just to see them lose", but Logan still loves his team. He's also grateful he got to see Everton score a goal at Goodison Park before they move to the new ground at Bramley-Moore Dock.
As their video said: "Supporting a club through the highs and lows are what make for true football fans, so get out there and start doing things you love, because you never know where you might end up."
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