Everton supporters have called for their players to "fight for us" and that spirit appears to be in the blood for Blues target Kenny Tete
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Players, including Kenny Tete (left) clash and fans are restrained after a challenge by Ashley Williams on Anthony Lopes during the Europa League match between Everton and Olympique Lyonnais at Goodison Park on October 19, 2017
Players, including Kenny Tete (left) clash and fans are restrained after a challenge by Ashley Williams on Anthony Lopes during the Europa League match between Everton and Olympique Lyonnais at Goodison Park on October 19, 2017
(Image: Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)
Everton want Kenny Tete and are trying to seal a deal for the Fulham defender whose contract expires at the end of this week. And it seems like the Dutch international encapsulates ‘The Spirit of the Blues.’
Everton are now on the cusp of a bright new dawn on the Mersey waterfront at Hill Dickinson Stadium under David Moyes, but in recent years, when they were batting just to stay in the Premier League, beleaguered Blues sent their players a simple but stark three-word message: ‘Fight for us’ in banners held up from the stands, and Tete fits the bill in that respect.
One of the low points – both on and off the pitch – in what proved to be Goodison Park’s final decade was the mass brawl involving the players of Everton and Olympique Lyonnais on October 19, 2017 in a Europa League group game. With the hosts trailing 1-0, the melee was sparked when home captain Ashley Williams – whose final act in a royal blue jersey would be getting sent off for clotheslining Ashley Barnes under referee Chris Kavanagh’s nose in a 2-1 loss at Burnley the following March – pushed opposition goalkeeper Anthony Lopes.
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A spectator in the Gwladys Street, carrying his young son under his arm, was later jailed for assault for attacking Lyon players in what followed, but Williams’ shove prompted numerous players from both sides to wade in, and Tete was among the thick of it, with footage showing him to have his arm around the heads of first Williams and then Dominic Calvert-Lewin as the two sets of players grappled by the touchline in close proximity to both fans and photographers.
Although Tete came out of the angry flashpoint without being punished – among the mayhem, the referee and fellow Dutchman Bas Nijhuis only ended up showing a yellow card to a single player from each team, instigator Williams and Bertrand Traore (who would both end up scoring as Lyon won 2-1) – his actions showed that he is no shrinking violet when it comes to a dust-up.
Perhaps that fighting spirit is in the blood for the 29-year-old though? In an interview with Jonathan Northcroft in the Sunday Times in 2023, Tete opened up how his father, once a kickboxing champion, had been laid low by a stroke.
The piece stated:
Tete (senior) was a bear of a guy, a powerful, agile man who in his younger days was a European champion fighter and in later working life a well-known doorman in Amsterdam, whose forbidding presence guarded the famous Bulldog coffeeshop on Leidseplein. One day in 2016, without any prior signs or warnings, he suffered a serious stroke.
Kenny Tete – his son – was just ending his first full season in Ajax’s first team and been called up by Holland. He had spoken to his father the previous day, and all had seemed normal.
Dad Miguel Tete’s sport was Muay Thai kickboxing. From Mozambique, he grew up in Amsterdam and fought at heavyweight though retired from the ring before Kenny, 27, was born.
Everton target Kenny Tete pictured in the thick of a melee when his Olympique Lyonnais side played at Goodison Park in 2017
Everton target Kenny Tete pictured in the thick of a melee when his Olympique Lyonnais side played at Goodison Park in 2017
“My father was a really strong guy, a tough person and maybe I took some things from him,” reflects Tete who stood out at Ajax’s academy because – according to his former team-mate Mickey van der Hart – he was simply stronger than every attacker he played against.
“I never saw my father fight,” Tete reflects.
“It is a sad story. [The stroke] happened and he never became well again. He still has problems with walking and speaking, actually. They never came back, so it’s sad, a wake-up call for everyone, that anything can happen. [The stroke] was a shock. It’s always hard but on the other side it’s, ‘What can you do?’
“He watches every game I play and sends me emoticons on my phone by WhatsApp, to tell me how I’ve done. I am always getting messages.”
The article added that Tete’s uncle Andre was also a fighter, nicknamed “The Panther”, a 6ft 5in destroyer who won world titles at Muay Thai and had a mixed martial arts career before retiring to become a personal trainer. Although he did see him turn out for Lyon, at the time of the piece’s publication, Tete’s father had still never been to see him play for Fulham.
Who knows, perhaps if his son signs for Everton – with Hill Dickinson Stadium proudly designed to be the most accessible in the country – there might be a way for old warrior Miguel Tete to watch his son Kenny in the flesh?