England number one Jordan Pickford of Everton drawn by Paul Trevillion in A History of the World Cup: On the pitch and off the drawing board
England number one Jordan Pickford of Everton drawn by Paul Trevillion in A History of the World Cup: On the pitch and off the drawing board
Football fans across the globe are gearing up for another festival of football this summer at what will be the biggest World Cup finals ever and illustrations of a selection of Everton stars feature in a new book that charts the story of the tournament.
A History of the World Cup is the fourth title in the ‘On the pitch and off the drawing board’ series after similar works on Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and Manchester United. The book is a unique look at the history of the World Cup through the pen of renowned artist Paul Trevillion, known as “the Master of Movement,” and the words of legendary Fleet Street journalist Harry Harris with the pair having written about or drawn every tournament since 1958 for the British national press.
Pele, Diego Maradona, Johan Cruyff, Paul Gascoigne, Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and more, Trevillion, who many consider to be the greatest sports artist of them all, has drawn them all in this unique view of the world’s greatest football tournament. Containing Trevillion’s
original artwork across each of the 22 tournaments to date and with specially commissioned work previewing this summer’s World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico, this incredible book also contains the inside story on the competition’s most controversial and shocking moments by Harris, who wrote Pele’s authorised biography.
From ‘The Hand of God’ to Roy Keane’s explosion on Saipan and Gazza’s tears, Harris has covered them all. Ossie Ardiles, a World Cup winner with Argentina in 1978, who pens the foreword, also provides a behind-the-scenes portrait of life at the eye of the Maradona-mania storm.
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Trevillion, who celebrates his 92nd birthday today, revealed that watching play almost nine decades ago inspired him to base all his illustrations of players heading the ball on the legendary Everton centre-forward. Despite being a lifelong Spurs fan having been born in Tottenham and educated at St Francis de Sales School opposite White Hart Lane, it’s Goodison Park great who was his original and most-admired football hero.
Shortly before his third birthday, Trevillion was taken to his first ever game, an replay between Tottenham and on February 22, 1937. The north London outfit, playing in the Second Division at the time, would come from 3-1 down to triumph 4-3 with a brace of goals for the hosts in the last three minutes turning the tie on its head. But it was the presence of a 30-year-old Dean, who was lining up alongside his 17-year-old successor Tommy Lawton (who played inside left) for the first of just nine occasions that they were paired together that transfixed the fledgling fan.
It’s often said that you shouldn’t meet your idols but 23 years later, Trevillion teamed up with Dean to produce the Everton legend’s illustrated life story that ran for 21 weeks in the ECHO. The artist admits that witnessing Dean’s incredible aerial ability has stuck with him and has shaped all of his drawings since.
Speaking in 2024, Trevillion told the ECHO: “When I met Dixie Dean when I was working for the Liverpool Echo in the 1960/61 season, he said to me: ‘What is your memory of that game? You must have one memory.’
“I said: 'The thing I never forgot was when you were running, you were on the right side of the field, the ball came over and bang, you hit it with your head. I’ve never seen a header like it. It went straight out to the wing man and it went faster than I’ve seen players kick the ball. I couldn’t believe the power behind that header. That has stayed with me ever since, the way you leaped, I’ve never seen anyone jump so high. You got right up there and bang'.
“Every time since then that I’ve drawn someone and I’ve drawn Joe Royle hundreds of times, I’ve drawn Derek Dougan, I’ve drawn all the great strikers, Nat Lofthouse, you name them, I’ve drawn them, Jackie Milburn, the lot, it’s always Dixie. I always base it on Dixie Dean, how he jumped.
“Those drawings, although the faces were Milburn or Joe Royle, it was Dixie in the air and that’s the man. Even Roy Race, Roy of the Rovers, that was the man, Dixie.
“Each and every time I’ve drawn a player in air, it’s always been based on Dixie Dean. He was the best, he was unbelievable.”
ECHO readers can click to copies of A History of the World Cup: On the pitch and off the drawing board at a discounted rate.
Former Everton manager Carlo Ancelotti is set to coach Brazil in this year's World Cup finals
Former Everton manager Carlo Ancelotti is set to coach Brazil in this year's World Cup finals
2. Colombia's James Rodriguez, who was top scorer at the 2014 World Cup, went on to play for Everton in the 2020/21 season
Colombia's James Rodriguez, who was top scorer at the 2014 World Cup, went on to play for Everton in the 2020/21 season
3. England's Italia '90 icon Paul Gascoigne would also later move to Goodison Park, joining Everton a decade after his World Cup exploits
England's Italia '90 icon Paul Gascoigne would also later move to Goodison Park, joining Everton a decade after his World Cup exploits