On this day in 2005, Everton were beaten by Villarreal 2-1 in the Champions League at Goodison Park, with Juan Roman Riquelme running the show In the summer of 2007, Everton announced the signing of Juan Roman Riquelme. They did so in a short statement on the club's official website, which in the main was how supporters discovered their team had landed a new player in those days. Could you imagine it now? The 'Here We Gos' and 'Bombas!' and 'We are backs' would've been off the chart on Everton 's corner of X.
The reaction would've been so startling because Riquelme was such gifted footballer. While the transfer feels like a ridiculous one in hindsight, at the time? Less so. Everton had long been linked with the Argentina playmaker, who had shone for Villarreal after a challenging stint at Barcelona.
Everton were making progress under David Moyes too of course. The Blues finished fifth in the Premier League in the following season and were knocked out of the UEFA Cup on penalties by Fiorentina after a stirring night at Goodison Park. So the announcement wasn't necessarily ridiculed.
The subsequent Everton climbdown was though. It continues to be. The Blues had not signed Riquelme after all, it would turn out.
"During the process of uploading the new home page designs for the website some test data was displayed for a very short period of time and was immediately removed after it had been identified," read a follow-up message. "Example data had been used during the testing process and this was unfortunately missed by our appointed web development company during the final upload." Naturally the 'transfer' collapse has gone into Everton infamy.
Riquelme has frequently been spotted at cash machines around L4 ever since. Every deadline day the question was asked - will this be the day he finally joins? Alas, the day never came. Not signing a player of such talent stung too, especially when it was thrust in front of the faces of fans.
And especially after Everton supporters were handed a first-hand look at the elegant midfielder on this day in 2005. Yes, Riquelme did play one game at Goodison. Everton, were conveniently drawn against the midfielder's immensely talented Villarreal side in the Champions League qualifying round after their shock fourth place finish the previous season in the Premier League.
The first leg was at Goodison and within a full-throttle game in which Everton actually held their own, Riquelme was on a different level entirely. He had poise and presence that cut through the white-hot atmosphere. It was a masterclass in pass and move, keeping Everton on edge with beautiful simplicity.
"Riquelme showed why he had been the focus of much pre-match hype," read the report from the ECHO after what would ultimately prove to be a 2-1 loss for the Blues. "Never wasting a pass, always probing for openings while a late booking showed him to be both silk and steel." Speaking about Riquelme later that season, Moyes offered an insight into Everton's attempts to shut him down.
"If you stop Riquelme, I'd say you are taking out 50 per cent of their side," the then Blues manager said. "We tried man-marking him, but the positions he dropped into to pick up the ball meant he could hold you off. At the moment, I would say Riquelme is certainly in the top three players in the world.
You just can't get him off the ball. He picks it up in such dangerous positions." Everton did a better job of shutting down Riquelme in the second leg and were cruelly denied the chance at extra-time by Pierluigi Collina - we won't got into any more detail on that.
Villarreal meanwhile progressed to the semi-finals of the competition and would've taken Arsenal to extra time themselves in the semi-final had Riquelme not saw a 90th-minute penalty saved. The Argentina icon did eventually move in 2007, back to his former club Boca Juniors after a successful loan spell. He spent seven more years there before hanging up his boots after a year at Argentinos Juniors in 2015.
Upon his retirement, the effusive tributes rolled in. Such was his stature in Argentina, sports journalist Horacio Pagani described Riquelme as "the second inventor of football; the first were the English over one hundred years ago." Given that legacy, it's unlikely he ponders too much what his career would've looked like had he moved to the Blues.
But the man known as the Lazy Magician and Goodison, albeit for one night, did look like a match made in heaven..
