In search of Tony Hibbert - the Everton enigma who wants to be left alone

The story begins at Goodison Park in the summer of 2012.

It is a balmy evening at the start of August, and Tony Hibbert is standing over a free-kick.

It is his testimonial against AEK Athens and he has, famously, never scored a goal for boyhood club Everton in more than 300 appearances.

A few seconds later and the stadium is united in pandemonium.

I do not remember the goal very well, but if my dazed memory serves me right, it was a vicious right-footed strike under the wall which no goalkeeper could stop in a million years. It was a Hot Shot Hamish rocket ignited by jet fuel.

Or something like that.

I know I could search YouTube and watch again, but I don't want to. Everything about the moment is perfect as it remains in my mind.

Tony Hibbert scored and for a few magical moments, we rioted. In the ensuing celebration, I fell over my chair and cut my hand.

My friend Bob, sitting next to me, ended up with blood on his new, dazzlingly white t-shirt. It was worth it.

By then, I was already a fully-fledged member of the Hibbert fan club, besotted with his old-fashioned defending and how he embodied the David Moyes era.

But little did we know as we rioted, he would play just 20 more times for Everton over the next four years before leaving under a cloud alongside long-serving team-mate Leon Osman, with the pair learning of their release on the club website in 2016.

Weeks later, with Ronald Koeman at the helm after replacing Roberto Martinez, Hibbert broke his silence in a rare interview conducted by the Daily Mail.

In it, the veteran blasted Everton for how his departure was handled, claiming they were no longer the People's Club following the exit of Moyes and arrival of mega-rich Farhad Moshiri.

He also revealed he was