Life After Everton: Episode 4. Mark Ward
The Official Everton Podcast - A podcast by Everton Football Club
Former midfielder Mark Ward discusses his career journey and road to redemption in the latest edition of the Official Everton Podcast. Learn how Ward recovered from the "bombshell" of being released by Everton as an 18-year-old in 1981 to fight his way back to sign for the Blues under Howard Kendall a decade later - and how he "broke down" on learning of the transfer from his then-Manchester City boss Peter Reid. Discover how the teenage Ward would expend so much effort in training trying to compensate for a perceived lack of athleticism he would end sessions by being "physically sick". Hear about the time he ran two hours to training - and then scored a hat-trick that weekend. Learn why he credits another Blues legend in Joe Royle for reigniting his football career. Hear his personal experiences of being resident in New York and seeing the harrowing aftermath of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre on 11 September 2001. And understand the circumstances that led to him being jailed for eight years in October 2005, a sentence of which he would serve half.