“I DIDN’T like who I was as a footballer, looking back, I didn’t like what I was. Now, it’s a lot easier to be who I want to be and who I am because I’m not a performing dog anymore. I don’t have to be what I needed to be then. What I needed to be then was the best I possibly could be to the detriment of most of the other stuff in my life. Now I don’t have to do that, it’s a far easier life and I’m far happier.”

The most decorated footballer in the history of Everton Football Club, the last goalkeeper to be voted Football Writers’ Player of the Year, the winner of two league titles, two FA Cups and a European Cup Winners’ Cup and venerated as the best of his generation, Neville Southall is now far more famous for standing up for people without a voice in mainstream society than for standing up to attackers bearing down on his goal.

Southall’s commitment to his various charities and causes often extends to him surrendering his social media account to organisations that lack his mass following, allowing them a chance to further their work and crush widely held misconceptions. Helplines for workers in the sex industry, drug users, those coping with suicide bereavement and this week victims of sexual violence have all been given a forum of over 146,000 people on Southall’s Twitter account. So what made the former international goalkeeper such a crusader for marginalised groups?