The Austrian Club,Frenches Forest,Sydney must have been around the mid 90's,met Bally and his beautiful wife at an organised "Question and Answer" evening,this remote Northern Suburb of Sydney had around two hundred to three hundred ex-patriots in attendence,and at least 70% must have been of Liverpool origin,had the pleasure of speaking to him and Mrs Ball and what an absolute pleasure and honour it was to share some time with him,as you can well imagine his company was in demand,i recall his expression when he actually walked into the venue and his face was beaming as bright as it was when he netted the winner in the cup tie against Liverpool in 1967,all those scouse accents in unison"All rite Bally"he truly looked overwhelmed by the turn out and seemed genuinely moved.To top it off got to hold his World Cup Winners Medal,great memories in the presence of one of the giant heartbeats of Everton Football Club.

Just wish footballers these days had the same mindset. A true great.

Hes the reason I support this club.I loved him.

Got my ALAN BALL Tattoo done not long after that. The best 1/2 a crown (12 . 1/2 p ) i ever spent.

Pleasure to have seen him as the Orchestratior of a truly wonderful side. My boy rang me at work the day he passed away and I just cried. I will never see the lke of him again. A giant for such a small man. R.I.P.

ALAN,,YOU ARE AND ALWAYS WILL BE A TRUE EVERTON LEGEND,,,MET YOU SEVERAL TIMES AND YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO TALK ABOUT EVERTON,,AND NEVER ONCE DID YOU SHUN PEOPLE WHO WANTED TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT THIER CLUBS AND FOOTBALL,,, YOU ONCE TOLD ME YOU WOULD HAVE WALKED ACROSS BROKEN GLASS ALL THE WAY BACK TO GOODISON IF WE WOULD HAVE NEEDED YOU FOR THE MANAGERS JOB,,ALAS THAT WAS NOT TO BE BUT YOU WILL ALWAYS STILL BE IN ALL EVERTONIANS HEARTS MATE,,, R.I.P A GREAT FOOTBALLER,,A GREAT EVERTONIAN AND A GREAT MAN,,CHEERS ,,,,

I remember well, Alan scoring against liverpool in an FA cup game at Goodison, forgot the year. He lashed it in from a really acute angle at the Gwladys st. end. Met him at Cheltenham raecourse years later and oh my, what a guy.

Spoken like the true gent he was, you never get that faith from these gold-digger players now. He had red hair, but we didn't care..... RIP Alan xX-EFC4EVER-Xx