Leon Osman has detailed what he’ll miss the most about Goodison Park but admits looking around Everton’s new stadium blew him away.
After 133 years at Goodison Park, Everton will play their final fixture against Southampton on Sunday, May 18, 2025, and as part of a series of star-studded events for the ground’s historic last season, Osman is hosting Gwladys Street Presents: Cult Heroes on Wednesday, August 21 when he will be joined by his former team-mates Lee Carsley and Thomas Gravesen plus 1995 FA Cup winner Daniel Amokachi.
As the latest guest on our special Goodison Park: My Home podcast series, Osman, whose 433 games for Everton put him joint 10th on the club’s all-time appearance list alongside Dixie Dean, told the ECHO: “I’ll miss everything. Probably the thing I’ll miss the most is the reaction to a late goal that Goodison brings.
I’ve had a full journey at Goodison Park from watching from the stands – every different stand that you could, I’ve seen a game from them all – to going and playing youth team football at an empty stadium to playing in a full stadium and now commentating from the gantries from a neutral point of view as best I can. It’s been a full journey but something that is a constant is, as I said, when we score a late winner, when Goodison is rocking after a late winner in a game that could have gone either way.
“Those moments, those noises, that reaction to winning that game from 2-0 down against Crystal Palace. I’ll miss those nights at Goodison, absolutely.”
On departing Goodison Park, Everton will move to their future home on the Mersey waterfront at Bramley-Moore Dock for the 2025/26 season and as one of the select few to have been inside the 52,888 capacity stadium on several occasions, Osman has been hugely impressed with what he’s seen. The 43-year-old said: “I’m fortunate enough that I’ve been to the new stadium. I’ve been able to see it progress through its different stages of development and I was there before a brick was even put in there.
I was there again, only a couple of weeks ago to see how it’s doing now and what the corporate hospitality is going to look like and what the normal seats are going to look like. It blew me away.
“It’s going to be outstanding. The venue itself, the way the new stadium looks and what it’s going to mean to us all and what it’s going to feel like when they step on the pitch for the first time, it’s going to be intense, it’s going to be exciting.
“I think I’m like everyone. I’m upset to be leaving Goodison, definitely with the history it comes with. But also, I can’t wait to get in this new stadium and make it a real new Everton stadium.”
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