FACTS
	Born	Paris (France), 29 September 1974
	Height	5' - 10" (177 cm)
	Joined Everton	from Strasburg (Fra) in July 1998 (£3,800,000)
	Debut	v Aston Villa (h), 15 August 1998
	Left Everton	for Lens (Fra) in June 1999 (£6,500,000)
	Finale	v Southampton (a), 16 May 1999
	Nicknames	Ollie
	Honours
PREVIOUS CAREER
	Seasons	Club	Apps	Gls
	1991-1997	Strasburg	61	4
	1989-1991	Aulnay sous Bois	??	?

STRENGTHS	WEAKNESSES
Confident and skilful Excellent continental ball control Good at taking free-kicks	A marked man for Referees Picks up yellows like nobody's business Not scoring enough goals

BIOSKETCH

Olivier Dacourt caught Smith's attention last season when he helped Strasburg knock Smith's Glasgow Rangers side out of the UEFA Cup. He has made 61 appearances for Strasburg in the last two seasons, scoring four goals. Dacourt has played at all levels of football, from Under-8 through to the national league, but has not yet had the opportunity to prove himself internationally. His goal "will be the European Championships in 2000", where he hopes to make an impression on the international stage. Without doubt, Olivier Dacourt was the star of Everton's 1998 pre-season tour. Every Everton move that looked dangerous went through him. He can run, beat people, tackle, pass, block, pull rabbits out of hats, feed the multitude with a loaf and a few fishes and raise the dead. He's got a nice shiny head as well! Ollie continued the good impressions with excellent performances in Everton's otherwise dismal opening matches of the 1998 season, earning three straight Man of the Match awards. He showed skill, he showed urgency, he showed determination. In all, he has shown himself to be a class above, and his performances in midfield have been a revelation. But the real problem has been the ease with which he has picked up Yellow Cards – many of them albeit thoroughly undeserved. This has had a serious impact on Ollie's game: he has definitely gone off the boil, and lost that cutting edge. He is convinced the refs are discriminating against him, as they did last season against Patrick Vieira: ''Of the cards I have had this season, maybe two yes, but the rest have been for nothing. ''It is the same for (Patrick) Vieira and (Emmanuel) Petit. This is spoiling things for me and I could miss the cup tie now which is sad. I am making one foul and it is one yellow card straight away. For other players it is different, why is that?'' Good question. When he appears on the field, he can still inspire a definite lift in spirits. He does a lot for himself, such as fancy pirouettes that are delightful to behold, but they are for Olly, not for the team; a simple pass to Materazzi might well yield the same result as his fancy play. Is he angling for a move? Arsenal are apparently interested and his friendship with Patrick Vieira is well documented...  But he has looked well inspired in our recent more impressive league and cup victories. Let's just hope this speculation is just a case of the hungry jurno hacks trying to string together unrelated facts into what is a non-story. In the critical final run-in, the constant threat of getting booked is preventing Ollie from putting 100% into games. 13 bookings so far this season is his tally, and he says he is worried about getting booked all the time. "It has got to the stage where the fear of picking up a yellow card has started to affect my game. In the game at Manchester United, I had to let one of their players go past me as I had already been booked." May 1999: With confirmation of Everton's parlous financial state, Olivier Dacourt became the most likely to leave as he went public with his disillusionment at the the litany of broken promises and lack of ambition demonstrated by the club. Many of the fans took this opportunity to turn on Ollie because he complained about the promises made to him, even though the fans have all been doing the same thing for the last couple of years, and will continue to complain about Everton mismanagement throughout the summer and beyond. It was sad that people then slated him as a player. True, he has been booked too many times and more often than not for silly challenges. He has also let his head go down following a number of these bookings due to his obvious feeling that he is being victimised by Premiership referee's. But... he is young and he is an excellent midfielder. With the possible exception of Joe Parkinson, he is the best midfielder seen at Goodison Park since Peter Reid. It is therefore difficult to understand how people who have watched him this year and can come to the conclusion that Ollie is not a good player. This is perhaps due to the expectations raised when he started the season, and that people are just looking myopically at the bad. The more discerning fans will be devastated to see him leave, although who could really blame him for going? His departure says everything about how far our once-great club has fallen. May 2000:  Oliver Dacourt was signed by Leeds United for a fee of £7.2M, to strengthen their midfield in preparation for the European League Cup next season.

EVERTON CAREER STATISTICS
Season	Squad Number	League Apps(sub)	League Goals	Cup Apps(sub)	Cup Goals	TOTAL Apps(sub)	TOTAL Goals
1998-99	4	26 (2)	2	6 (-)	1	32 (2)	3
	Totals:	26 (2)	2	6 (-)	1	32 (2)	3