The phrase “nobody is bigger than the club” is quite rightly trotted out whenever an individual tries to throw their weight around but just who is the biggest player in Everton's history?

A short answer, a paradox if ever there was one, would be Lacina Traore, the 6ft 8in Ivorian striker who made just two appearances on loan from Monaco in 2014 but that's not the sort of size this article is getting at.

The point being made, following the retirement announcement of Samuel Eto'o, is which Blues footballer possessed the greatest profile?

The Cameroon legend certainly has a strong claim but there are of course many different parameters for measuring such a title, some of which are more tangible than others.

Here's a look at some of the contenders for the crown.

Everton's new signing Samuel Eto'o at Finch Farm in 2014
Everton's new signing Samuel Eto'o at Finch Farm in 2014

Show us your medals

This is where Eto'o possesses a strong hand.

A FIFA Club World Cup; three Champions Leagues (two with Barcelona and one at Inter); four domestic titles (three La Liga, one Serie A) and four domestic cups (two Coppa Italias and a Copa del Rey with both Barcelona and Mallorca) over a 759 game career in which he scored 370 goals.

At international level, the all-time leading scorer for Cameroon and the Africa Cup of Nations – a tournament he won twice – also bagged himself an Olympic gold medal at the 2000 games in Sydney, although he's joined in that club by Blues FA Cup winners Daniel Amokachi of Nigeria (Atlanta, 1996) and Harold Hardman of Great Britain (London, 1908).

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His main competitor on that score is Everton's Prodigal Son Wayne Rooney who book-ended his illustrious Premier League career (so long as he doesn't return to the top flight with Derby County) at Goodison Park either side of securing a treasure trove of trophies at Manchester United.

Over a 13-year spell at Old Trafford, the player who would go on to become all-time leading goalscorer for both Manchester United and England with a club record of 306 goals in 725 games to date, lifted every major honour available for an English-based footballer.

There were five Premier League titles, an FA Cup, three League Cups, a Champions League, Europa League and a FIFA Club World Cup.

Performing on the biggest stage

Widely-regarded as Everton's best-ever left-back, Ray Wilson, who died last year, is the only man to have won the World Cup while at the Blues and as a result, he and England team-mate Roger Hunt of Liverpool got to proudly carry the Jules Rimet Trophy around Goodison Park ahead of the 1966 Charity Shield.

Everton World Cup winner Ray Wilson
Everton World Cup winner Ray Wilson

Playing alongside Wilson in Alf Ramsey's side that defeated West Germany 4-2 after extra time at Wembley and then joining him in the Everton ranks the following season was Alan Ball.

It takes a special kind of player to get a Man-of-the-match award in a World Cup final and an extra special kind of player to be given that gong when one of your colleagues scores a hat-trick.

Geoff Hurst himself says: “Ask any of the players that day who was their man of the match and they would all say Bally.”

Howard Kendall, who alongside Ball would form two-thirds of the most celebrated midfield trio in Everton's history 'The Holy Trinity' with Colin Harvey, would lament the Blues recruitment policy at the time after they paid Blackpool a then English record £112,000 to acquire his signature by quipping: “Everton’s scouting network was legendary. They spotted Alan Ball playing a World Cup Final.”

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Ball, whose sale to Arsenal for another record fee of £220,000 in 1971 when still just 26 and at the peak of his powers broke many an Evertonian's heart, would later declare: “Once Everton has touched you, nothing will be the same.”

A decade after his untimely death aged 61 in 2007, a stage show was produced, telling the story of his career.

Former Everton defender Marco Materazzi, who spent a solitary season with the Blues in 1998/99, astounded many fans who witnessed his antics in the 2006 World Cup final.

The centre-back enjoyed quite a night as he not only scored Italy's goal in the 1-1 draw with France but netted in the resultant penalty shoot-out win and among all that he also managed to get the opposition star man and player of the tournament Zinedine Zidane sent off.

Zinedine Zidane gesturing after head-butting Italian defender Marco Materazzi during the World Cup 2006 final

For Goodison Park spectators who last saw Materazzi sat crying on the touchline after his own red card against Coventry City – his third dismissal of the campaign – it was all quite a turn up for the books.

National Treasures

Fans on Merseyside aren't always over-enthused when their club heroes do the business for good old 'Ingerland' but exploits for the Three Lions can make a player popular with nans and school kids alike from the Home Counties to Hadrian's Wall and you don't even have to win the World Cup like the aforementioned Wilson or Ball.

With his knack of plundering stacks of close range strikes and Goody Two-Shoes persona – he was never booked – Fox in the box Gary Lineker became the obvious future face of both Walkers Crisps (no more Mr Nice Guy) and Match of the Day.

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The Leicester goal poacher had just a single season at Everton with his 40 goals in 57 games not enough to prevent the Blues being pipped to both the League and FA Cup by Liverpool.

Lineker then found the net half a dozen times at the 1986 World Cup finals in Mexico to land the Golden Boot and a transfer to Barcelona.

While Lineker was just starting out on his international ascendancy while at Goodison, Paul Gascoigne did not arrive at the club until a decade after his Italia '90 pomp.

A combination of silk and steel in midfield plus a big dollop of tears when a booking against West Germany would have left him suspended for the final had Bobby Robson's side made it, won “daft as a brush” Gazza his place in the nation's heart.

Everton's Paul Gascoigne celebrates with Alessandro Pistone and Tomasz Radzinski following his goal at Bolton in 2001
Everton's Paul Gascoigne celebrates with Alessandro Pistone and Tomasz Radzinski following his goal at Bolton in 2001

Arguably the most talented British footballer of his generation, the media seemingly followed his every move off the pitch throughout his turbulent career.

On-the-field he was a shadow of his former self by the time he teamed up with his old Rangers manager Walter Smith at Everton in 2000.

The folks back home

The following players didn't quite reach the kind of stellar levels as some of the names already mentioned on this list but they were all a big deal back in their native countries.

Tim Cahill is a national idol in Australia, one of the world's great sporting nations, was the first of his countrymen to score in the World Cup finals and is also the Socceroos all-time leading goalscorer with 50 strikes in 108 internationals.

Former Everton midfielder Tim Cahill is an Australian icon
Former Everton midfielder Tim Cahill is an Australian icon

Tim Howard, who kept goal for Everton for a decade between 2006-16, showed American sports fans that there's more to life than gridiron, baseball, basketball and ice hockey when he became one of the most-recognisable figures in the USA in 2014 by making a World Cup record 15 saves in a second round match against Belgium in Salvador, Brazil.

His display had him dubbed 'US Secretary of Defense', inspired a myriad of online memes and earned him a congratulatory phone call from President Barack Obama.

As for having the biggest fan club, how about Li Tie?

The midfielder joined Everton on loan along with compatriot Li Weifeng following the club's sponsorship deal with Chinese telecommunications company Keijan.

While the latter failed to make the grade, turning out just twice, Li Tie would go on to earn a permanent switch to the Blues and made 40 appearances before injury problems, including a broken leg, curtailed his progress.

On New Year's Day 2003, a crowd of 40,163 crammed into Goodison Park to watch a 2-2 draw between Everton and Manchester City.

However, that attendance was dwarfed by an estimated television audience of some 360 million who are believed to have tuned in to watch Li Tie take on fellow countryman Sun Jihai.

The Grandaddy of Goodison Greats

Dixie Dean's legacy remains powerful at Everton over four score years after he departed.

He is such an iconic figure at the club it must be remembered that the Blues didn't just start with him and had actually been going for half a century before his record-breaking 60 goal haul in 1928.

One of football's first superstars, Dean's prolific scoring – nobody has got within 11 goals of him over a top flight season before or since while his 383 goals for Everton remain unsurpassed for any single English club – earned him national recognition.

When Knowsley-based Lord Derby pointed out to the Duchess of York and future Queen/Queen Mother at the 1933 FA Cup final: “The number 9 ma'am is Dixie Dean”, she is said to have retorted: “Even I know Dean!”

The Duke of York looks on as the Duchess of York presents the FA Cup to Everton captain Dixie Dean in 1933
The Duke of York looks on as the Duchess of York presents the FA Cup to Everton captain Dixie Dean in 1933

Although the Birkenhead-born centre-forward's fame secured him numerous endorsements, he pay remained relatively modest compared to US sports stars and his baseball contemporary Babe Ruth was staggered to learn that Dean wasn't being given a cut of the gate receipts when they met on the New York Yankees' star's trip to the UK.

During his playing days, Dean was immortalised with his own waxwork at Madame Tussauds.

In the 1990s he had been given the dubious honour of having an odd-looking half man/half-toffee Everton club mascot named after him.

Since then, Blues chiefs have come up with more befitting recognitions in the shape of a statue outside the Park End of Goodison, using Dean's image on the sleeve of their shirts when they became the first club to play 100 seasons of top flight football and then naming their end of season awards 'The Dixies.'

Most recently there has also been the opening of the Dixie Dean Hotel on Victoria Street in Liverpool city centre.