Steven Naismith has paid for Christmas dinner for hundreds of homeless people though he may not be able to rely on his Everton salary for much longer after his manager Roberto Martínez hinted that the forward’s future may lie away from Goodison Park.
The Scottish forward sponsored an annual meal in Glasgow organised by the charity, Loaves and Fishes, which helps those sleeping rough in the city.
Naismith described the event as “humbling and inspiring”, telling the Liverpool Echo: “When I was at Rangers and had a few bad injuries and wasn’t playing I thought it was a good opportunity to start helping, so I spoke to family and friends about where I wanted to make a difference if I could and Loaves and Fishes got brought up a couple of times.
“It’s a small gesture I make and in terms of the difference it makes, it’s massive. I enjoy it, you meet a lot of great characters in there who tell you what they think about football and how good or bad a footballer they think you are, things like that, so it’s great to go in and spend the afternoon with them.”
It is not the first time Naismith has put his hand in his pocket to help the disadvantaged. In 2014 he bought tickets for Everton home games to donate to unemployed people across Liverpool.
At Everton, Naismith has found himself increasingly sidelined, with Romelu Lukaku, Arouna Koné, Gerard Deulofeu and Ross Barkley monopolising the attacking positions.
Norwich, Everton’s opponents on Saturday, made a deadline-day bid for Naismith in the summer but were rebuffed by Martínez.
However, with Naismith not having been involved in a Premier League game since mid-October, it appears a move in January could be on the cards.
Martínez said: “That’s something we need to look into whenever that situation arises. It happened in August, it wasn’t the right time. We’re going to see how the next three or four weeks go.
“It’s so important to have a strong squad. We’ve got a period of a lot of games in a short amount of days and every single player will have a very important role in those weeks.
“So I’m sure in four or five weeks we’ll have a clear idea of where we are and it’ll be the right time to make a decision.
“Steven is a very intelligent man, intelligent footballer, and I think he’s got an incredible degree of confidence.
“It is true it’s been very frustrating for certain players in those attacking positions due to the fact some of the players that are playing in those roles have reached an incredible level of form. I think as a player you understand that.”
Naismith had said he was frustrated about being left out of the side. “When Norwich were interested in me in the summer, it was the manager who said he didn’t want it to happen. But as a player you need to think about all your options.
“The manager said we’d speak about it again come January time so we’ll do that.”
