Kevin Campbell is a good man in football who makes ‘dreams’ come true

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For many people, Kevin Campbell is the answer to the famous football trivia question. To Everton fans, he is simply “Super Kev”.

The Toffees and Arsenal fans mourned the 54-year-old’s passing after a short illness, who will also be remembered fondly by those at Nottingham Forest and West Brom.



Many sports quizzes ask the question: “Who has scored the most goals in the Premier League without getting a senior cap for his country?” but Campbell’s lack of international recognition was barely noticeable at Goodison Park.

There, they remember his nine goals in five games that saved the club from relegation in 1999 shortly after joining on loan, and his winner at Anfield four months later that resulted in their last success at Stanley Park until a Covid-22 era victory. years later.

“It came in the Kop final and my view, which will stay with me until the day I die, was that the Blues on the Kop went crazy,” he said of the goal.

“That is one of my favorite memories in football.”

One of the proudest moments was when Walter Smith appointed him captain for the 2001-02 season.

“He made me Everton’s first black captain, which is something I’m very proud of,” he said.

Born in Lambeth in February 1970, Campbell’s first love was Arsenal, who he joined as a schoolboy in 1985, after scoring 59 goals in one season for one of the academy sides.



He was also instrumental in the 1988 FA Youth Cup win, scoring a hat-trick in the final and making his first-team debut later that season.

“I couldn’t afford to go to the game when I was younger so I waited until the last 20 minutes when they opened the gates to the old North Bank stand and ran over to watch the final action of the game,” he said.

“So being able to actually play for the team I support is a dream come true.”

After loan spells at Leyton Orient and Leicester, his eight goals in 10 games were crucial to the Gunners’ First Division title win in 1991.

Ian Wright’s arrival at Highbury that summer increased competition for places in the front line and, despite continuing to feature, Campbell joined Nottingham Forest in 1995.

He scored 60 goals in 224 games for Arsenal and, as well as the league title, also won the FA Cup, League Cup and European Cup Winners’ Cup. Arguably his most famous goal in red and white came in the second leg of the European semifinals in 1994, a seventh-minute header that was enough to beat Paris Saint-Germain and send Arsenal through to the final, where they would beat Parma 1-0 .

He was relegated with Forest in 1997, but 23 goals the following season saw them bounce back, but he was controversially sold to Turkish club Trabzonspor – which prompted his partner, Pierre van Hooijdonk, to go on strike.



“It didn’t make sense at the time, but football often doesn’t make sense,” Campbell said.

“Dave Bassett, the manager at the time, later told me that it was Irving Scholar, the former chairman of Spurs, who decided to sell me, so perhaps the reason he sold me was the old Spurs vs Arsenal rivalry.”

Campbell lasted less than a season in Turkey, arriving on Merseyside in March 1999, after being frozen out after club president Mehmet Ali Yilmaz called him a “cannibal”, although Campbell insisted that the international press misunderstood the Turkish phrase.

He immediately became a fans’ favorite at Goodison and remains the club’s fifth top Premier League goalscorer.

Away from the field during his time at the club, Campbell founded a record label, 2 Wikid, signing controversial rapper Mark Morrison to it, but their partnership turned sour and resulted in a legal dispute in 2004 over the release of Mack’s stellar Return of the Album Innocent person.



Campbell moved to West Brom in January 2005 and performed another rescue act as they became the first club bottom of the table at Christmas to remain.

However, it was a temporary reprieve, as they went down the following year and Campbell joined Cardiff for 12 months before retiring.

True to his good reputation, he insists he understands having been named in the England squad but never winning a cap.

“I’m not at all disappointed not to play for England. “There were so many good players in that era that it was difficult to get into the team,” he said.

“I might be a good trivia question for players who were called up but never got caps.”

However, he is more than that.

Campbell’s death was announced by his former clubs Arsenal and Everton on Saturday morning. He is survived by his son Tyrese, a professional footballer who was most recently at Stoke.