Kevin Campbell (footballer)
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Kevin Joseph Campbell | ||
| Date of birth | 4 February 1970 | ||
| Place of birth | Lambeth, London, England | ||
| Height | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) | ||
| Playing position | Striker | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1985–1988 | Arsenal | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1988–1995 | Arsenal | 166 | (46) |
| 1989 | → Leyton Orient (loan) | 16 | (9) |
| 1989 | → Leicester City (loan) | 11 | (5) |
| 1995–1998 | Nottingham Forest | 80 | (32) |
| 1998–1999 | Trabzonspor[1] | 17 | (5) |
| 1999 | → Everton (loan) | 8 | (9) |
| 1999–2005 | Everton | 137 | (36) |
| 2005–2006 | West Bromwich Albion | 45 | (6) |
| 2006–2007 | Cardiff City | 19 | (0) |
| Total | 499 | (148) | |
| National team‡ | |||
| 1990–1992 | England U21 | 4 | (1) |
| 1991 | England B | 1 | (0) |
|
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 20:10, 17 April 2008 (UTC). | |||
Kevin Joseph Campbell (born 4 February 1970) is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker from 1988 until 2007, most notably in the Premier League for Arsenal, Nottingham Forest, Everton and West Bromwich Albion.
He has also played in the Turkish top flight for Trabzonspor and in the Football League for Leyton Orient, Leicester City and Cardiff City.
Club career
Arsenal
Campbell began his career as a trainee with Arsenal, joining the club on schoolboy forms in 1985. He had a prolific run in the club's youth team (with whom he won the FA Youth Cup and scored 59 goals in a season), but despite making his first-team debut against Everton on 7 May 1988, the forward positions were usually taken by Paul Merson and Alan Smith.
Campbell came to prominence during a loan spell at Leyton Orient in 1989, when he scored 9 goals in 16 games; Orient manager Frank Clark wanted to make the move permanent but Arsenal refused to sell. After a poor start to the 1989-90 season he was again loaned out, this time to Leicester City. However, the following season (1990-91) he established himself in the Arsenal team, scoring eight times in ten matches during the run-in to the club's First Division title win.
Despite Arsenal signing Ian Wright in September 1991, Campbell continued to play for Arsenal, although he was often overshadowed by his more prolific partner. Nevertheless, he scored some crucial goals for Arsenal, including last-minute equalisers against Millwall and Derby County in Arsenal's successful FA Cup and League Cup campaigns in 1992-93. The following season he scored 19 (his best single season for the Gunners) and won the Cup Winners' Cup, but his form deserted him in 1994-95, and the arrivals of John Hartson and Dennis Bergkamp threatened his place in the side. In all he played 224 times for Arsenal, scoring 59 goals.
Nottingham Forest
In the summer of 1995 Campbell was sold to Nottingham Forest for an initial fee of £2.5m, where he spent three seasons. He was part of the team that was relegated in 1997, but his 23 goals the following season helped a return to the top flight at the first attempt.
Trabzonspor
However, Campbell controversially left Forest at the end of that season to join Turkish side Trabzonspor, being sold for £2.5m, causing Forest team-mate Pierre van Hooijdonk to famously go "on strike".[2] His time in Trabzon was brief and unhappy; he left the club after seven months after a racist incident involving the club president, Mehmet Ali Yılmaz, who called him a "cannibal". He was very popular during his time at the club with the fans. To show solidarity with him when he asked to leave following this incident, the two club captains, Ogün Temizkanoğlu and Abdullah Ercan, were with him during his press conference in which he stated his reasons for leaving.
Everton
Everton, who were battling against relegation from the Premier League, signed Campbell on loan in March 1999. His impact on the side was immediate as he scored 9 goals in 8 games, making him Everton's top goalscorer both at and away from Goodison Park that season and single handedly saving them from the drop. His 6 goals in his first 3 games earned him the April player of the month award, the first on-loan player ever to win it.[3]
Campbell's move to Everton was made permanent in the summer of 1999 for a fee of £3million. In the first half of the 1999-2000 season, he scored Everton's winning goal in the Merseyside derby at Anfield against Liverpool.[4]
He was Everton's leading goalscorer for both of the following two seasons, scoring 12 and 9 goals respectively. After scoring only 4 goals during the 2001-02 campaign, he was once again the club's top goalscorer the following year when he scored 10 times. This would prove to be Campbell's final season as first-choice for Everton as he struggled to battle both injuries and the emergence of a number of strikers, in particular Wayne Rooney.[3]
West Bromwich Albion
Campbell left in January 2005 on a free transfer to West Bromwich Albion, who were bottom of the Premiership.[5] He was appointed team captain shortly after his arrival and successfully led the club to Premiership survival (this was the first time that a club which had been bottom of the league on Christmas Day had survived relegation).
Cardiff City
However, in May 2006, after West Brom's relegation to the Championship, Campbell was released by the club. He signed for Cardiff City on a free transfer on 2 August 2006.[6] He scored his first and only goal for the first team in an FAW Premier Cup quarter-final match away at Carmarthen Town on 13 February 2007, and was released by the club in May 2007,[7] subsequently retiring from the game to pursue business interests. His final competitive appearance came against former club West Brom on 20 February 2007.[8]
International career
Campbell earned 4 caps for the England U-21s and 1 for England B. He has the distinction of being the English player who has scored the most goals in the Premier League without earning an England cap.[9]
Personal life
He ran his own record label, '2 Wikid', with rapper Mark Morrison the label's first signing.[10] But in December 2004, with the artist still signed to 2 Wikid, Campbell was forced to obtain a court injunction against rival label Jet Star, in order to prevent it from releasing Morrison's album Innocent Man.[11] The injunction was lifted shortly afterwards,[12] and the album was eventually released sometime later.
Campbell was featured on the Sky Sports series "Where are They Now?" in 2008, when he was the co-owner of a security company "T1 Protection", specialising in supplying bodyguards to celebrities and other wealthy customers whilst traveling abroad. He also commentated with Asia-based TEN Sports for their Premier League and Champions League coverage.[13] Kevin has a son by the name of Tyrese Campbell who plays for Manchester City.[14]
Honours
- Arsenal
- Nottingham Forest
- Everton
- Top goalscorer (4): (1998-99),(1999-00),(2000-01),(2002-03)
References
- ↑ Kevin Campbell - Everton FC, Football-Heroes.net
- ↑ Simon Kuper (5 May 2002). "Fans hand it to proud Pi-Air". London: The Observer. Retrieved 14 April 2010.
- 1 2 "Kevin Campbell-Profile". Everton FC.com.
- ↑ Williamson, Laura (19 January 2009). "Liverpool v Everton - Sportsmail's top 10 Merseyside derbies". Daily Mail. London.
- ↑ "West Brom sign striker Campbell". BBC Sport. 10 January 2005. Retrieved 30 April 2007.
- ↑ "Bluebirds secure Campbell signing". BBC Sport. 2 August 2006. Retrieved 30 April 2007.
- ↑ "Thompson heads Cardiff clear-out". BBC Sport. 16 May 2007. Retrieved 31 August 2007.
- ↑ "West Brom 1-0 Cardiff". BBC. 20 February 2007. Retrieved 30 December 2010.
- ↑ "Which uncapped player has scored the most Premiership goals?". The Guardian. 18 August 2004. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
- ↑ "Campbell has a Wicked time". BBC Sport. 1 October 2003. Retrieved 30 April 2007.
- ↑ "Court halts Mark Morrison album". BBC News. 13 December 2004. Retrieved 30 April 2007.
- ↑ "R&B star wins court album battle". BBC News. 22 December 2004. Retrieved 30 April 2007.
- ↑ "Football round the clock".
- ↑ Jones, Simon (8 August 2016). "Manchester City winger Jesus Navas wanted by Sevilla while Samir Nasri interests host of Italian clubs and is forced to train alone". Daily Mail. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
- ↑ "Kevin Campbell - Profile". Arsenal.com.
