Kevin Campbell has died after a short illness

 

Everton and Arsenal icon, Kevin Campbell, is reported to have died after being hospitalized last month following a short illness, age 54.

Former Nottingham Forest teammate Mark Crossley confirmed that Campbell has sadly passed away, in a statement on Twitter this morning.

Campbell started his career with Arsenal and he would go onto make 224 first-team appearances for the Gunners after loan spells with Leyton Orient and Leicester.

He was part of Arsenal’s league title-winning squad in 1991 and then helped the Gunners win the FA Cup and League Cup double in 1993 before famously lifting the European Cup Winners’ Cup a year later.

After spending the 3 years at Nottingham Forest between 1995 and 1998, Campbell moved abroad for the first and only time in his career, joining Turkish side Trabzonspor. But things did not go well for him and in March 1999, Everton manager Walter Smith saw in Campbell a cheap way of acquiring much-needed firepower for his bid to steer Everton away from increasingly real relegation danger.

The benefit turned out to be mutual — as Kevin was by that point desperate to leave Turkey, having been on the victim of barbed racist comments by the Trabzonspor president who branded Campbell a “discoloured cannibal” and attacked his scoring record.

SuperKev, as the Evertonians would soon call him, enjoyed a prolific 6-month loan spell with Everton in the second half of the 1998-99 season – with the Toffees making his spell at Goodison Park permanent that summer for £3M.

Revered for his time at Goodison Park, Campbell scored the winning goal away at Anfield during the 1999-00 season – a result that remained Everton’s last away win against Liverpool up until the 2020-21 campaign.

Campbell stayed at Goodison Park until 2005, when he left for West Bromwich Albion, before later joining Cardiff City on a short-term deal.

Following his retirement as a player in 2007, Campbell worked as a pundit, appearing on broadcasts covering the Premier League and Champions League