British football player Kevin Campbell, who had a serious illness for a long time but whose condition was kept secret, died at the age of 54. The death of the player, who had been hospitalized for a while, was confirmed by Nottingham Forest teammate Mark Crossley.
Following the death of the English football player, Trabzonspor, Arsenal, Everton, and Cardiff clubs, for whom he played for the English Premier League, shared a message.
Arsenal said about the former player on their official social media accounts: "We are deeply saddened to learn that our former striker Kevin Campbell has passed away after a short illness. Kevin was very loved by everyone at the club. We are all thinking of his friends and family at this difficult time. Rest in peace, Kevin."
Kevin Joseph Campbell (4 February 1970 – 15 June 2024) was an English professional footballer, sports television pundit and commentator. A striker, Campbell played in the Premier League for Arsenal, Nottingham Forest, Everton and West Bromwich Albion. He also played in the Turkish Süper Lig for Trabzonspor, and in the Football League for Arsenal, Leyton Orient, Leicester City and Cardiff City.
Everton said: "Everyone at Everton is deeply saddened to hear of the death of our former striker Kevin Campbell, aged just 54. He was not only a true Goodison Park hero and icon of English football, but as everyone who met him will know, he was an incredible human being. Rest in peace."
The most eventful team was the Super League team Trabzonspor
Campbell, who was transferred from Nottingham Forest to Trabzonspor for 4 million euros in July 1998, played 18 matches with the claret-blue team and scored 5 goals and made 5 assists. The words of Mehmet Ali Yılmaz, who was the president of Trabzonspor at the time, had a great impact on Campbell's departure from the claret-blue team. Regarding the fans' request for a striker transfer, Yilmaz said, "So we find and buy a cannibal. I mean, his color is bad. We buy him, but he doesn't score, let me sell him. Am I going to score the goals?"
The black football player did not attend the dinner given to the players by Mehmet Ali Yılmaz, who said, "We got a cannibal, he can't score goals" after the Kocaelispor match. The British press gave wide coverage to the incident, which was announced in the headlines.
"We bought Kevin Campbell as a goal machine, but he turned out to be a washing machine," Yılmaz said.
Although Yılmaz stated that his words were jokes and were misunderstood in the shadow of racism discussions and that cannibal is not a word used for discrimination in Turkish, he could not prevent Campbell from leaving the team.
"I remember my memories of Türkiye with pride"
Despite this, the English football player spoke highly of Türkiye and Trabzonspor while telling his memories years later. Campbell described those days as follows: I remember my memories of Türkiye and Trabzonspor with pride. I really enjoyed football, the people of Trabzon, its people and facilities. I was going from England and didn't know what the level was. I was shocked when I went to the facilities. Türkiye was a far ahead country compared to England in those years. Everyone had their own bedroom. The ground of the field in the facilities was magnificent. The medical team was much better than in England. I was shocked but also really happy.