Despite winning multiple trophies and starring for England, Sol Campbell will always be remembered primarily for the most shocking move in Premier League history.
In the summer of 2001, the centre back left Tottenham Hotspur after nine seasons to join their bitter north London rivals Arsenal on a free transfer. The move stunned the public and enraged Spurs fans.
Campbell says the situation at Tottenham had soured well before the switch. He recalls a particularly bitter incident 25 years ago during a match at Derby County, where he was wrongly accused of injuring a steward. The club left him to defend himself legally.
“I’m an innocent young boy, I’m club captain at the time,” Campbell says. “For me, a young man in the public eye, to be fingerprinted and photographed by police when I had nothing to do with the incident, it was a South American player, it is scary how far that goes and doesn’t get pulled months and months before.”
His move to Arsenal remains a flashpoint in football and London culture. Campbell leaned into the controversy in a recent Google Pixel ad that opens with him wearing a white jumper, then revealing a red one underneath. “Take it from me, big moves pay off,” Campbell says as he walks into his trophy room. “Sure, people will have opinions, but who cares what people think?”
Campbell says that the idea actually came from a Tottenham fan at Google.
“They found the right balance in humour, wink-wink, if you know, you know. It was well shot, it was well written, well acted out by me, of course!”
Campbell once said in an interview he wanted to be an actor when he retired. He says he has been offered a few roles over the years but it never happened.
“Guy Ritchie looked at putting me into a film one time but there was too much swearing so I just left it. He said ‘Sol that’s how you start’ but it wasn’t for me.”
Instead, he turned to management. He helped save Macclesfield from relegation and last managed Southend in League One in 2020. He has long been an advocate for more diversity in football. In 2013, he said attitudes toward black players and managers in England were outdated. “Everyone has to ask themselves why there are not more black managers in this country,” he said.
Campbell says there are still structural problems in England that will not go away and the “embers are still there to ignite again”.
“Whether it is to have the right balance on the TV, media or the coaching staff, the medical staff. Diversity brings a lot to the table. You want to see the talent that you might miss as well. Talent is everywhere, you don’t want to miss out on it because you don’t understand the culture.”
Regarding black players being treated differently in the media to other players, Campbell says: “Some players get labelled and other players have done something similar and it’s a graveyard, nothing is said. The more they do that, the more they inadvertently expose themselves. In the end, everyone can read, everyone can see things.”
Now 50 years old, Campbell has not ruled out a return to football and coaching, but says he is focused on technology in football now, recently taking a role with a Swiss firm to leverage the power of AI to help clubs across the world analyse matches and player performance.
He says he would be more interested in a consultancy job in the game to “help a new team to build up, to structure a team”.
“I love football, I don’t want to fall out of love with football. It’s all about being in the right environment, if it’s not the right environment it’s hard work.”
Campbell remains proud of his Arsenal achievements, particularly going unbeaten in the 2003/04 season under Arsène Wenger. “To break a record that lasted over 100 years was pretty special.” He also cherishes scoring in the 2006 Champions League final, calling it instinctual and electric – though Arsenal ultimately lost.
Before big Champions League games, Campbell would feel both fear and excitement. “I’m thinking, ‘I’m 29 – will I get this chance again?’ Some players make multiple finals. That didn’t happen to me.”
He fancies he would do well in the modern game and believes it is easier for forwards to score these days than it was in his era because of less marking from defenders.
“Top players are allowed to float into positions and wait for the ball. It’s like if you score, you score, I might score as well. As a defender you’ve got to do two jobs, find the balance between covering and playing, but also getting tight to the man. If you’re a good centre forward now at finding space, you’re gonna score a lot of goals. There is a lot less tracking.”
Sol Campbell is teaming up with Heineken 0.0 on their To The Sports That Bring Us Together campaign, championing the power of sport and social connection. Sol touched down in Dublin on Wednesday, April 16th to watch Real Madrid v Arsenal in The River Bar alongside fans as part of the campaign.
