Kevin's Journey: From Arsenal Youth Star to Premier League Legend

 

Kevin, an Arsenal fan for life, enlisted in our youth team in 1985 when he was fifteen years old. He soon proved to have amazing goal-scoring ability and rose to prominence as one of the most successful young strikers in the nation. After scoring 61 goals in 53 games at the youth and reserve levels that season, he was crowned the FA Youth Cup winner in 1988. He made his first-team debut shortly after, at the age of 18, ironically against Everton, a team he would go on to represent with great distinction.

Kevin had successful loan stints with LeicesterCity and Leyton Orient before his breakthrough season at Arsenal in 1990–91. At barely twenty-one, he helped his team win the league title by playing with Alan Smith and Paul Merson and scoring eight goals in a 10-match run towards the conclusion of the season. He was already an England Under-21 international, and he was a big part of our winning team that finished the season with just one league loss. He again increased his goal total in the next season, this time alongside new acquisition Ian Wright, and he added two more trophies to his collection in 1992–93 when he won the
FA Cup and League Cup double, which was a first for English football.

During his most memorable season for us, which ended in 1993–94, Kevin scored 19 goals, including the game-winning goal in the European Cup Winners' Cup semifinal matchup against Paris Saint-Germain. During an amazing night in Copenhagen, he played the entire ninety minutes in the final versus Parma, as we experienced European success.

Kevin's time with Arsenal came to an end in 1995 when he transferred to Nottingham Forest, following one more season at the club. His total of 228 games and 59 goals with our first team put him in a tie for 40th place on our all-time scoring chart, one goal ahead of current player and fellow youth team graduate Bukayo Saka, and level with former number seven Liam Brady. Kevin played for a while with Turkish team Trabzonspor following three seasons with Forest, when he won the Division One title in 1998, before joining Everton. In addition to playing more than 150 games for the Merseyside club, Kevin also won over a lot of fans there thanks to his goal-scoring spree towards the conclusion of the 1998–1999 campaign, which kept his team from being demoted.

In April of that season, he was selected Premier League Player of the Month. His playing career ended with West Bromwich Albion and Cardiff City. He went on to have a great career in the media, which often led him back to Arsenal, where he was always greeted with open arms by his old teammates. Many people at the club still cherished him as a friend, and they had been from his first days at Highbury.

Tyrese, Kevin's son, is carrying on the family's English football tradition by playing forward for Stoke City in the Championship the previous year. Kevin's entire family has our deepest sympathies during this very trying time.