Remembering Kevin Campbell

The Official Everton Podcast

The latest Official Everton Podcast episode is all about Kevin Campbell. The former Blues striker passed away in June at the tragically young age of 54 and the podcast looks back at the influence he had at Everton Football Club. Darren Griffiths is joined by Dave Prentice and Gavin Buckland, with audio contributions from Kevin’s former Arsenal team-mate Alan Smith and his striking partner at Everton, Francis Jeffers. We also hear snippets from Kevin himself as he recalls the circumstances in which he joined Everton, THAT goal against Liverpool and the first-time he encountered a schoolboy Wayne Rooney. He also speaks about the night Arsenal won the First Division title at Anfield and then bumped into some celebrating Evertonians after the game! We look back at the career of a man who cemented his legendary status at Goodison within weeks of joining the football club and assess the attributes that took him to the top. For example, he was a prolific goalscorer as a youth, but he developed his game so well that he became the perfect foil for every conceivable type of fellow centre-forward – as his partnerships with Smith, Ian Wright, Paul Merson, Francis Jeffers, Nick Barmby and Rooney would confirm. Campbell is the Premier League’s leading English goalscorer never to have been capped, he scored 51 goals for Everton, and he captained the club, but as this podcast discusses, bare statistics only tell part of the Kevin Campbell story.