Kevin Campbell, his footballing sons and a legacy of love: 'It feels like he's still there' New York Times (Online) Daniel Taylor Kyle Campbell could feel the love. It was the August bank holiday and he was playing for Mossley against Wythenshawe in the Northern Premier League. “We lost 2-0 and, after the game, one of the Mossley fans came up to me,” he recalls. “She said, 'I need to give you a hug'. I was like, 'Thank you – but why?'. And then it became clear. 'I'm an Arsenal fan', she said. 'I loved your dad — he was my hero'.” It was similar at Bootle, on the same non-League circuit, when he had a brief spell with the Merseyside club and some of the more inquisitive match-goers started piecing together the clues. The surname, the father-son resemblance, the powerful physique, lurking on the shoulder of the opposition centre-half. “A lot of Everton fans go to watch Bootle,” says Kyle, now 23. “I went into the clubhouse after a game and it started with one fan: 'I never knew who your dad was — why didn't you tell us?'. Then everyone found out and they just swarmed in. 'I can't believe your dad's Super Kev, I loved your dad!'. Handshakes, big smiles. People love sharing their memories.” The same can be said for Kyle himself given the number of personal stories he has stashed away about the man he regarded as his mentor, his inspiration, his hero and, above all, his dad. Campbell's popularity can be summed up by the outpouring of affection after his death, aged 54, in June 2024 . But it is also important to his family, two years on, that his ability to make people smile remains intact. “After he passed, I did think to myself: 'Is that it now – will he just get forgotten about?'. But no, it feels like he's still there,” says Kyle. “Everybody's really played their part in keeping the legacy alive.” It also feels apt to talk this week given that Arsenal and Everton, two of the clubs where Campbell was most revered, meet in the Premier League on Saturday. His oldest son, Tyrese, has another date on the same day, against Derby County, as an established Championship striker for Sheffield United and, before that, Stoke City. Kyle, three years younger, is on a season-long loan at Mossley from sixth-tier Radcliffe. And it's probably no coincidence that the two brothers, from an early age, shared a love of scoring goals. “It started in the garden,” says Kyle, recalling his upbringing in the footballers' enclave of Wilmslow, south of Manchester. “Me, my dad and Ty, racing around the garden together. Even my mum (Fay) would join in. Mum used to go in the goal and we'd smash balls at her.” Born in 2003, Kyle never got to see his dad play for Everton or Nottingham Forest and has had to rely on borrowed nostalgia to learn about the days when the muscular Campbell, from Lambeth, south London, came through Arsenal's youth system with the nickname of 'Rambo' . The younger sibling does, however, remember childhood excursions to watch him in the latter stages of his career at West Bromwich Albion and Cardiff City. “People were always asking him for autographs and pictures but, to me, he was just my dad. The older I got, I realised he was a Premier League legend. But I didn't realise how big a player he was, and how big a superstar, until after he had passed. “I get it now and it's like 'Wow', because I also realise his popularity goes beyond football. And that's rare. So many people have come up to me and said, 'I don't really like football but I met your dad numerous times and what a legend he was'. They don't just know him for football — they know him for his personality and being a great guy. He was a people person.” We get talking about Campbell's friendship with the people who used to run the Winslow Hotel pub, directly opposite Everton's old Goodison Park stadium, and the times when he used to go in after matches and start pulling pints for the regulars. That, says Kyle, sums him up. “Some people after games would go off as discreetly as possible without being seen. He was the opposite to that. He loved the fans.” His own memories are filled with laughter. Where do you even start? The family holiday to Dubai, perhaps, when he disappeared to the nearest shop and spent a small fortune to buy a water pistol for every boy or girl around the hotel's swimming pool. “He wanted to get everyone involved,” says Kyle. “It ended up with 15 or 20 kids involved in one huge water fight. He just loved people having a good time.” Or the typical scene on Christmas Day. “A knock on the door. It's Dad, bow tie, carrying a Jamaican rum cake the size of a car tyre. He'd arrive in a taxi and bring so many presents he'd have to make two or three trips to the car to collect everything.” Among the tattoos on his right arm, Kyle's most treasured is a V-sign, symbolising his dad's two-handed salute after a 2-0 win at Liverpool in August 1992, wearing what he describes as Arsenal's “mouldy banana” away kit. Another tattoo shows their hands touching, fingertips to fingertips, and there is also one for '1970' to signify the year his dad was born. Everyone at the club is sending love to Kevin Campbell and his family, following news that our former striker is very unwell. We're thinking of you, @1kevincampbell ❤️ pic.twitter.com/j3n3FVNyWj Determined to celebrate his life, the family went to see the 'Super Kevin Campbell' mural that recently appeared in Brixton, south London, courtesy of street artist Itaewon. “As you walk out of the tube station, it's looking down on you,” says Kyle. “Colourful, vibrant, amazing — it was lovely, emotional.” Watching Kyle in action for Mossley, it also becomes clear that he can be accurately described as a chip off the old block. His dad, you may recall, was “a unit” (Kyle's description). But the same could be said of Campbell Jr, standing 6ft 3in (190cm), shoulders and biceps bulging through Mossley's No 7 shirt. The regulars at Seel Park, with its lovingly kept facilities, sloped pitch and impressive views of the Pennine hills, have quickly come to appreciate his efforts for the 'Lilywhites', either as a striker or right-winger. “The aim is to play as high as I possibly can,” he says. “My dad won everything there is to win in England. Then there's Ty, who scored in a play-off final and has had a player-of-the-month award in the Championship. Growing up, Ty was another of my heroes. I look at myself and think, 'Why can't I get to that level?'. I want to give it the best shot I possibly can.” His journey through non-League includes a debut, aged 16, for Buxton Town, a brief spell at Alsager Town, a goalscoring blitz for Wigan side Winstanley Warriors, a coming-of-age period at Blackpool club Squires Gate and, as of summer 2024, the move to Radcliffe of the National League North. Like father, like son; he speaks with a “southern twang” (despite growing up in the north). Everton, he says, are his “second club” because of the incredible warmth they showed the Campbell family after the sad events of 2024. Arsenal, too, will always hold a special place in his affections. But his own football allegiances go back to the fact that he and Tyrese grew up close to Manchester in the era when the landscape of English football was changing. “So many times, me and Ty have been asked who we support. 'Manchester City', we say. Then they'd turn to my dad. 'Oh, Kev, what did you do wrong?'. “My dad would be like: 'I tried, I tried my hardest!'. He was always trying to get us to watch Arsenal, telling us how great they were. But they were always getting beaten and it never really happened. At the time, it was the part of the (Arsene) Wenger era where they were struggling.” Tyrese, now 26, wore City's colours many times during his formative years in the club's academy. As a kid, Kyle also spent time in the City system. New allegiances were forged at an impressionable age, continuing into adulthood. “I watched the Arsenal-City game (in February 2023) with my dad for my birthday,” says Kyle, and now he is laughing again. “City won 3-1. (Kevin) De Bruyne scored, (Jack) Grealish scored, (Erling) Haaland scored. I was celebrating and, because it was my birthday, he was staying quiet. But I could tell he wasn't happy. He tried, he really did, to get us rooting for Arsenal. But that was the one thing, perhaps, he didn't get right.”