Nairobi’s central business district was brought to a near-standstill. Fans in Algiers held up banners and clambered up streetlights. In Bogotá, cardboard-cutout trophies were held aloft and flares lit in the afternoon sun. New York mayor Zohran Mamdani wore a custom-made Arsenal kurta to Eid al-Adha prayers in the Bronx.
It was a glimpse of the global celebration that might have been repeated all over again had Arsenal’s Premier League win last week been followed last night by triumph at the Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain. It wasn’t to be. PSG triumphed on penalties after a long and nailbiting game in Budapest, but the adulation has nonetheless revealed the north London team’s global appeal.
Where once Manchester United dominated as the Premier League’s biggest cultural export, in recent years Arsenal has been on the rise. The club can now lay claim to being arguably the most influential English football team in the world; on its website it lists official supporters clubs in 100 countries.
Back home in north London, police expect more than 500,000 fans to line the streets today as a victory parade winds its way around a six-mile loop, ending at the Emirates Stadium. Flights back from Budapest for fans wanting to return in time for the parade were priced at close to £2,000.
It might have been all the sweeter for the Gunners were it not for the loss in Budapest. Kai Havertz’s sixth-minute opener for the Gunners was cancelled out by Ousmane Dembélé’s 65th-minute penalty, before Eberechi Eze and Gabriel missed in the penalty shootout to hand PSG the title.
While the celebrations have spread to pockets around the globe, the festivities have barely let up in north London since last Tuesday night, when title rivals Manchester City’s draw with Bournemouth confirmed Arsenal as Premier League champions. Tens of thousands of fans swarmed to the Emirates, while a similar number made the quasi-pilgrimage last Sunday to watch their team lift the trophy after their final league match against Crystal Palace.
“This week has been like a fever dream. It’s everything Arsenal fans have wanted for 22 years,” says Jim Campbell, a local resident and co-host of The Thing About Arsenal podcast.
“The outpouring of joy and the spontaneous street parties has been like living in a street carnival, in a good way. There has been a near constant stream of songs and car horns from outside, and everyone is walking on air. Someone has been selling vuvuzelas [airhorns] outside my flat, so it may eventually come at the cost of my sanity.”
Around the local area, the sense of pride and excitement was palpable. When the Tollington Arms, a popular Arsenal pub, sold tickets to watch the game against Crystal Palace, fans queued from 11am the day before to secure a ticket.
The catharsis is understandable. Since 2004, Arsenal’s men’s side have been perennial underachievers and Premier League nearly-men, having finished second in the top tier of English football for the past three seasons before finally lifting the trophy for a 14th time last weekend. In 2006, the last time they reached the Champions League final, goalkeeper Jens Lehmann was sent off in the 18th minute and they lost 2-1 to Barcelona.
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In 2004, 250,000 fans joined the celebrations as the Premier League-winning parade made its way from Highbury to Islington Town Hall. That day, Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger said he would love to do it all again, but with the Champions League. Wenger, who modernised the English game, never got to experience it in his 22 years in charge.
For the Gunners, that particular wait continues.
Their major trophy drought has been an aberration as the world’s seventh-richest club. For years they were unable to compete with big-spending clubs like Manchester City and Chelsea owing to their stadium move from Highbury to the Emirates, which left them paying off the £390m on the stadium’s construction to the detriment of on-field success.
Arsenal forward Eberechi Eze, a devout Christian, this week quoted the Biblical passage from Hebrews 11:1 when he was asked about what faith means to him. “Faith is confidence in what you have not yet seen, and an assurance that it’s going to come,” he said. For decades, Arsenal fans have kept the faith. Now they have seen.
Photograph by Getty Images