Everton fans paid tribute to the late Kevin Campbell on Wednesday at an emotional memorial service in Liverpool.
Toffees legend Campbell died aged 54 died in June, having been admitted to Manchester Royal Infirmary a month earlier. The former striker had suffered multi-organ failure due to a heart infection.
Everton formally paid tribute to Campbell ahead of their second home game of the Premier League season last month, hosting Bournemouth. 'Super Kev' was a fan favourite on Merseyside thanks to scoring 51 goals in 164 appearances, but he was also loved for his generous personality which endeared him to the Goodison Park faithful.
Supporters were invited to St Luke's church on Wednesday, with Campbell's family in attendance to witness an outpouring of love and respect. They were joined by a number of familiar faces to Everton fans including former defender David Unsworth.
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Also the first black player to captain Everton, Campbell began his playing career at Arsenal, playing 123 games for the Gunners and scoring 55 times. It was at Arsenal where he played alongside Ian Wright, who was in Germany covering the European Championship at the time of Campbell's passing.
On the verge of tears, Wright told ITV: "I can't really go too deep into it, it's very fresh I only heard [the news] this morning. My best wishes and condolences go to his family but it's too soon for me to talk about it. Every time I start talking about it I start to well up. He meant the whole world to a lot of people especially myself."
Wayne Rooney spent time as Campbell's team-mate at Everton and the Manchester United and England legend posted on social media platform X: "Absolutely devastated to hear the news about Kev. Thinking of all his family and friends. Kev was a great team-mate but more importantly a brilliant person who helped me a lot in my earlier years."
Campbell's funeral took place on August 14 and Everton were well represented at the service in London. Ex-team-mates Francis Jeffers, Don Hutchison, Tomasz Radzinski and Mark Pembridge attended at the service alongside club ambassador Graham Stuart, former striker Marcus Bent, and former Arsenal and Everton defender Martin Keown.
Everton said ahead of Wednesday's memorial service that it would be 'held as much in acknowledgement of Kevin the man' as it was for his playing accomplishments. Campbell also had loan spells with Leyton Orient and Leicester before being part of Arsenal's title-winning squad in 1991.
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He helped the Gunners win the FA Cup and League Cup double in 1993 before famously lifting the European Cup Winners' Cup a year later. After joining Nottingham Forest from Arsenal in 1995 and spending three years at the City Ground, Campbell moved abroad and signed for Turkish side Trabzonspor.
The Lambeth-born striker joined Everton on loan in the second half of the 1998-99 season and impressed so much that the club paid £3million to sign him permanently. Campbell later played for West Brom and Cardiff before hanging up his boots in 2006 and moving into broadcasting.
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