Sol Campbell

Sulzeer Jeremiah Campbell (born 18 September 1974) is an English professional football manager and former player who was most recently the manager of club Southend United.

A centre-back, he spent 20 years playing in the Premier League and had an 11-year international career with the England national team.

Born in East London to Jamaican parents, Campbell began his career with Tottenham Hotspur in December 1992.

Campbell made his first team debut for Spurs on 5 December 1992 against Chelsea at White Hart Lane, scoring the goal in a 2–1 defeat after coming on as a substitute for Nick Barmby.

Despite this start to his career, he was not picked by manager Terry Venables again throughout the remainder of the 1992–93 season.

New boss Osvaldo Ardiles played him at left back at the start of the 1993–94 season in place of the injured Justin Edinburgh, before he was switched to right back in place of Dean Austin.

At the end of the season, he signed a four-year contract with the club.

New manager Gerry Francis led the club to the semi-finals of the FA Cup in the 1994–95 campaign, but Campbell missed the match due to injury and Spurs were beaten by Everton.

Campbell continued to progress in his performances, but Spurs struggled to mid-table league finishes in the 1995–96 and 1996–97 seasons.

Francis appointed Campbell as club captain, taking over the role from the out of favour David Howells.

He had a strained relationship with short-lived manager Christian Gross during the 1997–98 season as Spurs again struggled.

In May 1998, Campbell became what was then England's second-youngest captain, after Bobby Moore, aged 23 years 248 days.

He spent nine years at Spurs, scoring 10 goals in 255 appearances, and captaining the team to victory in the 1999 Football League Cup Final against Leicester City.

He was in the PFA Team of the Year three times, in 1999, 2003 and 2004.

Campbell was born in Plaistow, London, to Jamaican parents Sewell and Wihelmina.

He was the youngest of twelve children, nine of whom were boys.

His father was a railway worker and his mother, Wihelmina, was a Ford factory worker.

Despite growing up in a rough neighbourhood in a family with very little money, Campbell veered away from a life of crime due to his strict parents.

""I became a recluse within my own house.

I became insular because at home there was no space to grow or to evolve, everything was tight and there was no room to breathe.

People don't realise how that affects you as a kid.

I wasn't allowed to speak, so my expression was football.""

- His father paid little to attention to him other than to discipline him, and so Campbell grew up to be quiet and polite, but also isolated.

Campbell attended the Portway Primary School in Plaistow, London and had secondary education at Lister Community School in Plaistow, London.

He was a prodigious schoolboy talent and was part-educated at the FA's School of Excellence at Lilleshall, where he met table tennis player and later football agent Sky Andrew.

Campbell had a short spell at West Ham United, beginning his career as a striker.

He left the Youth programme at Upton Park after a coach joked to him that Campbell would be pleased to hear that the West Indies were beating England at cricket; Campbell took this to be offensive.

Following his experience at West Ham United, Campbell was reluctant to join another professional club's youth programme, but after two months of persistence from Tottenham Hotspur's chief scout Len Cheesewright, he eventually joined the Tottenham Youth team.

Youth team manager Keith Waldon later recalled that it was his physicality rather than his technical ability which made him stand out as a good prospect for the future.

At age 14, he was one of only 16 young footballers accepted onto a training programme at Lilleshall Hall.

Waldon offered to make him captain of the youth team, but Campbell declined the offer as he wanted to concentrate on his own game.

In 2001, he joined Tottenham's North London rivals Arsenal on a free transfer, and as a result has remained a deeply unpopular figure amongst Spurs supporters.

In his five years and 195 appearances at Arsenal, he won two Premier League winners medals and three FA Cup winners medals, encompassing the 2001–02 league and FA Cup double, and being part of the team that became known as The Invincibles for their undefeated 2003–04 Premier League campaign.

He was named in the Team of the Tournament for the 2002 World Cup.

He scored Arsenal's only goal in their 2–1 defeat to Barcelona in the 2006 UEFA Champions League Final.

In August 2006, he joined Portsmouth on a free transfer.

In 2006, he became the only player to have represented England in six consecutive major tournaments, playing in the 1996, 2000 and 2004 UEFA European Championships; and the 1998, 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cups.

His three years with the club included captaining them to victory in the 2008 FA Cup Final.

He had a brief stint at League Two side Notts County before making a brief return to Arsenal and ending his career with Newcastle United.

Campbell gained his first of 73 full caps for England aged 21.