Yahoo News Tragedy as Nottingham Forest hero Kevin Campbell dies at 54
Nottingham Forest promotion hero Kevin Campbell has died at the age of 54. The former striker, who had been a regular Premier League pundit on BBC 5Live, was taken into hospital earlier this month.
He had played a key role at the City Ground in the 1990s, forging a lethal partnership with Pierre van Hooijdonk and firing Forest to the Division One title. He played 88 times for the club in all, scoring 36 times, and there was dismay among supporters when he was sold to Trabzonspor in 1998.
He had a long career as a player, coming through the ranks at Arsenal, where he won the FA Youth Cup in 1988 and helped Leyton Orient win promotion during a loan spell. He won the First Division title in 1991, the FA Cup and League Cup in 1993 and European Cup Winners' Cup in 1994.
His time at Trabzonspor was followed by a successful spell with Everton back in the Premier League and he spent two seasons with West Bromwich Albion and another at Cardiff before hanging up his boots in 2007.
Former teammate Mark Crossley said: "Life can be so cruel at times Absolutely devastated with news of my ex Forest team mate Kevin Campbell’s passing, a true gentleman, a great player, a shining light of a dressing room, fun loving guy, thoughts are with all his family and friends"
Campbell later recalled his time at Forest, saying: “It started off okay, we had a decent team but ultimately we got relegated and Dave Bassett came in to replace Frank Clark. He really bought the squad together and was keen for me to rediscover my form. Dave pulled me for a chat and asked what had been going wrong.
"I told him I’d been injured and a bit out of form but that I backed my ability to get it back. He told me there and then that I’d convinced him and that I would start the season alongside Pierre van Hooijdonk.”
He added: “I really enjoyed playing with Pierre. He was a fantastic talent and a good lad, and we had a fantastic dressing room at Forest.
“The pair of us together were the top-scoring partnership in Europe in the Championship and we were really looking forward to doing our stuff in the Premier League together. Then all of a sudden Forest accepted a bid for me.”
