Players To Have Played For Both Arsenal And Tottenham Hotspur

You would think that the rivalry is so strong that no player can imagine playing for both sides in their wildest dreams, but that’s not the case. We have often seen players switch from the red side of North London to the white side and vice versa.

It is a controversial move for a player, but some of it makes sense. Let’s take a look at some of the players who have played for both Arsenal and Spurs.

Sol Campbell

Let’s start with the biggest betrayal of them all. Despite playing 255 times for Spurs in the Premier League compared to 135 times for Arsenal, Sol is remembered more for his time at Arsenal. Campbell only won one trophy with Spurs, and despite being in a promising squad for years, Spurs never had a lift-off and found success. This led to Campbell defecting to Arsenal on a free transfer.

At Arsenal, Campbell won two Premier League titles and two FA Cups, finally having something to show for his great career. Spurs fans still refer to him as Judas, but in general, it was probably the right move for the Englishmen.

Emmanuel Adebayor

The Togorific striker was an enigma. It’s safe to say Arsenal fans do not like Adebayor since his departure from the club. Still, he was class for Arsenal. He scored 46 goals in 104 league appearances for Arsenal. What didn’t help was Adebayor’s celebration when he scored against Arsenal for Manchester City and ran the length of the pitch to taunt the Arsenal fans. It was one of the most iconic moments.

In 2012, Adebayor joined Spurs, and he was constantly barraged with insulting chants in the North London derby. There was no love lost between them. Adebayor represented Spurs 59 times in the league, scoring 18 goals.

William Gallas

The only player to have played for Chelsea, Arsenal, and Spurs. That’s some feat. Gallas joined Arsenal from Chelsea, made 101 league appearances for them, sat down in the middle of the pitch after a league game against Birmingham and sulked because they threw away an important game in a title race, almost got stripped of the captaincy because of that episode, and then bounced. That was Gallas’ career in a nutshell.

William Gallas then joined Spurs on a free transfer, with Arsenal fans barely paying any heed as they thought he was past his best anyway. Gallas was solid enough for Spurs and carved out a decent spell, making 61 league appearances. However, Gallas didn’t win a single trophy at either club.

While the modern generation has something to crow about such moves, multiple more players played for both clubs but didn’t cause much hoopla because they were almost all in the pre-Premier League era. Here are the honorable mentions.

• Jimmy Brain
• George Hunt
• Freddie Cox
• Vic Groves
• Laurie Brown
• Jimmy Robertson
• David Jenkins
• Steve Walford
• Willie Young
• Pat Jennings
• Rohan Ricketts
• David Bentley

Jimmy Brain was the first player ever to cross the divide.