Multiple Arsenal players have won the World Cup once again, following in the footsteps of two previous World Cup glories.
Back in 1998, the Daily Mirror ran the headline “Arsenal win the World Cup” following Emmanuel Petit and Patrick Vieira’s success in the competition with France.
Thierry Henry and Robert Pires had also been part of France’s triumph, but neither were Arsenal players at the time.
Even so, 1998 was the first time multiple active Arsenal players had won the World Cup, with George Eastham the only Gunner in England’s 1966 squad.
In 2014, Arsenal did it again, with Gunners trio Lukas Podolski, Per Mertesacker, and Mesut Ozil all part of Germany’s 2014 World Cup squad.
Once again, there was also a future Arsenal player in the squad, with Shkodran Mustafi going on to play for Arsene Wenger’s side a couple of years later.
That brings us to today, with three more Arsenal players becoming World Cup winners. This time it’s Mikel Merino, Martin Zubimendi, and David Raya, who achieved success with Spain after a 1-0 win over Argentina on Sunday.
Merino played a particularly important role, scoring winning goals on two occasions in the knockout stages. But all three will receive winner’s medals and their names etched in World Cup history.
It’s the third time multiple Arsenal players have won the tournament, and perhaps someday in the future this World Cup will follow the pattern of one of the other winners signing for the Gunners.
For the sake of completion, the only other player not mentioned above to win the World Cup whilst under contract at Arsenal was Cesc Fabregas in 2010.
It’s worth a mention, but most Arsenal fans probably don’t remember the subsequent victory parade particularly fondly.
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