Arsenal summer signing Ezri Konsa has confirmed that he supported the club as a child, despite the online rumours that he was a Tottenham Hotspur supporter.
As Arsenal made their summer move to sign Ezri Konsa from Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur fans drew attention to a long-running rumour that the defender supported their club as a child.
Though there were no quotes from the player to back up the claims, many publications had written about Konsa’s supposed support of Spurs when he was young.
But speaking to the media this week, Konsa suggested he was actually an Arsenal fan.
“I was an Arsenal fan as a kid – I had a lot of Arsenal kits when I was younger and there have been a few posts,” Konsa said.
“You dream of playing for a big club like this, and when you see the players they’ve had throughout the years, to become part of that is what it’s about.”
As Konsa suggested, there have indeed been some posts from people close to the player showing him wearing Arsenal shirts when he was young, which would be a strange move for a Spurs fan.
As for how the rumour got started, quite a few publications have quoted Konsa speaking in an interview with FourFourTwo back in 2018, when he was specifically asked if he’d like to join Spurs.
Given Konsa was a League One player with Charlton Athletic at the time, it’s not particularly surprising that he answered: “Of course. Tottenham are now a heavyweight team so I’d love to go there, why not?”
But being a young player in the lower leagues hoping to get a move to one of the big-six clubs, to allow you to play in the top flight, is very different to being an actual Spurs fan.
If Konsa has ever actually claimed to be a fan of Arsenal’s rivals, the quotes don’t seem to have hit the internet yet.
It’s also worth being in mind that young players aren’t supporters in the same way many of us are. Their allegiances will often shift depending on where they play, as proven by the pictures of Harry Kane celebrating Arsenal’s 2003/04 title win.
All we can do is take Konsa at his word that he really was an Arsenal fan back then.
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