{"id":20197,"date":"2026-07-22T20:39:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T20:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=20197"},"modified":"2026-07-22T20:39:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T20:39:21","slug":"its-sol-campbell-2-0-former-england-stars-son-18-joins-arsenal-after-young-defender-snubbed-contract-offer-at-north-london-rivals-tottenham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=20197","title":{"rendered":"It’s Sol Campbell 2.0! Former England star’s son, 18, joins Arsenal after young defender snubbed contract offer at north London rivals Tottenham"},"content":{"rendered":"


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By WILL PICKWORTH, SPORTS REPORTER <\/p>\n

Published:<\/span>

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Elijah Upson, the son of former England international Matthew, has signed for\u00a0Arsenal\u00a0after leaving Tottenham. <\/p>\n

The 18-year-old turned down a professional deal at Spurs earlier this year and had offers from Chelsea, Manchester City, Everton, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Leverkusen and Monaco.<\/p>\n

But, after visiting Arsenal’s training ground earlier this month and holding talks with his family, he has decided to join the Premier League champions – as Daily Mail Sport revealed earlier this month. <\/p>\n

He follows a similar path to his father, Matthew, who had two of his formative years with Luton Town\u00a0before joining Arsenal for \u00a32m as an 18-year-old.<\/p>\n

Upson Snr played 57 times for the Gunners and won the Premier League in 2001-02, before he later represented England at the 2010 World Cup and earned 21 caps.<\/p>\n

Upson Jnr, also a centre back, will hope he can build a similar career. He is quick, perhaps thanks to the fact his mother is former runner Ellie Darby, but also strong on the ball.<\/p>\n

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\"Elijah <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Elijah Upson has signed for Arsenal after rejecting a new contract offer from Tottenham<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Upson <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Upson is the son of former Arsenal and England centre back Matthew (pictured, right)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Speaking after his move was confirmed, the 18-year-old revealed he was attracted by the quality of defenders at Arsenal and the potential path into the first team.<\/p>\n

He said: ‘That was one of the big reasons for my decision – obviously it’s great exposure to some of these great players that have had a great season here and some real top quality.<\/p>\n

‘I’m excited to hopefully be around and work with these people. I think definitely the centre-back partnership in the first team that there is between (William) Saliba and Gabriel, they’re a good inspiration and really experienced, high-quality players.<\/p>\n

‘They’ve had a great season, definitely two players that I’m really keen to learn from and expose myself to hopefully.’<\/p>\n

Upson Jnr later added: ‘It’s a great feeling, I’m really proud to be here. When I met the guys here recently and met all the team and staff, it just seemed like a really nice environment.<\/p>\n

‘That was probably the biggest factor, an environment where you feel you can hopefully learn and get better as a person.’<\/p>\n

The defender had captained Tottenham at Under 18 level and also represented England at that age group. <\/p>\n

In his welcome interview at Arsenal, he similarly outlined a desire for ‘some exposure to the first team’ this season and he is set to wear the No 57 shirt at the club.<\/p>\n

Given Upson is under the age of 24, the Gunners will now look to agree compensation with Tottenham. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\n It’s Sol Campbell 2.0! Former England star’s son, 18, joins Arsenal after young defender snubbed contract offer at north London rivals Tottenham<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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By WILL PICKWORTH, SPORTS REPORTER Published: 15:12 BST, 22 July 2026 | Updated: 16:17 BST,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}