Arsenal have been challenging for trophies at the top of the English game for several decades. The Gunners have a fierce rivalry with Tottenham Hotspur thanks to the fact that both teams are located in North London, but their very presence in the capital is what attracts many people to supporting them, with ‘famous’ people often quick to turn to Arsenal thanks to their combination of good location and having won loads of silverware; not that we’re accusing such people of being glory-hunters, of course…
Here is a look at some of the Arsenal supporters who you will doubtless have heard of for one reason or another. We have attempted to put them in something approaching levels of fame, but what makes one person famous to some might mean they’re not even on the register of someone else, so you can make you own minds up on that front. It is also worth noting that this list is far from exhaustive, just in case you feel like we’ve missed off someone obvious.
Mick Jagger
If you want to talk about levels of fame, you’d struggle to find many people more famous than Mick Jagger. The front man of The Rolling Stones was born in Dartford, Kent and was studying at the London School of Economics when he chose to give up his studies in order to focus on his music career. He did form a love of Arsenal during his youth, however, which he went on to try to instil in his kids. In 2023, for example, he took his 22-year-old son Lucas and six-year-old Deveraux to see the Gunners beat Fulham 3-0.
Idris Elba
Perhaps best-known for his role in The Wire, Idris Elba went on to have a stellar career to the point that he was once linked with the role of James Bond. In spite of all of that, he never lost sight of his roots, having grown up in London.
He is a passionate Arsenal fan, being gifted a club shirt as a youngster and wearing it deliberately to antagonise the local West Ham-supporting hooligans. When he was the manager of one of the teams for Soccer Aid, former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was his assistant manager.
Daniel Kaluuya
The star of such films as Get Out, Nope and the Marvel films, Daniel Kaluuya was born in London’s Camden Town. It is hardly a surprise, therefore, that he went on to become a huge Arsenal fan.
🎙️ Introducing the voice of #AONArsenal…@Arsenal 🤝 Daniel Kaluuya pic.twitter.com/b4Cl71v9Nm
— Amazon Prime Video Sport (@primevideosport) May 19, 2022
When the Gunners were chosen for the Amazon TV series All or Nothing, it was revealed that Kaluuya’s position as a big supporter of the club was part of the reason why he was chosen to narrate the series.
Daisy Ridley
You are going to struggle to find someone much more famous than a member of the Star Wars cast, even if Daisy Ridley was in the films that weren’t exactly universally loved. When she did the red carpet for Episode 8, though, she was asked if she’d be willing to join the Dark Side if it meant Arsenal winning some trophies. She said, “No, because good footballers can do it themselves”.
KSI
It is fair to say that KSI isn’t exactly everyone’s cup of tea, with the YouTuber, rapper and social media influencer often rubbing people up the wrong way. He was born in London, though, and began supporting Arsenal at a young age, which paid off for him when he and Logan Paul created the sports drink called Prime.
The drinks manufacturer created a joint marketing agreement with the Gunners in the July of 2022, with the star tweeting his delight about the deal.
Benedict Cumberbatch
It would probably be untrue to say that Benedict Cumberbatch is anything more than a casual Arsenal fan, with the Doctor Strange star having grown up in North London. Still, those who have worked with him have pointed out that he does keep an eye on the Gunners’ score and one even told a Reddit thread that the movie star paid for him and his brothers to use a box for one of Arsenal’s games.
Hugh Laurie
Born in Oxfordshire and educated at Eton College and Cambridge, Hugh Laurie made his name as a comedian before going on to star in some huge movies. Although he was brought up in Oxford, he became an Arsenal supporter and regularly tweets about the Gunners and how they’re performing on the football pitch.
Now if Arsenal can just hold it together for the last 35 games
— Hugh Laurie (@hughlaurie) August 21, 2022
Nick Hornby
It isn’t exactly outrageous to suggest that Nick Hornby might not be the most famous person on this list, but he might be the one that has laid out his love for the Gunners most bear during his career. The author wrote the autobiographical novel Fever Pitch about his life as a Gooner, which became something of a bible for football lovers up and down the land even if they didn’t support Arsenal themselves.
Even if you’re not much a book reader, it was made into a film with Colin Firth in 1997.
Lewis Hamilton
There will doubtless be a few Arsenal fans reading this and not pleased at the description of Lewis Hamilton as a supporter of the club, given the fact that he was part of a consortium looking to try to by Chelsea back in 2022. He said that he was ‘forced to support Arsenal’ when he was younger, declaring himself to be a ‘sporting fan’ nowadays. Nevertheless, the Formula One driver grew up in the South so supporting the Gunners makes sense.
Alan Davies
If you want to look at comedians who support Arsenal then you could also discuss the likes of Matt Lucas, Romesh Ranganathan, Hugh Dennis and Rob Beckett, to name but a few, but it is Alan Davies that we’ve chosen to focus on. That is thanks to the fact that he is probably the most famous of the lot, hosting a podcast to discuss all things Arsenal called the Tuesday Club.
New Tuesday Club podcast with @iandstone & @_elpresidente_ is now up https://t.co/NCHL5lnsks
— Alan Davies (@alandavies1) May 5, 2020
When he was on the TV show Taskmaster, he was ‘bought’ a Manchester United season ticket by Victoria Coren-Mitchell as a joke.
Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Corbyn represented the Islington North constituency from 1983, so in some ways it is not a surprise that he has an association with the local football club.
Well done @Arsenal – FA Cup Winners 2020 ! pic.twitter.com/aRcNUbEzh2
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) August 1, 2020
Not many people will be disowned by the club that they claim to support, but that is essentially what happened to Corbyn when he launched a event on social media. In it he asked Arsenal fans to canvas for him wearing their replica kits, having met in front of the Arsenal shop. Arsenal said, “the club does not endorse any candidate”.
Osama Bin Laden
There is some debate over whether or not the terrorist and one-time al-Qaeda leader was actually an Arsenal fan, but we do know that when he lived in London in the 1990s he did go to see the club play a number of times. It was claimed by one author that he was regularly at matches during the George Graham-managed run to the European Cup Winners’ Cup final in the 1993-1994 season, becoming so enamoured by the side that he bought his son Abdullah a replica shirt.