Since Arsenal was founded in 1886 the club has gained a huge following of fans that come from far and wide to support the club. In the year 2005 it was estimated that Arsenal had a fanbase of around 27 million but, now in 2015, that number has just kept rising. In and amongst the common fans there are many celebrity fans of the North London giants and, in this article, we will look at five of the biggest celebrity Arsenal fans.
1. Jamie Ward
During the course of England's most prestigious tennis tournament, the public discovered that Wimbledon surprise package Jamie Ward is a massive Arsenal fan. Ward has said that his win at Wimbledon was even better than Arsenal winning back-to-back FA Cups and, while Ward is a huge Arsenal fan, some of the Arsenal team are also fans of Jamie Ward; none more so than Kieran Gibbs, who was at Wimbledon to watch Ward take on Vasek Popisil.
2. Ian Poulter
When you think of all the famous names that support Arsenal you cannot really look beyond lifelong Arsenal fan, and golfing world number 28, Ian Poulter. Poulter has been spotted at the Emirates on a number of occasions. Even when he is doing what he does best, Poulter still finds time to show his allegiance to Arsenal as he has had his bag adorned with the Arsenal colours on a few occasions. Also, who could forget the advert for Puma that Ian Poulter and Freddie Ljungberg did together a while back? He notoriously wore an Arsenal jersey at the Abu Dhabi Championship, which caused uproar in the world of golf but this show his loyalty to Arsenal.
3. Olajide Olatunji
Better known to us as Youtuber KSI, he has been an avid Arsenal fan for a very long time and has even done work for BT Sports by playing FIFA with Arsenal midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain amongst others. The Englishman has been creating videos for numerous years, focusing on FIFA in his early years on the social media site. Since then the 22-year-old has gained a huge following of just under 10 million, this is compared to the 250,000 the official Arsenal channel have at the time of writing.
Many Arsenal will be aware of the vlogger's love of the club due to numerous videos with some of the club's current superstars, notably Frimpong and Gibbs in collaboration with Copa90. A rant about former Arsenal striker Robin van Persie about his move to Arsenal’s rivals Manchester United in 2012 caught the headlines once more, and made him even more popular amongst Arsenal and football fans alike.
4. Dara O'Briain
The award winning Irish comedian is a huge Gooner and the Irish comedian is a season ticket holder at the Emirates, possibly due to the large contingent of Irish players representing Arsenal in the 1970s and 80s. The 43-year-old is currently host of Mock the Week and Stargazing Live, but has also hosted shows such as The Apprentice: You're Fired. Whenever he is not gigging he always tries his best to be at the Arsenal matches and, when he writes in his column in the Guardian, he always discusses his love for the Londoners.
5. Colin Firth
Colin Firth grew up with the hope of either supporting one of two clubs, Southampton or Arsenal. Firth's first game was a match played between Hull City and Southampton as a boy, the latter being his local team. The actor supported the club throughout the majority of his life but fell in love with Arsenal after portraying a fan in the move, Fever Pitch. The Nick Hornby book was brought to life on screen, with Firth taking the role of teacher Paul Ainsworth in 1997. The 54-year-old has been seen at matches ever since.