Article #38823

Many teams have fans abroad, but the bond between the north London club and ordinary Africans is on a different level. A continent expects

If Arsenal win the Champions League final later today, expect euphoria across Africa. Judging by the scenes after last week’s Premier League title win – their first in 22 years – the celebrations will be immense. Boisterous fans flooded city centres in Nairobi, Addis Ababa, Kampala and Lagos. In Nigeria’s Zamfara state, people celebrated in the streets despite rising insecurity as a result of Boko Haram’s terrorism.

For outsiders, the obvious question is: how did a club from north London become so deeply woven into African popular culture?

Sean Henry Jacobs is the founder of Africa Is a Country and edits the Eleven Named People newsletter