With billionaire owner Stan Kroenke watching on, Arsenal’s players finally got their hands on the Premier League trophy as they lifted the biggest prize in English soccer to the backdrop of tickertape and fireworks on Sunday.
Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard looked up to the sky and back down at the trophy, shaking his head in disbelief, before walking in front of his celebrating teammates and lifting it aloft inside Selhurst Park after a campaign-ending
2-1 win at Crystal Palace.
Arsenal clinched a first English league title since 2004 with a game to spare in midweek, after three straight runner-up finishes.
Kroenke made his way to London for the trophy lift and watched the game against Palace next to his son, Josh. About an hour after the game finished, they walked out onto the field with the trophy ahead of the ceremony.
It marked the latest success in Kroenke’s sporting empire. The Denver Nuggets won the NBA Championship in 2023, a year after the LA Rams won the Super Bowl and Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in NHL. All three of those teams are in the Kroenke Sports & Entertainment portfolio that also now includes the best soccer team in England.
Josh Kroenke, Arsenal's co-chairman, said his family is invested “emotionally, financially, everything.”
“This club means the world to us,” he told Sky Sports. "I think it took a few people a few years to understand what that meant but now we’ve some great people, great players and great coaches.
“We’ve just got to continue providing them the resources to go out and do magical things like they did this season.”
He described the Premier League as a “slower burn than our championships in the United States.”
“Here, the cumulative points — it's a grind and you start to feel it in December,” he said. “Credit to our players, the staff, and Mikel for keeping their heads on. They deserve it.”
For Sunday's big occasion, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta and his players wore the team’s classic red-and-white jersey with “Champions 2026” on the back. Arteta was thrown up in the air by the squad in joyous scenes.
The season could get even better for Arsenal, which also has reached the Champions League final for the first time since 2006. Paris Saint-Germain will be the opponent in Budapest, Hungary, next Saturday.
“We’ve achieved one of our goals but we have several others as well," Josh Kroenke said. "There is still one to be played for next weekend. Today is about enjoying today — tomorrow, we will get back to work because there is still one more to play.”
___
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
