Zohran Mamdani, the Mayor-elect of New York City, has been the talk of the political world, as he has been doing interviews, podcasts, and speeches nonstop for the past few months. One of the most surprising things to come out of his campaign, and people doing their digging, is that he’s a lifelong Arsenal fan.
He was even supporting them passionately during the dark days when they were in the trenches and everyone treated Arsenal like the laughing stock of the league. Mamdani has been very open about his support for Arsenal. In fact, his name and Arsenal connection were even used by Sky Sports to bring female viewers to their new Sky Sports Halo channel.
Ahead of the Champions League clash between Arsenal and Bayern Munich, he appeared on the popular talk show “The Adam Friedland Show” where the host Adam Friedland surprised Mamdani with a special message from retired Arsenal legend Ian Wright, one of Mamdani’s favorite players while growing up.
The host and mayor-elect were having friendly banter as Mamdani was impressing him with random tidbits on football. He then states, “a lot of our brain is occupied with the most useless information about this soccer team [Arsenal].”
Mamdani then fires away with three of the most random, obscure names that only the most hardcore Arsenal fans would know about.
“Every day I wake up, I think about Sebastian Squilaci, Pascal Cygan, Marouane Chamakh.”
These niche references resonated with a lot of Arsenal fans. In fact, not just fans but one of the aforementioned players is also looking to return the favor.
Pascal Cygan, the former Arsenal defender, spent 4 years at Arsenal, donning the Gunners jersey from 2002 to 2006. Although he was used as a fringe player, he did make 63 appearances and won the Premier League once and the Community Shield twice.
Cygan, who was a part of the Arsenal Invincibles, stated how he and his family were moved by the mention.
“He is the mayor of New York and one of the most famous people in the world. We are hearing a lot about him right now. My parents were very touched when I told them the news.”
The former Arsenal player intends to send a signed jersey to Mamdani after he was name-dropped. Not just any jersey, a jersey that he wore during the Invincibles season.
Upon hearing about the gesture, Mamdani told The Athletic how Cygan was one of the first names he learned as a new Arsenal fan from his Uncle (who was an Arsenal fan) and that he’s happy his words reached Cygan’s ears and praised him for his role in the historic season.
“He [Cygan] and the entire Invincibles team made history, and he’s incredibly kind to share that with us here in New York.”
Mamdani, if he didn’t have enough to celebrate already, Arsenal gave him another reason after they had yet another impressive showing in the Champions League, defeating Bayern Munich 3-1 and continuing their unbeaten record in the UCL in tact with 5 wins out of 5.
