9 FORMER ARSENAL PLAYERS WHO WE CAN’T BELIEVE ARE STILL PLAYING IN 2024

Arsenal have been represented by legions of top-quality players down the years & we salute those former Gunners who are still active in professional football.

Many Arsenal players from the late 2000s and the early 2010s have already retired. However, alongside the likes of Olivier Giroud, David Luiz and Aaron Ramsey, there are still a handful of journeymen chugging along in leagues across the globe.

We’ve taken a closer look at nine former Gunners that we couldn’t believe were still playing competitively in 2024.

Santi Cazorla

Cazorla signed for Arsenal in 2012 in a deal worth £10m and made 180 appearances for the Gunners, scoring 29 goals.

He won two FA Cups and two Community Shields with Arsenal, becoming a fan’s hero in the process, and also lifted the European Championship with Spain in 2008 and 2012.

He made an emotional return to boyhood club Real Oviedo last summer, narrowly failing to win promotion to La Liga in the play-offs.

Lukas Podolski

Back in 2012, Podolski moved from his hometown club FC Koln and joined Arsenal. In 82 games, the Polish-born German bagged 31 goals and even helped the team to an FA Cup triumph.

Today, the proud kebab shop owner is terrorizing defenders in the Polish Ekstraklasa at the age of 39 for Gornik Zabrze.

David Ospina

Ospina joined Arsenal in 2014 and made 70 appearances for the Gunners, including their 2017 FA Cup final victory over Chelsea.

Predating the current wave of megastars to the Saudi Pro League, the Colombia international joined Al Nassr half a season before Ronaldo, having fallen down the pecking order in his final season at Napoli.

The veteran goalkeeper saw out his two-year deal in Riyadh before making a romantic homecoming to boyhood club Atletico Nacional. Lovely stuff.

Lucas Perez

Perez spent just one season at the Emirates before being loaned out to Deportivo La Coruna and was eventually sold to West Ham. He didn’t last long at the London Stadium either.

But the Spaniard thrived in two years at Alaves after returning to Spain in 2019, so much so that he was wanted by Barcelona in February 2020, only to reject a potential move.

“It is not the first time that Barcelona has called me, like other great clubs,” Perez told Marca. “The truth is that that does not distract me.

“What is clear to me is that I want to do well and I want to feel like a player again as I am doing here, where they have given me love since day one.”

Perez eventually returned to his beloved Deportivo and helped them return to the second tier of Spanish football last season in one of modern football’s most heartwarming tales.

Junichi Inamoto

Best remembered on English shores for a very brief loan at Arsenal and stints at Fulham and West Brom, Inamoto was five years into his professional career by the time his home World Cup rolled around.

Indeed, he had just been released by Arsenal when the tournament started in 2002 – and they might have regretted that decision slightly as he scored two goals from midfield, against Belgium and Russia in the group stages.

After his time in England and spells in Turkey, Germany and France, Inamoto returned to his homeland in 2010 and has played in the Japanese leagues ever since.

At the age of 44, the midfielder is incredibly still playing for fifth-tier outfit Nankatsu SC. The secret must be all that sushi…

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Park Chu-young

In 2011, Park joined Arsenal from Monaco in a somewhat eyebrow-raising move. The South Korean forward was 26 years old at the time and he made just one Premier League appearance before he left the club.

After a short spell in Saudi Arabia, the forward returned to South Korea in 2015 where he still plays today. He enjoyed some good years with FC Seoul and now plays for Ulsan HD.

READ: Ranking Arsenal’s 25 weirdest signings of the Premier League era

Vito Mannone

Yes, Mannone is only 36 which is practically middle-aged for a goalkeeper.

But we were still surprised to learn his playing career is still ongoing; the Italian is currently between the sticks at Lille and will be playing Champions League football this term.

Quincy Owusu-Abeyie

The prize for the most interesting career on this list might go to Owusu-Abeyie, who played three cup games for Arsenal in 2003-04 and added a first Premier League start the following season.

After leaving north London in January 2006, the Dutch-born Ghana international has played in six further countries, never scoring more than four times in a single campaign.

He retired in 2020 to pursue a career as a rapper – but returned to football later that year when he was registered for Dutch amateur club SV Robinhood Amsterdam. The winger still plays for them today.

Justin Hoyte

Hoyte made his top-flight debut in a win at Birmingham in November 2003 and would go on to play more than 60 times for Arsenal in all competitions before eventually leaving for Middlesbrough in 2008.

The Trinidad & Tobago international moved to the United States in 2017, playing two seasons in the USL with FC Cincinnati before remaining with the club for their inaugural season in MLS.

He’s now playing for Miami Beach CF at the age of 39. That’s some impressive longevity.

2024-09-05T07:39:02Z dg43tfdfdgfd