Arsenal chose Zohran Mamdani at around the turn of the century, when, aged 10, his uncle bought him a set of fridge magnets bearing images of some of the team’s leading players—Sylvain Wiltord, David Seaman, Sol Campbell, Thierry Henry. He was captivated. When we spoke, it felt only right to find out which footballers lived longest in his imagination, and so I asked for his dream Arsenal XI.
He went for David Raya in goal, plus Gabriel and William Saliba as the centre backs, for whom he had “a real soft spot”. And, “for nostalgia’s sake,” Gaël Clichy and Bacary Sagna as full-backs. “OK,” said Mamdani. He was pensive now, gathering his composure as he came to select the team’s midfield and forward positions. “This is now difficult.” In central midfield, he chose Cesc Fàbregas and Patrick Vieira, the France World Cup winner who would smear Vicks VapoRub over his shirt to assist his breathing when he was tired: a tactic which Mamdani had emulated in his own playing days, but apparently to little effect. “I used to put that shit on, as if it was gonna help me!” he laughed. On the wings, Mamdani chose Robert Pires and Bukayo Saka.
His selection of Saka meant that Freddie Ljungberg, the Sweden international famed not only for his many crucial goals but also his great natural beauty, had to miss out. “Even though you know it’s tough for me to not have our Calvin Klein model, I’ll keep it that way,” grinned Mamdani. That left only the forward positions, where he opted for Robin van Persie and Thierry Henry. On the bench, the five subs were: David Seaman, Sol Campbell, Martin Ødegaard, Freddie Ljungberg, and Samir Nasri. “Do you remember Samir Nasri versus Porto?” he asked, and the mayor’s joyful reminiscence over the French attacking midfielder’s goal in the UEFA Champions League was only interrupted by the start of another meeting.
Like Mamdani, who was born in Uganda to Muslim and Hindu parents before moving to South Africa and then the US when he was seven years old, Arsenal represents many things to many people. The club, which was established by a group of munitions workers, has retained this strong connection to its blue-collar origins, running a series of long-standing community projects in the neighborhoods that surround the stadium. Its players and supporters have been crucial to the development of Black British identity, with several of them playing leading roles in the media, politics, music, and fashion. Its women’s team is one of the most successful in the world and its success owes so much not only to English figures such as Herbert Chapman, who led Arsenal superbly a century ago, but to those who have come to grace it from abroad, such as France’s Thierry Henry, the Netherlands’ Dennis Bergkamp, and Brazil’s Gilberto Silva.
Though his Arsenal fandom has ingratiated Mamdani with local Gunners supporters, it isn’t just because they share a club. “Zohran gets smoke,” sighs Jason Andrew, co-founder of the Brooklyn Invincibles, a group of Arsenal fans who gather each week to watch their team in New York. Andrew got to know Mamdani last summer as he was running for office, when the mayoral candidate would turn up at FancyFree, the Invincibles’s favorite bar since the group’s inception five years ago. “You know the slurs of ‘Mamdanistan’ and whatever else they want to say. It’s disproportionate, but you know, as a person of color in any position, you’re gonna get questions. Especially when you’re trying to give back to the people. But if you think about how many things he’s activated—some of his initiatives to get dollars into people’s hands, and during the snowstorm to still make the city function? Dude, he’s doing a great job.”
