sport news The WAGs behind Arsenal's success: Partners of Bukayo Saka, Ben White and ... trends now
Being the partner of a footballer can spring up certain assumptions. Salacious gossip, a hunger for the public eye and extravagant opulence are some.
Yet, when a video of Martin Odegaard’s girlfriend Helene Spilling celebrating Arsenal’s 5-0 thumping of Chelsea to Shakira’s ‘Waka Waka’ in the Emirates stands last week went viral on social media, it was a microcosm of a culture created by Mikel Arteta at Arsenal.
A culture that has brought the families of his players on board his team’s ambitions.
A core of the group meet at matches together and also socialise away from the Emirates. They include Spilling, Tolami Benson, Milly White, Sophie Weber and Laura Trossard Hilven.
These are the significant others of Odegaard, Bukayo Saka, Ben White, Kai Havertz and Leandro Trossard respectively.
Arsenal WAGs have played a crucial role in the team's superb season and charge for the title
The support from the players' partners sums up the culture Mikel Arteta has instilled at the club: Pictured: WAGs travelling to Munich for the second leg of the Gunners' Champions League quarter-final against Bayern Munich
Arteta has been insistent on bringing families on board to support the team's ambitions
Four of the women stayed together at one of their homes to watch Arsenal thrash Sheffield United 6-0 in March. And on matchdays, many of the group can be spotted in the stands cheering on their men, away from seeking the limelight themselves.
This was the case for the Chelsea match, with Spilling taking a picture with Odegaard from pitchside afterwards, and the group were also together for the trip to Bayern Munich for Arsenal’s Champions League quarter-final second leg.
It’s a far cry from the stereotypical WAG image of the noughties, through the likes of Cheryl Cole and Coleen Rooney, in which the activities of the England football team’s partners during the 2006 World Cup often drew as much attention as the football itself.
When Mail Sport asked about this growing group of families socialising together, Arteta said: ‘That’s great to see obviously because it’s needed. We have a lot of foreign players that obviously they have their families, wives, girlfriends around and they need support.
‘They need to build those friendships and those close circles around them. We have created that, big credit to them and how much they have put into that because it’s really helpful for the team so if they are happy, much better because the players are gonna be happy and more settled.
‘It gives you a much bigger sense of belonging somewhere when you really feel that you are part of something.’
Martin Odegaard's girlfriend Helen Spilling captured the mood around Arsenal players and their families at present as she danced around to celebrate their victory over Chelsea
Sophie Weber (left), girlfriend of Kai Havertz' girlfriend, Tolami Benson (middle), partner of Bukayo Saka, Ben White's wife Milly (right), Spilling and Leandro Trossard's wife Laura are pictured at the Emirates
