FRIDAY FEATURE: Kim Kallstrom was a desperate deadline day loan deal by Arsenal in January 2014 but left as a cult hero after his FA Cup semi-final shootout penalty

At the end of January 2014, Arsenal were second in the Premier League, just one point behind league leaders Manchester City.

The Gunners were desperate to end their nine-year wait for silverware, with their last trophy coming in the 2005 FA Cup Final against Manchester United.

Pressure was beginning to mount on manager Arsene Wenger and many fans were calling for a change in management at the club for the first time since 1996.

Despite this, Wenger remained as committed as ever to his job and as the transfer deadline drew closer, the need to sign a player increased.

The north London club were mounting a serious title challenge and having progressed in the early stages of both the FA Cup and Champions League, the fixtures were piling up.

Arsenal’s pressing need for midfield reinforcements

As a result of Arsenal’s busy schedule, injuries and suspensions started to take their toll on the club.

Aaron Ramsey had been one of Arsenal’s standout performers up until December when he suffered a thigh injury against West Ham and Jack Wilshere was also out injured.

Mathieu Flamini returned to the club as cover in the summer window after a five-year spell at AC Milan, but he was suspended for the next three games following a red card at Southampton.

For most of the January window, Arsenal had been linked with Schalke’s Julian Draxler; but Wenger confirmed the deal wasn’t happening on transfer deadline day. 

He said: ‘The Draxler situation has been created by the newspapers, not by me. He will stay at Schalke.’

While the Draxler news was disappointing for Arsenal fans, Wenger was confident that there would be at least one signing before the window closed.

He said: ‘It (midfield) is one of the solutions we look at yes. I would say the chances of a signing are 80-20.

‘We are open minded and active. We look at the opportunities. It can happen we still try to bring at least one body in because we are a bit hit now by the red card of Flamini, the setback of Ramsey, the fact that Wilshere is not available which I hope will be short term.’

Arsenal sign Kim Kallstrom on deadline day

Russian media outlets had started to report that the player Wenger was referring to was Spartak Moscow’s Kim Kallstrom.

On deadline day, Arsenal announced the arrival of Kallstrom on a short-term loan deal until the end of the season.

Aged 31, the Sweden international was brought in to bring some much-needed experience to a depleted midfield.

Having started his career in his native Sweden, Kallstrom had spent most of his playing days in French football with Rennes and then Lyon, where he won multiple honours before moving to Russia.

Just days after signing at Arsenal, it was revealed that he had suffered a back injury while playing beach football during Spartak Moscow’s mid-season winter break in Abu Dhabi.

Perhaps the most puzzling part of the deal was that Arsenal knew Kallstrom was injured when he arrived for his medical, yet they decided to go ahead with the deal anyway.

When questioned by the media about the Swede’s injury, Wenger said: ‘I’m sure that, if you’ve played football, you might have played with a micro fracture of a vertebra without knowing you had it. You don’t even notice it.

‘It crossed my mind (not to complete the deal), but I would not have signed him if we’d had two or three more days to do something. It was 5pm on Friday night, so it was sign him or nobody.

‘Spartak are paying his wages for the first six weeks. We thought it would be four to six weeks.’

With Kallstrom ruled out of the games that he was brought in to cover, there were genuine concerns among Arsenal fans that he would never play for the club.

Kallstrom finally makes his Arsenal debut two months after joining

Nearly two months after his arrival, he made the bench for Arsene Wenger’s 1,000th game in charge of the club, a 6-0 defeat away at London rivals Chelsea.

He eventually made his debut for the club a few days later, coming off the bench in the 79th minute of a 2-2 draw at home to Swansea City.

The title hopes of January had slipped away; although still only six points behind the league leaders Chelsea, games were running out and both Liverpool and Manchester City had games in hand over Arsenal.

The Gunners had been knocked out of the Champions League by German giants Bayern Munich and their best hope of silverware was now the FA Cup.

Kallstrom’s Arsenal highlight

Arsenal were into the semi-finals of the competition and were drawn against holders Wigan Athletic at Wembley.

It would be in the semi-final that Kallstrom would have the best moment of his brief Arsenal career.

Wigan took a shock lead when Jordi Gomez scored from the penalty spot with just under half an hour remaining in normal time.

Per Mertesacker spared Arsenal’s blushes with a dramatic late equaliser to force the game into extra-time.

With extra-time nearing an end and the game heading to penalties, Kallstrom was sent on by Wenger for the final seven minutes.

Despite Arsenal trying to find a late winner, including a half-chance for Kallstrom, the semi-final went all the way to a penalty shootout.

Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta was a regular penalty taker at the time, so it was no surprise to see the Spaniard step up first for the Gunners.

He converted from the spot and Wigan’s Jack Collison was denied by goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski.

To the surprise of most Arsenal fans, their next penalty taker was Kallstrom, the man they’d seen very little of since his arrival from Spartak Moscow.

Kallstrom calmly walked up to the spot, fired the ball past Scott Carson and put Arsenal within touching distance of the final.

His team-mates did the rest, with Olivier Giroud and Santi Cazorla scoring their spot kicks to ensure Arsenal would return to Wembley for the final the following month.

Kallstrom played a full 90 minutes against West Ham three days after the semi-final and made his final appearance for the club a month later in a 1-0 win against West Brom.

Arsenal went on to end their trophy drought in dramatic circumstances, beating Hull City 3-2 in extra-time in the final, having gone two goals behind in the opening 10 minutes.

Arsenal man became a cult hero

Although he was signed to make a more significant contribution at the club, Kallstrom is looked back on as a cult hero by some Arsenal fans.

The circumstances in which he joined the club were humorous and his cameo appearance at Wembley against Wigan is still talked about to this day.

The midfielder had a glittering career, winning multiple trophies in both Sweden and France, as well as earning an impressive 131 international caps for his country.

Summing up his time at Arsenal in an interview with the club’s official website in 2020, Kallstrom said:

‘I’d say in terms of career highlights, that penalty is right up there. Mostly because of the size of the club, but also because it was such a weird moment. It’s so different from all the others where I’ve won a title or won the championship in France because you fight for 11 months to lift the trophy.

‘I see the fans who joke on the internet about my time here, but I think it’s quite fun. There are a lot of players who have done a lot more for Arsenal than me but then at the same time there are a lot of players who have done a lot less, in a lot more time! 

‘Here, I walked in, hit the penalty, we won a trophy and then I walked out again. 

‘Who’d have thought it, the guy with the broken back?’