Kevin Keegan had a neat phrase to sum up his rise to stardom. “I was the mongrel who made it to Crufts,” he wrote in his autobiography.
But Keegan, who has died aged 75, was much more: one of football’s most beloved figures, celebrated for his infectious passion and electric style of play. As a manager, his swashbuckling approach helped make English football a global phenomenon. “King Kev” also came agonisingly close to winning the Premier League with Newcastle United.
“Kevin’s impact”, Newcastle said this week, would live on in “the generations of supporters around the world who fell in love with football because of him”.
Joseph Kevin Keegan was born just outside Doncaster in 1951. His father Joe had moved from Newcastle to work in a coal mine. It was there he met Kevin’s mother Doris, a factory worker.
Keegan didn’t move into a home with electricity until he turned 10, but had already started kicking a ball aged six. His father insisted he stick with school, not wanting his son to be a miner. Aged 15, Keegan started as a tea boy in a local foundry. But despite being told he was too small, at the weekend he played football. He was spotted and signed for fourth division Scunthorpe United in 1968, taking summer jobs to supplement his wages. At a Doncaster fairground he met Jean; the pair later married and had two daughters.
Keegan’s star soon rose. In 1971 he signed with Bill Shankly’s Liverpool at £50 a week. He scored 12 minutes into his debut and formed a partnership with John Toshack so prolific it was said to be a telepathic bond. In Keegan’s second season, Liverpool won the English league and Uefa Cup, and the FA Cup the year after. He made his debut for England in 1972 and went on to captain the team, although they failed to reach the 1974 and 1978 World Cups.
But Keegan was a household name. He became the face of Brut aftershave and in 1972 released a song, “It Ain’t Easy”. Liverpool won the league and the Uefa Cup again, before being crowned European champions for the first time in 1977 in his last game in a Liverpool shirt.
Transferring to Hamburg, he revealed his trademark bubble perm. They won the German league and his second single reached Germany’s top 10. He also won the Ballon D’Or two years running. He later described himself as the “most ordinary player to have won it twice” and said hard graft, not natural talent, explained his success.
After three years in Germany, he rejected moves to some of Europe’s top clubs and went instead to Southampton and then Newcastle United, opening a definitive chapter. Keegan was the spark that would take the club, then in English football’s second tier, to the top division. He scored 49 goals in 85 appearances and became a fan favourite before retiring aged 33. To bid him farewell, Newcastle arranged a friendly against Liverpool. The game ended 2-2, with Keegan departing the pitch in a helicopter. Fans below wept, among them a 13-year-old ball boy called Alan Shearer.
“Special K” vowed never to go into management, yet almost eight years later returned to Newcastle, who were languishing in the bottom half of the second division. He guided them to the Premier League. Fans delighted in his free-flowing style of football and embraced his emotional persona.
Keegan’s managerial career will be remembered for the 1995/96 season. Newcastle opened up a 12-point lead over Manchester United and appeared to be heading to their first Premier League title. But Alex Ferguson’s United gradually narrowed the gap. As pressure mounted, Keegan launched a tirade against his rival on live TV. “You can tell him now, we’re still fighting for this title,” he said. “I will love it if we beat them. Love it!” Ferguson’s men ultimately prevailed, but fans connected with Keegan’s raw passion — he spoke like one of them.
That summer Keegan signed Shearer for a world-record fee of £15mn. The England striker went on to score more than 200 goals for his childhood club, and still holds the Premier League record. “My Hero. My manager. My friend,” Shearer said after his death.
Keegan quit Newcastle a few months later. He managed Fulham, then a brief stint with England ended with resignation in a Wembley toilet. He was at Manchester City for almost four years, taking the team back to the Premier League in 2002. A tempestuous final 18 games back at Newcastle, concluded with a public clash with the club’s then owner, retail tycoon Mike Ashley.
Keegan complained that too many managers would rather “suffocate the life” out of football to win. That was never his way. “History will remember us kindly,” he said of his “gung-ho” Newcastle side. “We brought the crowd to its feet.”