Kevin Keegan, the two-time Ballon d’Or-winning soccer star who captained and coached England’s national team and won the European Cup with Liverpool, has died. He was 75.
Keegan’s death was announced by his former club Newcastle, where he had been both a player and coach. He revealed last month that he had stage four cancer.
For a time in the 1970s, Keegan transcended the English game with his celebrity status.
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Keegan, one of just four Englishmen to win the Ballon d’Or, wasn’t just a brilliant soccer player who dovetailed nimbleness and an eye for goal with a relentless hunger and work rate stemming from his working-class upbringing in northern England.
He was also a trendsetter off the field, through his haircut — a perm, which other footballers across Europe started to copy — and his move into celebrity culture that saw him release a single, appear in an after-shave ad with heavyweight great Henry Cooper, and go on TV shows.
Keegan was also something of a trailblazer in his sport as one of the first English players to move to a continental team when he left Liverpool, where he’d just won the European Cup, for German club Hamburger SV in 1977.
It was in Hamburg where he won the Ballon d’Or — then called the European footballer of the year — twice (1978 and ’79) and featured in another European Cup final, a 1980 loss to Nottingham Forest.
Keegan scored 21 times in 63 England appearances and played at the 1982 World Cup, his only appearance on soccer’s biggest stage after the country failed to qualify for the 1974 and ’78 tournaments.
Keegan started his career at Scunthorpe before being signed for Liverpool by Bill Shankly in 1971, going on to win the old first division title three times as well as the FA Cup, the UEFA Cup twice and the 1977 European Cup.
After playing with Hamburg, he returned to England to play for Southampton and Newcastle before retiring in 1984.
He won 63 England caps, scoring 21 goals, playing at the 1982 World Cup and was also later captain of the national team.
In 1992, Keegan became manager at his former club Newcastle, guiding them into the Premier League and to within touching distance of the 1995-96 title only to miss out to Manchester United.
A brief stint at Fulham followed before he became England manager in 1999. Having overseen a disappointing Euro 2000 campaign, Keegan resigned on the back of defeat by Germany at Wembley Stadium, the last match at the national stadium before it was rebuilt.
A spell at Manchester City followed, but Keegan left in March 2005, initially announcing his retirement from football before an emotional return to Newcastle in 2008, which lasted only eight months.
