In his latest On The Ball column, Mickey Ambrose pays tribute to the football legend and national treasure Kevin Keegan

Kevin Keegan playing for Liverpool in 1977 — ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv / Fotograf: Comet Photo AG (Zürich) / Com_LC1432-000-012 / CC BY-SA 4.0, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Before David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo there was Kevin Keegan, the first English superstar who transcended football.

He was on everyone’s television as well as in their kitchen and bathroom cupboards, throughout the 1970s.

He made us laugh and smile with the Honey Monster for Sugar Puffs and we all loved the chemistry with Henry Cooper when they ‘splashed Brut all over’.

He wore Patrick Football Boots and promoted Mitre Footballs as well as championing the Green Cross Code, teaching children road safety in 1976.

King Kev was the advertiser’s favourite. He was everywhere. However, if anyone doubted his sporting fitness and dedication, then they should have watched Superstars, when athletes from different sports competed against each other through to a grand final.

Although Kevin did not make it to the final, he showed how tough he was in 1976, getting back on his bike after a nasty crash.

As many of my readers know, I have been blessed with football friendships, getting to know many great players over the years, from Pele to Ray Wilkins, Gary Lineker and Ian Wright among them.

Kevin is one I recall with much affection. I met him more than 20 years ago when I asked him to join a charity 7-a-side celebrity football match at Royal Ascot.

It was a football match on the lawns of Ascot on a raceday where my TV ALLSTARS team consisting of actors from Eastenders, The Bill, Hunter and Rhino from the original Gladiators show took on former jockeys led by my good friend and former champion jump jockey John Francome.

Kevin agreed and also coached some children from a local school. His love of horses was second to none.

Keegan had the most remarkable of careers. He burst onto the British football scene when he signed for Bill Shankly at Liverpool in May 1971 and immediately became a firm fans favourite, earning the nickname ‘Might Mouse’.

His partnership with John Toshack was so remarkable that pundits wondered whether they had a telepathic connection. As obituaries confirm, this was actually tested on the television show Kick Off in 1974.

The two players were seated back-toback. One would hold up a card or paddle showing a specific colour, shape, or number, and the other had to guess what it was without looking.

Toshack astounded viewers and hosts alike by getting an impossible ten out of ten correct, while Keegan completely failed when it was his turn to guess.

John later admitted that it wasn’t telepathy at all. He could clearly see the reflection of Keegan’s cards in the glass lens of the studio television camera pointing directly at him. He kept the joke going for nearly two hours!

Keegan’s famous encounter against Bobby Moore’s West Ham United at Anfield happened a few months after his debut on 4 December 1971. Keegan was nervous before the match and Shankly knew this.

He pulled Kevin to one-side: “Son, I have just seen Bobby Moore. He looks terrible, he has bags under his eyes and is limping. He
must have been in a nightclub all night”.

An enthused Keegan ran Bobby Moore ragged the whole match and scored the winning goal. Classic Shankly, he knew how to lift a player.

Kevin’s time at Liverpool saw no fewer than nine major trophies from 1971 to 1977, including three First Division Championships, an FA Cup, two Charity Shields, two UEFA Cups and Liverpool’s first ever European Cup.

He first became England captain in 1976 and later managed the England national team from February 1999 to October 2000. He was capped 63 times, 31 matches as captain and scoring 21 goals.

He passed away surrounded by his family on 20 July. He will be deeply missed.

Despite his terminal cancer diagnosis he was a fighter for other professionals. He supported John Stiles, the son of ‘66 World Cup hero Nobby Stiles, and his Families for Justice Dementia Campaign group.

I met Kevin at the FFJ event in Parliament, just a few months before he died.

He would have been among the millions who watched England’s World Cup journey and their remarkable 6-4 win in the third place match against France.

The World Cup was memorable, of course, for the politics and allegations of corruption at FIFA which annoyed me, along with the crass behaviour of Donald Trump.

However, the football at times was a thing of beauty and poetry, and the way fans came together was heart-warming. It showed what internationalism is all about.

As Kevin looks down, he will be with us hoping for a win in 2028 when we hos the Euros across the British Isles, by which time we will be singing 62 years of hurt.

Rest In Peace King Kev – Always Remembered.

Mickey Ambrose is a former Chelsea and Charlton player who lives in Stratford.

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