November 15 - KK Wins His First Cap

WE have made no secret of the fact Kevin Keegan is one of our favourite characters in the world of football and comedy, but normally on our humble blog we tend to focus on KK’s managerial career.

We have told you about Keggy’s first foray into management, his legendary bonkers rant on Sky Sports, the time his charges came up trumps by thrashing Manchester United, and of course his many and varied dramatic resignations.

Today in 1972 a young KK was making waves as a player when he made his England debut aged 21. Despite constantly being told he was too small to make it as a pro, and having been rejected by hometown club Doncaster Rovers and Coventry City, Mighty Mouse kept on trying and eventually became a professional at Scunthorpe. “Rejection drove me on,” says Keegan. “A few people close to me said: ‘Now you’ll have to concentrate on your school work.’ They didn’t think I was good enough, and I used it as a spur. I think most of the top players have been rejected somewhere along the line, and most top business people have problems before they get to the top. Edison had failures before he got the lightbulb going!”

His perseverance paid off and when he was just 20 Bill Shankly snapped him up for £35,000 for Liverpool. Shanks told his new young charge that he would go on to wear the Three Lions shirt and sure enough, within a year of arriving at Anfield Keegan was called up by Sir Alf.

He started for England in a World Cup qualifier against Wales at Ninian Park in Cardiff and impressed as England won 1-0 thanks to a Colin Bell goal.

The man himself said: “My second match for England was also against Wales, and the third was in 1974, again in Cardiff. We won and I scored my first goal. By that time, I was wondering if I was Welsh or English. I was living in North Wales and other players started calling me Taff Keegan!”

Sadly for one of England’s best players, and certainly one of the best of his generation, the height of Keegan’s powers coincided with a slump in England’s fortunes. The team didn’t make it to the World Cup in 1974 and 1978, or the European Championship in between. The 1982 World Cup in Spain was to be KK’s only appearance at the world’s best tournament and even then an injury curtailed his playing time to just a cameo role in the crucial match against the hosts Spain when he missed a point blank range header with the match at 0-0. The game ended goal-less and England were out without losing a game. “As I headed it, I thought ‘Goal!’ because I didn’t usually miss from there.”

“There aren’t any excuses,” Keegan said. “England weren’t good enough as a nation at the time. It doesn’t matter if I thought we were unlucky or whatever, we just didn’t have enough good players. And I obviously wasn’t good enough, either.

“Yes, we did get to the World Cup in Spain in 1982 – and people say myself and Trevor Brooking were the main reason we got to that tournament – but both of us got injured, and we only played about 20 minutes each.”

The draw against Spain was Keegan’s last in an England shirt as he began to wind down his playing career.

Have a look at a very young KK giving his thoughts to a BBC chappy below and come back tomorrow if you need a footy fix. Before you go click here to read about Europe’s greatest ever player making his debut.

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