The football world is in mourning today as the sad passing of Kevin Keegan at the age of 75 has been announced.
Keegan faced Nottingham Forest in the European Cup final in 1980, with the Reds running out 1-0 winners against Hamburg.
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The charismatic legend of the sport spent time playing for Scunthorpe, Liverpool, Southampton and Newcastle in England, featuring 63 times for England and scoring 21 goals.
As a manager, he took charge of Newcastle, Fulham, England and Manchester City before calling time on his career in 2008.
What Brian Clough said about Kevin Keegan in 1980
When Forest set up a date with Hamburg in the 1980 European Cup final, all of the talk was centred around Keegan playing for the opposition.
Clough was typically coy, though, when asked about him and was keen to retain the focus on his own players.
In the press before the final, he said: “I’m actually more worried that we don’t have Trevor Francis rather than if they’ve got Keegan.
“To be fair, we’ve got a short, fat, outside left who will turn him inside out.”
In 1992, when Keegan took his first steps into management, Clough was asked to provide some advice to the new boss.
In typical jovial fashion, he quipped back: “Who’s Kevin Keegan?” with Clough’s dry answer causing quite a stir at the time.
Stuart Pearce at the centre of Kevin Keegan’s legendary line
Keegan was a brilliant manager and an even better player, but he’s arguably most famous for his rant when his Newcastle team were in direct rivalry for the Premier League title in the early nineties.
Pearce was at the centre of those comments, and years later he had some kind words about Keegan during an interview with Sky Sports.
He said: “It all stemmed from a testimonial I had at the back end of that season, three or four games from that match.
“I think Alex Ferguson came out prior to the game and said with Newcastle taking a team to Nottingham Forest – we also had to play Newcastle in the Premier League with about three games to go – I think he sort of mentioned that we wouldn’t be trying and we’d prefer Newcastle to win.
“I think obviously Kevin got a bit uppity about that.”
Keegan will be sorely missed in the world of football and the sport has lost one of its true greats with the sad passing of a true football purist.
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