Kevin Keegan

Biography:

Kevin Keegan was appointed as the successor to Joe Royle at Manchester City on May 24 2001, signing a five-year contract seven months after his sensational resignation as England manager.

Keegan's high-achieving experience as a manager is as vast and as varied as his life on the playing side of professional football.

He was born on Valentine's Day in the Yorkshire town of Armthorpe in 1951. He made his first appearance as a professional footballer for Scunthorpe United in 1968 and eventually made 120 appearances for the club before Liverpool decided to invest in the midfielder.

Keegan was a massive hit at Anfield. He won major honours in domestic and European competition while wearing the famous red shirt, including the League title, the FA Cup and the UEFA Cup but he made a shock move to German side SV Hamburg, one season before Bob Paisley's team won the biggest prize of all, the European Cup.

As a Hamburg player, Keegan overcame some intial problems to become a hero with the German fans, helping the team a league title and a European Cup final, where they lost to Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest.

In 1980, he returned to England and joined Southampton where he spent two seasons and made 68 appearances for the club then based at the Dell. He was greatly appreciated by the fans of the South coast club.

Then, in 1982, he left the club to join Newcastle United, helping the north-east club to promotion from the old Football League Second Division over his final two seasons in which he made 78 appearances, scoring 48 times.

A long time out of the game followed for Keegan as he pursued business interests outside the game and worked as a football pundit. He resided in Spain for some of the time between his retirement as a player and his return to football as a manager.

That return came in 1992 when he came to the rescue of Newcastle United, who were floundering in the lower reaches of the Football League's second tier and looking likely to be relegated again after Ossie Ardiles' turbulent reign at St James' Park. The task was a massive one when he took over with 19 games of the season remaining, but with assistant Terry McDermott, they accepted and beat the challenge, more than doubling the average attendance in the process.

After ensuring Newcastle's survival, the following season saw wins in the first eleven games, setting The Magpies up for a promotion to the FA Premiership.

Riding on the crest of a wave of passion and support in the north-east, Keegan took the club to 3rd in their first season back in the top flight.

The following season saw a 6th place finish before they topped the table in 1995/96, pushing Manchester United all the way for the title. Keegan's famous outburst on Sky TV will forever be the enduring memory of that year as Newcastle surrendered a 12-point lead to Alex Ferguson's team to finish in 2nd place.

Keegan shocked football by quitting Newcastle in January 1997 but the club again finished as runners-up in the Premiership under the guidance of his successor Kenny Dalglish.

After another short time out of football, the next step in Keegan's career came in the then unlikely form of Fulham FC. The South London club had been taken over by the millionaire Mohammed Al-Fayed and Keegan came in to try to help achieve the dream of Premiership football for the club's Egyptian owner.

Under Keegan's stewardship Fulham were promoted as champions of the Nationwide League Second Division. He only spent a season at Craven Cottage but he did well enough to be offered to the post of England manager that was vacated by Glenn Hoddle in controversial circumstances in early 1999. He accepted the post and remained with Fulham while he took the England job on an initial part-time basis.

After a rousing 3-1 victory in his first match in charge against Poland at Wembley, Keegan decided to take up the position full-time.

Keegan subsequently oversaw the remainder of the campaign for England's assault on the 2000 European Championships in Holland and Belgium and reached the finals via a play-off against Scotland.

England were within minutes of a draw that would have sent the team to the second stage after a 1-0 win against Germany and a defeat against Portugal. But against Romania in the third group game, Philip Neville gave away a penalty that allowed the Romanians to walk away with a 3-2 win and England were eliminated.

Keegan's last game as an England manager was his next competitive one after Euro 2000. England lost 1-0 to Germany on the day of the last game to be played at Wembley Stadium in the first qualifying match for the 2002 World Cup.

He resigned immediately after the match, stating that he had taken the national team as far as he possibly could.

Again, a spell outside the game followed but, after being linked with a return to Southampton, Keegan chose to go to the north-west to succeed Joe Royle as Manchester City manager, as the team prepared for life back in Division One.

They didn't stay there for long however, as Keegan worked his magic once again.

Bringing in the likes of Stuart Pearce, Ali Benarbia, Eyal Berkovic and Niclas Jensen, Keegan's new team stormed to the First Division championship, playing the kind of football that he had become renowned for in his days in charge at St. James' Park.

Scoring 108 goals, and reaching 99 points, in the league, Manchester City earned promotion to the Barclaycard Premiership in the style all City fans wanted to see.

Having signed former Manchester United star Peter Schmeichel on a free from Aston Villa, Keegan boosted the defence by capturing three more foreign players: Newcastle United's on-loan French defender Sylvain Distin, from Paris St Germain, Copenhagen's Mikkel Bischoff and Dutch defender Tyrone Loran. He then swooped to sign another PSG player who had been on loan in England, former Arsenal striker Nicolas Anelka, who joined Keegan's squad for a club record £13million.

With the club preparing to move into a new stadium in 2003, Keegan is determined that City will remain in the top flight this time round and his aim is for them to be in the top six within five years.

Previous Clubs

England, Fulham, Newcastle