Kevin Keegan obituary

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A televised fistfight with Leeds United’s Billy Bremner during the 1974 Charity Shield at Wembley led to them both being sent off, although Keegan, having been slyly provoked by Bremner’s teammate John Giles, received the shorter suspension.He fell out with Lawrie McMenemy, his manager at Southampton; with Bobby Robson, the England manager, when he learned from the media that he had been dropped from the squad; and with Mike Ashley, the owner of Newcastle, during his unhappy second spell as manager on Tyneside.Most famously, he lost his self-control during a live television interview as the 1995-96 Premier League title race neared its climax. Scunthorpe were in the fourth division when he was given his first-team debut, in the same year, and they remained there for his three seasons at the Old Showground.To boost his income during the summer, when his wages went down from £15 to £10, he took jobs in a steelworks and a psychiatric hospital.

Although Keegan scored none of Liverpool’s three goals, his successful battle against his marker, the German international defender Berti Vogts, was vital to the team’s success.Already, however, he had announced that he was leaving Anfield at the end of the season, moving to Hamburg for a £500,000 transfer fee, a British record. As with Liverpool, he was embraced by a passionate set of fans and scored 21 goals in his first season, the team finishing fifth in the table.A year later they won promotion, only for Keegan to decide that, at 33, his speed had gone and he would no longer be up to the challenge.

Having announced his retirement, at the end of the season he moved to Marbella with his family, dismissing rumours that he intended to move into football management.He had made his full international debut with England in 1972, under Sir Alf Ramsey. An angry Keegan responded by scoring four goals in his next match for Newcastle, but his international playing career was over.His sojourn in Spain, where he brought his golf handicap down to four, lasted seven years before he and his wife decided to return to England for the sake of their two daughters’ education.