China wouldn’t interest me: Liverpool and England legend Kevin Keegan on moving to play abroad
The two-time Ballon d’Or winner was one of the first English players to play abroad, but he says money is a key factor in the decision to move away
Few would suggest that Kevin Keegan had taken the easy path during his glittering career. His route into the game was a tough one, and many of his decisions, both as a player and a manager, have been questioned, but he’s firmly of his own mind and is at ease with his choices.
“I did all the things I wanted to do. I made my own decisions,” he tells The Post in a wide-ranging interview.
Rejected by several local academy sides, at 16 the Doncaster-native wound up taking a job at a local brass works where he was selected to play on the reserve team. After an impressive performance, Keegan was offered a trial at Scunthorpe United, where he would make his senior debut a year later.
Before long, Keegan had established himself as a fan favourite at Anfield and was inspiring the Reds to league titles, domestic silverware and ultimately the European Cup during their golden era.
It was at that point, with the world at his feet, firmly established as one of the finest forwards on the continent, and with a glut of Europe’s top clubs after his signature that Keegan opted to walk away from Liverpool and head for the unfashionable port city of Hamburg and a club considered the ‘sleeping giant’ of Germany.
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“It was an exciting challenge. People asked, ‘Why would you leave Liverpool?’ But I just wanted something different. I wanted a new challenge. There was a sense of adventure in it.”
“It’s a wonderful time to be a footballer. There’ll probably never be as much money in the game as there is now,” he says. “Players now are privileged to be playing when football is at its height. I think ‘good luck guys’. The money’s there, they’re the ones who have to go out and perform. Why shouldn’t they take some of it?”
It’s a refreshingly honest attitude when in some quarters players have come in for criticism for a perceived lack of ambition in following the money to China. But then, Keegan helped lay the groundwork for footballers to become masters of their own destiny and maximize their money-making potential. He himself was dubbed ‘football’s first millionaire’.
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“I understand why people criticise. Usually it comes from disappointed fans who see someone like Oscar go from their club to a league they don’t quite understand,” says Keegan. “From the players’ point of view; you have to understand that they’re professionals. By the time they get around 33, [their career] is coming to the end. So, that’s their window of opportunity.
“If you reversed it and said to these people that criticise them: ‘If you could move somewhere and someone will pay you twice as much money’, they wouldn’t say ‘oh no, I’m staying here’. If you put it in that perspective, they would do the same thing.”
So did the idea of a huge contract in a far foreign land in the twilight of his career ever appeal to Keegan?
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Keegan’s three-year spell in Germany yielded 32 goals in 90 games, a first league championship for Hamburg in 19 years, a European Cup final appearance and two Ballon d’Or awards. His acumen in negotiating a release clause in his Liverpool contract also meant he became the highest-paid player in Germany as well as securing his image rights and several lucrative endorsement deals.
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By 1980, Keegan’s negotiated contract meant he was able to take his pick from a list of potential suitors back in England. He opted for the unlikely destination of Southampton, choosing to play with friends at a club without lofty expectations in a transfer that shocked the football world.
“[Southampton player] Micky Shannon was my mate and I knew (Alan) Bally from England. It was different from any other club I’d been at because the expectation was huge at Liverpool and Hamburg.”
Success followed again with Southampton. The club secured a highest league finish the next season with Keegan dazzling as part of a free-scoring side.
“Of course, there’s a lot of emotion in football, but it worked out great for me. Things went on.”
Would he change any part of his journey?
“Nothing. No, I enjoyed every minute of it,” he says. “And I don’t look back much.”