Football fans have launched a fundraising campaign for a statue to honour Kevin Keegan in Scunthorpe, the club where the two-time Ballon d'Or winner began his career, after his death from cancer aged 75 on Monday.
David Beverley, vice chairman of supporters group The Iron Trust, who are leading the fundraiser, said the statue would be a "fitting tribute" to King Kev. Keegan made more than 100 appearances for Scunthorpe before moving to Liverpool for £33,000 in 1971. "You've got to remember his career started here," Beverley said. "He'd been rejected by Coventry City and Doncaster Rovers before Ron Ashman, who again was a legend at the club, saw Kevin, got him signed and then sold him to Liverpool in 1971."
“Fans launch statue fundraiser for Kevin Keegan in Scunthorpe after his death from cancer aged 75.”
Keegan went on to win three league Division One titles, the European Cup, two Uefa Cups and the FA Cup with Liverpool, then the Bundesliga with Hamburg, and back-to-back Ballons d'Or in 1978 and 1979 – becoming one of only four English players to win the award, and the only one to do it twice. He also earned 63 England caps, 31 as captain, and later managed England, Newcastle, Fulham and Manchester City. Despite his success, he remained a supporter of Scunthorpe and repeatedly returned to help raise funds. His last visit came in December last year when he attended the club's National League match against Tamworth, giving a speech in the dressing room, visiting the boardroom and meeting fans in the Iron Bar.
Current players and staff held a minute's applause and laid flowers in tribute earlier this week. A book of condolence has been set up at the Attis Arena, where an old quote from Keegan is on permanent display: "People think that the club that made me was Liverpool, but the club that really made me was Scunthorpe United." Steven Plumtree, 55, who watched Keegan play for the club, was among those who signed the book, which is surrounded by pictures of Keegan and a candle. He described his death as a "big loss".
Keegan's tenacity and courage perhaps ran in the family. His grandfather, Frank Keegan, was among the first volunteers to brave the collapsed Burns Pit at West Stanley in 1909, helping to rescue 26 miners. As one Stanley native said: "Frank Keegan went back into the mine to rescue people. He was a local hero. It ran in the family." Keegan himself only discovered the truth of his grandfather's heroism while playing for Newcastle in the Eighties, when he was shown photographs of the rescue. When he returned as manager in the Nineties, he unveiled a memorial to the disaster.
Bill Shankly, Keegan's great mentor at Liverpool, observed: "In Keegan we saw a man who had the one thing we wanted, apart from his ability: his natural enthusiasm." That enthusiasm took him from the coalfields of Doncaster to the heights of European football, and now his fans hope a statue in Scunthorpe will ensure King Kev is never forgotten.
