A Sharp Portrait of Football’s Unlikely Seventies Superstar
Anthony Quinn follows Kevin Keegan from Scunthorpe youth player to England manager, taking in Liverpool, Newcastle and Hamburg. Funny and perceptive, this biography explores the brilliance, near misses and contradictions behind one of English football’s most distinctive figures.
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Keegan: The Man Who Was King
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A Sharp Portrait of Football’s Unlikely Seventies Superstar
Anthony Quinn follows Kevin Keegan from Scunthorpe youth player to England manager, taking in Liverpool, Newcastle and Hamburg. Funny and perceptive, this biography explores the brilliance, near misses and contradictions behind one of English football’s most distinctive figures.
- Book Synopsis
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SHORTLISTED FOR THE CHARLES TYRWHITT SPORTS BOOK AWARDS
A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE TIMES, DAILY TELEGRAPH, FT AND IRISH TIMES
'A marvellous tribute to one of the great characters of English football.' The Times
From the author of Klopp, a funny and insightful look at one of Britain's greatest and strangest football greats.
He was stranger than he knew - than any of us knew.
England captain. Mercurial competitor. Pop star manqué. The Face of Brut 33. Pioneer of the footballers' perm. Twice winner of the Ballon d'Or.
Kevin Keegan owned the 1970s. We had never seen his like before. There appeared to be nothing he could fail at.
Tracking his career from youth-team player at Scunthorpe to the England manager's job, by way of Liverpool, Newcastle and Hamburg, Keegan considers the extravagant highs of a football man who touched the game with genius, who was never sacked and who came within an ace of triumph as a manager.
A story of almost and maybe, of excellence and of failure, it is a story too, perhaps, of the fans' quixotic search for a messiah.
Ideal for readers who…
- Football biography readers interested in Kevin Keegan's journey from Scunthorpe to the England manager's job.
- Supporters of Liverpool, Newcastle and Hamburg revisiting a career shaped by ambition, flair and near misses.
- Readers drawn to insightful portraits of English football personalities from the 1970s onwards.
- Fans of Anthony Quinn's Klopp seeking another funny, perceptive study of an influential football figure.
- Anyone choosing a thoughtful gift for readers of football history, sporting biography and managerial stories.
- About The Author
- Anthony Quinn was born in Liverpool in 1964. From 1998 until 2013 he was the film critic for the Independent. He is the author of ten novels, including The Rescue Man, which won the 2009 Authors' Club Best First Novel Award; The Streets, which was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize; Freya, a Radio 2 Book Club choice; Curtain Call, which was chosen for Waterstones and Mail on Sunday Book Clubs and adapted into the acclaimed film The Critic in 2024; and, most recently, The Mouthless Dead.
- Product Details
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- ISBN
- 9780571392261
- Format
- Paperback
- Publisher
- Faber & Faber, (09 April 2026)
- Number of Pages
- 208
- Language
- English
- Dimensions
- 198 x 129 mm
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