Keegan, the success story of an Englishman in Germany
Historically, English football players do not usually try to play outside the British Isles and the few who have done so do not usually do so in a good way due to adaptation difficulties at different levels. Therefore, today we will talk about an English football legend who dared to try his luck abroad when he was at his best in England and made that experience successful.Life before Germany
King Kev was born in Armthorpe, Doncaster, on February 14, 1951, into a lower-middle class family with Irish origins. His father and his uncle were football and Newcastle United fans, and they were the ones who would give little Kevin his first ball and pair of boots. Despite that, he practiced other sports and from the age of 15 he also started an office job in a valve manufacturer, so football was not an essential part of his life.He began playing in a youth team on Saturdays and with another local team on Sundays, where on one occasion he played against a veteran defender who was impressed with Keegan and offered him the chance to try out for Scunthorpe United, who at the time were in the fourth tier of English football, where he would finally begin his professional career. Despite being a professional club, Scunthorpe had many limitations to the point that they did not have enough money to buy goal nets and situations arose such as the players themselves driving the team bus.
This, far from demotivating Keegan or creating a desire in him to leave the club, the young player trained more and more and worried about constantly improving. King Kev stood out in the Fourth Division and that quickly aroused the interest of higher division clubs, although Keegan himself dismissed those interests since he did not see himself fit to play at that level. In 1971, Liverpool appeared, promoted by Bill Shankly (who received the recommendation of one of his most trusted scouts) and after some tough negotiations, they signed Keegan for 33 thousand pounds.
Shankly switched Keegan from playing in center midfield to playing as right midfielder, where he was able to take better advantage of his skill and speed. The result was that Keegan became a Liverpool legend after six years where he scored double-digit goals in each and managed to win 3 First Division, 1 FA Cup, 2 UEFA Cup, 2 Charity Shield and the 1977 European Cup. The native from Doncaster wanted to try the experience of living outside the British Isles and that is how he chose the German Hamburger offer among the many that he had on the table.
Hamburger
The signing was closed for 500 thousand pounds, which was a record at that time for both German and British football. Hamburger had not had a good first few years in the Bundesliga since the creation of the tournament (1963) although in the 1975-76 season they managed to finish second and win the DFB Pokal and a year later they lifted the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup trophy.Keegan's start in Germany was not easy since he was not very well received in the team's locker room because the Englishman had star treatment both in terms of salary and by the club itself, to the point that manager Ozcan Arkoc made many changes to the team to accommodate Keegan. To this we had to add difficulties outside of football such as language or food. Despite these situations, Keegan scored 12 goals in his first season and, together with his great popularity, earned him the name of the 1978 Ballon d'Or winner.
For the following season, Hamburger decided to hire the Croatian Branko Zebec as manager, who already had experience working in Germany, having coached Beyern Munich (being champion of the Bundesliga and the DFB Pokal in 1969), Stuttgart and Eintracht Braunschweig in addition to the two most powerful teams in their country, Dinamo Zagreb and Hajduk Split.
Zebec sought to form a solid, disciplined and strong team where Keegan would be the only individual who broke with that style. The Croatian manager's proposal, together with a better adaptation to the dressing room and the country, helped King Kev considerably improve his performance for his second season at Hamburger, which would end with the club winning the Bundesliga. This led to Keegan being the winner of the Ballon d'Or again, being only the second player to win the award consecutively to that date (the first was Johan Cruyff).
Taking the success to the next level
Having established itself at the national level, Hamburger was aspiring to take its success to the European level and that is why the European Cup became the main competition for the club. Hamburger began by eliminating Iceland's Valur, Dinamo Tblisi (who had just eliminated Liverpool) and then Hajduk Split, the latter by the away goal rule. Real Madrid was waiting in the semifinals, which had additional motivation since the final would be played at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.In the first leg played in Spain, Real Madrid, with two goals from Santillana, would easily beat Hamburger, who did not have a good night. Two weeks later, in Germany, Zebec's team came out with a very offensive mentality, to the point that in the 17th minute they had already tied the tie and in the 45th minute they were already beating the Spanish team 4-1. Finally, the final result would be 5-1 and this consummated Hamburger's presence in the European Cup final for the first time in its history.
In the final they faced Brian Clough and Peter Shilton's Nottingham Forest, who were the reigning champions. The match was very even, between two teams that had similar styles and weapons, the only difference being Robertson's goal. The English team that seemed to have a special aura managed to repeat the European Cup title. This defeat was a hard blow that led Keegan to say goodbye to Hamburger and return to England with Southampton. For his part, Zebec would leave a couple of months later after criticism for his training methods and an alcoholism problem.
The goal of winning the European Cup would be achieved in 1983 when Hamburger beat Juventus with the only goal from Felix Magath and with Ernst Happel on the bench.
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