PNE fan recalls Kevin Keegan’s common touch – and how he almost joined North End

I felt great sadness on Monday afternoon when I heard the news that England soccer legend Kevin Keegan had lost his battle with stomach cancer at the age of 75.

Born in Armthorpe, the son of a miner, Keegan never forgot his working-class roots even when he was employed in the position of England manager.

I personally came across him when, along with a couple of friends, I visited the England training camp in Spa, Belgium, during Euro 2000.

The session had nearly finished and we were unable to gain entry into the training ground as it was ringed by some burly security guards who promptly denied us access when we approached the fenced-off perimeter.

A member of our group told one of the guards that Kevin Keegan had invited us to come and meet the players, which of course was a desperate attempt to blag our way in.

Imagine how surprised we were when the guard on the radio walkie talkie waved us through, saying that he had been told to send us down.

It was a couple of days prior to the England v Germany game and the manager was in the process of doing an interview in fluent German with the German TV crews who all knew him from his successful time as a player with Hamburg.

After his interview he chatted with us for a while and shook hands and happily posed for photographs and autographs.

He also asked us if there were any specific favourite players we would like a photo with, and then went on the players’ bus and sent over Alan Shearer and Martin Keown, as well as Kevin Philips because one of our party was a big Sunderland fan.

This day, along with the 1-0 win against Germany, was the highlight of a less-than-memorable trip on the football side, with a last-minute defeat at the hands of Romania eliminating England at the group stage of the tournament.

It was purely down to the man himself that this memory was made possible. He chatted to everybody like he had known us all for years in the fashion like one of the lads in the pub and not the man in charge of our national team.

In 1971 he almost became a player for Preston North End, as the then-manager Alan Ball Senior had identified him as an outstanding prospect playing for Scunthorpe.

However the PNE board were reluctant at the time to pay more than the £25,000 they had bid for him and months later he went to Bill Shankly's Liverpool for just £33,000.

The rest of his career is history.

He truly was one of England's all-time greats as an international player, also being a key figure in Liverpool's domination of 1970s domestic football where he formed his famous ‘little and large’ partnership with John Toshack.

With England not qualifying for the 1974 and 1978 World Cup finals, it was a shame he never got to showcase his talent in a World Cup stage except when the injured Keegan was brought on for a fleeting cameo in the last few minutes of England's game against Spain in 1982.

I was present on the day of the last game at the old Wembley, when England boss Keegan trooped off the pitch with his head down looking thoroughly dejected after a single-goal loss to Germany – minutes before he resigned from his post, such was his will for his country to succeed.

In the era of the cash-laden modern game, family man Keegan was probably the last of the old-fashioned-style working-class heroes to have a true rags-to-riches progression in his career and always displayed a great passion for the game, illustrated best by his “I would love, it love it” outburst in front of the TV cameras immediately after one of his games as Newcastle manager.

Hope you rest in peace King Kev, and thanks for the memories.