Kevin Keegan's death on July 20, aged 75 after battling stage four cancer, brought a very personal response from Declan Donnelly and Anthony McPartlin. Donnelly said Keegan was the reason he got into football, and McPartlin described him as the man who “saved our club” when he returned to Newcastle as manager. The tribute works because it is plainly emotional, not packaged as a detached obituary.

Donnelly's childhood memory

Donnelly was the more visibly moved of the two. He said, “I'm not ashamed to say I shed a tear”, and added that he had shed one last week and another one this morning. He also said Keegan “just meant so much to the people of the North East”.

That memory goes back to 1982, when J. Keegan signed for Newcastle. Donnelly's wider description was striking in its own right: “Kevin Keegan was the reason that I really got into football, he was the David Beckham of his day. He was the Lionel Messi and the Cristiano Ronaldo of the 70s and 80s”. That is not a throwaway line from a fan. It is the kind of praise that tells you how deeply Keegan still sits in Newcastle support.

The club figure they were talking about

McPartlin's line about Keegan “saving our club” is clearly his view, not a settled fact. But it is also easy to see why he said it. Newcastle are 17th in the 2026 Premier League snapshot, a long way from the club Keegan helped define. The 2025 numbers were not much kinder either, with 12th place, 14 wins in 38 league games and 53 league goals.

The emotional reaction also fits the outpouring around his death. Fans left flowers, shirts, scarves and memorabilia outside St James' Park, and Newcastle said he was “the beating heart of the city for generations of supporters”. Even the contested bits of Keegan's story, including his success at Hamburger SV and Liverpool, sit under the same broad point: he mattered far beyond a normal former player.

The tribute is strongest when it stays personal. Donnelly's tears, McPartlin's praise and the club's own words all point the same way, and the next wave of tributes will keep circling the same man who arrived at Newcastle in 1982.

Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 4 outlets. How we work →