Kenny Dalglish - Liverpool

Quite simply, there is no bigger icon in the history of Liverpool Football Club than Sir Kenny Dalglish. Or, to give him the title bestowed upon him by his adoring Anfield faithful, 'King Kenny'. The first and only.

Born in Glasgow on 4 March 1951, Dalglish was a driving force in Liverpool’s dominance of English and European football from his arrival as a former Celtic striker in 1977 to the emotional day when he stepped down as manager in 1991. During that 14-year period, he helped the club to win eight league titles, three European Cups, four League Cups and one FA Cup.

The Scot’s brief second spell as boss from 2011 to 2012 added another League Cup to the honours board.

A Liverpool playing legend

Dalglish became synonymous with Liverpool’s number 7 shirt, having been signed with the precise purpose of replacing its previous incumbent, Kevin Keegan.

The fans could have been forgiven for fearing the future when Keegan, a regular goalscorer, left for German club Hamburg at a time when overseas moves were still exotic and very rare. But Bob Paisley made arguably the best of his many masterstrokes by taking the well-trodden domestic route of sourcing talent from Scotland, swooping to sign Kenny on August 10, 1977.

Prising him out of Celtic required a British-record transfer fee of £440,000 but by the end of his first season, it was already looking like a steal with Dalglish making 62 appearances and scoring 31 times - including the only goal in the 1978 European Cup final win over Bruges at Wembley.

The first of his six First Division titles on the pitch was the reward for a superb second campaign, 1978/79, in which he netted his best tally of 21 league goals and was named the Football Writers Association’s Player of the Year. He won that award again in 1982/83, when he doubled up with the equivalent accolade from his peers in the Professional Footballers’ Association.

Dalglish was also in double figures for goals in Liverpool’s championship-winning squads of 1979/80, 1981/82 and 1982/83, as he fired his way towards an eventual total of 172 in 515 appearances. Even in a so-called leaner year, 1980/81, when Aston Villa interrupted the club’s run of league titles, he still scored in the League Cup final replay as Liverpool lifted that trophy and he also claimed the second of his three European Cup winner’s medals.

King Kenny’s third European Cup win came in 1983/84, when he played under Paisley’s successor Joe Fagan, and also won the league again and a fourth consecutive League Cup.

Still a scorer of important goals in his later years – none more so than the 1985/86 title-clincher at Chelsea – Dalglish more often turned provider for Ian Rush, using his close control, vision and dribbling skills to rack up assists in an era before they were officially counted.

It was Rush, of course, who netted twice against Everton in the 1986 FA Cup final as Liverpool completed the Double at the end of Dalglish’s first season as player-manager.

A great Liverpool manager

In terms of trophies won, Dalglish is ranked alongside the great Bill Shankly as Liverpool’s second-most successful manager of all time.

Their 10 honours apiece are bettered only by the remarkable 19 collected by Bob Paisley, the boss who brought Dalglish to the club as a player and later mentored him from the background when the striker reluctantly took up the managerial reins in the summer of 1985.

That momentous career change came in the aftermath of one of the club’s darkest days, the Heysel Stadium disaster that claimed the lives of 39 Juventus fans who had travelled to Brussels to watch their team take on Liverpool in the European Cup final.

When Joe Fagan retired in the wake of Heysel, the club continued its policy of appointing from within and turned to Dalglish. The managerial novice was assisted by two loyal members of the revered ‘Boot Room’ in Ronnie Moran and Roy Evans, with Paisley also on hand to offer advice.

It was a gamble but how it paid off. In Dalglish’s first season in charge, Liverpool became only the fifth team in English football history to win the Double as the Reds succeeded Everton as league champions and then beat them 3-1 in a thrilling FA Cup final at Wembley.

Still only 35 at the end of 1985/86, the player-manager made progressively fewer appearances and after scoring six league goals in 18 games during 1986/87, he limited himself to just two outings in 1987/88. That season, the Liverpool attack had an exciting new look with summer signings John Barnes and Peter Beardsley providing the perfect foils for John Aldridge, who had arrived in the previous January as Dalglish diligently prepared for Ian Rush’s exit to Juventus.

Liverpool romped to the title with some terrific football, building a record unbeaten start of 29 games until the 1986/87 champions Everton defeated them in March 1988. The Reds scored 87 goals in 40 league games and finished nine points clear of runners-up Manchester United.

The only real blip was a big one, as Liverpool’s dreams of a second Double in three seasons were dashed by the underdogs Wimbledon in a desperately disappointing 1988 FA Cup final.

Dalglish took his team back to Wembley 12 months later but by then, so much had changed. The Hillsborough tragedy, when 97 Liverpool fans attending the FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest on 15 April 1989 were fatally injured, cast a long, dark shadow over football.

Dalglish was deeply affected by the supporters’ deaths, and the emotional toll of liaising with the victims’ families and attending funerals - while also still managing one of the world’s biggest football clubs - eventually led to his shock resignation on 22 February 1991. His legacy included two further trophies after Hillsborough - the FA Cup in 1989, and the First Division title in 1990.

Later in his career, Dalglish delighted Liverpool fans with two managerial triumphs - by pipping Manchester United to the 1994/95 Premier League title with his next club, Blackburn Rovers, and winning the League Cup during a return to the Anfield helm from January 2011 to May 2012.

He also managed Newcastle United much less successfully, from January 1997 to August 1998, and his former club Celtic in a four-month spell as interim boss in 2000.

Life before Liverpool - a Celtic icon

Dalglish was already a serial winner when he arrived at Anfield, having been an integral part of Celtic’s 1970s success under iconic manager Jock Stein.

The prolific goalscorer helped Stein’s side to win four league titles - including those in 1971/72, 1972/73 and 1973/74 which completed an incredible nine in a row for the Glasgow giants.

Dalglish, who signed his first professional contract in May 1967 and made his debut in September 1968, played for Cumbernauld United on loan and then Celtic’s reserves before he became a first-team regular in 1971.

From that point, there was no holding him back. In addition to the four league titles, he won four Scottish Cups and one League Cup. He signed off from Celtic with the Double in 1976/77.

International career with Scotland

Dalglish sits proudly at the top of two all-time lists for his national team, as Scotland’s most capped player with 102 appearances and leading scorer on 30 goals. He shares the latter with Manchester United legend Denis Law, whose final seasons on the international stage overlapped with Dalglish’s first few.

Both Dalglish and Law were in Scotland’s squad when Kenny played in the first of his three World Cups, 1974. He also featured in 1978 and 1982 but had to miss the 1986 tournament due to injury.

Dalglish made his international debut as a substitute against Belgium on November 10, 1971, while Luxembourg were the opponents for his 102nd and final Scotland game on November 12, 1986.

Family

Kenny married Marina on November 26, 1974, and they have four children - Kelly, Paul, Lynsey and Lauren.

Their only son was also a professional footballer - after playing in Liverpool’s youth teams, Paul served clubs including Newcastle United, Norwich City, Blackpool and Livingston, before pursuing a coaching career in the United States. Kelly also works in football, as a regular presenter on BBC Radio and Sky Sports.

Marina’s breast cancer diagnosis and recovery led to her and Kenny launching The Marina Dalglish Appeal in 2005, to raise money for treatment facilities such as the oncology centre at Aintree University Hospital.

Already a Member of the British Empire (MBE) since 1985, Kenny was knighted in 2018 for his services to football, charities, and the city of Liverpool. He received a lifetime achievement accolade at the prestigious BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards in December 2023.