Kenny Dalglish Biography

Kenneth Mathieson "Kenny" Dalglish MBE (born 4 March 1951) is a former Scottish footballer and current manager of Liverpool F.C. In 2009, he was named by FourFourTwo football magazine as the greatest striker in post-war British football.

In a 20-year playing career, Dalglish played for just two teams, Scottish Premier League club Celtic and English Premier League side Liverpool. He achieved great successes with both; most notably winning the European Cup with Liverpool on three occasions. Dalglish is the most capped player in the history of the Scottish national team, with 102 appearances. He and Denis Law also share the record for most goals for Scotland, with 30 strikes each.

Dalglish began his career as a youth player at Celtic and he broke into the first team in 1971, becoming a prolific striker for the club. He was made the team captain in 1975 and between 1971 and 1977 he won four Scottish First Division titles, four Scottish Cups and one Scottish League Cup. In 1977, Bob Paisley paid a British transfer record of £440,000 to bring Dalglish to Liverpool.

His years at Liverpool marked one of the club's most prolific periods: he won seven league titles, three European Cups and five domestic cups. For these achievements, he is nicknamed King Kenny, and he was placed first in Liverpool's list of "100 Players Who Shook the Kop". Dalglish became player-manager of Liverpool in 1985 following the Heysel Stadium Disaster and brought the team a league and FA Cup double in his first year in charge, beating Merseyside rivals Everton in the process. During his six-year tenure from 1985–1991, Liverpool won the league championship three times and the FA Cup twice.

Dalglish joined Blackburn Rovers in 1991 and he turned the Second Division side into Premier League winners, breaking transfer fee records along the way. His move to Newcastle United in 1997 was less successful. He was appointed Director of Football at Celtic in 1999 but a brief stint as caretaker manager ended in an acrimonious departure the following year.

Between 2000 and 2010 Dalglish focused on charitable concerns, founding The Marina Dalglish Appeal with his wife to raise money for cancer care. On 8 January 2011, Dalglish became Liverpool's manager for a second time, after the departure of Roy Hodgson.

 

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