Kenny Dalglish

Kenny Dalglish

Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish MBE (born 4 March 1951) is a Scottish former footballer and manager. In a career spanning 22 years, he played for Celtic and Liverpool, winning numerous honours with both. He is Scotland's most capped player of all time with 102 appearances, and also Scotland's joint-leading goal scorer, with 30 goals. Dalglish won the Ballon d'Or Silver Award in 1983, the PFA Player of the Year in 1983, and the FWA Footballer of the Year in 1979 and 1983. In 2009 FourFourTwo named Dalglish as the greatest striker in post-war British football, and in 2006 he topped a Liverpool fans' poll of "100 Players Who Shook the Kop". He has been inducted into both the Scottish and English Football Halls of Fame.

Dalglish began his career with Celtic in 1971, going on to win four Scottish First Divisions, four Scottish Cups and one Scottish League Cup with the club. In 1977, Liverpool manager Bob Paisley paid a British transfer record of £440,000 to bring Dalglish to Liverpool. His years at Liverpool were among the club's most successful periods, as he won six Football League First Divisions, two FA Cups, four League Cups, seven FA Charity Shields, three European Cups and one UEFA Super Cup. For these achievements and his style of play he was given the name King Kenny by Liverpool supporters. Dalglish became player-manager of Liverpool in 1985 after the resignation of Joe Fagan, winning a further three First Divisions, two FA Cups and four FA Charity Shields, before resigning from Liverpool in 1991.

Eight months later Dalglish made a return to football management with Blackburn Rovers, whom he led from the Second Division to win the Premier League in 1995. Soon afterwards he stepped down as Blackburn manager to become Director of Football at the club, before leaving altogether in 1996. In January 1997 Dalglish took over as manager at Newcastle United. Newcastle finished runners-up in both the Premier League and FA Cup during his first season, but they could only finish 13th in 1997–98, which led to his dismissal the following season. Dalglish went on to be appointed Director of Football at Celtic in 1999, and later manager, where he won the Scottish League Cup before 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. In January 2011 Dalglish was appointed Liverpool's caretaker manager after the dismissal of Roy Hodgson, becoming the permanent in May 2011. Despite winning the League Cup which earned them a place in the Europa League and reachingFA Cup Final, Liverpool could only finish 8th in the Premier League, and Dalglish was dismissed in May 2012.