Kevin MacDonald (soccer player)

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Kevin MacDonald
MacDonald, Kevin.jpg
Personnel
Surname Kevin Duncan MacDonald
birthday November 22, 1960
place of birth Inverness ,  Scotland
position midfield
Juniors
Years station
Inverness Caledonian
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1980-1984 Leicester City 138 (8)
1984-1989 Liverpool FC 40 (1)
1987 → Leicester City (loan) 3 (0)
1988 →  Glasgow Rangers  (loan) 3 (0)
1989-1991 Coventry City 31 (0)
1991 →  Cardiff City  (loan) 8 (0)
1991-1993 Walsall FC 53 (7)
Stations as a trainer
Years station
1994 Leicester City (interim)
2010 Aston Villa (interim)
2015 Aston Villa
2018 Aston Villa (interim)
1 Only league games are given.

Kevin Duncan MacDonald (born November 22, 1960 in Inverness ) is a former Scottish football player and current coach. As it were combative as technically gifted central midfielder , he first made himself at Leicester City name in English football and moved to the middle of the 1980s as a potential successor to the migrated to Italy Graeme Souness to Liverpool . There he won the "double" from the English championship and the FA Cup in 1986 , but then had to struggle with injuries. After the end of his active career, he switched to coaching and is currently working for Aston Villa .

Athletic career

Player career

Leicester City (1980-1984)

At first there was little to suggest a leap into professional football, because instead of a prominent youth academy, young Kevin MacDonald was still playing part-time in the small Scottish Highland League at the age of 19 and was also working in the public sector. However, word of the robust central midfielder's talent quickly got around at renowned clubs and when the English first division team Leicester City made a lucrative offer, the courted player did not hesitate long. The physically demanding school in lower-class Scottish football had a direct positive effect and MacDonald was immediately able to cope with the stresses in professional football so that he made his debut appearances shortly after his commitment before the end of 1980. In his first league start at home against Middlesbrough FC , he also scored his first goal for the club with a penalty. Despite a total of 20 league games in the 1980/81 season, MacDonald's first year ended disappointingly with a descent into the second division, which could be corrected two years later with the promotion. In addition, the club reached the semi-finals in the FA Cup in the 1981/82 season , but MacDonald had no great influence, as coach Jock Wallace had decided to occupy the center with Andy Peake and Ian Wilson in the cup games . When Gordon Milne followed Wallace in August 1982, Wallace immediately promoted MacDonald as the new captain of the team. As “boss” in midfield, he finally made a good name for himself in English football with tackling strength and perseverance and helped in the promotion battle in the last ten competitive games of the 1982/83 season for the injured Larry May as a central defender.

MacDonald confirmed in the 1983/84 season in the English top division the performances from the previous year and since the financially clammy club was dependent on a bit of money, the problem quickly reduced to the question of whether he or the coveted striker Gary Lineker will be sold should. Since the striker Lineker was classified as irreplaceable for the struggle to avoid relegation, the "foxes" let MacDonald go in November 1984, who was also "willing to change". With the reigning champions Liverpool FC, a financially strong prospect was found who raised the transfer fee of 400,000 pounds.

Liverpool FC (1984–1989)

At Liverpool FC MacDonald was supposed to replace Graeme Souness, who had migrated to Italy . Coach Joe Fagan 's task was to build a midfield without the former key player as so difficult that he had already committed an actor with the same character in John Wark . Like in Leicester, MacDonald had little difficulty in adjusting and was immediately a permanent fixture in the team that reached the final in the European Cup , which tragically went down in football history as a Heysel disaster - but he himself was not in the 1-0 defeat on that place.

In the subsequent 1985/86 season he initially struggled under the new coach Kenny Dalglish , but then worked out more and more the role of regular player after the turn of the year. In the last five games of the season he was in the starting eleven, which in addition to winning the English championship also earned him a place in the team for the FA Cup final against local rivals FC Everton , which was won 3-1. Shortly after this great success, he suffered a serious sporting setback when he broke his leg against Southampton FC on September 20, 1986 . The injury required two operations and a break of almost a year. When he finally returned to the team, coach Dalglish had signed a high-profile replacement with Steve McMahon . The way back was blocked for him and after two short loan periods at ex-club Leicester City and the Scottish Glasgow Rangers , he moved to first division rivals Coventry City in July 1989 on a free transfer .

Last stations (1989–1993)

After two first substitutions in early September 1989 MacDonald was against Chelsea for the first time as a "substitute striker" for Cyrille Regis in the starting line-up of Coventry City and was then mostly to be found in the defense center under coach John Sillett . In his second year he was under the new (player) coach Terry Butcher but rarely had a chance and instead, from March 1991, he gained a little match practice in eight league games in midfield at the fourth division Cardiff City . After two more years at FC Walsall , also active in the fourth division , in which he scored seven more goals in 53 league games, he ended his active career and moved to the coaching staff of Leicester City.

Coaching career

It wasn't long before MacDonald appeared in the Premier League spotlight . After the departure of Brian Little and before the commitment of Brian McGhee , he looked after the professional team of Leicester City between late November and mid-December 1994 on an interim basis.

He has been with Aston Villa since 2003 and is currently the coach of the reserve team. When Steve Staunton took over the Irish national team in January 2006 , he appointed MacDonald as his cot trainer. From then on, he combined the function with his ongoing duties at Aston Villa until Staunton was dismissed in October 2007.

When Aston Villas head coach Martin O'Neill unexpectedly resigned from his post five days before the start of the 2010/11 season , MacDonald followed him on an interim basis until, a month later, Frenchman Gérard Houllier was presented as a permanent solution and MacDonald joined the "second link" returned. After Steve Bruce was sacked in early October 2018, MacDonald took over as head coach at Aston Villa on an interim basis and looked after the team in a 2-1 defeat against Millwall FC before Dean Smith took over as coach.

Title / Awards

literature

  • Bracegirdle, Dave: The Legends of Leicester City . DB Publishing, 2010, ISBN 978-1-85983-760-3 , pp. 112-113 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "Kevin MacDonald: Liverpool FC 1984-1989" (Sporting Heroes)
  2. ↑ bbc.com: Steve Bruce: Aston Villa sack manager after two years in charge (October 3, 2018) , accessed October 3, 2018
personal data
SURNAME MacDonald, Kevin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES MacDonald, Kevin Duncan (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION scottish soccer player and coach
DATE OF BIRTH November 22, 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH Inverness , Scotland