Ray Kennedy (soccer player)

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Ray Kennedy
Ray Kennedy1.jpg
Personnel
Surname Raymond Kennedy
birthday July 28, 1951
place of birth Seaton Delaval ,  England
position Center forward,
attacking midfield
Juniors
Years station
1966-1967 Port Vale
1967-1968 New Hartley Juniors
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1968-1974 Arsenal FC 158 (53)
1974-1982 Liverpool FC 275 (51)
1982-1983 Swansea City 42 0(2)
1983-1984 Hartlepool United 23 0(3)
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1976-1980 England 17 0(3)
1 Only league games are given.

Raymond "Ray" Kennedy (born July 28, 1951 in Seaton Delaval , Northumberland ) is a former English soccer player who celebrated significant success in the 1970s and early 1980s at Arsenal FC and, above all, in the then exceptional Liverpool FC team could.

Career as a football player

Kennedy was a junior player at Port Vale in his youth , but at the age of 16 was classified by then coach Stanley Matthews as not good enough for a career as a professional footballer. Since Kennedy did not doubt this rating from one of the best former players in English football history, he returned to his homeland - the north-east of England - where he only played at an amateur level and worked in a candy factory at the same time.

Nevertheless, Kennedy was discovered by an Arsenal FC talent count who signed him in 1968. About two years later he made his debut on September 29, 1969 in the trade fair cup against FC Glentoran . As the competition progressed, Arsenal reached the final, in which young Kennedy would play a crucial role. In the first leg Arsenal were already 3-0 down at the Belgian club RSC Anderlecht before Kennedy scored the goal to make it 3-1-3 after being substituted on. Arsenal FC won the second leg 3-0 and thus also the trade fair cup, which was also Arsenal's first title win at European level.

Kennedy only played six games during the 1969/70 season, which changed fundamentally in the following season, when he was always present on the field in all competitions except for one game. He won with his team - as the second English team ever in the 20th century - the "double" from the English championship and the FA Cup . In a dramatic battle for the championship, it was Kennedy who scored the only goal in the game against local rivals Tottenham Hotspur, securing the first championship for Arsenal since 1953. Three days later, Arsenal beat Liverpool 2-1 after extra time . Kennedy was the club's top scorer with 27 goals.

The following year, Arsenal completed the FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium and lost 1-0 to Leeds United there . Kennedy was substituted on for John Radford , but could no longer contribute to the equalization. Nevertheless, he was the club's top scorer with 19 goals this season. In the next two seasons he was still a regular at Arsenal, was also able to score goals regularly (was also the best club scorer again in 1974), but did not win a title with the team that slowly broke up after winning the double. At the end of the 1973/74 season, Kennedy was sold to Liverpool FC for £ 180,000, making it the last engagement of legendary coach Bill Shankly , who announced his resignation in Liverpool that same day.

Despite his already demonstrated qualities as a striker , Kennedy's prospects of playing in his preferred position of center-forward were very limited due to competition from Kevin Keegan and John Toshack . Shankly's successor, Bob Paisley , then had other plans for him and from then on put Kennedy in the left attacking midfield , where he would act in the further course of the 1970s. Kennedy came in this role to his first of a total of 17 international matches for the English national team and then never played again in the conventional center-forward position.

Kennedy won both the English Championship and the UEFA Cup in his sophomore year at Liverpool and scored a goal in the 3-2 first-leg win over Club Bruges . In the following year, after successfully defending his title in the championship, he was just about to win the "double" again, which would have made him the first player in English football history to have achieved this with two different clubs. However, Liverpool lost the FA Cup final 2-1, with Kennedy's last-minute shot to the crossbar almost leading to extra time.

Although the double was ultimately missed, the final in the European Cup in Rome was still to be played, which Liverpool won 3-1 against Borussia Mönchengladbach , which meant the third European title for Kennedy and the first European championship trophy for Liverpool FC. Kennedy defended this European title with Liverpool a year later and then again in 1981, after two more English championships and the first English league cup in the club's history had been added to the title collection .

After the up-and-coming young midfielder Ronnie Whelan pushed into the team in the renewed championship season 1981/82, Kennedy left Liverpool FC and joined the Welsh club Swansea City , which was coached by his former teammate John Toshack . He had previously signed Liverpool players Tommy Smith and Ian Callaghan . Kennedy's last club station ended very badly when he was publicly attacked by Toshack that he showed no commitment in his game. In truth, Kennedy was now sick with Parkinson's disease . He then tried to continue his career in his home country at Hartlepool United , but his condition worsened so much that he had to announce his retirement in 1984 - before his 33rd birthday. At the age of 35, he received final certainty about the diagnosis of the disease.

After retirement

After his retirement as an active footballer, Kennedy only worked for a short time in the football business when he worked on the coaching staff of Sunderland FC . His main goal from then on was to raise public awareness of Parkinson's disease and to support the funding of research and development as well as the treatment of Parkinson's patients. Among other things, his former clubs Arsenal FC and Liverpool FC competed against each other in a charity match for this purpose .

To this day, Kennedy lives in seclusion in his house, although the illness has severely restricted his mobility. In addition, there were financial setbacks that forced him to sell medals he had won.

successes

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kennedy, Ray
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kennedy, Raymond
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH July 28, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Seaton Delaval , Northumberland