​More Hamburg tributes to Kevin Keegan pour in: “The Bundesliga’s first pop star!”Hours after confirmation of the death of English football legend Kevin Keegan, Kicker has had a chance to speak to more of his old Hamburg teammates. Kicker – recalling Keegan’s tumultuous first year at Hamburger SV – labels the subsequent two years with the HSV (during which Keegan thrived) as a classic case of “Love at second sight“.More noteworthy anecdotes about Keegan’s time in the Bundesliga are cited in the Kicker article, such as the time he told HSV manager Günther Netzer (without a formal introduction) “Just so you know, I want out of here!” in 1977. There’s also the time Keegan accidentally knocked head coach Branko Zebec over with an errant shot during a drill and Keegan’s famous recording of the “Head over Heels in Love” musical single during his time in Hamburg.Kicker offered up some fresh quotes from Keegan’s HSV teammates Horst Hrubesch and Bernd Wehmeyer.Horst Hrubesch and Bernd Wehmeyer recall Kevin Keegan“No one was like Kevin,” Hrubesch is quoted by Kicker as saying. “If he didn’t exist, you’d have to invent him. He was the Bundesliga’s first pop star. He couldn’t get enough of football. He was always inventing new games. On the way from the practice field to the locker room, we’d shoot balls through every visible hole in the fence, then into every trash can along the way.““He was so down-to-earth,” Wehmeyer added. “He came to us as a global star, but I never once saw him turn down a request for an autograph. The term ‘workload management’ didn’t exist for Kevin. He always gave 100 percent, in every training session.“Wehmeyer also spoke on Keegan’s shooting antics.“One time, he knocked the coach over like a railroad crossing gate,” Wehmeyer recalled. “We all held our breath, afraid of his reaction. But Zebec got up and just gave him a stern look. He probably would have killed any one of the rest of us.“Another time, he bet us all that he could hit a ball from the hotel terrace into the forest,” Wehmeyer also noted. “We all had no idea what he was talking about. [After accepting the bet], he left training, drove home, and grabbed a golf club. Then he launched the ball into the forest.“GGFN | Peter Weis