Kevin Beattie - TheSportsDB.com

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Name
Kevin Beattie

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(0 users)

Complete

60%

Born
Deceased

Birth Place

Ipswich, England

Position
Defender

Status
Deceased

Ethnicity

Team Number

Height
5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)

Outfitter

Kit

Side

Agent

Wage Year

Player Cutout

Player Action Render

Sport

Soccer

Team
_Deceased Soccer

2nd Team

League
_No League Soccer

Creative Commons Artwork
No

Description
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Thomas Kevin Beattie (18 December 1953 – 16 September 2018) was an English footballer. Born into poverty, he played at both professional and international levels, mostly as a centre-half. He spent the majority of his playing career at Ipswich Town, the club with which he won both the FA Cup and the UEFA Cup. He was also named the inaugural Professional Footballers' Association Young Player of the Year at the end of the 1972–73 season, and featured in the film Escape to Victory alongside many of his Ipswich teammates.

Beattie's playing career took him from rags to riches, but according to The Daily Telegraph he was "cursed by being both injury and accident prone". His playing career included some controversy, notably when he went missing after being selected for England's under-23 team. After retiring from playing he descended into unemployment and alcohol abuse, and contemplated suicide, before finding purpose once more and a new career in later life, as a football commentator on television and radio.

Beattie has been called Ipswich Town's best ever player by many pundits and polls. Ipswich (and later England) manager Bobby Robson called him the best England player he had seen.