40 years and still going strong: The England striker Kevin Phillips was once Europe’s top scorer, now he kicks in the second division. The German magazine about a football-grandpa, who still has a big goal.

Every footballer to whom one should remember later, you need something special, an exceptional ability to connect people with him and that makes him finally go down in football history. Manfred Kaltz had his bananas flanks, Horst Hrubesch the associated skull, and Lionel Messi dribbles as if he had sold his soul to the devil.

Kevin Phillips has none of these things, he acts on the court once fairly unimpressive. Nevertheless, the attention of the audience increases when he enters the lawn, a collective expectation sets in, which can be summarized in a brief sentence: DC a goal is scored.

In early February made ​​it the veteran striker, as the English call it like, once again in the headlines. In a game the second English League he scored the 1-0 winning goal for his new club Leicester City in the away game in Bournemouth. Then he showed a self-deprecating goal celebration, which was in the sequel to the hit YouTube: The pantomime of a man on the walker. As if he were the biological limits of professional football play a trick and call out to the people: “Look, I’m old as the hills, but I still meet!” He was at that time 40 years, six months and seven days old.

Kevin Philips meets with any body part

Kevin Phillips plays professional football for two decades and stood at nine clubs under contract – a modern Legionnaire , it held in a place rarely longer than two or three years. So a meet the fans usually rather cool , but in his case it is different. Phillips writes a blog for ” Sky Sports ” , and as the winter transfer window was open so-called because it was interesting to read the numerous comments under this blog : ” Come to us, Kev Help us Save us ! ” Among supporters were pretty much all of his ex- clubs , plus many others who are missing a useful striker in their ranks.

But what is the secret of the man ? He is far from being a head monster , which already has its inconspicuous height of 1.70 meters in the way ( headed goals he makes but anyway) . He is fast, but not a rocket . Technically adept , but by no means Maradona . A team player, just no one who sacrifices himself for 90 minutes for the team.

Ultimately it boils down to one thing : he meets . And true . And true . You have already write down at least three times in succession , so that it develops a reasonable effect. Because the old saying is still true : “Whoever meets , is right. ” And is loved.

Who looks at a montage of their goals , will find that he does not have something like a specialty. Phillips shoots his goals from all positions and with each body part. Maybe that’s his secret : Phillips knows where the goal is – and he knows the shortest way to get there .

This knowledge has led over the years into an impressive goal tally uniform . His best time he had indeed around the turn of the millennium in Sunderland, when he made with Niall Quinn one of the most feared strike partnerships of recent English football history. Phillips met 30 times alone in the Premier League season 1999/2000 and won the Golden Shoe as top scorer in Europe. From this period also date his eight caps for England , where he remained oddly without scoring . For the very great career his playing the clubs was ultimately unpretentious, too brittle. So he became a notorious serial goal scorers in English club football .

Meanwhile, Phillips often comes off the bench, but at the crucial moment, he ‘s there. At the end of the season he wants to ascend with Leicester in the Premier League, the chances are excellent, the team is clearly the leader . It would be the fifth ascent after him that’s already been done before with Sunderland , West Bromwich, Birmingham City and Crystal Palace. And it would be the crowning glory in the definitely last year of his career. Although , the other day Phillips wrote in his blog: “Whether I maybe go on like One should never say never ? “. On 25 July, he is 41

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