The blood-stained shirt that was worn by England legend Kevin Keegan during his famous fall from a bike on the track at Bracknell Sports Centre during the BBC’s Superstars TV programme has found a new forever home.
Mark Ashwell, president of Wokingham Town Football Club, told Wokingham Today how, as an 18-year-old school pupil at Ranelagh, he volunteered to help on the day. The shirt had remained with him in Wokingham since then.
He explained how he was asked to look after Keegan’s belongings whilst he took part in the show, and afterwards the England legend gave him the shirt he had worn during the event, complete with blood from where he had suffered injuries when he fell from a bike.
Now the shirt has been donated to the National Football Museum in Manchester, where it will eventually be put on display for the nation.
Dr Alexander Jackson, curator, said: “We think it is a great item, and we will start exploring how it can be added to the displays, particularly in relation to our new Hall of Fame gallery, which has recently opened.”
Keegan had admitted in a media interview before his death that falling off a bike in Superstars when it was filmed in Bracknell was one of three things that people will remember him for.
He said: “You can win the Ballon d’Or, you can win the European Cup, you can win all the league titles you want, but people remember me from my perm, they remember me falling off a bike in Superstars, and they remember me saying ‘I’d love it if we beat them’”.
At its peak, 13 million viewers watched Superstars.
Many will recall Keegan wobbling at speed as he tried to control his bike and make it to the first corner in a race against the Belgium football captain Gilbert van Binst, who, Keegan noted, “.. being Belgian, had brought his own racing bike”.
