Before Beckham and Ronaldo, there was Kevin Keegan – the footballer who invented the personal brand

Anyone old enough to remember Kevin Keegan in his heyday as a player will also have etched on the memory his 1980 television advert for the aftershave and deodorant brand Brut. Featuring Keegan working out in the gym and bantering in the locker room alongside boxing legend Henry Cooper, it was an early example of a footballer doing what would now be called “leveraging his personal brand”. Keegan, whose death at the age of 75 was announced on Monday, was Britain’s first footballing superstar.…