STILL A KING... NOW A KNIGHT
FOOTBALL legend Kenny Dalglish told of his enormous pride yesterday after he was awarded a knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.
King Kenny, as he is affectionately known by millions of fans, was honoured for services to football, charity and the city of Liverpool.
He joins an elite team of footballing “sirs” including fellow Scot Alex Ferguson, Bobby Charlton and England World Cup-winning hero Geoff Hurst.
Sir Kenny, 67, joked that he thought the official citation was a bill from the taxman when it dropped through the letter box.
The former Liverpool player and manager dedicated the award to his family saying: “I am hugely proud to have accepted the accolade.
“It’s for yourself and for everyone who has been associated with you through the years, from your parents to your professional career.
“We are immensely proud as a whole family to have got it but everyone should feel proud because they have all played a very important role in what we’ve done and where we have got to.”
Glaswegian-born Sir Kenny and his wife Marina have helped raise millions of pounds for cancer treatment through the Marina Dalglish Appeal – the charity the family set up after she successfully battled breast cancer.
Tireless
Sir Kenny, one of Britain’s most distinguished and successful footballers, started at Celtic before going on to become an Anfield legend.
Three European Cups in seven seasons, six First Division titles as a player, one as player-manager, and a further two as full-time boss cemented his status.
His tireless and inspirational community work has made a powerful and lasting impact on Merseyside.
In a career spanning 22 years, he became Scotland’s most capped player with 102 appearances, and joint-leading goal scorer, with 30.
He went on to win another league title as manager of Blackburn Rovers in 1995.
After the Hillsborough disaster, when Sir Kenny was Liverpool manager, he selflessly made himself available to the families of the bereaved, attending most of the funerals of the 96 victims, organising hospital visits and attending annual memorial services at Anfield. father of four, whose daughter Kelly Cates is a TV and radio sports presenter, was granted Freedom of the City of Liverpool in recognition of his work.
Hollywood movie stars Tom Hardy, 40, and Keira Knightley, 33, were also honoured The with awards. The former public schoolboy Hardy, who starred in Mad Max: Fury Road, Bronson and The Revenant, received a CBE for services to drama after turning his life around. He has told how he went off the rails and suffered from alcohol addiction in his youth. But after checking himself into rehab in 2003 has been clean ever since. Knightley receives an OBE for her services to drama and charity. The royal honour comes more than 15 years after the twice Oscar-nominated film star scored her breakthrough role
as a football-loving teenager in Bend It Like Beckham.
She has been the face of an Amnesty International human rights campaign and has also partnered a number of other charities including Oxfam, Women’s Aid and Unicef.
Nobel prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro, who wrote The Remains Of The Day, was knighted for his services to literature.
The 63-year-old Japanese-born novelist and screenwriter aged said he was “deeply touched to receive this honour from the nation that welcomed me as a small foreign boy”.
There was also a knighthood for historian and broadcaster Professor Simon Schama, 73.
In the musical world, rapper and singer Ms Dynamite, 37, is honoured with an MBE, under her real name Niomi McLean-Daley.
Renowned war correspondent Kate Adie, 72, is made a CBE.
There were sporting honours for world heavyweight champion boxer Anthony Joshua, 28, who is made an OBE, and Lizzie Yarnold, who became the first British athlete to defend a Winter Olympic title.
Yarnold, 29, made history in Pyeongchang in February when her victory in the women’s skeleton.
She was previously awarded an MBE after her triumph at the Sochi 2014 Games. Partially sighted alpine skier Menna Fitzpatrick picked up an MBE.
Although she has just turned 20, Menna is Britain’s most successful winter paralympian and is the youngest on this year’s list.