Kop legend Alan walking back to happiness at 64

LIVERPOOL’S European

Cup goalscoring hero Alan Kennedy is back playing for England – at the ripe old age of 64.

Nicknamed Barney Rubble by the adoring Kop due to his likeness to the Flintstones comic character, Kennedy admits that his love for the game has not been dulled by age.

But the barnstorming runs down Liverpool’s left flank – one led to the winning goal in the 1981 European Cup final (below) against Real Madrid – have been slowed... down to a walk.

Any quicker and the North East-born star would be penalised because he is one of the trailblazers in the growing game ame of Walking Football.

He plays just down the road from Anfield at the nearby Sports and Community Centre.

“It started about 18 months ago for me,” said Kennedy (below). “I was invited down, but I didn’t take it up straight away. I thought, ‘Walking football? You’re joking, aren’t you?’

“Now I really like it. There’s also a social side to it. I’m sometimes last out, I’m either talking football stories or something else.

“But, inevitably, the chat gets around to the current Liverpool team and can they end the long wait for the title?

“Some ex-players will look at it and not see the point of it. But, for me, the hour we play goes very

quickly.

“It’s giving people of, let’s say, a venerable age the chance to still play a game they love. ove. The average age is s in the sixties, ixties, but we’ve got a couple ouple of lads ds in their eighties.” ghties.”

His involvement led last year ar to an England call-up to the nation’s over-sixties side. e.

But blocking his path to a first rst cap was the 71-yearold younger brother of England land legends Sir Bobby and Jack Charlton.

“Yes, Yes, it’s incredible, but true, , I was fighting for the left-back place with Tom Charlton.

“But, luckily for me, just before we were due to play Wales in Barry, he got a bit of a knee injury, which required surgery.

“I don’t think he’s ever played at the top level, so it’s brilliant what he has achieved so late in life.”

Kennedy ended up playing against Wales, a game England won 2-1.

And, last week, Kennedy was involved with the Liverpool legends team as they were put through their paces at the club’s academy in preparation for a g game next mo month against A AC Milan at Anfield. A

Easily the oldest of a bunch, which included i Ian Ru Rush, Robbie Fow Fowler, Michael Owen an and Jamie Carragher, Kennedy looked at home.

The secret of his longevity? Fish and chips.

“I played for Northwich Victoria at the age of 40,” he said. “I just love playing football, it’s always been the most important thing. I live and breathe it.

“My mum worked in a fish and chip shop – one where Bob Paisley used to go when he lived in the North East.

“At Liverpool, we used to have fish and chips on the way home whenever we played up at Newcastle.

“Ronnie Moran would be ordered by Bob to go and buy them.

“When Jan Molby joined the club, he couldn couldn’t t believe it the first time he saw this. ‘Where is the nutrition in that?’ he asked. He was just tol told to shut up and eat them.

“We ended up eating

and drinking and doing everything together. Everything was like one big happy family – with Bob Paisley at the helm telling you what to do.

“Maybe that was the secret of our success, the camaraderie. It was as important what we did off the pitch as it was on it.”