Born: 25 February 1967, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England
A flying winger in his playing days who made 278 first-team appearances for West Ham United between 1986-93, Kevin Keen has worked for the Club in a variety of roles for over 20 years.
Born in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, Keen made his debut for then non-league Wycombe Wanderers under the management of his father Mike, a former player himself, at the age of 15 in September 1982.
A year later, he joined West Ham as an apprentice, turned professional in 1984, and debuted in a First Division fixture against reigning champions Liverpool in September 1986, aged 19. He was also capped by England at schoolboy and youth levels.
Keen was twice promoted while playing for West Ham, to the First Division in 1990/91, then to the Premier League in 1992/93, and also reached the semi-finals of both domestic cup competitions.
In 1993, after being voted Hammer of the Year runner-up, Keen joined Wolverhampton Wanderers, then moved to Stoke City in 1995, playing over 250 games for the two clubs in total, before ending his career with Macclesfield Town in the old Third Division (now Legaue Two).
After a short spell as caretaker manager at Macclesfield, Keen returned to West Ham in 2002 as Assistant Academy Manager. He was promoted to reserve-team manager, then first-team coach under Alan Pardew in 2006, before a short stint as caretaker manager prior to Alan Curbishley’s arrival, when returned to his role as reserve-team manager.
In September 2008, following Curbishley’s departure, Keen took charge of the first team in a Premier League fixture at West Bromwich. He did likewise following Avram Grant’s departure in May 2011, for a home game with Sunderland.
Later that summer, Keen moved to Liverpool as a first-team coach under manager Kenny Dalglish. In 2013, he joined former West Ham coaching colleague Steve Clarke as the Scotsman’s assistant manager at West Bromwich Albion, then took roles as Head of Academy Coaching at Fulham and Clarke’s assistant manager at Reading in December 2014.
Keen took his first permanent managerial role at Colchester United in December 2015, spending six months at the Essex club before joining Pardew’s backroom staff at Crystal Palace.
In summer 2017, he moved to Indian Premier League side Atletico de Kolkata, where he assisted former West Ham player Teddy Sheringham, before returning to England in January 2018 to assist another former Hammer, Chris Powell, at Southend United.
Keen returned to West Ham again in June 2019 as Lead Professional Development Phase Coach. Under his leadership, the Under-18s finished second in U18 Premier League South in both 2019/20 and 2021/22, then won the title in 2022/23. Weeks later, Keen’s team won the FA Youth Cup, defeating Arsenal 5-1 in the final at Emirates Stadium.
Under Keen’s coaching, dozens of players have progressed to West Ham’s first-team squad or to professional careers at EFL clubs, including Freddie Potts, George Earthy, Kaelan Casey, Ollie Scarles, Lewis Orford and Divin Mubama.