(Updates with details, adds byline)
By Mike Collett
LONDON, Jan 16 - Kevin Keegan has been appointed
as manager of Newcastle United for the second time in his
career, the Premier League club said on Wednesday.
Keegan, 56, who played for the club in the 1980s and managed
them for five years in the 1990s, succeeds Sam Allardyce, who
left St James' Park last week.
The club confirmed the appointment, which will be hugely
popular with their fans, in a statement on their Web site
(www.nufc.co.uk).
"Kevin Keegan is returning to Newcastle United as manager"
it said.
Keegan, a former England coach, was first appointed manager
in 1992 and remained in the job until 1997.
He took the club close to the Premier League title in 1996,
but they lost a 12-point lead over Manchester United in the
closing weeks of the season and eventually finished runners-up.
The club's initial choice to succeed Allardyce was
Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp, who turned the job down on
Saturday.
Since then a number of candidates were mooted including
Keegan who did not rule himself out of the running on Monday.
Keegan has been out of football management since leaving
Manchester City in 2005.
(Reporting by Mike Collett; editing by Miles Evans)