Desmond "Des" McKeown is a retired Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 footballer who played for Airdrieonians, Albion Rovers, Queen of the South

Queen of the South

For other uses see Queen of the South Queen of the South is an alternative title for the Queen of Sheba. The phrase Queen of the South is used in the New Testament and is attributed to Jesus Christ....

 in two spells, Partick Thistle and Stenhousemuir

Stenhousemuir

Stenhousemuir is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies in the Forth Valley within the Falkirk council area of Scotland. The town is north-northwest of Falkirk and directly adjoins to Larbert in the west. The villages of Carron and Carronshore adjoin Stenhousemuir to the east but...

. He was also in the Celtic youth team but never played a first-team game for them.

When playing for Dumfries

Dumfries

Dumfries is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth. Dumfries was the county town of the former county of Dumfriesshire. Dumfries is nicknamed Queen of the South...

 club, Queen of the South, McKeown was part of the side that made it to the 1997 Scottish Challenge Cup final playing alongside Jamie McAllister

Jamie McAllister

James Reynolds "Jamie" McAllister is a Scottish international professional Association footballer currently playing for Bristol City. He plays usually as a left back.-Early career:...

, Andy Aitken

Andy Aitken (footballer born 1978)

Andrew "Andy" Robert Aitken is a Scottish professional footballer who made over 300 appearances for Queen of the South. A left sided central defender, he also played for Gretna and Ayr United...

, Jim Thomson, and man of the match Tommy Bryce

Tommy Bryce

Tommy Bryce is a Scottish former association football player. Bryce had a playing career spanning 21 seasons from 1980-81 with Scottish Football League clubs Kilmarnock, Stranraer, Queen of the South of Dumfries, Clydebank, Ayr United and Arbroath. Bryce also served as player-manager of Partick...

.

In 2001, he was the subject of a book published by Mainstream Publishing entitled "Don't Give Up the Day Job: A Year in the Life a Part-time Footballer" written by Bill Leckie, which gave an insight into the difficulties of juggling work commitments and family life, whilst playing as a part time professional footballer for Queen of the South F.C. in the Scottish League. This was his second stint with the Palmerston Park

Palmerston Park

Palmerston Park is a multi-purpose stadium on Terregles Street in Dumfries, south west Scotland. The site of the ground was formerly a farm called Palmers Toun. This is on the Maxwelltown side of the River Nith in Dumfries. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home ground of...

 club.

His playing career effectively came to an end after sustaining a broken leg in a pre-season game between Barrow AFC and Stenhousemuir F.C. in 2002.

He managed Stenhousemuir F.C. from 2004-2006 (during the 2004-2005 season, he was co-manager alongside Tony Smith).

McKeown, who nowadays owns a stationery supply company in the Glasgow area, works part-time as a pundit for BBC Scotland

BBC Scotland

BBC Scotland is a constituent part of the British Broadcasting Corporation, the publicly-funded broadcaster of the United Kingdom. It is, in effect, the national broadcaster for Scotland, having a considerable amount of autonomy from the BBC's London headquarters, and is run by the BBC Trust, who...

and also has a column in the Scottish edition of The Sun newspaper.

In his private life, Des is a keen marathon runner, and over the past five years has raised over £200,000 for the MacMillan Cancer Support charity.