Tottenham FA Cup winner Joe Kinnear dies aged 77 after dementia battle

Former Tottenham Hotspur defender Joe Kinnear has passed away at the age of 77 after a long battle with dementia, his family has confirmed.

In a heartfelt statement released by his loved ones, they said: “We are sad to announce that Joe passed away peacefully this afternoon surrounded by his family.”

Kinnear’s illustrious football career saw him lift the FA Cup, two League Cups, and the UEFA Cup during his tenure as a player at Tottenham from 1966 to 1975, before retiring at the age of 30.

His wife Bonnie opened up about her husband’s struggle with dementia in a candid interview with the Daily Telegraph in 2021, revealing the changes she noticed six years after his diagnosis. “He started to get moody – a bit depressed. I thought, ‘This isn’t right’,” Bonnie recounted.

She further detailed the progression of his condition: “Then he got aggressive in certain situations. It just wasn’t Joe. It was a problem trying to get him to see somebody but we eventually got him to a doctor and he was diagnosed in 2015.”, reports the Mirror.

Bonnie described the painful journey as Kinnear’s health declined: “They classed it as early onset vascular dementia and, since then, he has just deteriorated. He’s in the late stage. It is heartbreaking to see how someone can change. “He was larger than life. He loved people.