Roy Keane
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Roy Maurice Keane (born in Cork, August 10 1971) is an Irish footballer. He plays club football in England for Manchester United, where he is also the captain of the team.
Club Career
Roy Keane first played football for local Cork club Rockmount, before signing for the semi-professional Irish club Cobh Ramblers in 1989. Scouts from Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest took note of his talents and promptly signed him for the sum of £47,000. Keane was quick to impress at Nottingham Forest, making his professional league debut against Liverpool.
In 1991, Keane was a regular in the side, displacing the English international midfield player Steve Hodge, and scored three goals during a run to that season's FA Cup final, which Forest ultimately lost to Tottenham Hotspur. A year later Keane returned to Wembley with Forest for the League Cup final but again finished on the losing side as Manchester United gained a 1-0 win.
In 1993, the final season under Clough, Nottingham Forest were relegated from the Premiership. The race to sign Keane was suddenly on, with Manchester United and Blackburn Rovers vying for his signature. Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson won the battle, getting Keane into Old Trafford for a then record £3.75m transfer fee. Keane was an instant success in the Manchester United midfield, taking over the mantle of midfield dynamo from Bryan Robson.
After the retirement of Eric Cantona in 1997, Keane's boundless energy and inspirational leadership made him the perfect candidate to take over as club captain. During the 1997-1998 season Keane missed almost the entire campaign due to a knee injury, and, without his services, Manchester United failed to pick up a single trophy. Keane returned however, to captain the club to an unprecedented treble in 1999 including the FA Premier League, European Cup and FA Cup. As a recognition for his efforts, Keane was voted PFA Players' Player of the Year in 2000.
Keane's total trophy haul with Manchester United includes: 7 FA Premier League titles (1994, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003), 4 FA Cups (1994, 1996, 1999, 2004), a European Cup (1999 - though Keane missed the final through suspension) and an Intercontinental Cup (1999). On February 5, 2005, Keane scored his 50th goal for Manchester United against Birmingham City F.C.. His appearance in the 2005 FA Cup final (which United lost) was his seventh such game, an all-time record. Keane was also picked on the FIFA 100 a list of the greatest living footballer's picked by Pelé.
Although he maintains a low profile off the pitch, Keane's confrontational playing style, aggressive demeanour and short fuse have seen him involved in a string of violent incidents, making him popular with supporters of his home club, Manchester United, but the subject of intense dislike by many others in the game. In 1995, he was sent off from an FA Cup semi-final for stamping on Gareth Southgate, for which he was banned for three matches and fined £5,000. In August 2002 he was fined two weeks' wages, £150,000, and banned for three matches for elbowing Jason McAteer.
In 2001, Keane was heavily criticised for a gruesome tackle on Manchester City player Alf-Inge Haaland. He subsequently admitted in an autobiography that he intended "to hurt" Haaland. Although Haaland retired from football shortly afterwards, he had previously stated on his website that the cause of this was a recurring problem in his leg, rather than Keane's tackle. Keane was banned for five matches and fined £150,000. The two players had a history of trouble, [1] (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/photo_galleries/football/2190003.stm) with Haaland having tackled Keane in 1997; the resulting injury caused Keane to miss most of the 1997 season.
He has announced that he will retire in the summer of 2006, at the end of his current contract with Manchester United. Many people are expecting Keane to become a football manager when he retires. He is already training for his UEFA coaching badges. His current manager Sir Alex Ferguson has said that he wants Keane to succeed him as manager when he retires.
International Career
At international level, Keane has represented his country 63 times (as of September 2004). Keane was named Ireland's player of the tournament at the Template:Wc in the USA. In 2001, inspired by Keane as international captain, Ireland went undefeated against international soccer heavyweights Portugal and the Netherlands, famously knocking out the Dutch to qualify for the Template:Wc in Japan and Korea.
At the same time, the Ireland squad also included Robbie Keane, then-striker for Leeds United, born in Dublin in 1980. Robbie Keane is not related to Roy Keane.
During the summer of 2002, at a pre-World Cup training camp in Saipan, Keane and Ireland manager Mick McCarthy had a disagreement about the FAI preparations for the World Cup and McCarthy sent the Ireland skipper home. Keane's dissatisfaction with the Irish preparations first came to light in an interview with Irish Times journalist Tom Humphries. After a team meeting at which Keane verbally abused McCarthy and his fellow teammates, Keane stormed out. In all the accounts given of what transpired at this meeting, not one mentioned Keane being supported or seconded in his complaints by any of his teammates. Despite efforts from both the media and prominent Irish politicians, the two were unable to come to an agreement and Keane missed out on the World Cup and declined to ever again play under Mick McCarthy.
In Ireland, the 'Saipan Incident' (as it came to be known) split the Irish public right down the middle, with one half of the nation standing by Roy Keane and the other half supporting Mick McCarthy. It was even claimed by some to be the most dramatic ideological split the country had seen since the Irish Civil War. McCarthy went on to manage Sunderland.
The appointment of Brian Kerr as Ireland manager in 2003 eventually led to the controversial return of Keane in the international arena in 2004. He made his International return on May 25, 2004 in a friendly match against Romania at Lansdowne Road. His heroic performances in subsequent matches made him a firm favourite among fans once more, including the majority of those who had spoken of him with such venom during in 2002. He helped Ireland draw away with France and Switzerland in their Football World Cup 2006 - European Qualification Groups campaign, which is being eagerly contested and is the most contested group.
The Roy Keane Musical
In February 2005, the comedy musical 'I, Keano' opened in the Olympia Theatre, Dublin. The show, which featured the cream of Irish comedy performers, was co-written by Father Ted writer Arthur Mathews and told the story of the Saipan Incident in the form of a Greek epic. The musical's characters included Keano (Roy Keane), General Macartacus (Mick McCarthy), Fergie the Scottish Dolphin God (Alex Ferguson) and tap-dancing wood nymph Dunphia (Eamon Dunphy, the Irish broadcaster who, at the time of the Saipan Incident, led the pro-Roy Keane front, and later was the ghostwriter for Keane's explosive autobiography).
The production was directed by the respected Irish playwright and director, Peter Sheridan (brother of Jim Sheridan).
| Preceded by: David Ginola | English Footballer of the Year 2000 | Succeeded by: Teddy Sheringham
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