Keane, Robbie

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Robbie Keane (born July 8, 1980 in Tallaght, Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish football player, who currently plays as a striker for Tottenham Hotspur and the Republic of Ireland.

Contents 1 Club career 2 International career 3 Miscellaneous 4 Clubs

Club career

Keane started his football with South Dublin schoolboy side, Crumlin United F.C. where his talent was recognised at an early age. As an U-10 schoolboy he was paid 50p a goal, and was soon being watched by scouts from a number of English professional clubs, including Premier League side Liverpool. However, he turned down Liverpool to join Wolves, reasoning that he had a greater chance of breaking into the first team at the First Division side. He made his first professional appearance in 1997, and played at Molineux for two seasons, making 88 appearances and scoring 29 goals, before a £6M transfer to Coventry City in 1999, a then British record for a teenager.

After a successful season at Coventry, where he scored 12 goals in 34 games, he had become one of the hottest properties in English football, and was being courted by many of the biggest clubs in football. In the end, he was signed by Marcello Lippi of Internazionale for £13M, where he teamed up with the likes of Ronaldo, Christian Vieri and Alvaro Recoba. However his dream move to Italy soured when Lippi was sacked soon after Keane arrived, and Lippi's successor, Marco Tardelli deemed Keane surplus to requirements. Keane's ambition refused to let him stagnate in Italy, and he was loaned out to Leeds United in December 2000.

His Leeds career got off to a cracking start, scoring 9 goals in 14 starts before the Leeds manager, David O'Leary, made his loan deal permanent in May 2001 at a cost of £12M. The following season was not so bright, and he found himself dropping down the pecking order. His form suffered and he only managed 10 goals in 36 appearances. Meanwhile, Leeds' financial troubles were forcing the club to sell many of its players, and Keane joined the exodus when he was sold to Spurs just before the 2002-03 transfer deadline, where he still plays.

Upon signing for Tottenham, the Spurs manager Glenn Hoddle said Keane was ideally suited to Tottenham and could make White Hart Lane his spiritual home for years to come. He repaid this faith with some outstanding displays, earning the club's Player of the Year awards in his first two seasons at Tottenham. He bagged 13 and 16 goals respectively in those first two seasons for Spurs.

. His third season, 2004-2005, was more frustrating. Despite finishing with his highest return of goals in a season for Tottenham, 17, he played second-fiddle to Jermaine Defoe for much of the season, and it remains to be seen whether his long-term future will be at Tottenham, or whether this much-travelled young man will pack his bags in search of greener pastures once more.

International career

For such a young man, Robbie Keane has already achieved much in the international arena.

He was part of the "golden generation" of Irish youth football of the late 1990s. Under the guidance of, Brian Kerr, the unfancied Irish won the UEFA U-17 and U-19 European championships in 1998, and Robbie was part of the victorious U-19 side. In 1999, he played at the World Youth Cup in Nigeria, where the Irish reached the quarter-finals before going out on penalties to the hosts.

He made his first senior appearance for the Republic of Ireland against the Czech Republic in Olomouc in March 1998, scoring his first senior goal against Malta in October that year.

Keane has recently become the Republic's top goalscorer at international level; his 25 goals in 60 games (his most recent against Israel in June 2005) surpass Niall Quinn's record of 21. Given that he is likely to continue at the international level for many more years, he is on track to set a record that will be difficult to ever beat.

He had a brilliant 2002 World Cup campaign in the Far East, scoring three goals in Ireland's four games. His most famous goal to date is arguably the injury-time equaliser against Germany in the 2002 World Cup, although his last-minute equaliser against Spain from the penalty spot was equally as dramatic.

In the current campaign (as at July 2005) to qualify for the 2006 World Cup, Keane has scored four goals in Ireland's eight matches. He is an Irish football legend already, despite his tender age.

Miscellaneous

Robbie Keane is not related to Roy Keane, the former Manchester United team captain and Irish international player.

He has one of the more distinctive goal celebrations in the modern game, running to one side of the field to perform a round-off to a front somersault on the pitch, ending on one knee, and then miming the shooting of an arrow with his crossbow or to fire pistols rapidly with his hands. This has given him a cult status among the Tottenham fans.

Clubs

• Tottenham Hotspur (2002 - )
• Leeds United (Loan; 2000 - 2001)
• Leeds United (2001 - 2002)
• Internazionale (2000 - 2001)
• Coventry City (1999 - 2000)
• Wolves (Trainee; 1997 - 1999)

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