Robbie Keane biography: Irish Footballer

Robbie Keane biography

Irish football player

Robert David "Robbie" Keane: (born 8 July 1980 in Tallaght, Dublin) is an Irish footballer, who plays as a striker

Place of birth Tallaght, Dublin, Republic of Ireland
Height 5' 8"
Playing position Striker

Youth clubs
Crumlin United

career
Senior clubs
Years Club App (Gls)
Wolves 88 (29)
Coventry City 31 (12)
Internazionale 6 (0)
Leeds United 46 (13)
Tottenham Hotspur 160 (66)

National team
1998– Republic of Ireland 72 (29)
Senior club appearances and goals counted for domestic league only and correct 29 April 2007 .
National team caps and goals correct 8 February 2007.

Keane started his football career with a South Dublin schoolboy side, Crumlin Utd where his talent was recognised at an early age. As an U10 schoolboy he was paid just £1 a goal, and was being watched by scouts from a number of English pro clubs, including Premier League side Liverpool.

He turned down Liverpool to join Wolverhampton Wanderers, reasoning that he had a chance of breaking into the first team at the First Division side. He played here 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 and Christian Vieri.

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, in December 2000, he was loaned out to Leeds Utd.

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's financial troubles were forcing the club to sell its players, and Keane joined the exodus when he was sold to Tottenham Hotspur just before the 2002-03 transfer deadline for a fee of £7m.

Upon signing for Tottenham, the Spurs manager 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, 2004-05, was more frustrating. Despite finishing with a highest return of goals in a season for Tottenham, 17, he played second fiddle to Jermain Defoe for the season. The frustration culminated in Keane storming from a dugout towards the end of a game against Birmingham in April 2005 after all the subs had been used, meaning he would not get a chance to appear. He was fined £10,000 and forced to train with the reserves after the outburst and his future at the club was thrown to doubt.

He knuckled down after this incident but the 2005-06 season started as a previous one had ended, with Defoe being preferred to partner Mido in Tottenham's strikeforce. However, Defoe's strike rate continued to disappoint and Keane's persistence paid off in November when manager Martin Jol eventually gave Keane a chance to replace Defoe and stake his claim.

He grabbed the chance with both hands, started playing some of the best football of his career and by March had overtook Mido as top goalscorer at the club. Keane would go on to finish the season with 16 league goals, making him the Premier League's joint fourth top goalscorer that season. He had also been made the vice captain, taking the captaincy on those occasions when Ledley King was unavailable.

He is a firm fans' favourite, and is regarded as a great pro. Hoddle once said of Keane's personality, "He's such a bubbly lad that anyone who meets him loves him." Edgar Davids and Keane were involved in a training ground fight in December 2005, but the pair subsequently made up publicly and were seen encouraging each other on the pitch. Davids claimed that this incident inspired Tottenham to a new togetherness, firing their push for European qualification, though the volatile Davids has left Spurs, after falling out with Manager (and fellow Dutchman), Martin Jol.

In February 2006, Inter's owner and president, Massimo Moratti, admitted his regret at letting Keane go some five years earlier, saying Keane was now playing "perfect" football.

On the March 3, 2006, it was released that Keane had signed a four year contract, keeping him at the club until 2010.

Keane was said to be one of ten Spurs squad members to be struck down by norovirus, a form of viral gastroenteritis, on the evening of 6 May 2006 before a crucial final game of the season against West Ham United.

This upturn in Keane's fortunes with Spurs continued into Season 2006-07, although beginning the season as a frequent victim of Spurs manager Martin Jol's striker rotation policy, he struck up an intuitive and highly effective striking partnership with Dimitar Berbatov, renowned as one of the best in the league. The success of the pair pushed Jermain Defoe to third spot in the Tottenham striking hierachy by the end of the season. Keane and Berbartov were jointly awarded the Premier League's Player of the Month Award for April 2007. In this month, the pair scored eight goals between them, Keane contributing six.

Controversy
During his Leeds Utd days, Keane lashed out at David Beckham, but was only yellow carded by referee Dermot Gallagher, who was later demoted.In February 2007, in a match against Bolton Wanderers, after scoring twice, referee Graham Poll awarded a penalty kick, and sent off Keane for deliberate handball on the goal-line, although on replay the ball clearly hit his chest and did not touch his hand at all. The club appealed the decision, which was Keane's first ever red card. The appeal later failed.

International career
Robbie Keane has already achieved much in the international arena. He was part of the golden generation of Republic of Ireland youth football of the late 1990s. Under the guidance of Brian Kerr, the unfancied Republic 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 Republic 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. He won a 70th cap in the Republic's 5-0 defeat of San Marino, scoring a hat-trick along the way.

Keane is now the Republic's top goalscorer at international level, his 29 goals (May 2007) in 70 games surpasses Niall Quinn's record of 21.

He was part of the 2002 World Cup campaign in Japan and South Korea, 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.

Although the Republic of Ireland failed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup, Keane scored four goals in the Republic's eight matches and remains their most prolific goalscorer.

Following Steve Staunton's appointment as the manager of the Republic of Ireland, Keane was appointed captain. In their first game under Staunton, Keane scored the second goal in the 3 - 0 victory against Sweden at Lansdowne Road, and celebrated the final match at the Lansdowne Road stadium, against San Marino, with a hat trick.

Trivia
Robbie Keane is not related to Roy Keane, the former Man United and Irish international captain. Both of them however go by the nickname "Keano", and fans of both players have always relished the ironic singing of "There's only one Keano".
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 cartwheel on the pitch, ending on one knee, and then miming the shooting of an arrow with his longbow or to quick-fire pistols rapidly with his hands. He stopped using the celebration at the end of the 2005-06 season.
He also takes no enjoyment out of scoring against his former clubs, and does not perform the same celebrations out of respect.
A cousin of Cardiff City striker, Jason Byrne who played alongside Keane in the Republic of Ireland's 2004 friendly against Poland.
currently engaged to former Miss Ireland contestant, Claudine Palmer
best friends with Toronto FC's Carl Robinson, a former Wolves team mate and Man United's Alan Smith, his ex-Leeds team mate.
He has been involved in transfers totalling £38 million.
As a boy he supported Celtic
One of only two players to score a goal against Germany at the 2002 World Cup when he scored an equaliser during the group stage. The other player being Ronaldo for Brazil in the final.
He has a brother and sister who are twins, Georgina and Gary Keane.

Tallaght (Tamhlacht in Irish), after Dublin City and Cork is the third largest urban concentration in the Republic of Ireland. Situated 13 kilometres south west of Dublin city, at the foot of the Dublin - Wicklow mountains.

Misspell

Kaene Kean

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