ROY KEANE

Roy Maurice Keane

Full Name: Roy Maurice Keane
Born: 10.08.1971
Born In: Cork, Ireland
Nationality: Ireland
Height: 180 cm
Weight: 77 kg

Statistic Club Career

01/2006 - 06/2006 ==> Celtic Glasgow, Scotland
07/1993 - 11/2005 ==> Manchester United, England
07/1990 - 06/1993 ==> Nottingham Forest, England
07/1989 - 06/1990 ==> Cobh Ramblers, Ireland

Keane was born into a working class family in the Mayfield suburb of Cork. His father, Maurice, took work wherever he could find it due to the economic hardships of the time, which led to jobs at a local knitwear company and a Guinness factory, amongst others. His family were keen on sport, football especially, and many of his relatives had played for junior clubs in Cork, including the renowned Rockmount A.F.C. Before choosing football as his preferred sport, Keane took up boxing at the age of nine and trained for a number of years, winning all of his four bouts in the novice league. During this period he was developing as a much more promising footballer at Rockmount, and his potential was highlighted when he was voted Player of the Year in his first season.

Keane supported Celtic and Tottenham Hotspur as a child, citing Liam Brady (a former Arsenal player) as his favourite player, but as time progressed, Manchester United's Bryan Robson became the footballer he most admired due to the all-action, box-to-box style for which 'Captain Marvel' had become famous. These were qualities which Keane also had in abundance, and little did he know that he would eventually become Robson's long-term replacement at Old Trafford.

Despite his growing promise, a future career in football began to look uncertain. He was turned down from the Ireland schoolboys squad after a trial in Dublin; one explanation from former Ireland coach and scout Ronan Scally was that the fourteen-year-old Keane was "just too small" to make it at the required level. Undeterred, he began applying for trials with English clubs, but he was turned down by each one. As his childhood years passed, he took up temporary jobs involving manual work whilst waiting for a breakthrough in his football prospects. In 1989, he eventually signed for the semi-professional Irish club Cobh Ramblers after persuasion from Ramblers' youth team manager Eddie O'Rourke. Keane was one of two Ramblers representatives in the inaugural FAI/FAS scheme in Dublin, and it was through this initiative that he got his first taste of full-time training. His rapid progression into a promising footballer was reflected by the fact that he would regularly turn out for Ramblers' youth side as well as the actual first team, often playing twice in the same weekend as a result.

In the tough, physical world of the Irish First Division, Keane more than held his own against players much more experienced than himself, his dedication to training noticed by many. In an important FAI Youth Cup match against Belvedere FC of Dublin, Keane's performance attracted the attention of watching Nottingham Forest scout Noel McCabe, who asked him to travel over to England for a trial. Keane impressed Forest manager Brian Clough and his staff, and eventually a deal for Keane worth £47,000 was struck with Cobh Ramblers in the summer of 1990.

International Career

World Cup 2002, Japan/South Korea
World Cup 1994, USA
WC Qualifiers Europe 2006
Friendlies 2005
Friendlies 2004

When called up for his first game at international level, an Under-21s match against Turkey in 1991, Keane took an immediate dislike to the organisation and preparation surrounding the Irish team, later describing the set-up as "a bit of a joke." He would continue to hold this view throughout the remainder of his time spent with the national team, which led to numerous confrontations with the Irish management. Keane declared his unavailability to travel with the Irish squad to Algeria, but was surprised when manager Jack Charlton told him that he would never play for Ireland again if he refused to join up with his compatriots. Despite this threat, Keane chose to stay at home on the insistence of Forest manager Brian Clough, and was pleased when a year later he was called up to the Irish squad for a friendly at Lansdowne Road. After more appearances, he grew to disapprove of Charlton's style of football, which relied less on the players' skill and more on continuous pressing and direct play. Tensions between the two men peaked during a pre-season tournament in the United States, when Charlton berated Keane for returning home late after a drinking session with Steve Staunton.

Keane was included in Ireland's squad for the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the USA and played in every game, including a famous 1-0 victory over tournament favourites and eventual finalists, Italy. Despite a second-round exit at the hands of Holland, the tournament was considered a success for the Irish team, and Keane was named the best player of Ireland's campaign. Keane, however, was reluctant to join the post-tournament celebrations, later claiming that, as far as he was concerned, Ireland's World Cup was a disappointment: "There was nothing to celebrate. We achieved little."

Keane missed crucial matches during the France 1998 qualification matches due to a severe knee injury, but came back to captain the team to within a whisker of qualifying for Euro 2000, losing to Turkey in a play-off. Ireland secured qualification for the 2002 FIFA World Cup under new manager Mick McCarthy, greatly assisted by a number of match-winning performances from Keane. In the process of qualification, Ireland went undefeated, both home and away, against international football heavyweights Portugal and the Netherlands, famously beating the latter 1-0 at Lansdowne Road.


Managerial Career

His former manager Sir Alex Ferguson had previously said that he wanted Keane to succeed him as Manchester United coach when he retired. However, in the wake of Keane's acrimonious departure from the club, Ferguson became evasive regarding Keane's prospects as a manager: "Young managers come along and people say this one will be England manager or boss of this club, but two years later they're not there. It's not an easy environment to come into, I wouldn't forecast anything."

Sunderland

During his time at Celtic, Keane was suggested as a potential managerial successor to Gordon Strachan by former Celtic player Charlie Nicholas. However, it was Championship club Sunderland where Keane chose to launch his managerial career, re-uniting him with the club's chairman and outgoing manager, Niall Quinn. The two men, publicly at least, were on opposing sides during the fall-out from the Saipan incident, but they were on good terms at the time of the managerial appointment, with Quinn urging Sunderland fans to "support and enjoy one of football’s true greats".

Keane signed a three year deal immediately after Sunderland's victory over West Bromwich Albion on 28 August, the Mackems' first win of the 2006-07 season after a dreadful run of four consecutive defeats under Quinn's temporary management. With his new club sitting in the relegation zone already, second bottom of the Championship table, Keane chose to enforce changes quickly. His first actions as manager were deciding to keep the existing assistant manager, Bobby Saxton, and to appoint his former Nottingham Forest colleague Tony Loughlan as head coach. He wasted no time in bringing in new additions to the squad, with a total of six players signing on the final day of the August transfer window. The most notable signings were Keane's former Manchester United team-mates Dwight Yorke and Liam Miller, supported by former Celtic colleagues Ross Wallace and Stanislav Varga, as well as Wigan Athletic pair Graham Kavanagh and David Connolly.

Keane's first two games as manager could not have gone much better; first coming from behind to beat Derby County 2-1, followed by an easy 3-0 victory over Leeds United. Sunderland began to steadily creep up the league standings under Keane's management, and by the turn of the year they had escaped the bottom half of the league. Five further players were signed during the January 2007 transfer window, three (Anthony Stokes, Carlos Edwards and Stern John) on permanent contracts and two (Jonny Evans and Danny Simpson) on loan from Manchester United, Keane's old club. Results continued to improve, and Keane was rewarded with the February and March "Manager of the Month" awards,while his team began to challenge for the automatic promotion places. Meanwhile, Keane tackled his players' non-professional approach with a firm hand. When three players were late for the team coach to a trip to Barnsley, in March 2007, he simply left them behind.

Sunderland secured promotion to the Premier League along with Birmingham City on 29 April when rivals Derby County were beaten by Crystal Palace. A week later, the Coca-Cola Championship title was sealed, and Sunderland's revival under Keane was complete. His achievements also earned him the Championship "Manager of the Year" award. A sign of Keane's bigger ambitions was shown by his decision not to celebrate promotion with an open-top bus parade through the city.

Some argue that Sunderland's 2007-08 season in the Premier League was marred with bad luck, both in terms of injuries and the notable refereeing decisions that went against them. However, many pundits hailed their fighting spirit under Keane and backed them for survival. The lowest point of their season came at Goodison Park, where they were beaten 7-1 by Everton, which Keane described as "one of the lowest points" of his career. However in the second half of the season the team's form was much improved (especially at home) and survival in the division was guaranteed with two games to go with a home win against Middlesbrough. Meanwhile, Keane carried on his trend of buying ex-Manchester United players with the addition of Kieran Richardson, Paul McShane, Danny Higginbotham, and Phil Bardsley. He has also continued his strict disciplinary policy by putting Liam Miller (one of Sunderland's apparently more consistent players) on the transfer list for being regularly late for training and other team meetings.

The beginning of the 2008-09 season would prove to be tumultuous. In September 2008 Keane became embroiled in a row with FIFA Vice President Jack Warner over the withdrawal of Dwight Yorke from the Trinidad and Tobago national team. Warner accused Keane of being disrespectful towards small countries. Keane responded by calling Warner "a clown" and insisted that Yorke was retired from international football. That same month Keane experienced "one of the worst and longest nights" of his career when Sunderland had to come from 2-0 down at home in a League Cup tie against Northampton. The game ended 2-2, with Sunderland progressing narrowly on penalties.

Despite some positive performances, including the historic 2-1 home victory against local rivals Newcastle United on 25 October (the first time the club had accomplished this in 28 years), as well as good showings by recent signings like Djibril Cissé and Anton Ferdinand, the team's general form remained inconsistent. By the end of November, Sunderland were 18th in the Premier League, having lost five of their six previous games. Keane stood down as manager on 4 December after bringing doubt on his own future with comments made in the wake of the 4-1 home defeat by Bolton the previous weekend.