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This
week, 8 years ago....
Teenager Robbie Keane made an explosive Premiership debut for Coventry
City. The young Dubliner scored twice, once in each half, as the
Sky Blues defeated Derby County 2 nil at Highfield Road. This marked
the perfect start to Keane’s top flight career.
Days earlier, Coventry chairman Bryan Richardson had paid Wolves
an estimated 6 million pounds for Keane’s services making it
a British record transfer fee for a teenager. The club’s manager
at the time, Gordon Strachan, was surprised but delighted that Richardson
had secured the Irishman’s signature.
“I had long admired Robbie as a player and was envious of my
best pal Mark McGhee that he was playing for him at Wolves and not
for me,” Strachan announced,
“but I did not think we had that kind of money in the coffers,”
adding “It was a courageous move by the chairman.”
The season to follow was an impressive one for Keane. The spotlight
was on the 19 year old after Manchester United’s manager, Alex
Ferguson claimed he was only worth 500,000 pounds in the summer
of 1999. This could only have been used as motivation by Keane as
he became a regular goal scorer for club and country. His 12 league
goals that year ensured Coventry would remain a Premiership team
for another season, but his cartwheel goal celebration wasn’t
the only thing that caught the eye of the bigger clubs.
Inter Milan eventually offered 12 million pounds to take him to
Italy and though Strachan wanted to keep him, it was too much money
for cash strapped Coventry to refuse. So, a year after playing against
the likes of Port Vale and Bury, Keane would find himself playing
alongside the very best players in the world such as Ronaldo. Sadly
for him, it didn’t work out in Serie A as competition for starting
places was too fierce and 6 months later he was back in England
with Leeds on loan.
Leeds’ free flowing football suited Keane perfectly and the
result was 9 goals in his first 14 starts. This return prompted
David O’Leary to make his loan deal permanent. The following
season wasn’t a good one though, a series of inconsistent displays
saw him drop down the pecking order and another move was on the
horizon. Despite an impressive World Cup with Ireland that included
scoring a last-minute equalizer against Germany, Leeds off-loaded
him to Tottenham for 7 million pounds.
Keano, as he is known to the Spurs faithful, has spent the last
5 seasons at White Hart Lane and has recently formed a lethal partnership
with Bulgarian Dimitar Berbatov. Last year was his best to date,
hitting the net 22 times in all competitions and many people are
predicting Tottenham will finish in the top four this May. Only
time will tell if they succeed but Keane will surely need to score
consistently for it to be possible.
Arguably, Keane’s best days come when he wears the green of
Ireland. At the age of 27 he has already won an impressive 72 caps
for his country and holds the all time goalscoring record of 29
for the Republic. Having recently been made captain by new boss
Steve Staunton, he scored a hat-trick in the last ever game at Lansdowne
Road against mino’s San Marino. It still remains to be seen
if he and the Irish team have the quality needed to qualify for
the European Championship’s next summer, but one things for
certain, you can rely on Keane’s full commitment to the cause.
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