Roy Keane

[tricky_colour]

Does anyone know how many games Roy Keane played for Ireland
as an international Irish player?

I was going to ask in the World Football forum but then I thought
that would obviously be the wrong forum as it is a question about
Roy Keane, not World Football.

Thanks. I would google it but I lost my internet conection ;)

[Fireball]

66 caps and 9 goals.

[Plastic Paddy]

Thanks. I would google it but I lost my internet conection

So how did you manage to post here then, TC? :confused:

(Reminds me of the Letter from the Old Irish Mother: "Sure I would have put a tenner in but I'd already sealed the envelope". :D )

:ball: PP

[NeilMcD]

Classic post.

[Risteard]

Classic post.
:D :D
An actual classic post.
Well done.

[Karlos]

So how did you manage to post here then, TC? :confused:

(Reminds me of the Letter from the Old Irish Mother: "Sure I would have put a tenner in but I'd already sealed the envelope". :D )

PP


Post of the month contender! :D

[brine3]

another keano-related inquiry:

does anybody know if he ever won FAI Player of the Year, and if so, when?

[gustavo]

AFAIK he won it for the calender year 2001 presented in Feb 2002.

[TheJamaicanP.M.]

another keano-related inquiry:

does anybody know if he ever won FAI Player of the Year, and if so, when?

I think he won it 2 or 3 times. I remember him being presented the award in Manchester one year as he was injured at the time. He possibly won it in 2000.

[eirebhoy]

1990: Youth Player of the year.
1991: U21 player of the year.
1993: Young player of the year.
1994: Young player of the year.
1997: Senior player of the year.
2001: Senior player of the year.

[tricky_colour]

Am I correct in saying that he won in 2001 despite his 'late tackle'
( four years late !! ) on Alf-Inge Haaland?

[tricky_colour]

More pertinently, anyone know how many he was called up for? ;)


66 :D

[Aldini98]

Over rated bully of the year more like....... :)

[NeilMcD]

Am I correct in saying that he won in 2001 despite his 'late tackle'
( four years late !! ) on Alf-Inge Haaland?


Not defending the tacke one bit but why should a tackle in an EPL game have any effect on his nomination and subsequent winning of the FAI International Senior Player of the Year award for 2001. Is it not judged on performances for the Senior Irish football team.

[Paddy Garcia]

. Is it not judged on performances for the Senior Irish football team.

Yes - maybe he got it that year for a string of world class performances & (almost) single handily driving his team to the world cup finals.

[reder]

More pertinently, anyone know how many he was called up for? ;)

Thats a stat I would love to know, as we all know mr. 110% commitment, wants to win no matter what at everything, expects nothing less than 100% from everyone, "didnt do friendlies" cos ironically, he could get motivated for them.

Anyway im happy in the knowledge that we will never see him put on a green jersey again. Only hope to god he is not dragged out onto the field at half time in the 1st international after he finally retires from football.

[green army]

More pertinently, anyone know how many he was called up for? ;)

how many was he called up for, pulled out of the squad and then played for man united the following saturday??

[OwlsFan]

Thats a stat I would love to know, as we all know mr. 110% commitment, wants to win no matter what at everything, expects nothing less than 100% from everyone, "didnt do friendlies" cos ironically, he could get motivated for them.

Well, he made his debut in 1991 and if you exclude his 2 years of self-imposed exile from the country he loves, that about 13 years international football to make 66 caps, making on average 5 caps a year.

Compare that to someone like Steve Staunton who had 102 caps in 15 years of international football averaging 6.8 games a year.

So the difference is 1.8 games a year on average between the two and multiply Keane's 13 years x 1.8 and you'll get about 23 games he missed for one reason or the other.

[TheJamaicanP.M.]

Well, he made his debut in 1991 and if you exclude his 2 years of self-imposed exile from the country he loves, that about 13 years international football to make 66 caps, making on average 5 caps a year.

Compare that to someone like Steve Staunton who had 102 caps in 15 years of international football averaging 6.8 games a year.

So the difference is 1.8 games a year on average between the two and multiply Keane's 13 years x 1.8 and you'll get about 23 games he missed for one reason or the other.

Not completely accurate OwlsFan. Stan was on the bench for a number of games between late-1999 and mid-2001. He only returned to the starting team when we played Portugal in June 2001. Nonetheless, he had turned up for those internationals when he was not selected. I don't recall Keane spending may games on the bench. Didn't Keane say in his autobiography that he found it hard to be interested in playing for Jack Charlton's Ireland because of the tactics. Ironically, in 2002 he told Tommy Gorman and the Irish public that "nobody wants to play for Ireland more than me. Nobody."

Robbie Keane's statistics are in stark contrast. He made his international debut in 1998 and has won 65 caps for Ireland (one less than Roy). Along with the likes of Shay Given (75 caps since 1996) and Kevin Kilbane (69 caps since 1997), Robbie Keane is a true Irish legend. They represent all that is honest and good about Irish football.

[NeilMcD]

I agree that Robbie Keane is a true Irish legend also. I dont think that Roy Keanes choice of club did him any favours with a lot of the people who dis like him. In fact the sides that most people took in relation to Saipan were all ready established long before the incident in my view. Those that hated Keane before Saipan hated him afterwards and those that were a fan of his before Saipan were a fan afterwards. Very few people actually changed theirs min in relation to Saipan. I think his failure to play many friendlies and a lot of hysteria drummed up in the press by certain journalist did not help his cause either.


Roy Keane had very vew bad games in those 66 games and was Irish player of the tournament in 1994 and was also player of the Qualifying for 2002. He was immense in many other games also and that was right up to the last game when he was the best Irish player on the pitch versus France.

[TheJamaicanP.M.]

I agree that Robbie Keane is a true Irish legend also. I dont think that Roy Keanes choice of club did him any favours with a lot of the people who dis like him. In fact the sides that most people took in relation to Saipan were all ready established long before the incident in my view. Those that hated Keane before Saipan hated him afterwards and those that were a fan of his before Saipan were a fan afterwards. Very few people actually changed theirs min in relation to Saipan. I think his failure to play many friendlies and a lot of hysteria drummed up in the press by certain journalist did not help his cause either.

I take what you say about people being pro- or anti-Keane prior to Saipan. However, this is not true in all cases. Prior to Saipan, I was Roy Keane's biggest fan. I followed his career ever since I saw him play for Cobh Ramblers against Longford Town when I was a kid. I supported Man United simply because Roy Keane played for them. Even when they reached the Champions League Final, I lost interest because Keane wasn't playing. I was the type of fan who wouldn't hear a bad word said about Roy Keane. However, I believe he acted like a spoiled child in Saipan. I beleive if he really wanted to play for his country, he would have stayed on. I would give my right arm to play for Ireland. Even when Brian Kerr asked him back in early-2003, he declined the invitation and made his own announcement before the kick-off of Kerr's first game against Scotland. It wasn't the first time Keane showed complete disregard for the Irish set-up. Kerr made a mistake by providing him with a second invitation.



Roy Keane had very vew bad games in those 66 games and was Irish player of the tournament in 1994 and was also player of the Qualifying for 2002. He was immense in many other games also and that was right up to the last game when he was the best Irish player on the pitch versus France.


I agree that you could count Keane's bad games on the fingers of one hand. He might have been an immense player but he could have been immense for us in twice as many games. For all his talk of professionalism, he still believed it was alright to miss games. This may have been acceptable in his final two years when he could only play a certain amount of games. However, he missed 2 US Cups when he was in his prime. In 1997 he stated in reference to 1996: "I'd just had a long season with United winning the double and I didn't feel I had anything to prove by playing in a mickey-mouse tournament for the FAI." Three years later, Keane had an even longer season when winning the treble with United and still found time that summer to go and promote United in a mickey-mouse tournament in the Far East.

I'm sorry I didn't see through Keane sooner. The man is a bag of contradictions. Mick McCarthy was right when he said Keane should have travelled with the Ireland squad for the 2nd leg in Tehran. The game was played on a Thursday evening, yet Keane was still able to play 90 minutes for Man U on the Saturday. His attitude was in contrast to Niall Quinn who was genuinely injured but still travelled to Tehran.

Robbie Keane, Kevin Kilbane, Shay Given, Kenny Cunningham, etc. may not be in the same class as Roy Keane as a player, but they're twice the men. They're honest pros who understand the importance of playing for their country. They make me proud to call myself Irish.

[neutral]

are you trying to say that it would of been beneficial for roy and the irish team if he had travelled to tehran then?? if a player is injured then he's injured whats the purpose in dragging half way across europe simply because people believe its the professional thing to do? in my opinion roy did the professional thing in staying at home.....resting his injury and ensuring that he was fit for selection for the next game in his footballing schedule....do you think if he travelled then it would of been benefical in ensuring his injury healed in time, or maybe you are of the opinion that he wasnt injured at all?

[TheJamaicanP.M.]

or maybe you are of the opinion that he wasnt injured at all?

You got in one mate.
Lets be fair. We all know he wasn't injured. The game in Tehran was on a Thursday evening. He played 90 minutes less than 2 days later for Man U. Again, United was put before Ireland. Fair enough, they pay his salary but it doesn't mean I have to like it.

[OwlsFan]

I agree that Robbie Keane is a true Irish legend also. I dont think that Roy Keanes choice of club did him any favours with a lot of the people who dis like him. In fact the sides that most people took in relation to Saipan were all ready established long before the incident in my view. Those that hated Keane before Saipan hated him afterwards and those that were a fan of his before Saipan were a fan afterwards. Very few people actually changed theirs min in relation to Saipan. I think his failure to play many friendlies and a lot of hysteria drummed up in the press by certain journalist did not help his cause either. .

I like the Jamaican PM was a fan of Keane's (how could any Irish supporter be otherwise) until the Iran away game and his turning out for Man U that Saturday. That was when I realised that all was not well between Keane and Ireland. Saipan confirmed it. I used to take such pride in his performances for Man U just like all other Irish players in the UK (except when playing against Wednesday). There were undoubtedly prior to that some ABUs who gave Keane a hard time - I remember a friend of mine almost getting into a punch up with one at a game because that person was giving Keane stick but that all passed over my head until the end of the 2002 qualifying campaign. We could have done something in that tournament :mad:

[reder]

or maybe you are of the opinion that he wasnt injured at all?

I cant categorically tell you he was not injured, that is 100% fact. A very good friend of dad was part of the medical set up then and knew about the whole saga. I told plenty of people on the night of the game in Jurys that a deal was done and that it would be announced after the 1st leg that he "would not be fit" for the 2nd leg. Got called a liar but I was right. He had no interest in playing in that play-off.

However this was McCarthy 1st major slip up with Keane, he should have outed him then instead of holding it until the whole Saipan saga happened.

[NeilMcD]

I think this debate is very good and its good that it has not resorted into a slagging match etc and seems to be a reasoned debate on this issue. Lets hope it continues.

I wonder why he did not want to play the 2nd lef if he was not injured.

2 things, if your friend of your dad was part of the medical staff should he not be keeping things like that to himself rather than telling everybody about it the night of the 1st leg or beforehand.

Second if it is true that keane was not injured and just did not want to play the game, I think Mc Carthy should have done something about it rather than agreeing to it and letting keane away with murder.

[NeilMcD]

BBC Sport Online's Lyle Jackson talks to Republic of Ireland captain Roy Keane.
Roy Keane has been named in the side for Saturday's World Cup play-off first leg against Iran.

But the most talked-about injury in Irish sport has continued to dominate the build-up to the big game.

And on Friday the Manchester United skipper broke his silence about his fitness.



I need to get through a game and see what it is like

Roy Keane
In a packed media conference at Lansdowne Road, Keane admitted his knee injury was troubling him.
''I am still not happy with it,'' he said.

''I have done a bit of physio and have completed a couple of training sessions.

''But I need to get through a game and see what it is like.

''Monday and Tuesday were not great but the last day or two it has not been too bad.

''We will just have to wait and see how the games against Iran go.

Sit out game

''If there is a reaction I will have to go back to the specialist.''

Keane revealed he had wanted to make his comeback in United's Premiership game against Liverpool last Sunday.

He rejected suggestions that United manager Sir Alex Ferguson had let him sit out that game to be fit for the Republic.

''I would never miss a United match. Every game is important.

''Sir Alex has been brilliant about it. He knows how important this match is.

''The Liverpool match just came too soon for me.''



It will make them better players at club and international level

Roy Keane
Keane said the Republic's squad desperately needed to play in a major finals.

The Irish have lost their last three play-offs, falling at the last hurdle on the paths to Euro 96, the 1998 World Cup in France, and last year's European Championships in Belgium and Holland.

''I was fortunate to play in the World Cup in 1994,'' said Keane.

''If we make it this time I would be most happy for the other players.

''They deserve it and they need to go to a major finals.

''It will make them better players at club and international level.

''We have done well in our qualifying group but it will all be wasted if we do not beat Iran over two legs.

Overused

''Iran will be desperate to win as well.''

Keane said the previous play-off failures were history and had no bearing on the games against Iran.

''Patience is going to be the key. It is over 180 minutes.

''The job will not be done on Saturday night.

''It is a different type of pressure.

''But pressure is an overused word. These are matches you should enjoy.''

[NeilMcD]

Man Utd (1) 2 Leicester (0) 0

AS FAMED as Eileen Drewery became for her supposed quick-healing powers, she has nothing on a Manchester United medical staff who, over the years, have routinely and miraculously restored seemingly crippled stars to health only hours after they have pulled out of international duties.


Dwight on time: United striker Dwight Yorke celebrates sealing the victory
Ryan Giggs, in particular, has benefited from their expertise on many occasions, allowing him to turn out in a red shirt looking as fresh as a spring chicken just days after being too poorly to wear the red of Wales.

Even by their own high standards, however, it was remarkable that the United medical team were able to allow Sir Alex Ferguson to restore the name of skipper Roy Keane to the starting line-up two days after he missed Ireland's second-leg World Cup qualifier against Iran in Teheran.

Keane, who had not played for United since the middle of last month because of a knee injury, was apparently only inches from the surgeon's knife when he aggravated the injury in the first Ireland-Iran game last weekend.

Yet here he was, strolling around Old Trafford in all his old pomp, looking in the rudest of health. By the happiest of coincidences, his return allowed Ferguson to rest Sebastian Veron ahead of Tuesday's Champions League game against Bayern Munich in Germany and tell Paul Scholes that he could have his favourite central-midfield role back.Scholes was fined by Ferguson after refusing to play at Arsenal in a Worthington Cup tie, apparently furious at being constantly asked to play as a split striker. But it turned out to be a bonus.

Ferguson used his programme notes to lambast unnamed critics who, he claims, are daring to suggest that his empire is crumbling, though he admitted that his team had to perform a "darned sight better" than against Liverpool a fortnight earlier.

His notes may have been intended for the eyes of the Bayern scouts. But they will have relied more on the evidence spread before them on the pitch that this United team are no comparison to the one that beat them in the European Cup final two years ago and possibly not as efficient as the one they eliminated from the competition last season.

Victory, in the end, may have proved as comfortable on the pitch as it appeared on paper. Yet it might have been a much more difficult afternoon for United if goalkeeper Fabien Barthez had not been allowed to get away with an outrageous piece of gamesmanship.

It came a minute after Ruud van Nistelrooy had headed United in front from a cross by David Beckham, one of the leading nominees for world player of the year. And it offered further evidence of United's frailties when Laurent Blanc, once the most elegant of defenders, clumsily brought down Trevor Benjamin in the area.

Referee Andy D'Urso rightly and bravely - this being Old Trafford, after all - pointed to the penalty spot. But then he demonstrated a complete dereliction of duty by allowing Barthez to get away with the most blatantly unsporting behaviour by a goalkeeper since Bruce Grobbelaar's wobbly-legs scam in Rome in the 1984 European Cup final shoot-out.

With the ball on the spot and Muzzy Izzet ready to take the kick, Barthez strolled to the side of his goal and casually kicked up each leg behind him in turn to scrape the mud off his boots on a post.

Izzet, clearly incensed and believing he was within his rights to take the kick, ran up and tucked the ball into the net. Barthez's gamesmanship had done the trick, however, allowing him to make an educated guess that Izzet would kick the same way on the retake and manage to touch the ball on to a post.

At the very least, D'Urso should have booked Barthez for ungentlemanly conduct or time-wasting, the latter an automatic yellow card offence. But perhaps his mind was reeling back to that unsavoury incident two seasons ago when he was surrounded by bawling United players after given a penalty decision to Middlesbrough.

A struggling side like Leicester, who ended a 12-hour goal drought against Sunderland a fortnight earlier, can ill afford to see such golden chances go begging.

With it went any realistic chance of them turning this into a serious contest, United easing into the comfort zone when Dwight Yorke headed his first goal of the season from Gary Neville's cross five minutes into the second half.

Victory allowed United to creep closer to their domestic rivals in the Premiership table, moving up to fourth place. But we will have more idea about the state of their empire after Tuesday night's game in Munich.

Print Email this story

[NeilMcD]

10 May 2006

The wearing of the green

Liam Mackey reflects on the extraordinary highs — and lows — of Roy Keane’s international career.

THE UPCOMING friendly between Ireland and Chile at Lansdowne Road may be of long-term importance to Steve Staunton and his new-look squad as they plan for Euro 2008 but, as international football matches go this summer, it’s not exactly the game most likely to set the pulse racing.

Nevertheless, the fixture will have a special resonance for one ex-international, because it was against the same South American opposition and in the same venue that Roy Keane made his senior debut for his country 15 years ago almost to the day.




Keane’s first full cap also coincided with Jack Charlton’s 50th game in charge. Charlton was a cautious football manager, but even he could no longer resist the clamour for a call-up for the 19-year-old from Cork who had made such a sensational impact in his debut season in the top flight in England with Nottingham Forest.

May 22, 1991 would have been a day to remember for Roy Keane, but in all other respects the game against Chile was a forgettable end-of-term affair, a lacklustre 1-1 draw on a bumpy pitch notable only for the fact the visitors came close to wrecking a home record which by then extended to 25 games unbeaten.

Keane’s competitive debut for his country would also end in a draw, but this time the game was nerve-jangling thriller — a 3-3 European Championship qualifying draw with Poland in Poznan the following October. With Keane and Andy Townsend both outstanding at the heart of a novel five-man midfield, the Irish had looked on course for one of their most famous away victories, but defensive mistakes saw them surrender a 3-1 lead late on and, with it, the chance of qualifying for the finals in 1992.

Given that, in the final round of games, England only barely pipped the Irish at the post the disappointment was acute, but the pragmatic Charlton already had one eye on the prospect of greater glory. “I have got to prepare a team for the next World Cup,” he had said earlier in the Euro campaign. “That’s the main thing. And it’s the younger players who are going to take us to America.”

When it comes to selecting his best-ever displays in the green shirt, the US ‘94 qualifier against Spain in Seville in November of 1992 is a definite stand-out. A scoreless draw — which should have been a win had not John Aldridge’s perfectly good goal been disallowed — was a significant point gained on the road to America, but it was Keane’s emergence as the team’s virtual playmaker which caught the eye.

In the cauldron of the Sanchez Pizjuan stadium that night, there was no cooler nor a more reassuring sight from an Irish point of view than the 21-year-old Corkman in possession. Ahead of the game, Maradona had been singing Keane’s praises, and on the night the rising star lived up to all the hype.

Almost the full range of his talents was on display: a superb first touch; tidy, close control; strong, precision-timed tackling, meaty, well-directed headers, positive and meticulous distribution and, fuelling everything, the awareness and vision to always do the right thing. Perhaps the only thing missing for regular Keane watchers were those surging runs which were already a hallmark of his game at Forest, but then playing football under Jack Charlton was a rather different matter to playing it under Brian Clough.

As Keane told me after the game in Seville: “When I get the ball, I try and play a bit of football. But, obviously, the way we play — which I suppose is the long ball game — I have to be careful.”

Nevertheless, Keane knew he had delivered in a big way.

“I may have answered some of my critics a bit,” he said. “I still think there is a question mark over me playing at international level in some people’s minds, especially because of the contrast with the way we play at Forest — which is all football — and the way we play with the international team, which is a bit different. Some people think that I have a problem adapting to the different role, but I don’t think so.”

It didn’t take much reading between the lines to discern Keane was no fan of the Charlton brand of football — something he would make clear in his Eamon Dunphy-penned autobiography 10 eventful years later — but at the time he was happy enough to sacrifice some of his natural instincts for the collective cause. In doing so, he came of age as a full international, and remained an ever-present in the Irish side which, after a heart-stopping final qualifying night in Belfast, secured qualification for the US World Cup in 1994.

Those finals would end in the disappointment of a 2-0 defeat by Holland in boiling Orlando but, by then, the Irish had written another glorious chapter in their footballing history by beating Italy 1-0 in their opening game in Giant Stadium. Keane, by now firmly established as a new hero at Manchester United, was a consistent performer in all four games in the finals, and left America as the great hope for Irish football in the coming years.

Little did anyone know then his first World Cup would also be his last.

Ireland’s failure to qualify for Euro ‘96 in England signalled the departure of Jack Charlton and the arrival of Mick McCarthy. Ominously, a petulant Keane was sent off against Russia in his first game under McCarthy, a man with whom he had issues going back to their days as uneasy international team mates. As manager and player kept a difficult, arm’s length relationship, controversy was never far away with, in a foretaste of things to come, the media already taking sides along the fault line. Results failed to paper over the cracks. With the retirement of Andy Townsend, McCarthy made Keane captain, but two campaigns were to elapse before they would at least share the satisfaction of qualifying for another major tournament.

Despite the underlying tension, the qualifying campaign for the World Cup finals in Japan and Korea in 2002 would bear witness to some of Keane’s finest performances in a green shirt, capped by an awesome display of power and poise in the critical 1-0 home win against Holland at Lansdowne Road.

Vying with the Seville game nine years earlier as a candidate for Keane’s best Irish display ever, that September 1, 2001 match against Holland would long be remembered for Jason McAteer’s goal, as a 10-man Ireland held out for victory in front of an ecstatic full house at the old ground. But if McAteer grabbed the headlines, it was Keane who had taken the game by the scruff of the neck from word go, when his no-frills introductory tackle on Marc Overmars so rattled the Dutch as a whole that Patrick Kluivert still hadn’t regained his composure when he found himself clean through on goal minutes later. The striker shot wide of the post, the first of an extraordinary procession of misses by the Dutch.

History has recast the game as a glorious Irish victory — and the result obviously lends substance to that view — but the truth is that home side were lucky to emerge with a vital win. But more than luck, Ireland had Roy Keane on their side that day because, if ever there was a time for strength in adversity, this was it. Keane was frankly immense against Holland, a powerhouse of commitment and composure just when those qualities were needed the most.

KEANE was back in Dublin for the first-leg play-off game against Iran, contributing to a 2-0 win which set the Irish up nicely for the return trip to Tehran. But Keane missed the second leg, having returned to Manchester for treatment on his knee. However, with a profile that now dwarfed that of any other Irish player, nothing was every straightforward where Keane’s international career was concerned.

“Obviously some felt the injury was too convenient and had the impression I’d done a runner,” Keane said. “Had Ireland lost out on qualifying, no doubt my absence would have been advanced as a reason. We didn’t. Got the result we needed. But the rumours still left a sour taste. Anyway, we were going to the World Cup finals.”

[NeilMcD]

The operative word being ‘going’. Roy Keane never arrived.. Saipan was as far as he got, an inconspicuous island which is now synonymous with the single most divisive controversy in the history of Irish sport. You may just have heard about it, so we won’t rehash the gory detail here. Suffice to say that the long simmering tensions between player and manager erupted into a full-blown war of words, with Keane’s departure from the Irish camp the sensational outcome.

To this day — and probably forever — there are those who will insist that Roy Keane walked out on his country and others that he was kicked out by Mick McCarthy. It always seemed to me that Keane jumped just about a split second before he was pushed, but what really mattered was that Ireland were obliged to go on to Japan and Korea without their best player. And did pretty well, all things considered, only going out in the knock-out phase after a penalty shoot-out against Spain.

Saipan would continue to rumble on, first as a fierce national debate, then as a series of books and even a comic musical but, with Roy Keane having already announced his retirement from international football, it was plain old football that would eventually do for his nemesis Mick McCarthy.

Defeats by Russia and Switzerland in the early stages of the Euro 2004 campaign brought the curtain down on McCarthy’s reign as manager, and ushered in the new era of Brian Kerr. The changing of the guard was very much to Roy Keane’s liking. Kerr courted the prodigal son, Keane responded in kind and an Irish public, anxious for success after the European campaign had ended in failure, welcomed the player back into the national fold.

Unfortunately, the second coming of Keane would not be sufficiently momentous to take him, or Ireland, to another World Cup finals. Although the veteran was by now having to cope with the long-term effects of injury, his vast experience and know-how were still evident in his command performance against France in Dublin in September of last year. But even with the Cork man on song, the Irish lost the game to a sublime Thierry Henry goal.

Points dropped at home and away to Israel would ultimately take a severe toll, but there was still a chance for Ireland to qualify for the play-offs in the final game against Switzerland in Lansdowne Road. But, critically, both Roy Keane and Damien Duff were unavailable for the match, robbing Ireland of the authority and creativity which would have been needed to secure anything beyond an all too predictable scoreless draw.

Within days of the end of the campaign, Roy Keane again announced his international retirement — and this time it was for good. The World Cup qualifier against France at Lansdowne Road, on September 7, 2005, had been his last appearance in the green shirt.

Sixty-six cps and nine goals over 14 years — the bare statistics are impressive enough, but do scant justice to the extraordinary reality of the roller-coaster ride that was Roy Keane’s Irish career.

His comeback under Brian Kerr might ultimately have been fruitless, but at least it ensured that the final portrait of Roy Keane as an international footballer was of him leaving a football pitch rather than leaving an airport terminal. Saipan is part of the record but so, too, are those towering performances in Seville in 1992 and Lansdowne Road in 2001 and all points in between.

Nation-splitting controversy notwithstanding, it’s a measure of Keane’s stature as an all-time Irish great that only the most bitterly inclined would argue against his inclusion in the modern pantheon alongside the likes of Giles, McGrath and Brady.

Giles and Brady never got to the finals of the World Cup; McGrath got to two, and a European Championship to boot. Roy Keane made it to one, which is pretty good going for any footballer. He came closer than most to making it to another. That he didn’t means we’re left with a story of what was — and what might have been

[brine3]

Given the choice, I'd sooner have another Keane come along than another Staunton, despite the 1.8 difference in caps per year. A couple of insignificant matches missed through "injury"? I can live with it. Nobody ever gives Brady any crap about all those matches he missed recovering from his own "injuries" in Italy, even when he's dissing Keane for the same thing in his columns.

Say what you want about Keane not making it to the 2002 World Cup, anybody who saw his performances in qualification knows that there would have been no Ireland at that World Cup if it wasn't for him.