Keane: Robert David (Robbie)

2001-2002 (Player Details)

Striker

Born: Tallaght, Dublin, Republic of Ireland: 08-07-1980

Debut: v Aston Villa (h) (substitute): 23-12-2000

5’9” 12st (2007)

#58 in 100 Greatest LUFC Players Ever

Keane started his football career with South Dublin schoolboy side Crumlin United where his talent was recognised at an early age. As an Under-ten schoolboy he was paid just fifty pence a goal, and was soon being watched by scouts from a number of English professional clubs, including EPL side Liverpool. However, he turned down Liverpool to join Wolverhampton Wanderers reasoning that he had a greater chance of breaking into the first team at the First Division side. Keane progressed through their youth ranks and made his professional debut aged seventeen on 9th August 1997, and he scored twice against Norwich City. He went on to be the club's leading scorer in the following season as his profile rose. Just weeks into the 1999-2000, he was sold to EPL team Coventry City for £6m, a then-British record for a teenager. He scored twenty-nine times in eighty-seven appearances for Wolves. After a successful season at Coventry, where he scored twelve goals in thirty-four 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 Inter-Milan for £13 million, where he teamed up with the likes of Ronaldo and Christian Viera. He had scored twelve times in thirty-four games for the Sky Blues. 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. He failed to score in the six games he had with Milan. Keane's ambition refused to let him stagnate in Italy, and, in December 2000, he was loaned out toLeeds United, in preference to West Ham United, Chelsea and Charlton Athletic. His Leeds career got off to an impressive start, scoring nine goals in fourteen 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 ten goals in thirty-six appearances. Meanwhile, Leeds's financial troubles were forcing the club to sell many of its players, and, after turning down a move to Sunderland, Keane joined the exodus when he was sold to Tottenham Hotspur just before the 2002-03 transfer deadline for a fee of £7 million. On signing him for Tottenham, manager Glenn Hoddle said that 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 thirteen and sixteen goals respectively in those first two seasons for Spurs. His third season, 2004-05, was more frustrating. Despite finishing with his highest return of goals in a season for Tottenham, seventeen, he played second-fiddle to Jermain Defoe for much of the season. The frustration culminated in Keane storming from the dugout towards the end of a game against Birmingham City in April 2005 after all the substitutes 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 into doubt. He knuckled down after this incident but the 2005-06 season started as the 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 overtaken Mido as the top goalscorer at the club. Keane would go on to finish the season with sixteen League goals, making him the EPL's joint fourth top goalscorer that season. He had also been made thevice-captain, taking the captaincy on those occasions when Ledley King was not available. A firm fans' favourite, he is regarded as a great professional. 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 into a new togetherness, firing their push for European qualification, though the volatile Davids subsequently left Spurs, after apparently falling out with Manager (and fellow Dutchman), Martin Jol. In February 2006, Inter's owner and president, Massimo Maratti, admitted his regret at letting Keane go some five years earlier, saying Keane was now playing "perfect" football. Keane signed a new four year contract in March 2006, keeping him at the club until 2010. Keane had a slow start to the 2006-07 season which was further set back by a knee ligament injury that Keane suffered against Middlesbrough on 5th December 2006. His return from injury marked the beginning of a return to form and a lethal partnership with Dimitar Berbatov. Keane and Berbatov were jointly awarded the FA Premier League's Player of the Month Award for April 2007. Keane finished the season with a total of twenty-two goals in all competitions, the highest ever season tally of his career, scoring fifteen goals in his last fifteen appearances of the season. Keane started in his two hundredth appearance for Tottenham in the final game of the 2006-07 season against Manchester City scoring the first goal in a 2-1 victory that saw Tottenham secure fifth place in the League. He signed a new five year contract with Tottenham on 28th May 2007 that will keep him at the club until 2012. On 26th December 2007, he became only the thirteenth player in the history of the League to score one hundred EPL goals. 2007 proved to be a remarkable year for the striker with a total of thirty-one goals and thirteen assists from just forty starts. His tally of nineteen League goals in the calender year was the highest of any player in the EPL throughout 2007. He scored his one hundredth competitive goal for Tottenham in the 2-0 win against Sunderland on 19th January 2008. He is the fifteenth Tottenham player to achieve this feat. He also won his first senior honour, the Football League Cup. The 2007–08 season was the most fruitful of his career as he set a career record of twenty-three goals in a season. His consistency and strike-rate attracted the attention of Premier League rivals Liverpool. Despite initial resistance to the sale and accusations of misconduct, Tottenham agreed to a £20.3 million deal for the player, allowing Keane to join the team he supported as a child, although he had pledged his career and love to Spurs just one month earlier. Liverpool publicly announced their interest in Keane on 1st July 2008. Amid accusations that Liverpool had unsettled the player, Tottenham Hotspur filed a complaint to the EPL regarding the club's conduct. However, on 28th July 2008, Tottenham confirmed the sale of Keane for £19 million (plus a potential £1.3 million in performance based compensation). Keane agreed terms with Liverpool shortly afterwards, signing a four year contract with the club. Following the transfer, Tottenham withdrew their official complaint against Liverpool after the club made a donation to the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation and apologised for their behaviour prior to the deal. Tottenham Chairman Daniel Levy publicly stated his dissatisfaction, saying he had been forced into transferring the player due to Liverpool's interference. In his first six year stay at White Hart Lane, Keane scored eighty League goals in one hundred and ninety-seven games of which thirty-nine were as a substitute. He also scored eleven goals in nineteen F.A. Cup games, of which four were from the bench, seven goals in fourteen starts and five games from the bench in the League Cup and nine goals in nineteen other games, in European and other Competitions, of which four were as a substitute. He moved to Liverpool in July 2008 but he spent only six months at the club and soon returned to Tottenham, where he was made first team captain. In his time at Anfield he scored five League goals from nineteen appearances, of whicg three were as a substitute. He started one F.A. Cup game but failed to score, but netted twice in other games in Europe and other competitions from six starts and one game from the bench. Keane rejoined Tottenham on 2nd February 2009, signing a four-year contract for a basic fee of £12 million, potentially rising to £19 million with add-ons. The deal meant that the cumulative transfer fees paid for Keane over his career amounted to around £75 million. Keane was one of three players to make returns to Tottenham during the transfer window, along with Jermain Defoe and Pascal Chimbonda. He was also made Tottenham vice-captain a week later, often deputising for Ledley King. Keane scored his first goal since his return to the club on 4th March 2009, opening the scoring in the crucial 4–0 home victory against Middlesbrough. He followed this up by scoring another vital goal, this time a last-minute equaliser, away to Sunderland in a 1–1 draw on 7th March 2009. On 31 July 2009, Robbie captained Tottenham to winning the Premier League Asia Trophy in a pre-season competition in China. He scored twice in the 3-0 win over Hull City inside Beijing National Stadium. On 26th September 2009, Keane scored four goals in a 5-0 win over Burnley. Despite his good form he lost his place in the Spurs team and was confined to the bench as Crouch and Defoe were given a chance to forge a partnership. Harry Redknapp was conscious of the need for Keane to have as many games as possible to maintain his edge and so he allowed Keane to fulfill a dream by joining his boyhood favourite team. He was loaned to Celtic from 1st February 2010 until the end of the season and scored twelve goals in sixteen League games, one of which was as a substitute. He also scored four times in two starts and one game as a substitute in the Scottish Cup. He was chosen as Celtic's "Player of the Year" by the Celtic fans. In his second stint with Tottenham Hotspur he had already scored eleven times in twenty-nine starts in the League, and five games from the bench, and once in one start and one substitute appearance in the F.A. Cup and twice in two starts and one game from the bench in the League Cup, by the end of the 2009-10 season. 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 Under-Sixteen and Under-Eighteen European championships in 1998, and Robbie was part of the victorious Under-Eighteen 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 his seventieth Cap in the Republic's 5-0 defeat of San Marino, scoring a “Hat-trick” along the way. Keane became the Republic's top goalscorer at international level; when his twenty-three goals in fifty-six games easily surpassed Niall Quinn's previous record of twenty-one in ninety-two games, when he scored twice against the Faroe Isles on 13th Octoner 2004. He was part of the 2002 World Cup campaign in South Korea and Japan, scoring three goals in the Republic of Ireland's four games. His most famous goal to date is arguably the injury-time equalizer against Germany in the 2002 World Cup (the only goal to be scored against Germany in the competition until the final), 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. He has scored forty goals in ninety-two appearances for the Republic.