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Roy Maurice Keane (born in Cork, August 10 1971)
is an Irish national football team|Irish football
(soccer)|footballer.  He plays club football in
England for Manchester United F.C.|Manchester
United, where he also captain (football)|captains
the team. He is widely regarded as one of the
finest midfield players of his generation, and has
also been tipped to assume the managerial position
at Manchester United upon the imminent retirement
of Sir Alex Ferguson. Roy Keane is not related to
fellow Irish footballer Robbie Keane.

== Club Career ==

Roy Keane first played football for local Cork
club Rockmount, before signing for the
semi-professional Republic of Ireland|Irish club
Cobh Ramblers in 1989.  Scouts from Brian Clough's
Nottingham Forest took note of his talents and
promptly signed him for the sum of £47,000. 
Keane was quick to impress at Nottingham Forest,
making his professional league debut against
Liverpool F.C.|Liverpool.

In 1991, Keane was a regular in the side,
displacing the England national football
team|English international midfield player Steve
Hodge, and scored three goals during a run to that
season's FA Cup final, which Forest ultimately
lost to Tottenham Hotspur.  A year later Keane
returned to Wembley with Forest for the League Cup
final but again finished on the losing side as
Manchester United gained a 1-0 win.

In 1993, the final season under Clough, Nottingham
Forest were relegated from the Premier
League|Premiership.  The race to sign Keane was
suddenly on, with Manchester United and Blackburn
Rovers F.C.|Blackburn Rovers vying for his
signature. Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson
won the battle, getting Keane into Old Trafford
(football)|Old Trafford for a then record £3.75m
transfer fee.  Keane was an instant success in the
Manchester United midfield, taking over the mantle
of midfield dynamo from Bryan Robson.  

After the retirement of Eric Cantona in 1997,
Keane's boundless energy and inspirational
leadership made him the perfect candidate to take
over as club captain.  During the 1997-1998 season
Keane missed almost the entire campaign due to a
knee injury, and, without his services, Manchester
United failed to pick up a single trophy.  Keane
returned however, to captain the club to an
unprecedented treble in 1999 including the FA
Premier League, European Cup and FA Cup.  As a
recognition for his efforts, Keane was voted PFA
Players' Player of the Year in 2000.  

Keane's total trophy haul with Manchester United
includes: 7 FA Premier League titles (1994, 1996,
1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003), 4 FA Cups (1994,
1996, 1999, 2004), a European Cup (1999 - though
Keane missed the final through suspension) and an
European/South American Cup|Intercontinental Cup
(1999). On February 5, 2005, Keane scored his 50th
goal for Manchester United in a league game
against Birmingham City F.C..  His appearance in
the 2005 FA Cup final (which United lost) was his
seventh such game, an all-time record. Keane was
also picked on the FIFA 100 a list of the greatest
living footballers picked by Pelé.

Although he maintains a low profile off the pitch,
Keane has been involved in several controversial
incidents which, while not diminishing his
popularity among Manchester United supporters,
have attracted a great deal of criticism from many
others in the game. In 1995, he was sent off from
an FA Cup semi-final for stamping on Gareth
Southgate, for which he was banned for three
matches and fined £5,000. In August 2002 he was
fined two weeks' wages, £150,000, and banned for
three matches for elbowing Jason McAteer. This
caused much anguish in the English press as Keane
booked himself in for a hip operation and missed
those three matches anyway.

In 2001, Keane was heavily criticised for a
gruesome tackle on Manchester City player Alf-Inge
Haaland.  He subsequently admitted in an
autobiography that he intended "to hurt" Haaland. 
Although Haaland retired from football shortly
afterwards, he had previously stated on his
website that the cause of this was a recurring
problem in his leg, rather than Keane's tackle. 
Keane was banned for five matches and fined
£150,000.  The two players had a history of
trouble,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/photo_galleries/fo
otball/2190003.stm with Keane having tackled
Haaland in 1997; the resulting injury caused Keane
to miss most of the 1997 season.

He has announced that he will retire in the summer
of 2006, at the end of his current contract with
Manchester United.  Many people are expecting
Keane to become a football manager when he
retires.  He is already training for his UEFA
coaching badges.  His current manager Sir Alex
Ferguson has said that he wants Keane to succeed
him as manager when he retires.

== International Career ==

At international level, Keane has represented his
country 63 times (As of 2004|as of September
2004).  Keane was named Republic of Ireland
national football team|Ireland's player of the
tournament at the Wc|1994 in the United
States|USA.  In 2001, inspired by Keane as
international captain, Ireland went undefeated
against international soccer heavyweights Portugal
national football team|Portugal and the
Netherlands national football team|Netherlands,
famously knocking out the Dutch to qualify for the
Wc|2002 in Japan and South Korea|Korea.

During the summer of 2002, at a pre-World Cup
training camp in Saipan, Keane and Ireland manager
Mick McCarthy had a disagreement about the FAI
preparations for the World Cup. Keane's
dissatisfaction with the Irish preparations first
came to light in an interview with Irish Times
journalist Tom Humphries. After a team meeting at
which McCarthy accused Keane of feigning injury,
Keane responded by insulting McCarthy and
questioning his abilities as a manager. McCarthy
decided he had no option but to send Keane home.
Neither during or after the meeting did any other
player voice support for Keane, although it's
thought that some later conferred their support to
him in private. Despite efforts from both the
media and prominent Irish politicians, the two
were unable to come to an agreement and Keane
missed out on the World Cup and declined to ever
again play under Mick McCarthy.

In Ireland, the 'Saipan Incident' (as it came to
be known) split the Irish public right down the
middle, with one half of the nation standing by
Roy Keane and the other half supporting Mick
McCarthy. It was even claimed by some to be the
most dramatic ideological split the country had
seen since the Irish Civil War. McCarthy went on
to manage Sunderland A.F.C.|Sunderland.

The appointment of Brian Kerr as Ireland manager
in 2003 eventually led to the controversial return
of Keane in the international arena in 2004. He
made his International return on May 25, 2004 in a
friendly match against Romania national football
team|Romania at Lansdowne Road. His performances
in subsequent matches made him a firm favourite
among fans once more, including some who had
spoken of him with such venom during in 2002. He
helped Ireland draw away with France and
Switzerland in their Football World Cup 2006 -
European Qualification Groups|2006 World Cup
qualifying campaign.

== The Roy Keane Musical ==

In February 2005, the comedy musical 'I, Keano'
opened in the Olympia Theatre, Dublin. The show,
which featured the cream of Irish comedy
performers, was co-written by Father Ted writer
Arthur Mathews and told the story of the Saipan
Incident in the form of a Greek epic. The
musical's characters included Keano (Roy Keane),
General Macartacus (Mick McCarthy), Fergie the
Scottish Dolphin God (Alex Ferguson) and
tap-dancing wood nymph Dunphia (Eamon Dunphy, the
Irish broadcaster who, at the time of the Saipan
Incident, led the pro-Roy Keane front, and later
was the ghostwriter for Keane's explosive
autobiography). 

The production was directed by the respected Irish
playwright and director, Peter Sheridan (brother
of Jim Sheridan).

As well as having a musical written about him, in
1997 the singer and Manchester United supporter
Morrissey released a song called "Roy's Keen"
about a window cleaner that is clearly a tribute
to Keane given the title. The lyrics also paint a
picture of the window cleaner being similar to
Keane's on pitch style ("We've Never Seen A Keener
Window Cleaner"). The song reached #42 in the UK
singles chart and featured on the album
"Maladjusted"

== References ==

* Red Mist: Roy Keane and the Football Civil War -
A Fan's Notes Conor O'Callaghan (ISBN: 0747570140)


* Roy Keane: Captain Fantastic  - Stafford
Hildred, Tim Ewbank (ISBN: 1857824369) 

* The Little Book of Roy Keane - Unknown Fan
(ISBN: 1904301169) 

* Roy Keane: The Biography - Stafford Hildred, Tim
Ewbank (ISBN: 1904034594) 

* Keane: The Autobiography - Roy Keane, Eamon
Dunphy (ISBN: 0718145542)

* The Gaffers: Mick McCarthy, Roy Keane and the
Team They Built - Paul Howard (ISBN: 0862787815)


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