Robbie Keane

Wins his 100th cap tonight.....Fair play to the lad, nobody could ever question his commitment to the national team, a fine footballer....


Up there with Giles and McGrath as our greatest footballer ever

Is he related to Billy Keane?

he's up there with cascarino as one of our greatest ever strikers

whiterbananas wrote:he's up there with cascarino as one of our greatest ever strikers

A much more accurate comparison than The Puke's.

John Giles and Paul McGrath....

good article from last weeks sunday tribune





A goal king without keys to a kingdom

Set to earn his 100th cap against Argentina, Robbie Keane is Ireland's record scorer by some distance. So why is he not feted as a hero?

Ciaran Cronin


What's your enduring memory of Robbie Keane on Ireland duty? Have a think about it. Is it his clinically taken injury-time goal against Germany at the 2002 World Cup? Or his penchant for throwing his hands up in the air when the ball isn't played to precisely where he wants it? Is it the courage he showed in stepping up to tuck away that late penalty against Spain in Suwon to bring the game to extra-time? Or his manic hand gestures, not unlike those of a harassed Italian traffic cop, during a game. Do you think of the vital goals he scored away to the Netherlands in 2000, at home to Iran in 2001, or indeed his predatory finishes away to Italy and France during the last World Cup qualifying campaign? Or the games against San Marino and Cyprus (twice) during the Steve Staunton era where the captain seemed as disinterested and unmotivated as anybody else? What picture endures?




On the cusp of Keane's 100th international cap, a landmark the 30-year-old should reach against Argentina on Wednesday night at the Aviva Stadium, the player's achievements should be celebrated. He should have streets and parks named after him, children christened in his honour. And if Keane were another player in another country, reaching precisely the same landmark having scored as regularly as he has for Ireland, he would be accorded those accolades. But in the case of the Tallaght native, it's just not that simple.




Back at the start, however, it all appeared pretty straightforward. On the back of his debut seasaon with Wolves in the Championship, he made his Irish debut as a substitute in a friendly away to the Czech Republic in March 1998. That summer, he was part of Brian Kerr's Ireland under-18 European Championship-winning side in Cyprus and scored his first two international goals in his fifth cap against Malta the following October in a Euro 2000 qualifier at Lansdowne Road. The duck had been broken fairly early; a new Irish hero had taken his first steps.




He has scored regularly ever since. On the morning of his 53rd cap against the Faroe Islands in October 2004, Keane sat level with Niall Quinn at the top of the all-time Irish scoring charts with 21 goals; his two goals that evening against the minnows put him out on his own. Fast-forward almost six years, and a further 46 caps, and Keane has 43 international goals, an international scoring average the same as Raul's with Spain, better than Thierry Henry's for France and not that far behind Bobby Charlton's in an England shirt. He has managed a goal more or less every second game and his tally stacks up in terms of competitive versus friendly goals, too. In 58 competitive appearances for Ireland, Keane has scored 26 goals; in 41 friendlies, he's notched a tally of 17. To break that down even further, he scored 10 goals in 22 competitive fixtures for Mick McCarthy, six in 13 under Brian Kerr and six in 12 for Giovanni Trapattoni. The only blip was the three in 10 games during Staunton's tenure but he wasn't the only player to suffer during that period.




And yet Keane's scoring record has been picked at mercilessly by his critics. Despite what the above numbers show, he has been accused of not scoring enough competitive goals and not finding the net often enough in big matches. He has been stalked by those charges and when, back in 2007, he had the temerity to say that he wasn't worried about his record in competitive internationals, he was pilloried for not caring. But his numbers do add up and on the other issue, why does anybody think Ireland have a divine right to be knocking in goals for fun in big matches against the likes of France, Italy or Germany?




But when you dig into the reasons behind why Keane isn't as universally loved as his talent and efforts deserve, it is not how he plays, or has played in the past – it's what he represents. The Tottenham striker is the poster boy for a generation of Irish players who have played for their country in an era when the Irish public have fallen out of love with their football team. The reasons are many. Not being as successful as the Irish teams of the late 80s and early 90s was always likely to turn many "supporters" off the national team, while the wages footballers began to receive at their clubs across the water succeeded in placing a physical distance between the Irish players and their public.




During the Jack Charlton era, many football fans saw, or at least knew somebody who had seen, the likes of Niall Quinn, Mick McCarthy or John Aldridge enjoying a few pints at random watering holes around the country. That generation of players would open clubhouses, shops, offices, community centres: you name it, they'd cut a ribbon in front of it. They did so because they were keen for a few bob and a night out and the economic reality of their careers allowed them to develop a real connection with the people they were playing for. Keane's generation of footballers have no financial need to open pubs or butchers and, therefore, no opportunity to build relationships with their public. Instead, Keane and his ilk are viewed by Irish supporters through the prism of the media, a media that hasn't treated him kindly.




Keane hasn't helped himself in that regard. What was seen in his youth as a shyness or awkwardness in his media dealings is now viewed as a policy of deliberate unhelpfulness. He doesn't seem to understand the media in the way that somebody like Shay Given clearly does, or even Richard Dunne and Damien Duff, players from the same generation who have all managed to carve a decent public image. That much was clear when he appeared on the Late Late Show in October 2007 after Ireland's dismal draw against Cyprus at Croke Park, when he got the tone of what he was trying to say embarrassingly wrong. He does not do one-on-one interviews with print journalists, eschewing the opportunity to give the public an idea of what kind of a bloke he really is. Sitting at the top table at press conferences as captain alongside Giovanni Trapattoni of late has provided a taste of Keane's wit but in other dealings with Ireland, he is cautious and suspicious, continually looking for a negative intent in a question that, mostly, isn't there. That is the picture the Irish public are served up and unfortunately for Keane, it is the only one they have.




More's the pity. We are told by many witnesses – Martin Jol and Harry Redknapp at Tottenham, Brian Kerr, the player's many former and current clubmates – that Keane is an ebullient type, a bloke who likes to initiate a sing-song, a prank, a well-aimed wisecrack. The kind of guy who is good company. And there is no reason to doubt those testimonies. The problem is the Irish public don't see this, mainly because Keane has decided that he doesn't want to show them. He remains, as he approaches his 100th cap, an excellent player, prolific scorer and proud servant of his country. But still misunderstood.

Ah Robbie is not the worst fair play to him. And despite the early career tag of only scoring in friendlies and in games against minnows, his record stands up to scrutiny.

The Puke wrote:good article from last weeks sunday tribune

What's your enduring memory of Robbie Keane on Ireland duty?

Persistent failure.

He should have been a Galway hurler

he's a top man and he is dead right to treat the print media like the scum that they are. The way he has been treated by "journalists" in this country is a disgrace. Wait til he retires, only then will he be truly appreciated. We dont have a great record of producing strikers who can actually score

whiterbananas wrote:he's a top man and he is dead right to treat the print media like the scum that they are. The way he has been treated by "journalists" in this country is a disgrace. Wait til he retires, only then will he be truly appreciated. We dont have a great record of producing strikers who can actually score

I think his goalscoring achievement is not given enough credit. The service he gets would be as good as some top class nations but has still managed 43 goalsmore than double the goals tally of Quinn in second. Since beating the record he has managed 22 goals in 6 years. Without any doubt he is Irelands greatest ever forward and the parameters show that.