Manchester United´s Wayward Son

Roy Keane

Born in Cork, Roy Keane was one the greatest play­ers ever to come from the Repub­lic of Ire­land. A deep and com­plic­ated foot­baller, Keane star­ted his some­times glit­ter­ing and always con­tro­ver­sial career at Cobh Ram­blers before the immensely tal­en­ted young­ster was brought to Not­ting­ham Forest by Brian Clough who even­tu­ally sold him to Manchester United for £3.75 mil­lion at the start of the 1993– 94 season.

A born leader both on and off the foot­ball ground, Roy Keane emerged as one of the most import­ant play­ers at Manchester United and he would take over as cap­tain in 1997. The Irish­man was a truly ded­ic­ated and determ­ined mid­field play­maker who would break up oppos­i­tion as well as set­ting up attacks and he helped Manchester United win six Eng­lish Premier League Cham­pi­on­ships, includ­ing two doubles in 1993–94 and 1995–96. While at Old Traf­ford, the for­ward think­ing mid­field player pro­ceeded to make a highly impress­ive 480 appear­ances in the league for Manchester United between 1993 and 2005. Keane gained a total of 66 caps for the Repub­lic of Ire­land and was a reg­u­lar mem­ber of the national side for more than a dec­ade after mak­ing his senior debut against Chile in May 1991. Although the Foot­ball Writers and the Pro­fes­sional Foot­ballers Asso­ci­ation voted him their Player of the Year in 2000, his beha­viour often raised eye­brows by num­ber and the man from the Rebel County was involved in a num­ber of news­worthy incid­ents which severely dam­aged his repu­ta­tion. A swash­buck­ling char­ac­ter if there ever was one, Keane would never accept the prawn sand­wich bri­gade at Manchester United.

Manchester United Books