The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Keane calls time on career
Former Tottenham and Republic of Ireland striker Robbie Keane has announced his retirement as a player.
The 38-year-old captained his country for a decade and scored 325 goals in 737 appearances for 10 different clubs during a 23-year playing career.
“Today, after 23 wonderful years, I am formally announcing my retirement as a professional footballer,” Keane said in a statement.
“From Crumlin United around the world to the likes of Milan, London and Los Angeles, I could never have imagined the path my football life would take. It has exceeded all the hopes I had as a football-mad boy growing up in Dublin.”
Keane played for the likes of Celtic, Wolves, Tottenham, Inter Milan, Leeds, Liverpool and LA Galaxy after arriving in England aged 15.
He is also the Republic’s alltime leading scorer, netting 68 goals in 146 appearances before retiring from international football in 2016.
The Republic’s new manager Mick McCarthy’s appointed Keane as his assistant last week following the departure of Martin O’Neill.
Keane arrived in England with Wolves in 1997 and moved on to Coventry for £6million after two seasons in the first team.
Further moves followed, to Inter Milan (£13m) and Leeds (£12m) before he spent six years at Tottenham.
Liverpool paid more than £20m to sign Keane from Tottenham in 2008, but he returned to White Hart Lane six months later.
Following loan spells at Celtic and West Ham he moved his family to Los Angeles, where he spent “five hugely successful and rewarding years, both on and off the field, with LA Galaxy”.