ROBBIE KEANE BRUSHED off talk about retirement yesterday and insisted that, at 32, he can carry on playing for another four or five years.
Ireland’s record goalscorer is loving life and loving football in America where he has kicked off his third MLS season with the LA Galaxy, his first as the club’s captain.
But this week Keane’s attention is firmly fixed on international matters and, having been rested by manager Giovanni Trapattoni for the friendlies against Greece and Poland, he is back in the plans for the World Cup double-header against Sweden and Austria.
After training this morning, Trap and his squad fly out for Stockholm ahead of Friday night’s game when temperatures are forecast to drop as low as an eye-watering -10°C in the Friends Arena.
America’s West coast it certainly ain’t, but as he bears the brunt of a chilly Malahide in short sleeves, Keane says that he appreciates the trips home even more these days.
His last internationals were the nightmare 6-1 defeat against Germany followed by a trip to the Faroe Islands which was played out under a cloud of suspicion that Trapattoni would be immediately relieved of his position, win or lose.
With two vital World Cup qualifiers now crammed into the space of five days, thankfully there was no lasting damage to squad morale.
“I’ve only been here a couple of days but everything seems fine,” Keane said. “The lads seem in good spirits.
“If they’re like me, you just have to try and switch off from what happened a few months ago. You can’t change it so you just have to move forward and look forward to the two games coming up which will hopefully be our biggest tests so far.”
As an ambassador for the new “Future Football” partnership between the FAI and McDonald’s, Keane attended the launch event in Malahide Castle after yesterday’s training session. The scheme is aimed at improving grassroots football in Ireland, giving the Robbie Keanes of tomorrow opportunities that this one never had.
As he spoke about the next generation, talk inevitably turned to his own footballing future. Keane knows he can’t go on forever, though you sense he would try, but he insists that retirement is not on his immediate horizon.
I see Michael Owen retiring from football — us two came through around the same time. I dread the day that I have to finish playing because this is my life and this is what I love doing. I wake up every morning and look forward to going to training and playing games.As long as I’m healthy and fit, I could carry on for another four or five years easily.
Does he still get the same enjoyment out of it though?
“I’m always enjoying it. Even when things are not going well, you have to enjoy it because I’m very privileged to have the lifestyle that I have and the life that I have. I wake up every day and I get paid for something I love doing. Not many people can say that.”
With the MLS season just getting underway, Keane has found himself facing questions about his match fitness and sharpness ahead of Friday’s vital qualifier. In his own words he is “feeling good,” and points to his two goals in four competitive games so far.
One difference from last season is that, much to the disappointment of struggling Aston Villa, there was no off-season sojourn to the Premier League this spring. It was more important to rest and recover from a troublesome Achilles’ injury than to play through the MLS winter break, he explains.
“I had the Achilles’ problem before the Germany game and it just got progressively worse and worse towards the end of the season. In the [MLS] Final and the game before that, I could hardly run on the pitch. I was really struggling.
I was advised to take six weeks off and do absolutely nothing, stay off my feet. For someone who is quite hyper like me it’s very hard to do that — you want to come home and have a five-a-side with your mates. It was fairly tough but at the moment it feels good.
If he does lead the line as expected in Stockholm, it looks increasingly likely that Shane Long will be the man to partner him up front. Trapattoni dropped his latest squad selection bombshell last weekend when he left Kevin Doyle on the standby list, citing the Wolves striker’s lack of confidence in front of goal.
Keane knows how it feels to lose that golden touch for a time but he’s confident that Trapattoni’s decision won’t signal the end of Doyle’s international career and that the man who has been his regular strike partner for many years will bounce back.
“It’s certainly not just down to Kevin that they’re struggling. As a team they’re struggling. As a striker, when the team’s struggling and things are not going well, if you don’t get opportunities, you’re the one that gets pinpointed because you’re the one who should be scoring goals, but certainly it’s not Kevin’s fault.
He’s not in the squad at the moment but in football, it can easily turn around as we well know. He scored at the weekend.I wouldn’t think that he’s not going to be playing for Ireland again. He’ll definitely be in the squad again I’d imagine.
