32 Greatest footballers in the history of the English Premier League - Part 26
12. Roy Keane:
Roy Keane is a former Irish footballer who used to play for the Premier League side Manchester United. He is currently coaching the English Championship club Ipswich Town. Throughout his eighteen year football-playing career, Roy Keane has managed to appear
for clubs like Cobh Ramblers, who were a part of the Irish League, the English club Nottingham Forest and the Red Devils Manchester United. Before ending his career, Roy Keane played for the Scottish team Celtic.
Roy Keane used to play in the midfield as a central-midfielder. He was aggressive, dominating and highly competitive and that was the reason why he was listed down as one of the best central midfielders of all time. Even though he had no control over the
anger, he used to perform for the team and helped them score goals and used to fall back to help them defend. The abilities that he possessed helped him become one of the best assets for the club he used to play for and the same abilities also helped him become
the captain of one of the biggest clubs in the history of European football, Manchester United.
He was the captain of the first team of Manchester United from 1997 to the day that he departed from the English side, in 2005. He helped United achieve a lot of success as performed for them for more than 12 years.
After becoming a part of the English club Nottingham Forest, it was seen that the “young” boy had talent that many other midfielders lacked. He became one of the best players in the history of Nottingham Forest. After playing 114 league games for the English
club, he was transferred to Manchester United as Sir Alex Ferguson was interested in the dynamic midfielder. A deal of 3.5 million pounds was agreed to between the two clubs which was a local record back then.
For Manchester United he played some extraordinary games and on his home debut he managed to score a brace to help his team win against Everton. After showing the Manchester United supporters that he was one of the best players for them, he helped the team
win a UEFA Champions League title and also helped the Red Devils win 6 English Premier League titles in only 8 years.
At the International level, he represented the Republic of Ireland for fourteen years and throughout his time with his national side scored only 9 goals in 66 appearances. For most of his career the dynamic midfielder was the captain of the team but he couldn’t
really help them win anything. However, he did help the team reach the FIFA World Cup 2002. During that particular World Cup he was involved in an incident with the coach Mick McCarthy and was sent back home and couldn’t perform for the national side.
He became the coach of the English side Sunderland but only managed to take them to the twenty third position in the Football League Championship. He helped them come to the English Premier League and his arrival really helped Sunderland become a “good”
side in the “growing” Premier League. He helped the English team by avoiding relegation during the 2007-2008 season and in 2009 he was appointed as a manager to Ipswich Town.
Roy Keane is still remembered as the “aggressive” player that he was during his time in Nottingham Forest and Manchester United. He helped both these teams gain glory and while playing for Manchester United he was considered to be one of the best central
midfielders of all time.
Roy Keane’s performance against Juventus in the UEFA Champions League semi final is still applauded when the reds talk about their glorious history. The Red’s starlet helped the team make a comeback while Manchester United bagged a win. However, it was Keane
who was shown a yellow card after talking Zidane during the 72nd minute of the game as he missed out on the final match that Manchester United eventually won 2-1 against Bayern Munich.
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