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Republic of Ireland footballing legend Robbie Keane has announced his retirement from football.
The announcement comes as the 38 year-old Keane has been appointed to the backroom staff of the new Ireland manager Mick McCarthy, who Keane played for in McCarthy’s first stint as manager of Ireland.
Robbie Keane began his career at Wolverhampton, before moving to then Premier League side Coventry City in 1999. He spent a year at Coventry before going to Inter Milan, but he only made six Serie A appearances for the Italian club.
598 appearances
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) November 28, 2018
⚽️126 Premier League goals
68 International goals
Robbie Keane has announced his playing retirement from football after being named by Mick McCarthy as his assistant coach with the Republic of Ireland national side.https://t.co/xWtt8Yfeng pic.twitter.com/0XApcZObjn
Keane spent a season and a half at Leeds United after his time at Inter Milan did not work out, coming over to Elland Road in the January 2001 transfer window in a loan deal. He spent the rest of the 2000-01 season on loan at Leeds, scoring at an impressive rate, and the club made his move permanent for a reported £12 million.
His second season at Leeds, however, was not quite as prolific, and after playing in the World Cup for Ireland, he was sold to Tottenham Hotspur for a fee of £7 million at the end of the 2002 summer transfer window. It says everything about the meltdown at Leeds that the club bought a striker for £12 million and sold him less than two years later for a loss of £5 million, almost 42% of the original transfer fee.
After leaving Leeds, Keane spent the bulk of his career at Tottenham, before going to Liverpool, Celtic FC, West Ham United, and Aston Villa in the UK. He also spent a number of years with the LA Galaxy in MLS, winning three MLS cups and one league MVP award while in Los Angeles.
After leaving Los Angeles, he signed up for a brief time with the Indian Super League club ATK in the 2017-18 season, scoring an impressive eight goals in 11 appearances for the Kolkata-based club.
Farewell to Keane, and good luck in his new role as assistant manager. His brief time at Leeds is probably remembered best as an example of the dodgy financial dealings that brought down the club, but at least we’ll still have all of those goals he scored for Leeds.