Roy Maurice Keane (born 10 August 1971 in Mayfield, Cork City, Ireland) is an Irish former professional footballer and the current manager of English Premier League club Sunderland.

A dominating central-midfielder, Keane has been hailed as one of the greatest players to grace the game in the modern era. In a highly successful 17-year career, he played for Cobh Ramblers in Ireland, Nottingham Forest and, most notably, Manchester United (both in England), before ending his career with a brief spell at Celtic in Scotland.

Keane was noted for his aggressive and highly-competitive style of play, an attitude which helped him excel as captain of Manchester United from 1997 until his departure in 2005. Keane helped United achieve a period of unprecedented success in more than 12 years at the club, during which he established himself as one of the greatest players in the club's history.

He played at international level for much of his career, representing the Republic of Ireland over a period of fourteen years, most of which he spent as captain. In the 1994 FIFA World Cup he played in every game although he was sent home from the 2002 World Cup after an argument with national coach Mick McCarthy.

During his first season as Sunderland manager, he took the club from twenty-third position in the Coca-Cola Championship to win the league and gain promotion to the Premier League. Keane's arrival has been largely attributed as the catalyst for Sunderland's remarkable recovery.

Manchester United

Early years

Despite the huge transfer fee, there was no guarantee that Keane would go straight into the first team. Bryan Robson and Paul Ince had established a formidable partnership in the centre of midfield, helping United to their first league title in twenty-six years the previous season. Robson, however, was now 36 years old and in the final few years of his playing career, and a series of injuries kept him out of action at the start of the 1993-94 season. Keane took full advantage of his run in the team, scoring twice on his home debut against Sheffield United in August and grabbing the winner in the Manchester derby three months later. He had soon established himself as a permanent fixture in Alex Ferguson's side, and by the end of the season he had won his first trophy as a professional as United retained their Premiership title in May. Two weeks later, Keane broke his Wembley losing streak by helping United to a 4-0 victory over Chelsea in the FA Cup final, sealing the club's first ever Double.

The following season was a disppointment, however, as United were beaten to the league title by Blackburn Rovers and beaten 1-0 in the FA Cup final by Everton. He received his first red card as a Manchester United player in an FA Cup semi-final against Crystal Palace after stamping on Gareth Southgate, and, as punishment, was suspended for three matches and fined £5,000. This incident was the first of eleven red cards Keane would accumulate in his United career, and one of the first signs of his fiery temper leading to indiscipline on the field.

The summer of 1995 saw a period of change at United, with Ince leaving for Inter Milan as well as striker Mark Hughes moving to Chelsea and Andrei Kanchelskis being sold to Everton. Younger players such as David Beckham, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes were brought into the team, which left Keane as the most experienced player in midfield. Despite a slow start to the 1995-96 campaign, United pegged back title challengers Newcastle, who had built a commanding twelve-point championship lead by Christmas, to secure another Premiership title. Keane's second Double in three years was confirmed with a 1-0 win over bitter rivals Liverpool to win the FA Cup for a record ninth time.

The next season saw Keane in and out of the side to a series of knee injuries and frequent suspensions. He picked up a costly yellow card in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League semi-final against Borussia Dortmund, which ruled him out of the return leg at Old Trafford. United lost both legs 1-0, but this was compensated by another league title a few days later.

Captaincy

After Eric Cantona's unexpected retirement, Keane took over as club captain, although he missed most of the 1997-98 season because of a cruciate ligament injury caused by an attempt to tackle Leeds United player Alf-Inge Håland which went horribly wrong for Keane. As Keane lay prone on the ground, Håland stood over Keane, accusing the injured United captain of having tried to hurt him and of feigning injury to escape punishment; an allegation which would lead to an infamous dispute between the two players four years later. Keane had been injured in the ninth game of the season, and did not return to competitive football that campaign. He watched from the sidelines as United squandered an eleven-point lead over Arsenal to miss out on the Premiership title. Many pundits cited Keane's absence as a crucial factor in the team's surrender of the league trophy. He initially expressed doubts as to whether he would play again due to the severity of his injury, but he recovered in time to begin pre-season training for the new campaign.

Any fears that Keane's injury may have reduced his effectiveness as a player were dispelled in the 1998-99 season, when he returned to captain the side to an unprecedented treble of the FA Premier League, FA Cup, and UEFA Champions League. One of his finest performances in this campaign was an inspirational display against Juventus in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final, when he helped haul his team back from two goals down to win 3–2, a game regarded around Europe as one of the best performances on a football field in the modern era of European football. He scored from a header to start United's comeback and continually drove the team forwards at every opportunity. His performance in Turin has been described as his finest hour as a footballer. Earlier in the match, however, Keane had received a yellow card that ruled him out of the final after a trip on Zinedine Zidane. In the final, United defeated Bayern Munich 2-1 at Nou Camp, but Keane had mixed emotions about the victory due to his suspension. Recalling his thoughts before the game, Keane said: "Although I was putting a brave face on it, this was just about the worst experience I'd had in football." Later that year, Keane scored the only goal in the finals of the Intercontinental Cup, as United defeated Palmeiras.

Contract negotiations dominated the landscape during the summer after the treble, with Keane turning down United's initial £2 million-a-year offer amid rumours of a move to Italy. His higher demands were eventually met midway through the 1999-00 season, committing him to United until 2004. Keane was angered when club officials explained an increase in season ticket prices was a result of his improved contract and asked for an apology from the club. Days after the contract was signed, Keane celebrated by scoring the winning goal against Valencia CF in the Champions League, although United's interest in the competition was ended by Real Madrid in the quarter-finals, partly due to an unfortunate Keane own-goal in the second leg. He was voted PFA Players' Player of the Year and Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year at the end of the season after leading United to their sixth Premiership title in eight years.

Keane caused controversy in December 2000, when he criticised sections of United supporters after the Champions League victory over Dynamo Kiev at Old Trafford. He complained about the lack of vocal support given by some fans when Kiev were dominating the game, stating: "Away from home our fans are fantastic, I'd call them the hardcore fans. But at home they have a few drinks and probably the prawn sandwiches, and they don't realise what's going on out on the pitch. I don't think some of the people who come to Old Trafford can spell 'football', never mind understand it." Keane's rant started a debate in England about the changing atmosphere in football grounds, and the term 'prawn sandwich brigade' is now part of the English football vocabulary.

He made headlines again in the 2001 Manchester Derby, a game in which Alf-Inge Håland played. Five minutes from the final whistle, he was sent off for a blatant knee-high foul on the Norwegian in what was seen by many as an act of revenge. He initially received a three game suspension and a £5,000 fine from the FA, but further punishment was to follow after the release of Keane's autobiography in August 2002, in which he stated that he intended "to hurt" Håland. Keane's account of the incident was as follows:

"I'd waited long enough. I fucking hit him hard. The ball was there (I think). Take that you cunt. And don't ever stand over me sneering about fake injuries."

An admission that the tackle was in fact a premeditated assault, it left the FA with no choice but to charge Keane with bringing the game into disrepute. He was banned for a further five matches and fined £150,000 in the ensuing investigation. Despite widespread condemnation, he later maintained in his autobiography that he had no regrets about the incident: "My attitude was, fuck him. What goes around comes around. He got his just rewards. He fucked me over and my attitude is an eye for an eye."Håland briefly considered taking legal action against Keane, but after both legal and medical advice he later decided otherwise. The Norwegian retired from football shortly afterwards, stating on his website that it was a recurring problem in his other leg that was causing him pain, rather than an injury resulting from Keane's tackle.

After another red card against Newcastle in September 2001, Keane considered retiring from the game, but was eventually persuaded otherwise by Ferguson.[18] United finished the 2001-02 season trophyless for the first time in four years. Domestically, they were eliminated from the FA Cup by Middlesbrough in the fourth round and finished third in the Premiership, their lowest final position in the league since 1991. Progress was made in Europe, however, as United reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League, their furthest advance since their successful campaign of 1999. They were eventually knocked out on away goals after a 3–3 aggregate draw with Bayer Leverkusen, despite Keane putting United 3–2 up, and after the defeat, Keane blamed United's loss of form on some of his team-mates' fixation with wealth, claiming that they had "forgot about the game, lost the hunger that got you the Rolex, the cars, the mansion." Earlier in the season, Keane had publicly advocated the breakup of the Treble-winning team as he believed the team-mates who had played in United's victorious 1999 Champions League final no longer had the motivation to work as hard.

In August 2002 he was fined £150,000 by Ferguson and suspended for three matches for elbowing Sunderland's Jason McAteer, and this was compounded by an added five-match suspension for the controversial comments about Håland. Keane used the break to undergo an operation on his hip, which had caused him to take painkillers for a year beforehand. Despite early fears that the injury was career-threatening, and suggestions of a future hip-replacement from his surgeon, he was back in the United team by December.

During his period of rest after the operation, Keane reflected on the cause of his frequent injuries and suspensions. He decided that the cause of these problems was his reckless challenges and angry outbursts which had increasingly blighted his career. As a result, he became more restrained on the field, and tended to avoid the disputes and confrontations with other players. Some observers felt that the "new" Roy Keane had become less influential in midfield as a consequence of the change in his style of play, possibly brought about by decreased mobility after his hip operation. However, after his return, Keane displayed the tenacity of old, leading the team to another league title in May 2003.

Throughout the 2000s, Keane maintained a healthy rivalry with Arsenal captain Patrick Vieira. The most notable incident between the two took place at Highbury in 2005 at the height of an extreme period of bad blood between United and Arsenal. Vieira was seen confronting United defender Gary Neville in the tunnel before the game over his fouling of Jose Antonio Reyes in the previous encounter between the two sides, prompting Keane to verbally confront the Arsenal captain. The incident was broadcast live on Sky Sports, with Keane clearly heard imploring match referee Graham Poll to "Tell him [Vieira] to shut his fucking mouth!" After the game, which United won 4-2, Keane controversially criticised Vieira's decision to play internationally for France instead of his birthplace of Senegal. However, Vieira later suggested that having walked out on his National team in the World Cup finals Keane was not in a good position to comment on such matters. Referee Poll later revealed that he should have sent off both players before the match had begun, though was under pressure not to do so.

Overall, Keane would lead United to 9 major honours, making him the most successful captain in the club's history. Keane scored his 50th goal for Manchester United on 5 February 2005 in a league game against Birmingham City. His appearance in the 2005 FA Cup final, which United lost to Arsenal in a penalty shootout, was his seventh such game, an all-time record in English football at the time. Keane also jointly holds the record for the most red cards received in English football, being dismissed a total of 13 times in his career. He was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2004 in recognition of his undoubted impact on the English game, and became the only Irish player to be selected into the FIFA 100, a list of the greatest living footballers picked by Pelé.

Departure from Manchester United

Keane unexpectedly left Manchester United by mutual consent on 18 November 2005, during a protracted absence from the team due to an injury sustained in his last competitive game for the club, due to a robust challenge from Luis Garcia against Liverpool. His departure marked the climax of increasing tensions between Keane and the United management and players since the club's pre-season training camp in Portugal, when he argued with Ferguson over the quality of the set-up at the resort. Ferguson was angered further by Keane's admission during an MUTV phone-in that he would be "prepared to play elsewhere" after the expiration of his current contract with United at the end of the season.

Another of Keane's appearances on MUTV provoked more controversy, when, after a humiliating 4–1 defeat at the hands of Middlesbrough in early November, he took the opportunity to criticise the performances of John O'Shea, Alan Smith, Kieran Richardson and Darren Fletcher. The harshest analysis, however, was reserved for the club's record signing Rio Ferdinand: "Just because you are paid £120,000-a-week and play well for 20 minutes against Tottenham, you think you are a superstar." The outburst was deemed too damning by the United Management and was subsequently pulled from transmission by the club's TV station. Keane's opinions were described by those present at the interview as "explosive even by his standards".

Two weeks later, after another row with Ferguson, Keane reached an agreement with Manchester United allowing him to leave the club immediately in order to sign a long-term deal with another club.[30] He was offered a testimonial in recognition of his twelve and a half years at Old Trafford, with both Ferguson and United Chief Executive David Gill wishing him well for the future. On 15 December 2005, Keane was announced as a Celtic player, the team he had supported as a child, after agreeing to a contract in the region of £40,000 per week.

It was later revealed by United that Keane's testimonial would take place at Old Trafford on 9 May 2006 between United and Celtic. The home side won the game 1-0, with Keane playing the first half for Celtic and the second half in his former role as Manchester United captain. The capacity crowd of 69,591 remains the largest crowd ever for a testimonial match in England. All of the revenue generated from the match was given to Keane's favourite charity, the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association.