Robbie Keane has confirmed he is in talks with LA Galaxy about a new contract that would extend his MLS career well beyond the end of this coming season with the 34-year-old reiterating his desire to play on for another four or even five years.
The Dubliner has acknowledged, though, that Ireland qualifying for Euro 2016 and then doing well at the tournament might just provide an irresistible opportunity to end his international career on a major high. The striker has repeatedly said that he wants to keep on playing for both club and country as long as he feels able to and insisted yesterday he may well go on for several more years with Ireland.
Certainly, he says, there is no pressure on him from his employers to stop making the long journeys home.
“No, not at all,” he said. “The manager probably encourages you to play. Of course you’re going to miss a few games [but] it’s better for the MLS that players are playing international football because MLS will get recognised even more.”
After the disappointment of Ireland’s Euro2012 finals campaign in Poland, however, Keane admits that he would weigh up the pros and cons of calling it a day on the international front in the event that Martin’s O’Neill’s team make it to France.
World Cup
“The Euros in 2012 is something you want to forget about. I don’t think about it too much but look, I just want to do my best for the country, if that’s getting to another Euros then great, the whole country wants that and that’s why we play the game . . .”
“The World Cup and the Euros, you don’t get any bigger than that. If we get there it will be great for me and to finish off on that would be fantastic.”
Asked if he meant he would consider retiring from international football in those circumstances he said: “Maybe . . . there is certainly a chance that that would be the case.”
Keane says that he is anxious not to make the same mistake as some players he knows who have quit then regretted it as he still cherishes the opportunity to play regularly at a high level.
Ireland skipper
“Players think they have played for a long time and think, ‘Oh I’ve done enough now,’ but the reality is you’re finished a long time. I love what I do and I’ll regret that day when I hang up my boots.”
The Ireland skipper was revisiting one of the scenes of his youth, dropping into Crumlin Children’s Hospital to present a cheque for $50,000 (€44,104) from Galaxy’s foundation, visit wards and, in his role as an ambassador for the institution that, he confirmed, had to patch him up a few times as kid, promote the hospital’s GiveItUp campaign (giveitup.ie).
He recalled passing by the place as he went to training with Crumlin United and said the sight of it today reminds him of how he viewed the game and his hopes for a career in it back then.
“I spoke to one of the coaches that is with us [at LA Galaxy] here, Pat Noonan, and he was saying, ‘Where did you play?’ I said, ‘I got off the bus stop there and went through that little alleyway there and jumped over the gate.’
“Looking at that, I still get that little feeling in my stomach that I had when I was that little kid trying to go to England. I still have that buzz now when I put the jersey on whether it’s the Galaxy jersey or the Irish jersey.”
