Robbie Keane

Robbie Keane

Robert David "Robbie" Keane (born 8 July 1980) is an Irish footballer, who plays as a striker for the Los Angeles Galaxy and captains the Republic of Ireland national football team. A talented striker who also "doubles as a playmaker, drifting deep into midfield to help ease pressure and start attacks" when he plays for the national team.

Keane has scored 54 goals for the Republic of Ireland from 25 March 1998 to 7 September 2012, making him the all-time record Irish goalscorer, having become the first male Irish player to score 50 international goals in June 2011. He is the 26th highest international scorer in the history of International football, and the third highest International scorer among active players. Keane was Ireland's top scorer at the 2002 FIFA World Cup in South Korea and Japan, with three goals plus a converted penalty in the shoot-out with Spain. With 121 full caps, he is Ireland's second most capped player of all time and is a member of the FIFA Century Club. He is the eleventh highest goalscorer in the history of the Premier League with 125 goals (as of 21 January 2012), (Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink is tenth with 127) and is the tenth highest goalscorer in Tottenham Hotspur history.

Keane began his professional career at Wolverhampton Wanderers, scoring twice in his first team debut aged 17. The following season he was the club's leading goalscorer and scored his first international goal with Republic of Ireland. He changed club frequently between 1999 and 2002, breaking transfer fee records, but his brief spells at Internazionale and Leeds United were unexceptional. He joined Tottenham Hotspur in 2002 and played there for six years. The 2007–08 season was the most fruitful of his career as he set a career record of 23 goals in a season, scored a landmark 100th competitive goal for Tottenham and won his first senior honour, the League Cup. He moved to Liverpool in July 2008 but he spent only six months at the club and soon returned to Tottenham and was made first team captain. In January 2010, Keane moved on loan to Scottish Premier League side Celtic for the rest of the season. He left Tottenham for Los Angeles Galaxy in 2011. In January 2012, Keane joined Premier League side Aston Villa on a two month loan, during the MLS off-season. Keane's pedigree was reinforced when he became Ireland's record goalscorer in 2004 and Steve Staunton appointed him national team captain in 2006.

On 21 January 2012, Keane achieved the extremely rare feat of having scored goals in competitions for ten different clubs, when he scored twice for Aston Villa against former club Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League. This meant Keane had now scored in competitions for Aston Villa, West Ham United, Leeds United, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Coventry City, all in the Premier League, Wolverhampton Wanderers in the English First Division, Celtic in the Scottish Premier League, Internazionale in Italy's Serie A and Los Angeles Galaxy in the U.S. Major League Soccer.