Football
Kevin Palmer 9y

Roy Keane says he rejected a move to Real Madrid while 'sitting on the toilet'

Roy Keane says he rejected the chance to sign for Real Madrid while he was sitting on the toilet, in a bizarre entry released from his soon to be released book, "The Second Half."

Keane revealed he was offered the chance to sign for the Spanish giants shortly after he had been shown the door by Manchester United in late 2005, with his agent Michael Kennedy setting up a telephone conversation with Real Madrid sporting director Emilio Butragueno.

"Michael [Kennedy] had given me a heads-up that Emilio Butragueno would be phoning, so I took my mobile phone everywhere with me," Keane writes.

"And -- how's your luck -- he rang me while I was sitting on the toilet. He said: 'Look Roy, we'll be glad to have you.' The club's board just had to sanction the deal."

Keane rejected the opportunity to sign for Real Madrid as he hoped he would be able to have a bigger influence at Scottish side Celtic and he made his move to Glasgow in December 2005.

"I took a negative approach," he continues. "The weather and the training might have given me another lease of life, another two years of playing.

"As much as anything else, it was fear that decided me -- fear of the unknown. I should have appreciated Real's offer more. It was the most attractive challenge in front of me but I didn't accept it.

"In hindsight, I should have said to myself: Go, go to Spain, live there for a year and a half, learn the language, learn the culture.

"But it's no good playing for a club, it's about having a big influence. Real Madrid might just have wanted someone to do a job, sit in the middle of the park for a few games. But I wanted to go in and have an effect on a team."

Keane is now Martin O'Neill's assistant manager for the Republic of Ireland, and O'Neill has seen his preparations for vital Euro 2016 qualifiers disturbed by the imminent release of Keane's new book. But O'Neill says he's not about to get involved in the latest controversy created by his high-profile sidekick.

Ireland face games against Gibraltar and Germany in the coming days, but all the focus has been on Keane in the build-up to those matches, much to the bemusement of O'Neill as he dodged questions from reporters on the subject of Keane's book in Dublin.

"I'm here to talk about the games and I wouldn't want anything to be a distraction," O'Neill said. "The book is not a problem to me at all, why should it be?

"I have not read it. I have been given some updates and it seems to be quite funny, but the games are the main reason why we are here.

"You could turn around and say me speaking about this is a distraction, but nevertheless. Such is life, you get on with it.

"I genuinely don't know what the headlines are about the book. It was obviously going to cause some sort of furore at some stage or another. The very fact that he put his name to this book suggests that exactly what has happened."

O'Neill seemed to get a little annoyed by the stream of questions about Keane's book as he interjected: "You can keep going on about this, but I have no idea what it's all about.

"Let me read it first and then I might say something. He is over 21, he's capable of dealing with his own stuff. He didn't need to talk to me about it."

O'Neill must have known his decision to appoint Keane as his No.2 could lead to scenarios of the kind he finds himself in this week, but the Republic of Ireland boss remains convinced that the presence of the man he refers to as "an iconic figure" is healthy in his bid to qualify for Euro 2016.

^ Back to Top ^