At the age of 34, Robbie Keane’s best days are over as he is now reaching the twilight years of his career with maybe a few more seasons left in him before eventually deciding to stop his playing career and hang up his boots.
However, even at his elevated age, Martin O’Neill believes that the veteran attacker is the best option that Republic of Ireland has in order to find their goals.
Robbie Keane is the oldest player in the entire Republic of Ireland squad and the head coach, Martin O’Neil believed that Robbie Keane would stop performing at a high level after he decided to make a switch from Tottenham Hotspur over to the MLS side Los Angeles Galaxy but Martin O’Neil has now backed and supported once more Keane.
Martin O’Neil expressed his support towards Robbie Keane as he spoke during a press conference and the manager said: “When he went to America, there was a feeling that Robbie may have run his course with Ireland. Looking from a distance and without giving it any fantastic consideration at the time, I thought maybe that was it for him. I considered his Premier League days to be over and his international career as well, but then he said he wanted to carry on playing for Ireland when I came into the job; watching him training, his enthusiasm is there is abundance.’’
Martin O’Neil is attempting to push Republic of Ireland past the group stages of the 2016 Euro’s and help the national side qualify into the next rounds of the approaching tournament. His national team was placed in Group D along with: Poland, Germany, Scotland, Georgia and Gibraltar.
Republic of Ireland’s upcoming qualification match is scheduled to take place on March 29 as they travel to the Aviva Stadium and face off with the table toppers Poland. This will be a very difficult match for the team of Martin O’Neil as Poland remains undefeated and are one of the favorites on advancing through the next stages of the 2016 Euro’s.