TWO LEAGUE OF Ireland titles.
Three FAI Cups.
A League of Ireland Cup.
A Setanta Sports Cup.
There are certain players, across all sports, whose worth and level of achievement are only truly appreciated when the curtain falls on their career.
Alan Keane is one of those players.
It’s a week since the 32-year-old officially announced his decision to step away from the game, calling time on a stellar and decorated career which saw him win every domestic honour possible.
The recognition for one of the league’s finest ever right backs has been universal but the most sincere tributes have come from Galway, Sligo and Dundalk, the three clubs Keane enjoyed such success at.
As a Galway native, beginning his career at Terryland Park and forging a path for himself in the game with his local club will always rank highly but it was at Sligo Rovers where Keane would become one of the league’s most consistent performers.
Yet as he reflects on a 12-year career and recalls fondly his first senior medal with Galway, the day he lifted the FAI Cup with Sligo at the Aviva Stadium or the part he played in Dundalk’s historic season last year, there’s a reminder of how fragile the dream can be.
“Before any of this happened, I was told I probably wouldn’t play professional football again,” he tells The42. ”I had only just started my career and a surgeon told me I wouldn’t play again.”
Keane had just broken into the Galway side having come up through the youth ranks at St Bernard’s and Mervue United and was establishing himself under Stephen Lally and then Tony Cousins.
In his second season at senior level, Galway were pushing for promotion back to the Premier Division and the visit of Shamrock Rovers, their main title rivals, was seen as a huge game in the context of the 2006 campaign.
“There was maybe four games to go that year and we had a great chance of getting up,” Keane explains.
“I remember a ball was left short and I went into a tackle I probably shouldn’t have gone into. I was young, enthusiastic and it was still 0-0 at the time so I went flying into it.
“It was actually Vinny Perth, who is now the Dundalk assistant manager, and I broke my fibula and tibia, the same as what Seamie Coleman has just done.”
It was a devastating setback for such a young player at the start of his fledgling career. He faced an extended period of 18 months on the sidelines and the very real prospect of never returning to the same level again.
With his contract up at the end of that season, there was now a huge cloud of uncertainty hanging over Keane’s career as a footballer but Cousins recognised his potential and put huge faith in the young defender.
“About a week after I got out of hospital, Tony drove over from Dublin to my house with a contract and said ‘listen I want to offer you a new contract so you don’t have to worry.’ I’ve forever been grateful to him for that as it allowed me to get the medical attention I needed.
“Obviously when the surgeon told me I wasn’t going to play again I was initially disappointed but it was actually quite good as it made me more determined to prove him wrong.
“Every time I was out doing recovery or out for a run I could hear him saying that in my head and that drove me on to get back. I was out for nearly a year but I didn’t care, all I wanted to do was work and get back stronger and fitter.
“I thought that was it for my career but it was actually a turning point because I was a really skinny lad and it made me hit the gym and get stronger. Maybe if I didn’t break my leg that time I wouldn’t have gone on to achieve what I did.”
Keane returned fitter and stronger and played with Galway for another two seasons, helping the club retain their Premier Division status in the most remarkable circumstances under Jeff Kenna, before moving north to the Showgrounds.
But his career very nearly took a different path.
When Paul Cook initially contacted Keane enquiring about his availability and first raising the possibility of joining the Bit O’Red, he was over the far side of the world in Australia on the verge of completing a deal to play there.
Keane had met with a club in Melbourne and after watching a couple of games was preparing to move Down Under to pursue the next chapter in his career, only for Cook — a manager he had admired and always wanted to play under — to offer him a contract at Sligo.
“The rest as they say is history,” he jokes.
“Paul transformed me as a player and gave me great confidence. He wanted me to get the ball down and I suppose that shaped how I played and to a certain extent made me the player I became.”
Keane became an integral part of Cook’s plans at Sligo and embodied the style and passion the manager wanted his teams to play with as he worked tirelessly up and down the right flank and put his body on the line for the cause.
He was a ball-playing, no-nonsense defender and his drive and passion was one of the cornerstone’s of Sligo’s success during those four trophy-laden years out west.
Others, the likes of Joseph Ndo, Eoin Doyle and Raffaele Cretaro, may have generated the headlines but Keane was an ever-present throughout. He was the mainstay.
The 2010 League of Ireland Cup victory, thanks to a 1-0 win over Monaghan United, was the catalyst for unprecedented prosperity at the Showgrounds as FAI Cup triumphs in 2010, 2011 and 2013 came in-between a first league crown in 35 years.
“When I signed in 2009 I couldn’t have imagined what would happen,” he admits. “As a kid I dreamed of just playing in a FAI Cup final, let alone winning three of them but my first senior trophy will stand out for me knowing that kick started it all for us.
“Sligo remains big in my heart, I still go and watch them and I’m glad they’re starting to do well again. That time was just amazing, very thankful to everyone involved and the fans who made me feel really welcome and made Sligo my home. I met some great people here and achieved what I always dreamed of achieving at that club.”
But there came a time, towards the end of the 2015 season, when Keane’s love for the game dwindled. He no longer wanted to negotiate a new contract every year or live with the financial insecurities associated with being a professional footballer in Ireland.
Sligo’s fortunes had turned, too, and the success achieved under Cook and Ian Baraclough was a distant memory as the club scrapped for their Premier Division survival.
After keeping their heads above water in 2015, Keane decided to call it a day and move on. Football wasn’t what he wanted to do anymore.
“When I retired I was happy,” he said. “I had said to myself why was I doing it? I was getting a contract from February to October and then having to do the same every year. I was a year older and I just had had enough. I felt I didn’t have the love for it I had a few years previous.
“I didn’t want to be the player who comes in just to collect his wage and not be fully committed. I’m all or nothing and I just felt, even at the age of 31, that I couldn’t face another pre-season or another season if it wasn’t what I fully wanted.”
To keep fit and stay in a team environment, Keane started playing Gaelic football for his local club St John’s. It was designed as nothing more than a gentle return to sport but it would ultimately pave the way for a footballing comeback with Dundalk.
As the Lilywhites progressed through to the Europa League group stages, and continued to compete on several fronts, Keane received a call from Stephen Kenny to come on board on a short-term basis. He didn’t need much time to think about it.
“Stephen is such a good man manager and he sold it,” the 32-year-old admits. “I still felt good and although there were a few small things that kind of annoy me, I got my mojo back then and my love of the game returned.
“Never in a million years did I think I would get to play in the Europa League and it was the icing on the cake then to win a second league with Dundalk. It was surreal and sometimes I had to pinch myself because I couldn’t believe it was actually happening.”
After coming out of retirement after just six months, Keane featured in five of Dundalk’s games in the run-in to their third successive league title and was on the bench for four of the group games in Europe.
“It’s something I can look back on and tell my kids about and I’m delighted I could finish my career on a high as when I left Sligo we had just survived and it was a bit of a low. It makes it a lot easier this time.”
After a short spell with Crusaders in Northern Ireland, Keane has now firmly hung up his boots and is looking towards the next chapter of his life with his partner and son in Sligo.
Having previously failed in an application to enter the fire service, Keane was recently successful in an interview process and is preparing to become part of the town’s fire crew as well as working his way up the coaching ladder having already achieved his Uefa B licence.
“From my time in Galway I looked at going into the fire service but then I got the chance to be a professional footballer and that was always my first love and passion,” he explains.
“But over the last couple of years coming towards the end of my career I knew I started to look outside football. It got to a stage in my life where I needed something more secure and stable and this is something I’ve always wanted to do.
“I’ll stay involved in football too and I’m currently over the U13 emerging talent here in Sligo and I’ll be doing my Uefa A licence soon. We had a national semi-final in Cork last weekend and won so it’s a big thing for us here. I enjoy coaching and I’ll always be a football man.
“I may not be playing anymore but it will always be part of my life. I got to live my dream for 12 years and it’s all thanks to this great little league we have. It gets bad press but I just wish more people would give it a chance and start coming to games rather than travelling to England.
“The league, the clubs and the fans have been really good to me and has given me the opportunity to live my dream and I can’t thank everyone enough for that.
“It is tough to eventually hang up your boots but I’m happy and you know when the time is right and my time is now.”
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