IRELAND BOSS HEIMIR Hallgrimsson spoke enthusiastically of Robbie Keane’s speech to the Irish players this week, as the nation’s record goalscorer presented the Irish players with their international caps.
Keane has a fraught recent history with the Irish team, continuing to draw a salary under a four-year coaching contract signed in 2019 in spite of the fact Stephen Kenny did not involve him on his coaching staff.
Keane coached Maccabi Tel Aviv to a league title last season, but left in the summer. Keane’s decision to remain in his job following the launch of Israel’s war in Gaza has led to strong criticism from some Irish supporters: the FAI’s social media post of Keane’s presentation attracted an avalanche of negative comment. Sinn Féin’s spokesperson for sport, Chris Andrews TD, said the FAI’s invitation to Keane to present the caps was “extremely disappointing.”
Hallgrimsson said he was unaware of the backlash and, when asked, clarified it was the FAI’s decision to invite Keane to present the players’ caps at the team hotel on Monday, but praised Keane’s contribution.
Great to have Ireland’s record goalscorer Robbie Keane in camp last night for our annual caps presentation 🇮🇪
— Ireland Football ⚽️🇮🇪 (@IrelandFootball) November 12, 2024
Always a special occasion for any player to receive their international cap and recognition 🧢💚 pic.twitter.com/bQtxqK2q8N
“Yeah, he had a good speech”, said Hallgrimsson. “The players were asking him questions. I think it is good to connect past players, the legends from the past to the present. What was really good was how he, as a goal scorer and a really high profile player at his time, was talking about the importance of team unity, fighting for each other, team spirit.
“It was probably not what you would think a striker would say, scoring all his goals, but I think it was a really good message to the players.
“We did the same in Jamaica. Brought in old legends just to connect the past and the present. I think it was a good thing.”
Nathan Collins, sitting beside Hallgrimsson at today’s pre-match press conference, added, “As a kid growing up, these are the players you watch. You watch him every international camp, you watch him score his goals for Ireland.
“It’s nice to know that we are in a similar boat and what we are building here is what they had as well. We can take a lot of things from what he said and use them in our team.”
Ireland play Finland at the Aviva tomorrow night, and must avoid defeat to remain in third place and thus avoid being automatically relegated to League C of the Nations League. A third-placed finish nonetheless means Ireland would have to secure their League B status with a play-off against a League C runner-up next March.
Shane Duffy, Seamus Coleman, and Adam Idah have already been forced to withdraw for injury, and there are further injury concerns over Andrew Moran, Festy Ebosele, and Dara O’Shea. They will be assessed after this afternoon’s training session.
With Coleman out, Matt Doherty has been recalled having been dropped for the October window. Asked about Doherty, Hallgrimsson stuck to his line about wanting to explore alternate options at right-back ahead of next year’s World Cup qualifiers.
“Just to answer on Matt, we always said we did not want to have both Matt and Seamus at the same time, to think a little bit for the future, so missing Seamus and Shane Duffy too, two really experienced players, no doubt in my mind that Matt was the replacement there”, said the manager. Doherty, however, was omitted from last month’s games against Greece and Finland despite the fact Coleman was absent too.
Hallgrimsson said his conversations this week with Doherty have been “pleasant.”
“I hope everyone, not only him, will show that on the pitch, ‘I deserve to be here’. That is where players should be doing their talking”, said Hallgrimsson.
Hallgrimsson also does not believe the need to avoid relegation will heap added pressure on the Irish players.
“Not more to us than Finland. Finland comes to Dublin and they need to win. That’s their priority. It gives us an advantage. They would probably, at one point or another, need to take more risks so we need to be clever in that sense. It doesn’t bring more pressure to us than the Finns.”
Lost all respect for him long long ago the collecting the salary was just an awful thing to do as well
He’s Ireland’s record goal scorer – obviously he is welcome to hand out caps and share a bit of wisdom. During his single season at Maccabi, which incidentally began months before October 7 2023, he wasn’t exactly attached to the IDF calling in drone strikes in Gaza was he? No, he was training a football team.
@Richard Murphy: He could have resigned earlier. In fairness the Irish in general do like to side with the oppressed and are entitled to do so if they please.
@Richard Murphy: yeah wasn’t the best look but its time to move on with that with Robbie..did a decent job over there so maybe potential, be a shame to waste a good coach/manager by holding it against him in the future
@Richard Murphy: Bullshit. He joined a team which was condemned for the public humiliation of its last Arab player. Robbie was told. He ignored it. This is not a normal football team. This has been the world’s most barbaric football club for 20 years.
@Warren Conlon Grant: Actually I’m just sick of all this now. This is what happens when you let a country compete in sport when it should be excluded. You could argue soccer was a force for good in banning Yugoslavia and Russia. What can you say about soccer now? Israel took part in an Olympics when it was murdering Olympians. I frankly can’t believe the world has become this crazy.
@Warren Conlon Grant: oh yeah sorry, before the trouble starts, “killing” olympians
Not surprised at the FAI, if they can find any way to mess up or show contempt for the fanbase, they’ll do so. He supported genocide, and will always be stained by it. Saoirse don Phailistín.
@An tEoghanach: agree. Great example of FAI openly mocking its teams supporters
Greed drawing his 250k p/a salary when kicking up his feet in sunnier climes. Could have drawn it but diverted the cash to youth coaching or grassroots.
It was his boyhood dream to give a presentation to the Irish team before a game with Finland
Man signs and completes contracts wirh employers.
That’s nice, sure he only changed the FAI €250k for it
Del Boy gave him a 4 year deal and promised him he’d be no.2 under Mick after 2 years, and then he would be the no.1 once Mick finished in 4 years, so he’d been promised the sun, moon, and the stars by Del Boy, so he was probably in no mood to rip up his contract just because Stephen Kenny chose Duff over him as a no.2.
@Caolan Z: May e cooild have found a place for Robbie considering the turn over in assistants in his time
Dream come true to do a presentation to Irish players.