Keane a class apart for Irish

The Irish soccer media will not pick their star player of the year 2001 until February 2002, but even now there is no real need for a vote as there will hardly be a voice raised against the election of midfield player Roy Keane to the title.
 
World-class
Ireland manager Mick McCarthy stressed his team's attributes of team-work, dedication and humility, but they have one world-class player who stands above all that and has proved time and again that some of his Ireland team-mates do not deserve to be on the same field as the man from Cork. 
 
Famous treble
His performances have been equally emphatic at club level. Keane has been a driving force in Manchester United FC’s stranglehold over English football since joining in the summer of 1993 from Nottingham Forest FC. He helped inspire United to a famous treble in 1999 although suspension caused him to miss the UEFA Champions League final triumph. 
 
Player of the year
Trophy after trophy has been won by United with Keane as captain but perhaps his greatest personal season was in 1999/00 when the former Cobh Ramblers FC star scored a remarkable 12 goals from the centre of midfield and was voted player of the year in England.
 
Important asset
Jack Charlton achieved success with his Ireland team for ten years without ever having to rely heavily on just one man (though Paul McGrath came close to filling that role), but Keane has proven himself to be an asset that Ireland cannot manage without.
 
Major powers
Surprisingly the statistics suggest otherwise, and in fact since making his senior debut in 1991, Ireland have on average lost more games when Keane has been in the team, actually winning more without him. But many of those wins came against the smaller countries, and it is a bald fact that an Ireland side without Keane has never won a competitive game against one of the major powers. That was proved many times in the 2002 FIFA World Cup campaign as some points were won almost single handedly by Keane, especially the 1-1 draw at home to Portugal.
 
Team’s heartbeat
Though the Irish possess some English FA Premiership strikers such as Robbie Keane and Niall Quinn, their top scorer in the qualifying campaign was Keane. His influence does not just come in the scoring charts, however as the Manchester United FC man is seen as the heartbeat of the Irish team, the source of all that is good in the side and he has shown traits which his team-mates lack.
 
Keane unhappy
There was a typical moment early in the campaign. Ireland drew 2-2 in the first match, away to the Netherlands. Some thought this was a superb result and the fans, manager and players celebrated their point with joy. But while they partied on the Amsterdam pitch, Keane was scowling in the dressing room, unhappy that the Irish lead of 2-0 had slipped to 2-2 and therefore he saw nothing to celebrate, publicly criticising the Irish attitude of what he called "having a party, win, lose or draw".
 
Unafraid of criticism
The captain made headlines again in the campaign, criticising the Dublin training camp used by the squad and also attacking the fact that officials from the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) travelled in the comfort of first class on away trips while the players had to slum it in economy class.
 
Ireland listens
And what happened? Within weeks the FAI had found a new home for the Irish team to train and on their last away trip, to Tehran for the play-off the players enjoyed the extra room in first class while the officials were booted to the back of the plane. Proving once again that when Roy Keane speaks, Ireland listens, and Irish fans hope that his speeches will drive the team to success in 2002.