Robbie Keane hasn’t gone all Hollywood just yet
Despite sunburn, Ireland captain has no complaints about life in the MLS with LA Galaxy
Republic of Ireland captain Robbie Keane was unveiled as ambassador for the McDonald's FAI Future Football programme yesterday. Photograph: Brian Lawless/ Sportsfile
The tourist from Kentucky patrolling the grounds of Malahide Castle expressed his surprise that it was, indeed, true: Ireland can experience four seasons in no time at all. Already, he said, he’d witnessed snow, sleet, hail, rain and sunshine since he arrived an hour before, and with that there was a cacophonous rumble of thunder overhead just to, almost, complete the deck.
On being told a resident of California was about to arrive at the Castle, he offered his sympathy, reckoning he was going to feel “mighty cold”.
But Robbie Keane isn’t exactly a stranger to the climate, although the sun tan he sported yesterday when he turned up for the launch of the McDonald’s FAI Future Football Programme did make him stand out in the crowd.
He, though, was less kind about his colouring. “Playing at 2pm on a Sunday afternoon, 25 degrees or something, not good for my Irish skin – that’s why I’m so red,” he said of the upshot of his latest appearance for LA Galaxy.
The 25 degrees elicited no consoling hugs from an audience clad in thermals, although if that roof remains open in Stockholm on Friday night, and the temperatures, as forecast, reach minus 10 degrees mid-game, there might be a little more sympathy for the Ireland captain.
But other than sun-burn issues, Keane has no complaints about life in Los Angeles where his profile has risen notably since being appointed captain of the club and where, since the departure of David Beckham, he is now LA Galaxy’s best known import.
“But it doesn’t really bother me too much, I don’t really care that I’m on the back of buses and billboards and stuff like that, to be honest with you,” he said.
“It’s one of those things that comes with being an LA Galaxy player, being in the public eye, living in Hollywood, that’s just the way it is. It’s not something I think about too much.”
Meeting with Morrissey
He is, though, he admits, still thinking about his recent meeting with Morrissey in Los Angeles. “The bizarrest situation ever,” he said of his brush with the singer.
“He told me the whole history of Captain’s Road in Crumlin, where my family is from.
“He said his granddad and my granddad [Thomas Nolan] were cousins. I had no clue. I asked my mother ‘how come no one’s ever said anything, it’s not something you don’t tell people’.
