Martin O’Neill on Roy Keane ‘bromance’ and ‘terrific time’ working together on Ireland team

The pair worked together on the Republic of Ireland team from 2013 to 2018

Football legend Martin O’Neill looked back at his celebrated career and to the future of Irish soccer on The Late Late Show.

The Kilrea man opened up to host Patrick Kielty about highlights such as playing in the World Cup with Northern Ireland and lifting two European Cups with Nottingham Forest, to his managerial triumphs with Leicester City, Celtic and, of course, the Republic of Ireland.

He also highlighted his “bromance” with Roy Keane. The pair worked together as manager and assistant for the Republic of Ireland from 2013 to 2018, leading the team to the Euro 2016 finals.

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Host Patrick Kielty asked: “What was harder for you, convincing Roy Keane to be your assistant or convincing the FAI to allow Roy to be your assistant?”

Martin responded: “Funnily enough, John Delaney was in charge of proceedings at that time. He wanted me to be manager and I said to him, ‘what about an assistant?’ I said ‘I’ve got one in mind’ and he asked who it would be.

“I said ‘Roy Keane’ and then John fainted and fell down, because Roy had a spat with him some years earlier. When he recovered after about 20 minutes he said ‘Ok, I’ll go with it.’ And it was honestly terrific, we had a lovely time.”

Looking back on their time working together, Martin joked about Roy Keane “cheating” in golf. He said: “Roy decided in the little spare time we had, he might take up golf. He’s splendid at a lot of things, but counting his shots, he’s got a major problem with.

“There was a golf course near a hotel where we were staying, so we went to play a few holes and Roy was teeing off this par 5. It was definitely the longest par 5 in history, it’s about 700 yards long – Rory McIlroy couldn’t get there in 3.

“Roy was teeing off with a 7 iron in the trees somewhere, we leave him alone and about 15 minutes later we’re up at the green. This ball comes up and nearly hits me in the shoulder, and I asked Roy what it was. He said it was his shot, and when I asked how many he had, he said three.

“I said, ‘you’ve been there 20 minutes in the woods.’ So after that, we decided to count Roy’s shots all the time.”

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