Robbie Keane takes the helm as Ferencváros’ new head coach
The former Irish footballer Robbie Keane was a very successful player, but he has also won championships as a coach.
Pascal Janssen, who managed the men’s football team of 35-time champion Ferencváros from the summer of 2024, has been bought out by the group that owns one of the world’s leading football clubs. FTC asked for and received a substantial sum for the outgoing coach.
Ferencváros have announced that they have found a successor to Dutchman Pascal Jansen at the helm of their 35-time champions and 24-time cup winners, with the signing of 146-time Irish international Robbie Keane on Monday. The new head coach arrived in Budapest on Sunday evening and will leave on Tuesday to join our team at the training camp in Spain.
Robbie Keane’s player career
The former top-flight striker Keane has played for Internazionale in Italy and in the English Premier League for Coventry City, Leeds United, Tottenham, Liverpool, West Ham United and Aston Villa, as well as Scotland’s Celtic, Los Angeles Galaxy in the US and Atlético Kolkata in India. The 44-year-old has scored more than 320 goals in 730 club matches, won the English Football League Cup with Tottenham and is a three-time MLS champion with LA Galaxy. He has scored 68 goals for the national team, making him the all-time goalscoring record holder for the national team, and played for the Republic of Ireland at the 2002 World Cup and the 2012 and 2016 European Championships. The former footballer has made 146 appearances for the Republic of Ireland national team.
Manager career
Keane made his coaching debut as player-manager of ATK India in March 2018 and joined the Republic of Ireland national team in November as assistant coach to national captain Mick McCarthy. Since June 2019, he has worked alongside former team-mate Jonathan Woodgate as assistant coach of Middlesbrough’s EFL Championship side. After leaving Middlesbrough following the outbreak of the pandemic, he completed his UEFA coaching qualification and was awarded the UEFA Pro Licence in 2020.
In the spring of 2023, he joined Sam Allardyce’s staff at Leeds United, but failed to keep the club in the Premier League and left to take up his first head coaching post as manager of Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel. In the 2023-2024 season, he won the league and the Toto Cup (the local League Cup) with Maccabi. His team played in the UEFA European Conference League, where they won their group and reached the last 16, where they were stopped by Greece’s Olympiakos – who they also beat. Maccabi won 4-1 in Piraeus, but in the return leg at a neutral venue – Bačka Topola – the Greeks won by the same margin, scoring two more goals in extra time to progress and later claim the trophy.
Keane left Maccabi after one season and has been without a club since the summer.
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