Robbie Keane

By Craig · Published 27 October 2026

Robbie Keane is a striker from Tallaght who scored 126 Premier League goals for Coventry, Leeds, Tottenham, Liverpool, West Ham and Aston Villa. He is Ireland's record scorer and most-capped player, and he celebrated with a cartwheel.

Clubs

Wolverhampton Wanderers (1997 to 1999), Coventry City (1999 to 2000), Inter Milan (2000), Leeds United (2000 to 2002), Tottenham Hotspur (2002 to 2008), Liverpool (2008 to 2009), Tottenham Hotspur (2009 to 2011), Celtic (loan, 2010), West Ham United (loan, 2011), LA Galaxy (2011 to 2016), Aston Villa (loan, 2012), ATK (2017 to 2018)

Premier League

349 appearances, 126 goals

Honours

League Cup 2008, MLS Cup 2011, 2012 and 2014, Tottenham Player of the Year 2003, 2006 and 2008

International

Republic of Ireland, 146 caps, 68 goals, both national records

Fantasy price

£7.0m in 2003/04

Who did he play for?

He made his name at Wolves as a teenager. Coventry paid £6 million for him in August 1999, then a British record for a teenager, and he scored 12 league goals and was Player of the Month in his first month.

Inter Milan paid £13 million a year later. He played six league games there before Leeds took him on loan in December 2000 and bought him the following May for about £12 million. He scored nine in 18 games that spring and three in 25 the next season.

Tottenham paid £7 million on 31 August 2002. He scored 80 league goals in six seasons, was voted the club's player of the year three times, reached 100 Premier League goals with two against Fulham on Boxing Day 2007, and lifted the League Cup at Wembley in February 2008.

Liverpool paid £19 million in July 2008 and sold him back to Tottenham for £12 million six months later, after five goals in 19 games. Loans at Celtic, where he scored 12 in 16, West Ham and Aston Villa followed, around five years at LA Galaxy with three MLS Cups and the 2014 MVP award. He retired in 2018.

For Ireland he scored 68 goals in 146 games between 1998 and 2016 and captained the side for ten years. As a manager he has won titles with Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2024 and Ferencváros in 2025.

The moment: Everton, 12 January 2003

White Hart Lane, Sunday 12 January 2003. His first hat-trick for Tottenham, in a 33-minute spell of the second half, with a bad tooth that was pulled out after the game.

The winner came seven minutes from time: a nutmeg on Joseph Yobo and a chip over Espen Baardsen. Tottenham 4-3 Everton. After each goal he cartwheeled towards the corner of the West Stand where his father was sitting. It was the last match his father saw; he died that March.

On 25 April 2004, in stoppage time against Arsenal, he scored the penalty that made it 2-2 and gave Arsenal the title at the Lane, unbeaten.

Why the streets won't forget

The celebration: a cartwheel, a forward roll and two fingers fired like pistols.

His 23 goals in European Championship qualifying were a record until Cristiano Ronaldo passed him in September 2019.

He called Liverpool a lifelong dream when he signed in 2008, and said much the same about LA Galaxy three years later, adding that he had always wanted to play in MLS, a league founded in 1993.

He was the 13th player to reach 100 Premier League goals.

Which seasons can you draft him in?

Eleven, with four clubs. His 2001/02 season at Leeds and his loan at West Ham in 2010/11 don't make the game's squads.

In 2003/04 he is £7.0m for 14 goals, and he does it again in 2007/08 at £8.0m for 15.

Want him in your retro fantasy football team for 2003/04? He'll cost you £7.0m.