Roy Keane is one of the greatest midfielders of all time and was a leader on the pitch.
Roy Keane’s name has become synonymous with captaincy and Manchester United. He always wanted to win, whatever the cost.
Keane has the record of most red cards in Manchester United history. But one in particular stands out.
In fact, in such an illustrious career it is fascinating that this is still one of the go to stories when discussing Roy Keane’s career.
It is the myth of legend of how Roy Keane “ended” the career of Alf-Inge Haaland.
- READ: Roy Keane dropped ultimate compliment on one Man Utd legend, he’s the best he ever played with
Bad blood between Keane and Haaland
Although Roy Keane’s red card tackle on Alf Inge Haaland happened in April 2001, the reasons behind it go back four years previously.
It went back to 1997, when Keane suffered a serious injury in a match against Leeds. It was not just the fact that Haaland had injured him that annoyed Keane, he was deeply angered with the response of Haaland.
The Norwegian thought that Roy Keane was feigning injury after a tough tackle, when in fact the Manchester United star had suffered one of the worst injuries a footballer can have. Keane had ruptured his ACL.
From this moment onwards Roy Keane had packed away a grudge to be acted upon on another occasion.
Recovery to Revenge
The ACL injury kept Roy Keane out for the rest of the 1997/1998 season, but the midfielder defied the odds and did not let the horror of the ACL rupture hold him back.
The next season he played an integral role in the Treble winning season. Sir Bobby Charlton described his performance against Juventus as the greatest individual display he had ever witnessed.
But this was only possible due to the elite mentality of Roy Keane, who did everything to make sure he returned as good as before.
This was revealed in an interview in FourFourTwo magazine by Dave Fevre, who was the senior physio of Manchester United at the time.
He explained: “His work ethic was phenomenal” and that Keane never wanted to rest, instead constantly trying to push himself to return as soon as possible.
The Tackle on Haaland
On 21st April 2001, a now infamous Manchester Derby occurred. Alfie Haaland was now at Manchester City and Roy Keane was back to his prime leading Manchester United.
It is fascinating that this was the game where the incident happened as the two players had shared the pitch on subsequent meetings in the Premier League.
With four minutes to go in the game, Roy Keane lunged in with a studs up challenge that hit Haaland hard into his right leg.
Keane was shown the red card immediately, but he took the opportunity to stand over the injured Haaland and mock the player, almost re-enacting the incident four years previously.
After the match he was initially given a £5,000 fine and banned for three games, but after an explosive testimony in Keane’s 2002 autobiography he was handed a further five game ban and the fine increased to £150,000.
The myth about Haaland’s injury
The story then goes on from this game, that Alf-Inge Haaland’s career was ended by this tackle, as he had to undergo knee injury in the summer.
But this is far from the truth. Haaland went on to play in a game four days later for Norway and also played in Manchester City’s next game after this international break.
In the summer of 2001 Haaland did undergo knee surgery, but on his left knee, not the one that was hit hard by Keane.
In fact, Haaland later made it clear that he had been playing with an injury to his left knee for a few months before the game in which Keane kicked his right leg.
Finally, Haaland retired from the game due to injury. But this was two years later in 2003.
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