Robbie Keane, International Retirement and His Perfect Boots

Being Irish, I grew up idolizing Robbie Keane. His Irish career, 18 years 145 caps & 67 goals, is absolutely unmatched and it is unlikely that we’ll ever see another Irish international player come close to the number of goals he scored. This week during the friendly vs Oman, the stats will freeze and stand still as “Keano” is set to retire from international duty.

During his career, Keane has worn many different boots. In his early days at Wolves, his first club, he jumped between brands. At times he was in Nike, then adidas, and there were time when Umbro was his boot of choice. Without a brand contract, it seemed testing the market was the way to go.

It wasn’t until his big move to Inter Milan that he found a contracted partnership with Nike. And after some time in Mercurial boots, he found himself in the T90 Laser series. That is the boot range I’m always going to associate him with since he wore them right from the original release to the final colorway.

Even though he wasn’t a key player in the advertising campaign of the range, his style of play perfectly matched what the boot was all about. He has a busy style and a key ability to score goals from anywhere around the box. His strengths perfectly matched the attacking, power focus of the T90 and he obviously enjoyed wearing them to full effect.

Take for example the custom pair of T90 Laser III he wore for his 100th international cap; a pretty perfect Irish design. The boots feature some special details including his squad number, 100th Cap, Ireland flag and the name and date of birth of his son embroidered on the side of the boots.

Keane continued to wear the T90 Laser series right up until the iconic range was retired. Such a bittersweet period! When Nike decided the time was right to move on, Keane jumped into some CTR360 Maestri and then he tested out the Magista Opus. But no boot seemed to satisfy his play and he never settled on one particular pair. In fact, none of them looked right on his feet. One has to wonder if his relationship with Nike would have stayed in play had they kept the T90 Laser series alive.

But as the story goes, he ended his relationship with the swoosh and now he can currently be found wearing the adidas ACE 16.1 PRIMEKNIT.

Maybe there is still time for Keane to jump on the #BringBackT90 train??? I’m thinking the time might be right to get that one trending. Congrats on a stellar international career, Robbie, and thank you. I’m looking forward to catching plenty more games where you’ve got an LA Galaxy jersey on your back!