Roy tackles Special Olympics fund goal

THERE are stranger sights than Roy Keane in an Aussie bush hat with a clip-on koala hanging upside down from the rim but not many.

There are greater expectations than having Roy smile at questions about his international future, though it's best not to bet the family fortune on it.

But yesterday Roy compounded the critics, defied the doubtful and charmed the reservations off a melee of mistrustful mammies unsure if he was suitable idol material.

"He's lovely. I had my judgement of him all wrong," said one, visibly melting as the former Ireland captain took yet another scrap of paper from yet another hyperventilating youngster and autographed it as carefully as if he was ice-bagging his own hamstring.

Roy appeared at the Powerscourt Townhouse shopping centre in Dublin to endorse the latest initiative of the Special Olympics committee who are aiming to bridge a €2.5 million gap in funding for this summer's games with a Support an Athlete Programme.

The organisers are asking individuals, organisations, schools and community groups to raise €1,000 each to cover the costs of any one of the 7,000 athletes taking part.

Having missed the biggest event in world sports last year, Roy seems determined not to do the same this June, as he eagerly mixed with visiting athletes from South Africa, Macau, New York and Australia.

He delivered a rallying call to those thinking of volunteering but who haven't so far got around to putting their names forward and said he hoped to be around to catch the games especially the soccer.

That was all he had to say on his own preferred field game, however. He declined to get into discussions about the likelihood of wearing the green again.

"We'll have to wait and see. A lot will happen in the next few weeks when the new manager is decided," was as far as he was prepared to go.

He laughed off suggestion, made by his United team-mate Ruud Van Nistlerooy that he should be the next manager at Old Trafford. "I can't manage myself, never mind anyone else," he joked.

But he did manage himself like a charm school valedictorian. He coaxed grins out of shy children, signed shirts on the backs of grown men and did a turn as David Beckham posing happily for fans wielding camera-phones.

He even accepted a gift of the clip-on koala He did, however, hand back the hat.

Meanwhile, former international Frank Stapleton yesterday said he was confident of being appointed the next Irish manager. He is the latest candidate to be interviewed for the post following Mick McCarthy's resignation in November.

However, Irish youth manager Brian Kerr, who will be interviewed on Wednesday, is still one of the favourites for the post.