Curious case of a natural born thriller

I have seldom felt as excited coming away from an Ireland match as I did the evening of April 22, 1998.

Argentina had beaten Ireland 2-0, with goals from Gabriel Batistuta and Ariel Ortega, but nobody cared about that. We had just watched a 17-year-old Irish kid light up Lansdowne Road on his home debut, fearlessly taking on some of the world’s most famous defenders, dribbling like an Argentinian.

Ireland had produced midfield generals, powerful centre-forwards, and ultra-reliable full-backs by the dozen, but until that night there had never been an Irish pibe. Robbie Keane promised to be the player who would transform our idea of what Irish football could be all about.