Robbie Keane: The coach guiding Ireland to a brighter future

Tom Elmes saw Robbie Keane sprinting across the pitch towards him, iPad in hand, and his first instinct was fear. “I thought something was wrong,” he recalls with a laugh. One of the FAI’s coaching co-ordinators, the former League of Ireland player is based in IT Carlow, where the Republic of Ireland’s record goalscorer completed his final assessment to earn his combined UEFA A&B coaching licence in 2015.

“Robbie ran over and was going through the session he had planned on the screen and he was asking if it looked right.