Earlier today Shamrock Rovers announced a friendly with Robbie Keane's MLS Champion LA Galaxy side, to take place at Tallaght Stadium on February 21st.
Robbie Keane was here @tallaghtstadium to announce our friendly match on Feb 21st v @LAGalaxy pic.twitter.com/SezP87ZXTl
— Shamrock Rovers F.C. (@ShamrockRovers) December 22, 2014
Shortly after the announcement, Robbie Keane gave an interview to Shamrock Rovers TV, where he discussed his excitement over the upcoming fixture:
I'm very excited for the Rovers fans and also for the Irish fans, it'll be great to get a big crowd here and it'll be really good to play against them so I'm looking forward to it.
Keane then revealed how the plan had been in the pipe-line for some time and how he influenced the decision:
For the last few years it was something we always spoke about but didn't have the opportunity to do, but now that we're in Europe for a game with Galaxy's partnered club in Sweden, they asked me who and where I'd like to play, and it was only right to play Shamrock Rovers with me being from Tallaght.
An interesting question was then posed to Ireland's captain over the possibility of ex-Irish internationals returning home to play in the League of Ireland in the future, to which Keano kept his cards close to his chest.
It's not a conversation I've had before, but with this match I'm sure it will come up, but if that were to happen it would increase the capacity of the fans and increase the league by raising the profile, which is what we all want.
You can watch the interview in full here:
