Robbie Keane is probably best remembered as a Republic of Ireland player first, and then a Tottenham Hotspur player second, but the silky striker played for a whole host of top clubs during his career.
Keane enjoyed spells at Wolves, Coventry, Liverpool, West Ham, Celtic, Aston Villa and even Inter Milan, but he was also a part of one of the greatest Leeds teams in the Premier League era.
Back in 2001, Leeds reached the Champions League semi-final where the played Valencia, and the squad boasted quality stars like Harry Kewell, Mark Viduka, Jonathan Woodgate and a young Alan Smith.
Rio Ferdinand was also a part of that team, and while speaking as a guest on the Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast, Keane recalls how much fun they used have in the Leeds changing room and how they never took themselves seriously.
On one occasion, the former Ireland captain recalls how his fellow Irishman and clubmate Ian Harte, had to drive a three-wheeler car, like the one on the Only Fools and Horses TV show.
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“Jonathan Woodgate was at a garage in Middlesbrough, and he was getting petrol and seen this guy coming in a little three-wheeler.
“He goes ‘can I buy that car off you?’ and he goes “yeah I’ll give you it’ - it was £600 I think, but he gave him a thousand.
“So on a Friday, we would have the worst trainer, and Ian Harte, bless him, he got it and he wasn’t happy. When I say he was fuming.
“But Gary Kelly was his uncle, so Gary Kelly says ‘I’m going to tell granny on you” but he was like ‘no I’m not driving it’
“But he had to drive it to the stadium the next day, it’s actually online, you can actually see the picture.
“Honestly, he had to drive this three-wheeler to the game, and all the fans were there, with us waiting on him, it was so funny.”
Ferdinand admits that they never took themselves too seriously as footballers, but that relaxed attitude and fun spirit actually helped them on the football pitch.
“We weren’t serious. If we were serious we would have done some damage in the Premier League.
“It was just one of those teams, we go anywhere and we’re confident, look at the players we got.”
Unfortunately, the fun times stopped soon afterwards as the club went into administration, and they had to sell all of their best players including Keane who then went to Spurs, and Ferdinand who joined Man United for a record breaking fee.
Both went on to become legends for those clubs, so for them at least, everything worked out okay.
