In early April, Mino Raiola embarked on a tour of the leading teams in Europe to seek out a purchaser for Erling Haaland during the upcoming summer transfer window. Accompanying him on this journey is the father of Borussia Dortmund striker Alf-Inge, who is also an agent. Although Erling has a fondness for Leeds, thanks to his father, he has already accomplished more in his career at the age of 20 than his father did in his entire career.
However, one scandal marked Alf-Inge for life, as it haunted him even after his retirement.
Through the years Haaland and Keane had always been close but somehow stayed apart. In July 1993 Keane left Nottingham Forest to join Manchester United, while Haaland was signed by Nottingham in January of the following year. Although both played for their national teams at the 1994 World Cup Ireland faced Norway but Haaland remained on the bench as an unused reserve.
With the Forest team Alf-Inge has five games against Keane. However, nothing serious happened between the two in any of them. But in the summer of 1997, Haaland moved to Leeds, after which everything changed.
“Alfie Haaland didn’t stop chasing me throughout the match. He started touching me right from the start – Keane wrote in his autobiography. – I had no problems with hard tackles and I could accept them, it was part of football. and hand me over even when the ball is not in my field…
There were times when Haaland wasn’t even following the game, he was just chasing me. I think David O’Leary (then George Graham’s assistant and then Leeds manager himself) who knew how to influence me very well, had put Haaland on this task.”
O’Leary is the all-time record player for Arsenal with 722 matches but knew Keane`s weaknesses very well from the Ireland national team.
In fact, the whole league knew that Keane couldn’t hold his temper and as the years progressed, United’s opponents used the Irishman’s hot temper to the best advantage.
His clashes with Patrick Vieira in the derby with the Gunners are legendary, and at the start of the 2001/02 season, a scandal on the pitch with Newcastle’s Alan Shearer spilled over into the tunnel after the match.
But let’s go back to the 1997 incident. United lost 0:1 to Leeds and the Norwegian kept harassing Keane. “It was obvious he was after me” said Haaland after the match.
At the end of the fight, it looked like Keane couldn’t take it and tried to hit Haaland, but he denied: “I tried to trip him, not hit him. I knew I might get a card. As I fell on the splits, I stubbed my toe. I heard the connection snap. Immediately I felt an agonizing pain.”
The Irishman collapsed to the ground and buried his face in his fists in pain. Haaland feasted on him. “Don’t pretend! Get up!” she yelled at him. Goalkeeper Nigel Martin was quick to pull his team-mate away from Keane, but then another Leeds player, David Weatherell, ran towards him, gesturing for Keane to stand up.
United physio Dave Febvre immediately recognized it was a cruciate ligament tear. Febvre was aware that Keane had to leave the field immediately, but United were not allowed to make any more substitutions, so the captain played out the remaining few minutes.
Febvre asked his Leeds counterpart to also examine Keane. His conclusion was the same and the Irishman did not play another minute in the 1997/98 season. “We immediately told him that there was no point in forcing the recovery. We convinced him that he had a lot of football ahead of him and that there was no point in rushing,” explained Alex Ferguson.
The Irishman returned in May 1998, but did not step on the field. The doctors still wouldn’t let him and his absence cost United dearly, who lost the title despite leading Arsenal by 11 points at one stage of the campaign.
“After a few pre-season games, I got my form back. The obsession with chasing Alfie Holland was gone. I was already enjoying every moment of every game, as well as the training sessions” admits Keane.
I realized something that I didn’t pay attention to before – our time in football is limited. It can all end with one wrong choice.”
And it seemed that the captain had indeed changed. He himself calls the 1998/99 season the greatest of his career, and the treble with which United finished: the Premier League title, the FA Cup and the Champions League trophy proves it.
However, the transformation was short-lived. As the 2000/01 season came to a close Manchester United who had already clinched the title with five rounds to spare, confronted their city rivals Manchester City. At that time, City’s current prestigious status was nonexistent and they were even relegated to the Championship at the end of the season.
The atmosphere in the team was described as totally unprofessional by former Red Devils player Andrei Kanchelskis, who was then playing as a on loan at City from Rangers. “We flew to Marbella during the break for the national teams (at the end of March),” recalls Kanchelskis. I was shocked. So unprofessional. The team needed more concentration, more training, more tactics. Everything was very, very bad! But that’s what City used to be.”
Nonetheless Manchester United faced a challenging battle against their town rivals. Despite this Paul Scholes failed to score from the penalty spot. On the other hand, Teddy Sheringham successfully converted a penalty kick in the 71st minute putting United ahead. However, with only six minutes remaining, Steve Howie managed to score an equalizer for Manchester City. Just one minute later, an incident occurred that would be remembered and discussed for the next two decades.
“Alfie was fortunate as Keane’s challenge made contact with his leg while he was airborne. If his foot had been planted on the ground, it could have been much worse,” commented Manchester City coach Joe Royle following Roy Keane’s dreadful tackle on Alf-Inge Haaland’s feet.
Keane didn’t even wait for referee David Ellery to show him the card, he already knew what was coming next. Then it went over Haaland in a repeat of the episode between the two a few years earlier but this time the roles were reversed.
Haaland was in a rather cheerful mood after the match. “I won’t tell you what he said to me. Let’s just say it wasn’t very pleasant. Before the next game against United I will have to check my life insurance,” said the Norwegian.
Roy Keane received a three-match suspension and a fine of £5 000 for his actions. One year later he published his autobiography which sparked great interest in the incident and his career as a whole.
“I waited for Alfie for almost 180 minutes – writes the former United captain. – Or to put it another way – three years, it depends how you want to look at it. That’s when he took the ball on the touchline. I had waited too long for this moment. I went all in on him strength.
You bastard! Try again next time to come and tell me I’m faking. And tell your friend Weatherell that I’ve got something for him, too.”
Following the release of his autobiography the Football Association (FA) self-reported the incident as Roy Keane’s book contained references to seeking revenge resulting in a new punishment of a five-match ban and a fine of £150,000. The FA considered this a violation of the sport’s principles leading to the additional disciplinary action.
In his next autobiography, Keane accused the author of his first book (football autobiographies are rarely written entirely by the player; they often hire former or current journalists to help them shape and arrange the text) for not expressing himself properly.
Subsequently there were intentions from City and Haaland himself for legal charges against Keane, but nothing ever happened. Here, somewhere, comes the unraveling of the myth that the United captain ended Alf-Inge’s career.
The first contradiction is found in the autobiography of then City coach Joe Royle: “The physio said to me: ‘He’ll be fine. He saw Keane heading towards him and managed to jump.” Despite Keane’s shocking actions, Alfie did not suffer a career-threatening injury that day.”
In addition, just four days later, Alf-Inge played 45 minutes in a match for the Norwegian national team, and three more after that spent a further 68 minutes on the pitch against West Ham. In both games, the Norwegian limped, but not because of the right leg that was hit by Keane, but because of a left knee injury that had been bothering him for three months before the incident. Alf-Inge did not take part in the last two games of the season and in the summer of 2001 he suffered an injury to his left knee. Even published an article on his personal website with the title: “Knee injury not caused by Keane”.
“I want to make it clear that it’s not the knee that Keane hit. I’m worried about my left knee and Sky clearly showed that Roy kicked me in the right.” But in December 2003, the Norwegian changed his version. According to him, the force with which Keane crashed into him could have resulted in an injury not only to his right but also to his left leg.
In the 2001/02 season, Haaland played just four games, all of which he came on as a substitute, before missing the next one altogether. Although the Norwegian had a contract with City until the summer of 2005 the “citizens” terminated him in February 2003 due to medical reasons.
In the years that followed Haaland repeatedly told his story. And it’s always a little different than the last time.
In December 2003, he gave everything to the injury. Five years later to the Daily Mail, he tried to put the blame on Keane: “I haven’t played a full game since that came on. Do you think that’s a coincidence?”
In 2014, he acknowledged that there could be a connection between the incident with Roy Keane and his subsequent injury, but did not elaborate further on the matter. “I don’t blame him for kicking me in that game or any game before that,” Alf Inge told BBC Radio 5. – It bothered me, and it still bothers me, the words he wrote in his first book because he wrote he wanted revenge. I don’t think revenge should be part of football.
But I don’t blame him. I never actually said that he ended my career. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that that game was my last in England where I played the full 90 minutes. Maybe he has some guilt about it.”
Eight years after the accident, in 2011, when he was already 38, Haaland returned to the pitch and played nine games, in which he scored one goal, for the third division Roseland. After which he finally withdrew.
Nowadays, Haaland Sr. no longer mentions the Roy Keane incident and there is no reason. The incident is already 20 years old and even now the former midfielder has a much more important task – to encourage his son to conquer new and new peaks.