Roy Keane

Roy Keane began his professional career with Cobh Ramblers in Ireland before moving to Nottingham Forest under Brian Clough. He transferred to Manchester United in 1993 for a then-British record fee of £3.75 million and spent the bulk of his career there before finishing with a brief stint at Celtic in 2005–2006.

Keane received a yellow card in the semifinal second leg against Juventus, which triggered a one-match suspension for accumulated cards and ruled him out of the final. His commanding performance that night in Turin, where he dominated midfield despite knowing he would miss the final, is widely regarded as one of the finest individual displays of his career.

In the 2001 Manchester derby, Keane deliberately struck Manchester City's Alf-Inge Haaland with a knee-high tackle, later admitting in his 2002 autobiography that it was a premeditated act of revenge stemming from a previous on-pitch incident. The Football Association fined Keane and imposed a suspension after the admission was published.

Keane's Manchester United career ended abruptly in November 2005 when his contract was terminated by mutual consent. The decisive factor was an unpaid MUTV interview in which he was highly critical of several teammates' performances, which manager Sir Alex Ferguson deemed had crossed a line.