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Keane agrees to deal with the Galaxy

DUBLIN, IRELAND - AUGUST 10:  Republic of Ireland Captain Robbie Keane in action during the International Friendly between the Republic of Ireland and Croatia at the Aviva Stadium on August 10, 2011 in Dublin, Ireland.

BY ADAM SERRANO

The Los Angeles Galaxy has officially agreed to terms with Ireland international forward Robbie Keane on Monday morning. 

The terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but the Dublin native will be added to the club's roster pending the receipt of his P-1 Visa. Keane joins the Galaxy as a designated player, which means that he will be added pending the trade of Juan Pablo Angel. 

“I am delighted, honored and very excited to be joining the LA Galaxy, I have always wanted to come and play in MLS so it’s the perfect combination for me and a dream come true," Keane said in a press release. 

Keane joins the Galaxy just one day before the team is set to take part in the CONCACAF Champions League group stages. Los Angeles opens the tournament at home against Honduran side Montagua and it is likely that Keane will play a role in the coming matches. 

Currently the Galaxy sit in first place in MLS, a full five points ahead of second place FC Dallas.For a team that is focused on lifting the MLS Cup at the Home Depot Center this season, the addition of Keane is immense. 

“Robbie Keane will be a great addition to our club. I have followed his career and have always respected his ability as a competitor and a goalscorer,” Galaxy General Manager and Head Coach  Bruce Arena said. “I believe that he brings qualities in and around the penalty area that we have been lacking. Hopefully, he will be another piece of the puzzle in our quest for the Supporters’ Shield and an MLS Cup championship as well as to advance to the next round of the CONCACAF Champions League.”

The Irish international arrives in Los Angeles with a high pedigree having scored 250 goals both for club and internationally since the start of his career in 1997.

Keane, who comes to the Galaxy from Tottenham admitted that currently Galaxy midfielder David Beckham convinced him to consider the club while Beckham trained with Spurs in early 2011. 

"When David Beckham came and trained at Spurs recently he couldn't speak highly enough about the Galaxy, their fans and the league in general," Keane added. "so I can’t wait to get over and get started.”

Comments

  1. If Galaxy’s opponents react to Keane the way they react to other Galaxy acquisitions, he’ll be injured in his first game and be out the remainder of the season.

    Say what you will about buying championships, but dirty play ON the field is just inexcusable. Hope we don’t have another Beckham welcoming committee situation.

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  2. I feel bad for all the MLS players who work just as hard but get paid peanuts compared to the DPs. It’s the nature of the beast.

    I feel bad for Christman, who I fear will lose game time just after finally finding his way back into health and the starting lineup. Oh well! If he produces, I’ll be happy.

    I just opened the Galaxy’s website and they have Donovan listed as a Forward. LOL!! Will he lose game time because of this?!

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  3. American soccer is not going to come alive on its own. We need some talent over here, or things will never pick up. Even if they’re older players without many years left in them, it’s important to the league’s growth to have big names and personalities added to our rosters.

    COMPLETELY REGARDLESS of whether Keane performs or doesn’t, or whether Galaxy is making a good move or not, or whether salary cap / DP / league rules are fair or Galaxy is buying a championship or whatever, bringing a big name to MLS is a great thing for the sport in this country.

    If this sort of thing keeps going on, and the level of play in America keeps increasing (even slowly and steadily as it has been), then we will start, as a league, being able to attract ever so slightly younger and better players. Maybe a 30yr old striker next year; maybe a 29yr old midfielder after; but it takes time. Players need to see that their peers are succeeding and having fun and making their way in America.

    Too many people expect it to happen overnight. Sorry to break it to you. You won’t see players like Ronaldo or Messi playing for MLS teams for decades; US soccer needs to build to that level and it will take time. This is a good step along the way!!

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  4. It may not have been his dream as a young player, but it’s a great opportunity to stay in the limelight as an aging player. Looking at his career he has been loaned out more and more recently, meaning maybe he’s not as valuable to European teams, but he can come to America and continue to be a superstar on a huge team (by American standards).

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  5. I like Angel and think he’s a classy guy from watching interviews and seeing him on the pitch, but having attended games this year and watched him play it seems his technical ability is being overshadowed by his age… he hasn’t been able to run, and making runs is one thing a striker needs to be able to do. He missed tons of goal opportunities this year just being beaten by defenders on sheer speed, stamina… or just not being able to get to the ball quickly enough.

    I’m sad to see a classy player leave but I think he will have a hard and harder time producing many goals in the future. No disrespect but I think he might be about spent. Keane is younger and has a few years left in him yet, no question this is a wise (though perhaps too expensive) move by Galaxy.

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  6. Gotta admit attendance at Galaxy games is disappointing … only 27,000 seats and they don’t get filled, even on weekends against big teams. Games are sold out but seats are mysteriously empty. Lazy season ticket holders, maybe?

    Distance from the actual City of LA is part of the problem, and the reason I don’t have season tickets… I live about 1.5 hours from the stadium and work about 2 hours from the stadium so I just can’t make it to every game.

    I think Beckham speaks to the quality of the fans, not the quantity. We wear our colors, don’t leave early when our team is losing. We stay to cheer our team off the field at the end of the game. We are loud throughout the game, we don’t cause trouble in the stands.

    We don’t have the luxury some teams have of a stadium right in our city with tons of seats. I would love the Galaxy to actually move to LOS ANGELES and see what happens to attendance. For now we work with what we have.

    As for “buying a championship”: there are so many things wrong with this accusation I don’t even know where to begin.

    – No blame to the players for selling out to rich teams in far-away lands?
    – Aren’t the teams following the rules laid out by their leagues?
    – If your team has fan and sponsor support (money) couldn’t you buy players, too?
    – Do you think spending that kind of money on 31 year old players is a good investment, long-term?

    I could go on but this post is already TLDR.

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  7. why would anyone want JPA? Especially Chivas who’s coach Robin Fraser turned down interest way more serviceable players. Perhaps Chivas is desperate for goals but their midfield will deliver even less to Angel than the Gals did. He’ll sniff goal even less now.

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  8. Clearly, for someone who has played in the Premier League, all this makes it credible he has always wanted to play in MLS…a dream come true!

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  9. Seriously all you people saying we buy championships are ridiculous. You seem to over look the fact that our staff consistently dafts some of the best players (Stephens,gonzalez Franklin,de la garza) trade for players that our coaches get the best out of (Magee,dunivant,Edson buddle,,Hercules Gomez) scout some of thebest international players (juninho and the best keeper in the league Donovan ricketts) not to mention guys like Josh Saunders who fill the role player role admirably. Non of them attained by shady means. this Is great for the league. Extra revenue for those teams who don’t want to spend cash on dps when we come and visit.

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  10. “The league has a track record of odd behavior, this is just another example. ”

    It’s a single entity league, which is practically un-American, at least in theory. When you are the only game in town, you can behave as oddly as you like.

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  11. They already pay Magee half the cash, probably less than that.

    I’m sure he already trains as hard as he can but unfortunately, that can only take you so far.

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  12. Everyone thinks it’s great when Lichaj starts for Leeds or Findley plays for Forest.

    Yet Keane was being courted by promotion favorites Leicester City, managed by Sven Goran Eriksson and is more likely to be in the Premiership next year than either Forest or Leeds.

    I would argue Keane turned down a pretty good opportunity at Leicester.

    As for the Middle East for a guy like Keane, one season there could conceivably ease any financial concerns he may have had. What’s so bad about that?

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  13. Yay, another season of getting housed by LAG in the playoffs. Woohoo! Seriously though, wish he was going to Seattle. Good signing.

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  14. From Wikipedia:

    “Barcelona was found by ESPN to have the highest average salary per player of all professional sports teams in the world, just ahead of rival Real Madrid.”

    Records

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  15. Its funny Maybe people should just say thank you to AEG for even having an MLS at 1 point they owned 6 of the 10 teams and have since sold off 4, they still own 2. If they need a little help to make the league stonger so be it, why doesn’t your local owner do that?

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  16. 1 DP or 6 DP’s L.A. will still choke when they need to step up. I really love to see teams like Colorado and Utah winning cups while L.A. keeps failing at buying cups.

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  17. I can see where drafting Omar Gonzales, Sean Franklin, AJ DelaGarza, and Michael Stephans, scouting Ricketts, Juninho, Birchall, Lopez, trading/acquiring Dunivant, Magee, and then landing Donovan, Beckham, and Keanne means you completely purchased a championship.

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  18. Buying a championship? Looking at the typical Galaxy starting line up I see plenty of home grown talent. Players like Gonzalez, AJ De La Garza, Dunivant, Stephens, Juninho, Franklin, were all either drafted by LA or signed through less than unscrupulous means. Yes, the three DP’s on the team are “big name” signings but that hardly seems like buying a championship should the team win. Everyone likes to hate on LA because their city either sucks or has owners that view their team as little more than a tax write-off. Get over it.

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  19. I think MLS has a great set up with an extremely soft salary cap and a playoff system-teams like NY and LA, who because of market size and attractiveness are able to attract a large chunk of talented foreign and domestic players have star-studded(at least by MLS standards) that draw huge crowds on the road and ostensibly at home(true for LA, not so much for NY but still more than respectable). However, because of the playoff system, the duopoly that exists in leagues like La Liga that often times can overshadow the spectacular technical play does not exist in MLS-teams who are in playoff position are successful in ways that draw fans that they wouldn’t sans a playoff AND the relatively random(though not unfair) nature of the MLS playoffs guarantees that enough different teams win to boost interest in places like Salt Lake and Denver(more so RSL, but still). It’s the best of La Liga(much lower level, but still) in terms of big teams attracting fans, bandwagon or otherwise, and the Bundesliga, where numerous teams can compete. The salary cap means no team can completely dominate, but the soft cap allows large flexibility. RBNY’s current failures show that even teams that don’t spend as much can be sucecssful as well.

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  20. I’m over these arguments. Gods honest truth say Seattle, or Columbus, or DC were working on a potential move to nab Robbie Keane and it took until 1:00am to get his Visa papers back, that Garber wouldn’t do the same?

    Get a clue. Someone above said “one of the only benefits of the single ownership group”, and he hit it spot on. If Garber thinks the player is a benefit to the league, he’s going to do it.

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  21. Umm… Well I guess I will take my information from you personally instead of actual reporting ( as I asked) because I am “sure” you are sure on your knowledge of the deal chulpacabra. m’kay? m’kay? Snarky smart@@@

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  22. For a striker? Keene may not be washed up but he is well past his prime. He’s having trouble getting games in Britain

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  23. No one wanted a 31-year-old Beckham on their roster either, when LAG bought him. Then he helps win Real a championship. Then goes on to contribute significantly at AC Milan.

    Europe puts too much stress on youth. You might have to tweak your system, but I’d take a 31-year-old Becks over a 22-year-old Walcott any day.

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  24. I guess 21,000 a game isn’t better than everyone. Seattle has a better attendance. Oh, did you know we play 45 minutes outside of Los Angeles?

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  25. MLS Cup 02, 05, Supporters Shield 98, 02, 09, Open Cup 01, 05, CCL 00. Did we buy those championships? Go up and down our roster. With the exception of Beckham and now Keane can you honestly say any of those players couldn’t easily be obtained by any team in the league? What a joke. We have 3 DPs just like any team in the league can. We have a salary cap JUST like every team in the league.

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  26. Highly doubt it would be the cynical prediction, lol.

    I think your actual prediction is close. But I kinda agree more with what Ives is saying. It’s only gonna be cost-sharing in terms of the transfer fees paid to purchase players from their former clubs.

    Also, where does it say this will be announced tomorrow?

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  27. I fail to see how the fact that MLS didn’t hint at it or report on it on it’s own website before it actually became official, is some kind of a problem. Why is that a big deal? Do you think it’s some sort of conspiracy or LA is getting some kind of advantage?

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