“He doesn’t sleep, and he likes to watch animation movies.”
Robbie Keane’s stint at Inter Milan was a short but memorable one, although even sharing a room with legendary players of the game had its issues.
Keane was only 20 years old when he left Coventry for Italy in 2000, and the standard of football wasn’t the only culture shock that the Irishman had to deal with.
Speaking on the We Are Liverpool Podcast, Keane explains what the biggest changes were between the Serie A and the Premier League.
“Looking back, I was definitely too young going there at that stage, but sometimes things are out of your hands, but some of the players we had….
“Ronaldo was injured the whole time because he was having bad problems with his knee. Christian Veri, Hakan Sukur, Alvaro Recoba, Ivan Zamorano – it was top, top players.
“I definitely don’t regret it, I know I was only there a short time but I learned so much about the culture and different ways of living your life, like how they eat and stuff like that.
“It was different how they would have ate together in the restaurant, they would eat pasta first, little small things like that. We would have just went, ate our food and gone.
“They would have their pasta before, then they would have their fish after, and you would have a little glass of wine at lunch time with the food.
“If we had a glass of wine here, then you’re cracking on, you’re out for the night then.”
The Inter players would also stay at the training ground the day before matches on some occasions, but this would mean rooming with a teammate.
You would think that being paired with Clarence Seedorf, a true legend of the game, could only be good for a young upcoming player, but it presented an unusual challenge.
“We would stay in the training ground if we had games in the evening. They had rooms in the training ground – I was rooming with Clarence Seedorf at the time which was probably one of the worst roommates you could have.
“He doesn’t sleep and he likes to watch animation movies – the beds were kind of tight together with a little gap and a chair in the middle.
“We would put up this laptop and we would watch Lion King or whatever, until one or two o’clock in the morning. I always like to go to bed about 12 o’clock.
“But because the game wasn’t until the following evening, he could sleep for two or three hours during the day no problem, but I couldn’t, I was always too hyper.
“So I was always wide awake, and he was snoring his brains out.”
Related links:
- Robbie Keane finally clarifies which team he supported as a child
- Robbie Keane tipped for League One manager’s position by former Ireland teammate
- Clarence Seedorf’s nephew scores for League of Ireland team
