And there we were thinking it was all water under the bridge after ‘Keane & Vieira: Best of Enemies’.
“I don’t think he was as tough as me,” Roy Keane once said of Patrick Vieira.
“How do you make that judgement?” came the reply.
“I just know,” said Keane with a look that could sear through cast-iron.
Keane and Vieira was a midfield rivalry that had football fans rapt and that has not been rivalled since the Manchester United and Arsenal legends hung up their boots.
Both men poured every inch of themselves into battle whenever the two sides met, with Keane just about shading it. The ‘Oi, Vieira!’ moment in a cramped Highbury tunnel was the seminal moment of their epochal struggle and the Irishman not only stared down his Gallic foe but won out on the pitch.
Both men met up a few years back for a fantastic documentary on their rivalry and appeared to be on friendly terms. The truce may be over, judging by Vieira’s comments during a Copa 90 interview.
Now coaching at New York City FC, Vieira was asked to reflect on his long-running jousts with the United captain and, placing one hand higher than the other, remarked:
“There was Roy Keane, and there was myself!
“He always saw the back of my shirt, so that’s why he had the number four shirt on his mind.”
After accepting a salutatory fist-bump, Vieira then added, “I have to be careful. I’m not gonna be allowed in Ireland anymore.”
In fairness to the former World Cup winner, he did go on to heap praise upon Keane as his favourite opponent.
Check out the Copa 90 piece here:
