It's bad news, folks, but all hope is not lost yet.
Robbie Keane's amazing goalscoring return for the Republic of Ireland is a genuine world record. However, the latest attempt to have it recognised has been shot down.
The good folks over at
Irish Abroad, a site dedicated to collecting statistics based on Irish soccer players, put in all the ground work to figure out that the legendary Irish striker deserves a place in the history books.
By crunching all the numbers, they figured out that by scoring against Oman in his Republic of Ireland swansong last year, Keane had found the net at international level for 19 years on the bounce. According to their data, this surpassed the previous record... which he set himself!
https://twitter.com/SportsJOEdotie/status/866620756733677568
Ferenc Puskas set the record at 12 consecutive years with Hungary in the 50s, which was equaled by Estonian striker Andres Oper in 2008. Keane then broke the record against Algeria in 2010 and extended it every year until he bowed out of the international game.
Realising they really unearthed something, Irish Abroad sent in an application for Keane to be entered into the Guiness World Record books. Unfortunately, they
received a reply the other day containing the following rejection:
"Unfortunately, after thoroughly reviewing your application with members of our research team, we are afraid to say that we cannot accept your proposal as a Guinness World Records title."
All hope isn't lost yet though. They believe that the issue could be something to do with the title of the record. With this in mind, the have resubmitted the application with the following title: "Most consecutive years of scoring in international soccer."
Here's hoping it gets accepted soon though. Cristiano Ronaldo is hot on the Irishman's heels having scored in 15 consecutive years. It doesn't look like he's going to slow down banging in the goals anytime soon.
