At Inter Milan, Robbie Keane was just a 21-year-old trying to make it.
Clarence Seedorf meanwhile, was a 25-year-old in the prime of his life. So when they were paired to room together at the Inter training ground, the seasoned professional was always going to be the boss.
Unfortunately for
Keano, the Dutch man had a very peculiar set of habits that didn't really suit Robbie's lifestyle.
"He was a nightmare to room with," said the Dubliner with a laugh on Gary Lineker's Match of the Day podcast.
"We used to room together, he used to stay up so late while I had to be in bed before 12.00 always. He'd be there watching animation movies like the Lion King and this stuff until 1.30 or 2.00 in the morning.
"Then he'd go, 'cup of tea?' We'd go down to the kitchen for a cup of tea and a lemon cake. He would go straight to sleep after because he's used to it and I'd be wide awake just lying there with a lemon cake and caffeine in me!"
"Then he'd wake up early in the morning and sleep in the afternoon! And sure I couldn't sleep in the afternoon!"
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From there, Robbie went on to discuss one of his most disappointing moments in the game in that World Cup play-off loss to France in 2010. Credit to the 40-year-old, he has long forgiven Thierry Henry for the hand-ball but he still regrets that Ireland didn't qualify for the finals.
"It was disappointing. We battered them in that game. As a team performance, I think it was the best game we've played. Playing in France, 1-0 down, then I scored and we had them on the ropes. We could have scored a couple more. It always seems to happen that the so-called smaller nations don't get the rub of the green."
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"I've met him loads of times. I like Thierry, he's a good lad. I'm not one of these people that holds grudges. It's football. It's not a conversation I'd have with someone, I certainly don't have a problem with him. I'm just gutted that we didn't get there because we should have won that game..."
And as for his iconic celebration, Keane surprisingly revealed that he cringes at each viewing, and used tell the team analyst to cut the cartwheel out of the analysis sessions.
"It's not a very exciting story really. Just as a kid growing up, I was very skinny and I could do cartwheels, I could do flips. I was just messing about on the street with the lads. Then when I started playing football as a kid, one of the lads said to me one day, if you score on Saturday, do the cartwheel. I said okay. I ended up doing it with Wolves, I added a bit more to it, the run, the tumble and the finger guns. It's funny because I hate watching that.
"I used to go into the analysis guy before and I'd tell him - take my celebration out, do not put my celebration in. I suppose it was just me, as soon as I scored, everything changed. Before I'd score, I'd be like I'm not going to do that, but as soon as you score, you just go off on a mad one..."
https://twitter.com/premierleague/status/1075880345294331905
Listen to Keane's Match of the Day podcast with Gary Lineker
here.
