Erling Haaland is now a Manchester City player.
But, as he begins his career in the Premier League,
his performances will fall under the watch of a former Manchester United player,
now television pundit, who once had a very famous, very public feud with his father.
This is the story of Roy Keane vs Erling Haaland’s dad.
Long before Erling Haaland set the world alight his father, Alf-Inge Haaland,
was making a name for himself in England as a capable utility player. Haaland senior left his
native Norway in 1993 to join Nottingham Forest, before moving to Leeds United four years later.
And it was in 1997 that the Keane-Haaland feud began, during a fractious, ill-tempered
game at Elland Road against Manchester United. The visitors were 1-0 down with time running
out when Keane chased a through-ball into the home penalty box. It was a poor pass that he
had no hope of reaching. Instead, as Haaland chased back in cover and ran beyond Keane,
the Irishman aimed a trip at the Norwegian, before stumbling and falling to the ground in agony.
Haaland – on seeing Keane writhing on the floor – got to his feet,
ran over to Keane, before standing over and berating him for feigning injury.
But Keane was seriously injured. Nobody knew at the time, but he had ruptured his cruciate
ligament. That confusion was furthered by the fact that with Alex Ferguson already having made his
three substitutes, Keane returned to the pitch after receiving treatment. Needless to say, he
would then be out for the rest of the season and, in total, would miss twelve months of football.
Keane would never forget. Three years later,
Haaland would leave Leeds for Manchester City and later that season, in the spring of 2001,
he would face United and Keane in the city derby at Old Trafford.
The game would finish 1-1, but it’s better remembered for one of the worst challenges
in Premier League history. Arriving late and with his studs up, Keane caught Haaland above the knee
and with such force that the Norwegian spun 180* degrees in the air and landed on his shoulder.
It was a straight red card – of course – but the acrimony truly developed in the aftermath.
In a 2002 interview with the Guardian, asked whether he regretted the tackle,
Keane said that “even in the dressing room afterwards, I had no remorse.
My attitude was, fuck (bleep) him. What goes around comes around.”
But more provocative was the autobiography that the interview was organised to promote,
within which Keane gave a more vivid description of his thought process before the tackle:
“I'd waited long enough. I f------ hit him hard. The ball was there (I think).
Take that you c---. And don't ever stand over me sneering about fake injuries.”
The book would bring an FA Inquiry and Keane, who was initially banned for four games and fined
two weeks’ wages, was sanctioned with a further five-game suspension and a £150,000 fine.
But the episode has also had a strange afterlife. Haaland has periodically muttered his anger.
He also once, in 2014, drew a physical comparison between Keane and Saddam
Hussein on Twitter. Keane, for his part, has also offered little in the way of remorse,
saying in his second autobiography, entitled The Second Half, that:
“Looking back at it now, I’m disappointed in the other Manchester City players. They didn’t
jump in to defend their team-mate. I know that if someone had done that to a United player,
I’d have been right in there. They probably thought he was a prick (bleep), too.”
Whatever the case, the tackle didn’t end Alfie Inge-Haaland’s career;
that’s an oft-repeated myth. The Keane challenge impacted him on his right leg, but – as Haaland
himself has acknowledged – he had been suffering for months from problems with his left knee.
That would ultimately require three unsuccessful operations over a period of 18-months and it was
an issue from which he wouldn’t recover, retiring from professional football in the summer of 2003.