Keane enjoying new role as coach with Isle of Man

All eyes might be on the European Championships in France at the moment, but for Abbeyknockmoy native and former Galway United and Sligo Rovers star Alan Keane, his attention is firmly focused elsewhere this week.

Despite only retiring from the game before the commencement of the current League of Ireland season, the 31-years-old has not been resting on his laurels, having taken on a myriad of coaching jobs, including his current role as coach and assistant manager of the Isle of Man.

Indeed, as you read this, Keane is busy with his new side over in Italy, where his team is competing in the Europeada Tournament. The event is hosted by the Confederation of Independent Football Associations (CONIFA), which caters for teams not recognised by UEFA and FIFA, such as the Isle of Man, Monaco and, further afield, Tibet and Darfur.

Keane explains the long term objective for the Isle of Man team, known as Ellan Vannin, is to gain UEFA or FIFA approval, much like Gibraltar did in 2013. With a population of just 30,000, Gibraltar is the smallest UEFA member in terms of population. The Isle of Man has a population of almost 85,000.

He notes the first step in that process would be for the Isle of Man, located in the northern region of the Irish Sea, to gain access to a league in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland or mainland UK and become a member of FIFA and UEFA through this route.

“Obviously, they are a national side so they would then be able to seek to play in the qualifiers for Europe and so on. I am not fully sure of the whole ins and outs of it, but that is what I can gather from the guy in charge and I read up a bit about it as well,” he says.

In many respects, Keane fell into his new role. “It all happened pretty quick. I got a call a couple of weeks ago from Alan Rogers, who would have been with Mickey Adams as his assistant manager at Sligo Rovers, and he had got the manager’s job.

“He was out there training them at the weekend – meeting them for the first time – and he rang me on the Monday when he got back and just said would I be interested in coming in and be the first team coach/assistant manager with him.”

The phone call came at just the right time as Keane had just finished in his role as an FAI Development Officer in Leitrim, where he had been covering for another coach. It also comes on the back of him acquiring his UEFA ‘B’ licence.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.