Robbie Keane breaks his silence on staying with Maccabi Tel Aviv after Gaza invasion
Ireland's record goalscorer spoke out on Rio Ferdinand's podcast after he received heavy criticism for not leaving the Israeli club until the summer
Robbie Keane has defended his decision to remain on as Maccabi Tel Aviv boss until June - and revealed his turned down a "big contract" to extend his stay.
Keane, 44, eventually left the post after guiding the club to a League and Cup double last year and into the last 16 of the Conference League.
But Ireland's record caps winner and goalscorer has received criticism in his own country for staying on with Maccabi after Israel invaded Gaza 13 months ago - criticism that raged again after it was revealed Keane was invited to hand out caps before Ireland's Nations League clash with Finland last week.
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Speaking on the Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast, Keane reacted to the backlash against him, explaining that the decision was made by himself and his staff to stay with the club until the end of the season.
"At the end of the day, I’m a football manager and my staff have got people to look after," he said. "I have got a duty of care. Let’s make it clear, obviously there has been a lot of stuff going on. I resigned at the end of the season from my post at Maccabi Tel Aviv. When it did happen (war began), we left (the country).
"But I have five staff, I have a lot of foreign players who rely on me as their coach. We were winning the league, hadn’t won it in three years, we were in Europe and doing very well.
"My analyst for example, he has got a mortgage, a family and kids he has to feed. The decision just to step away from something, it’s not just my decision, it’s everybody else's decision, which was tough.
“Let’s make it clear, what is happening is terrible and nobody wants to see it. Hopefully it ends very, very soon. But at the end of the day, I’m a football manager and my staff have got people to look after. I have got a duty of care.
“My analyst, for example, was at Middlesbrough for 12 years. For him to come with me, and then for me just to walk away from that and leave him and his family…because you can’t just walk into a job. It’s difficult to walk into a job straight away after leaving a post for 12 years. He is just one example, I had other staff.
“I had players calling me, ‘please don’t leave coach, don’t leave, what you have done for this club’, so I made the decision to stay until the end of the season and walk away from a big contract, another year, possibly two more years. We made that decision as a group and as a staff.
“But to go and win the league and to win the double, nobody can ever take that away from me."
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