Robbie Keane has signed a new contract at Ferencvaros as the Hungarian club tries to deter a growing number of admirers from swooping for their highly rated manager.
Keane has enjoyed a brilliant first year in Budapest, enhancing his reputation as one of European football’s most exciting coaching talents.
‘I’m happy to continue this journey,’ said the 45-year-old Dubliner as he extended his deal on Wednesday.
‘I’m really enjoying it. It’s a good place to be. Amazing supporters, good relationships with everybody at the club. The president has been fantastic and can see the vision I have for the club. And stability is very important. I’m very happy to sign and stay.’
Ferencvaros president Gabor Kubatov said: ‘Robbie feels very comfortable in Budapest. He loves the people, the Hungarian restaurants, the food. It is as though he likes this fabric and has embroidered himself into it.
‘The fans love him too. He is a winner. Relentless and very motivated.’
Robbie Keane has flourished at Ferencvaros and is blazing a trail through the Europa League
Keane has been in the job since January, leading Ferencvaros to its seventh successive Hungarian title with a sprint finish 33 points from the last 13 games of last season.
It is his progress in Europe that is turning heads, however, at a time when some of the illustrious clubs he is closely associated with as a player struggle for new identity and direction, including Celtic, who were beaten by Dundee United on Wednesday, their fourth defeat in four games under new boss Wilfried Nancy.
Ferencvaros are unbeaten in their six Europa League games, beating Rangers last week and moving onto 14 points only one behind the league phase leaders Lyon, Midtjylland and Aston Villa.
Little wonder the fans adore him and sing his name. They are poised for automatic qualification for the last 16 with two ties to play and regularly out-performing wealthier rivals on bigger budgets.
Keane’s team that beat Rangers was assembled for just £6.4million, which is £2m less than the Glasgow giants paid Everton in September for centre forward Youssef Chermiti, who came off the bench in Budapest.
Ferencvaros are riding high above Celtic, whose starting line-up for last week’s 3-0 defeat at home to Roma cost five times more, and Forest, whose line-up in Utrecht last week cost 20 times more than the Hungarian champions.
Keane’s coaching journey started as player manager of ATK in the Indian Super League before spells on the coaching staff of Mick McCarthy at the Republic of Ireland, Jonathan Woodgate at Middlesbrough and Sam Allardyce at Leeds.
His first permanent managerial role was at Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel and disrupted almost immediately by the outbreak of war in Gaza but did not stop him winning the league title and the League Cup and taking the club into the knock out stages of European competition for the first time, despite having to play their home games on neutral territory.
Keane left after one season. He joined Ferencvaros six months later when Pascal Jansen moved on to take over at New York City and almost landed the league and cup double in his first six months, losing the Hungarian Cup final on penalties to Paks.
Now in the midst of his first full season, Keane is flourishing. His team will play the final fixture before the winter break on Friday against Diosgyor.
When they return in January, they will be into a ferocious sequence of fixtures, against Panathinaikos and Nottingham Forest in the Europa League, either side of a game against title rivals Gyori ETO.
