Irish Coach Welcomed at Budapest Football Club

MTI-Hungary Today 2025.01.07.

Irish professional Robbie Keane is the new head coach of Budapest football team Ferencváros (FTC). On Monday, the club announced that the 44-year-old Irish coach will take over the reins following the departure of Pascal Jansen.

According to FTC’s website, Keane, who has brought two assistants with him, Rory Delap and Phill Hudson, arrived in Budapest on Sunday evening and will travel on Tuesday to Spain, where his new team will be training. The change came after Ferencváros’ former coach, Dutch Pascal Jansen, was bought out of his contract by New York City FC for HUF 500 million (EUR 1.2 million).

The new coach told fradi.hu that he is aware that Ferencváros is a good team, but what does that really mean? “Can you play exciting, energetic football that the fans like? That is the path I want to take, so that the fans enjoy the way my team plays.

It is important for the players to understand that it is not enough to win one or two games, you have to win every game. Whoever we play against, we have to show exciting football,”

emphasized Keane, who believes the most important thing is that the club is for the people. He added that the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson (managing Manchester United from 1986 to 2013) told him not to pick a club, but to pick fans.

Keane also expressed that he was excited to be here and that the real work would start in Spain. “We need to get people involved and to do that we need to play well.

Of course I know what I want to achieve because everyone wants to win, but first I have to get to know the players and their mentality,”

he said.

Fact

Robert Keane, a 146-time international, spent the most influential period of his playing career of nearly 20 years at Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur, but has also played for clubs such as Liverpool, Internazionale, and Leeds United. He served as captain of the Republic of Ireland from March 2006, until his international retirement in August 2016. He is the most capped player and all-time top goalscorer for his nation. He started his coaching career as an assistant with the Irish national team, and has only worked as a head coach at Maccabi Tel Aviv. He won the league title with the Israeli side last season but left his post in the summer.

Ferencváros is at a training camp in Spain until next Wednesday and will play their first competitive match of the season on January 23, when they host Eintracht Frankfurt of Germany in the penultimate round of the Europa League. As for the Hungarian championship, FTC is currently in second place in the OTP Bank League, one point behind the leader, Puskás Akadémia.

Europa League: FTC Close to Progress with Knockout against Malmö

The team will face Greece's PAOK in two weeks' time.Continue reading

Via MTI, Featured photo via Facebook/Groupama Aréna