Premier League legend wins first league title as a manager and will be in Champions League next season
A PREMIER LEAGUE legend has guided Maccabi Tel-Aviv to the Israeli Premier League title.
The side ended Maccabi Haifa’s three-year dominance and will compete in the Champions League next season as a result.
The league champions benefited from the appointment of Robbie Keane as manager last June.
The Irishman took on the role along with his assistant and former Stoke City star Rory Delap.
Maccabi Tel-Aviv sealed the league triumph with a 3-0 win over Hapoel Beer-Sheva.
The result put the club eight points clear at the top of the table with only two games remaining.
Keane, 43, did not only enjoy domestic success as he also took the club to the last 16 of the Europa Conference League.
The club finished top of their group over the likes of Gent and Zorya Luhansk.
They were knocked out by finalists Olympiacos despite winning the first leg 4-1.
In the second leg, they were outclassed and lost 6-1, leading to their exit from Europe.
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To reach the Champions League group stages next season, the club will have to make it through the second qualifying round.
Reports claimed that Keane had to flee Israel in October via Greece.
Tel-Aviv was one of the cities to was hit by rocket attacks due to the ongoing war between Hamas and Israel.
The league was suspended between October and November because of the conflict.
Maccabi Tel-Aviv is Keane’s second job leading a team.
He was a player-manager at Indian side ATK in 2018 and won two out of three games.
Keane started his playing career at Wolverhampton Wanderers and earned moves to Coventry City and Inter Milan.
He only featured six times in Serie A before returning to England with Leeds.
The striker refound his form in Yorkshire and made a transfer to Tottenham Hotspur.
In North London, he hit his highest level of performance with 91 Premier League goals in 238 league appearances across two spells.
He even managed to lift a trophy with the club as he won the League Cup in 2008.
He did have a difficult spell at Liverpool in between his Spurs stints.
After falling out of favour, he had loan spells at Celtic and West Ham United.
He left permanently for LA Galaxy in 2011 and scored 83 goals in 125 league games.
Keane starred for the Republic of Ireland throughout his playing career and scored 68 goals during his 148 caps.
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