Roy Keane reveals award he was ‘not proud of’ winning as Man Utd legend opens up on awkward ceremony
ROY KEANE revealed he was not proud to win the Professional Football Association Player of the Year award in 2000.
And the Manchester United legend thinks he should have got the award the “previous three years”.
For the 1999-2000 season, the former midfielder was handed the prestigious award after leading the Red Devils to their sixth Premier League title in eight years.
It was an award-winning weekend for the Irishman who was handed the Football Writers’ prize just days before.
But the 52-year-old revealed on Gary Nevilles’s Stick to Football podcast brought to you by Sky Bet that he felt it was a little too late to get the trophy.
He said: “I swear to God I’m not proud to win the PFA Award! What did you want me to do?
“I had to go and pick it up – it was a lovely touch Sir Alex being there!
“It was a shocking speech at the time, but if I hadn’t won it, I wouldn’t have been upset and gone, ‘I should have won it’.
“I would have rolled with it. I probably should have won it the three previous years!”
In the 1996-97 season, United were victorious in the Premier League and won the Community Shield 4-0 against Newcastle which saw Keane score the fourth goal.
FREE BETS – BEST BETTING OFFERS & NEW CUSTOMER BONUSES
And at the start of the 1997-98 season, Keane was handed the captaincy after Eric Cantona’s unexpected retirement.
The midfielder’s first term in the new role did not go how he expected as he was sidelined for most of it with an ACL injury.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s side fell short of winning any title after finishing second in the league and crashed out of the Champions League in the quarter-finals.
But United did not fail to impress the following term as Keane led the Manchester outfit to a historic treble in the 1998-99 season.