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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
William Dunne

Roy Keane's Paul McGrath comment proves how highly he thought of ex-Republic of Ireland teammate

Roy Keane has said that he considers ex-Republic of Ireland teammate Paul McGrath to be one of the best players he's ever played with.

The Cork man played with some of the best players in the world during his time at Manchester United.

And while at Old Trafford, he won seven Premier League titles, a Champions League and four FA Cups.

But when asked who was the best player he had ever played with, he name-checked one of Ireland's heroes from Italia 90.

He said: "If I had to pick one because I played in midfield with him…Scholesy maybe.

"Paul Ince was a really good player and obviously I played with Paul McGrath with Ireland."

He made the comment while speaking to Micah Richards on Sky Bet's Micah and Roy's Road to Wembley.

Paul McGrath and Roy Keane (©INPHO/Billy Stickland)

Speaking to Richards, Keane also revealed that "nasty" Zinedine Zidane was toughest opponent he ever faced.

He said: "Do you know why honestly? People still to this day don’t realise how big he was.

"When I played against him, you know I’m quite a small guy, I’m what 5’10?

“I’m really slight. People maybe think I look bigger on the pitch. The best thing when I used to play against Zidane, obviously at club level, I played against him for Ireland. The advice I would get from my friends in Ireland would be, the technical advice they would give me: ‘just kick him’.

“That was the technical advice. Just kick him. And I used to say ‘he’s 6’2, you know, he can deal with that’.

"And I think he’d been sent off eight or nine times. What he was, what I loved about Zidane, he was nasty.”

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