Robbie Keane has revealed that he would love to step into coaching before potentially managing the Republic of Ireland national team in the future.
The LA Galaxy striker is currently captain of the Ireland team for whom he has played since 1998 and he has admitted to already thinking about one day guiding them from the touchline.
"Of course, that's my next step," he told The Associated Press.
"I'm going to get my coaching badges. I'd like to be a coach first and kind of learn the ropes and then definitely want to be a manager."
He added: "At the moment, there are no Irish managers. Pat Fenlon has done very well at Hibernian. He just came from the Irish League. He's doing very, very well.
"Apart from that, there's Mick McCarthy obviously. He's always going to be in the running to get the next job because I think he's well respected by everybody. There's not many former players that are managers, coaches at the moment. We need to do something about that."
