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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Vincent Whelan

Inside Robbie Keane's Champions League final trip where he rubbed shoulders with LeBron James and 'R9' Ronaldo

Judging from his Instagram stories, Ireland legend Robbie Keane had quite the weekend as he was in Paris for the Champions League final.

The former Liverpool striker saw them fall 1-0 to Real Madrid largely due to Thibaut Courtois' man of the match display in goal.

Robbie and son Robert Jr had one of the best seats in the house to what wasn't exactly a classic European Cup final as Liverpool were the better side but at the same time didn't perform at their best which allowed this opportunistic Madrid side to hang around and eventually strike on the break with a slick move that ended with Vinicius Jr tucking the ball home.

Presumably Robbie was there due to his ongoing role as a technical advisor with UEFA as he was seated beside regular dignitary pal Luis Figo - whom often features in any of his trips to showpiece games such as at the Euros last summer.

But the Portugese legend wasn't the only footballing great Robbie rubbed shoulders with as Brazilian World Cup winner Ronaldo posed for a selfie with him too.

And NBA superstar LeBron James (a part owner of Liverpool FC) also made a random appearance towering over Ireland's record goalscorer.

Alongside the four-time NBA champion (@robbiekeane)
Robbie Jr with Ian Rush (@robbiekeane)
Their view of the match (@robbiekeane)
Luis Figo is seen in this one (@robbiekeane)
He also relaxed on a yacht at one stage (@robbiekeane)

Now while the match will mainly be remembered as Belgian keeper Courtois' finest hour and an unlikely crowning glory for established legends like Carlo Ancelotti, Karim Benzema and Luka Modric, the event as a whole was massively overshadowed by a major lack of organisation on the part of authorities that saw kick-off delayed by 36 minutes as tonnes of fans were stuck outside trying to get in on time.

Thankfully, it seems no one was badly injured in what looked like very dangerous scenes as fans were guided into bottlenecks and social media footage appeared to capture extremely heavy-handed police tactics on supporters simply queuing up to get into the Stade de France.

Several other former Ireland internationals had far more harrowing experiences than Keane for instance.

Jason McAteer alleged that his son was attacked in the midst of it all while John Aldridge vowed never to return to the French capital after seeing how fans were treated.

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