Robbie Keane at center of Manhattan court case over move to LA Galaxy

Agency claims $385,000 cut for facilitating move from Spurs

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Robbie Keane

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Irish soccer captain Robbie Keane is at the center of a Manhattan court case – over his transfer from Spurs to the LA Galaxy last year.

The Ireland striker ignored the controversy and scored as the Galaxy beat the Colorado Rapids over the weekend.

But agency Real Time International are claiming they are owed at least $385,000 for their involvement in Keane’s $5.7 million move from Spurs.

The Irish Sun reports that Real Time International claim that ‘LA Galaxy and the MLS exploited information’ provided by the agency ‘without compensation’ to complete the deal.

The complaint was heard in a Manhattan federal court when RTI’s legal team said that over a year ago a senior member of the LA club contacted RTI to help identify a player the club could acquire within 10 days.

In evidence RTI claim they put the Galaxy on Keane’s trail and the club began direct negotiations with Tottenham.

The Galaxy owners then refused to pay the agency a fee when Keane completed his move to Los Angeles.

The player has yet to comment on the case but did talk to the media after his goal helped the Galaxy to a 2-0 win over Colorado that moves them up to third in the MLS table.

After scoring his 12th goal of the season, Keane said: “It’s nice after an international break to get back to winning ways again.

“For the goal it was a nice one-two with me and Landon Donovan. It was important to get the first goal, it always is. After that we never looked like losing.

“It’s great to be up to third, it’s something we have wanted to do and now it is important that we keep this run going.”

Galaxy boss Bruce Arena praised Keane who also scored for Ireland in last week’s win in Kazakhstan and has now hit the net nine times since his return from Euro 2012.

Arena said: “Robbie’s been real good. He’s been a great leader.”

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