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Roy Keane stirred up his long-running rivalry with the Haaland family this week, prompted by Manchester City forward Erling's heated exchange with Arsenal defender Gabriel.
Haaland found himself in a physical tussle with the Brazilian center back throughout the high-stakes Premier League encounter, muscling past his marker to net the winning goal.
Shortly after, another wrestling match and aerial duel sparked a face-off between the pair. The two went head-to-head, before Gabriel aggressively shoved the striker away. It stopped short of a full headbutt, but only barely. Haaland appeared momentarily stunned, yet his decision to stay on his feet may well have spared Gabriel a red card and a three-game ban.
There was no VAR review, with the official explanation citing insufficient force—the incident was not deemed "excessively aggressive or violent" by the Match Center.
Keane took a playful jab at the moment during the most recent episode of Stick to Football, where the panel weighed in on the season's biggest game and the Haaland-Gabriel flashpoint.
"His dad would have gone down. I am sure of it. Sorry," Keane quipped.
What Is the Keane-Haaland Feud?
The remark alludes to the notorious knee-high tackle the former Manchester United midfielder delivered on Alf-Inge Haaland, who was playing for Manchester City at the time, during a fiery derby encounter in 2001.
The animosity between the two dates back even further, to 1997, when Haaland—then representing Leeds United—stood over Keane and accused him of faking an injury, when in reality Keane had suffered a torn ACL.
Keane addressed the 2001 challenge in his autobiography, published the following year: "I'd waited long enough. I f----ng hit him hard. The ball was there [I think]. Take that you c---. And don't ever stand over me again accusing me of fake injuries."
The original red card had already resulted in a three-match ban and a £5,000 ($6,761 at today's rate) fine, but his admission that the act was premeditated led to an additional five-game suspension and a substantially larger £150,000 ($202,826) fine.
In the wake of Keane's 2002 confession, Manchester City explored the possibility of suing him for Haaland's lost earnings. However, a key detail is that the Norwegian midfielder completed the match in which the tackle occurred, went on to play 45 minutes in an international game, and then featured for another 68 minutes in City's following league fixture. He ultimately retired in 2003, though it was a long-standing, pre-existing injury to his left knee that proved to be the underlying issue.
Keane's challenge had targeted the right leg, and there was no conclusive evidence linking it to Haaland's early retirement. Haaland himself had posted an acknowledgment on his personal website as far back as May 2001 regarding a left knee problem that had been troubling him for three months beforehand—not the knee struck by Keane—effectively undermining any potential lawsuit, which had been reported to be worth around £6 million ($8.1 million).
City abandoned the legal pursuit once the medical evidence was examined. "We went along the road of seeing if we could sue him, but the medical advice wasn't clear-cut enough for us to be able to do it," said then City chairman David Bernstein, who later became head of the FA, speaking to The Times in 2024. "Had the medical advice been strong enough we would have followed it up."