International Career
He was known to Irish supporters as "Zinedine Kilbane", a reference to French playmaker Zinedine Zidane. At one point there were t-shirts with this printed on it for sale outside Lansdowne Road after international matches.
Kilbane qualified for the Republic of Ireland team as both his parents are from there, and he made his international debut against Iceland on 6 September 1997. He was chosen as part of Mick McCarthy's squad for the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Japan and South Korea. The team did relatively well at the tournament, progressing to the knockout stage. They lost to Spain in a penalty shootout when Iker Casillas saved Kilbane and David Connolly's penalties.
Kilbane scored his first international goal in nearly four years with a magnificent strike against the Czech Republic on 11 October 2006. He scored his 8th international goal on 7 September 2010 against Andorra, the first competitive goal for the Republic of Ireland at the new Aviva Stadium.
Kilbane won his 100th cap against Montenegro on 14 November 2009. As of 4 June 2011, Kilbane played his 66th consecutive competitive international game (a run stretching back to 1999); only England's Billy Wright has achieved a longer unbroken run in competitive international football. Kilbane was only four games away from equalling Wright's record of 70 consecutive competitive international starts. However this incredible run ended after he was not selected for Ireland's crunch UEFA Euro 2012 qualification tie against Slovakia due to a back injury.
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Famous quotes containing the word career:
“Each of the professions means a prejudice. The necessity for a career forces every one to take sides. We live in the age of the overworked, and the under-educated; the age in which people are so industrious that they become absolutely stupid.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)