Former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson is due to appear at the Dublin Chamber of Commerce annual dinner next week on the same day that Roy Keane releases his new autobiography.
Sir Alex will appear along with the Taoiseach Enda Kenny at the Convention Centre Dublin on Thursday. Some 1,700 people are expected to attend.
Both Sir Alex and the Taoiseach will speak at the dinner which is almost sold out.
“It is a big coup to get him,” said Dublin Chamber of Commerce spokesman Graeme McQueen. “He’s a hard man to get. Since he retired and stepped out of the limelight, people still want to hear him speak.
“When we announced him, we’ve been flat out with calls. For our generation he is the one greatest managers in the history of football.”
Since retiring from Manchester United at the end of the 2012/2013 season, Sir Alex has written his autobiography and has taken a role at Harvard Business School.
He will speak at the Convention Centre on the issue of “management and leadership”. He launched the book at the same venue in November last year.
In his autobiography, Ferguson ignited his simmering feud with Keane which dated back to 2005 when Keane left the club following an explosive interview on MUTV in which he criticised many of his fellow players.
Ferguson described the interview as a “disgrace” and said of Keane in My Autobiography: “The hardest part of Roy’s body is his tongue. He has the most savage tongue you can imagine. He can debilitate the most confident person in the world in seconds with that tongue.
“What I noticed about him that day when I was arguing with him was that his eyes started to narrow, almost to wee black beads. It was frightening to watch. And I’m from Glasgow.”
Keane, in turn, accused Ferguson of having a massive ego and said the former Manchester United manager did not know the meaning of the word loyalty.
He will have a second chance to respond when his autobiography is out on Thursday. The Second Half is co-written by novelist Roddy Doyle. It will be eagerly awaited by Irish and Manchester United fans.
