Inter Milan's Robbie Keane wants to be a successful as fellow Irishman Liam Brady in the Italian League. The former Wolves and Coventry striker was introduced to the media in Italy yesterday and fielded questions for nearly an hour.

Keane said: "Brady is a model for me. I never met him, or saw him play. I only know he was an important Irish player. I want to become important too."

There is little doubt that Keane will become important. The 20-year-old marksman has the world at his feet at the moment but it does not seem to be going to his head.

Inter boss Marcello Lippi has been very impressed with his new charge. Lippi said: "You can always see the difference in quality in a player when he moves from England to Serie A.

"Quality is the most important aspect of a player to us and I believe Robbie has plenty of that. We are very happy to have signed him and I have told him that he will be a very important player for us."

Lippi is only concurring with what Mick McCarthy at Gordon Strachan have been saying about the Tallaght man for the last season. Strachan even went as far as to say that Keane was the best young striker in England, even better than Michael Owen.

Strachan said: "I believe he is the best in the country, you show me any young striker and I will tell you that Robbie is better than them.

"If you put him wide left, which we did do a couple of times, he could do the job as well as Marc Overmars and he has just been sold for £25 million.

"Robbie Keane is a genius and the other players were disappointed to lose him from the squad. I tried everything I could to keep him but sometimes decisions have to be made above you, the chairman is accountable to the bank and the future of the club and I understand that."