Yassine En-Neyah has lauded the impact that Roy Keane had on his time at Nottingham Forest. The youngster departed the City Ground in 2021 to join Shelbourne in the League of Ireland but made one appearance for the Reds’ senior ranks.
En-Neyah was a highly-rated member of the club’s academy. He left in search of first-team football and after a short spell with Selbourne he transferred to Waterford FC on a short-term deal.
The 22-year-old made 26 appearances last season and showcased his versatility. He played in no fewer than four different positions and has been offered a new contract by the Irish outfit.
En-Neyah would prefer to continue his career in England though. It’s claimed in the latest interview that he’s done that he does have some offers from League One and League Two; although he concedes that he wants to be playing.
En-Neyah has hailed the influence of Keane though. The youngster was training with the first team at the time when the ex-Manchester United man was the assistant manager at the City Ground.
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He told The 42: “Roy Keane kind of guided me as a young kid coming through.
“I was actually surprised to say that he’s been really good to me. From my perspective, he was a completely different character than what you’d see on TV.
“I was comfortable talking to him. He was coming to watch our games all the time, even though he was in charge of the first team.
“He would always be nice and give good information. I never felt I was intimidated or anything.”
En-Neyah hails Keane influence
The ex-Forest youngster can look back with great pride on his only Forest appearance. It came during the latter stages of a 2-0 defeat to Chelsea in the FA Cup back in 2020 when Sabri Lamouchi was in charge.
It’s perhaps a bit of a surprise that he never made the grade at Forest. He was on the cusp of the senior ranks and did actually spend quite a bit of time training with the first team on Trentside.
Still, it’s hard to knock his desire to play football. He left to feature regularly for a club and although it was in a lesser division, he should now forge a career as a professional footballer in some capacity.