‘True Champion’ Katie Taylor among Roy Keane’s ideal dinner guests

Roy Keane named fellow Irish sporting legend Katie Taylor as one of the three people he would most like to have dinner with.

The Cork favourite was asked which ‘three proper guests’ he would invite to a dinner party by the other half of everyone’s new favourite pundit double act Micah Richards.

The retired midfielder said he’d love to meet Bob Dylan and comedian Norman Wisdom as well as ‘true champion’ Taylor at the table.

Speaking on Micah & Roy’s Road to Wembley for Sky Bet, the ex-Irish captain said: “I would love to meet Bob Dylan. He’s probably quiet and a bit miserable like myself.

“Do you know who I loved growing up when you were on about movies, who always made me laugh. Would you know Norman Wisdom?

“Obviously a comedian, great. Had some brilliant movies.

“I think we need some female company. Just to break it up, obviously just to chat. I’ll say, I’ll say a true champion. Katie Taylor from Ireland.

“Brilliant, I’ve met her once, an amazing sports person.”

Taylor would no doubt accept the offer as she is a massive Keane fan. Speaking previously she told how the former Irish captain was the first person to phone her after her defeat to Finland’s Mira Potkonen at the 2016 Olympics.

“When I lost in the Rio Olympics, the first phone call I got was actually from Roy Keane,” said Taylor when speaking to the Daily Mail.

“He said, ‘keep your head up’. He was very, very positive and that really does make my heart so happy,” the reigning WBC, WBO, WBA, IBF and Ring Magazine lightweight world champion added.

“He went out of his way and it meant so much to me that one of my heroes, someone who I really looked up to as a child, gave me a call at the lowest point of my career.

Keane is the hard man poster boy but Leeds fan Taylor points out the former Manchester United player has a lot more to him than the public perceives.

“They’re the things you don’t see,” she said. “He has a great heart… and he’s someone who doesn’t look for any limelight for those sorts of things. It was just out of the goodness of his heart.”

Speaking to the Daily Mail in 2019, she said: “When I lost in the Rio Olympics, the first phone call I got was actually from Roy Keane.

“He said, ‘keep your head up’. And he was very, very positive and that really does make my heart so happy.”