Keenan, 25, has been approached by a UK publisher to write a book about his life as a footballer in England, Holland and Australia.

The company believes the market for football books by “non superstar” players is still strong and can work in Keenan's case.

“He may not have been the biggest name, but he’s got some great stories,” said a source close to Keenan.

Southampton born Keenan spent four years on the fringes of first team football at Chelsea up until 2003. A broken leg scuppered his chances of making the first team.

He went on to have spells with Westerlo in Belgium, Willem II in Holland, Brentford in England before Melbourne Victory signed him last season.

He is currently out of favour at Victory having being dropped for the club's Asian Champions League campaign due to foreign visa restrictions.

English professional footballer Gary Nelson is a good example of a regular footballer turned author.

In the 1990s, he wrote two acclaimed best selling books Left Foot Forward and Left Foot In The Grave about his time as a professional footballer at Charlton and Torquay.

“Joe was in the last group of players out of Lilleshall [England’s elite football academy] is a friend of John Terry and played alongside Gianfranco Zola as well as under three different Chelsea managers,” added the source.

“And of course he’s played in Holland, Belgium and in Australia’s A-League so he's seen a bit of the world."