Ireland legend says Roy Keane won’t come off well in the Saipan movie

While many are already speculating about how things will play out in the upcoming Saipan film, nobody’s more qualified to make predictions than someone who was actually there – so Jason McAteer knows what he’s saying when he predicts that Roy Keane won’t come out of the film smelling of roses.

The former Ireland and Liverpool player was on the Ireland squad for the 2002 World Cup and witnessed the infamous argument between Keane and manager Mick McCarthy that led to the then-captain storming out of the competition shortly before it began.

McAteer had played an invaluable role in getting Ireland to Saipan in the first place, scoring a legendary winning goal against Holland in 2001 that remains one of the greatest moments in Irish sporting history.

Roy Keane’s falling out and exit from the team cast a shadow over the rest of the tournament and has long been a hot-button topic for all involved – now the full story is being told as a feature film, with Academy Award nominee Steve Coogan as Mick McCarthy and Irish actor Éanna Hardwicke as Keane himself.

Speaking on BBC’s Sacked in the Morning podcast, Jason McAteer gave his opinion on how the film was likely to portray the big fight and revealed how he first heard the film was in the works.

He said: “I got a text off a mate who was an actor in Ireland and he texted me out of the blue and asked me if the image he sent me looked like someone who could play me in a movie. Obviously it was Brad Pitt.

“He said they’re making a film about Saipan and I was like ‘shut up’. I asked was it a documentary and he went ‘no, it’s a big movie’. Steve Coogan is playing Mick McCarthy. It’s going to be a blockbuster and I don’t think Roy is going to come out of this too well, to be honest.”

McAteer claimed there was “always tension between Roy and Mick” that “went back from when they played together”.

He said: “When Mick was captain and Roy was a young kid, they clashed a number of times. Then Mick got the manager’s job and Roy became one of the best midfielders in the world, so it was always a difficult relationship.

“We were struggling with jet lag and tiredness and there were a few things that needed ironing out. Unfortunately, it escalated to the point where, in a team meeting, Mick and Roy decided to air their views of each other, which didn’t go down very well. It just got to the point where it was a slagging match in the dressing room.

“I’d been involved in fights in dressing rooms. I’d seen managers lose their temper. I’d seen players throw punches, but I’d never been involved in an argument which escalated to such a point where one of them was gonna snap – and they did. And it was Roy. He decided to go home.

“What followed was just ridiculous. The country was split in half, it got political, players were dragged into it. We weren’t allowed out of the hotel, we weren’t allowed out to talk to the press.

“It soured the situation, to be honest. I’d been involved in World Cup ’94, which was the best six weeks of my life.

“The World Cup is amazing and we’d earned the right to be there again. It was there to be enjoyed and unfortunately, this overshadowed everything.”

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