How Roy Keane's infamous 2002 World Cup bust-up was transformed into an acclaimed film

Irish actor Éanna Hardwicke was only five at the time of the 2002 World Cup, but the memories are still vivid. “I was really aware of the iconography of it,” he reflects, when we meet in London’s Sea Containers hotel.

“I can picture the Irish jersey. I could probably tell you the whole starting 11 of the Irish team. I had sticker books, and I remember just being completely caught up in World Cup fever, which I probably haven’t been to an extent since.”

Of course, for any Republic of Ireland football fan, the 2002 FIFA tournament in Japan and South Korea remains infamous.

Not so much for events on the field, with Ireland eventually knocked out on penalties in the last 16 to Spain. More for events off it, before a ball had even been kicked, when Irish captain – and Manchester United midfield legend – Roy Keane had an unforgettable bust-up with manager Mick McCarthy.

The setting was Saipan, a small island in the Pacific, where the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) had determined its team acclimatise before the FIFA World Cup. Infuriated by the poor training facilities – including no footballs when they arrived – Keane flew home, making headlines around the world.

“It’s something that happened over four or five days on, fair to say, the biggest global stage you can get, whether you’re a sportsman or not,” remarks Hardwicke, who plays Keane in Saipan, a new movie that dramatises the fallout.

While there have been other player-manager meltdowns at World Cups – think of French star Nicolas Anelka in 2010, arguing with coach Raymond Domenech – this was a row that divided families across Ireland and according to Saipan’s co-director Glenn Leyburn, “still reverberates through Irish culture to this day”.

Back in 2002, Ireland was going through a huge transition, the time of the so-called Celtic Tiger when a period of rapid economic growth had transformed the country into a thriving economic success story.

Mirroring that, Irish football was in a golden period, following appearances in World Cup tournaments in 1990 and 1994, in which Keane played. Although injured in the run-up to the 2002 competition, the 31 year-old Keane was at the peak of his professional powers – a symbol that Ireland was no longer here just to make up the numbers.

“I mean, he could have played for any team in that World Cup and been the most important player,” says Leyburn. “And so he wanted something more... and felt that was possible.”

In what transpired to be his last ever shot at playing in a World Cup, Keane’s abrupt departure caused a great deal of soul-searching among Irish men and women.

“I think the tragedy is manifold,” says Hardwicke. “It’s about being in a moment of massive, massive excitement and ambition for a small island, four million people. Also the fact that if there is this narrative about the Irish getting in their own way or not quite being serious contenders in football... there’s something really tragic about that narrative being confirmed for people.”

Scripted by Paul Fraser (whose career includes several movies for Shane Meadows, including cult classic Dead Man’s Shoes), the film co-stars Steve Coogan as McCarthy, the actor and comedian perfectly nailing the vocal rhythms of the manager.

As Leyburn’s co-director (and wife) Lisa Barros D’Sa points out, Coogan’s origins – like McCarthy he has Irish roots but grew up in the north of England – drew him to the role. “That idea of being part of the Irish diaspora and how that informs your identity was something Steve is very interested in and was able to really bring to the character of Mick.”

Hardwicke admits he was apprehensive working with the hugely experienced Coogan. “There’s a bit of your ego that goes... will I just feel nervous and crumble in front of him when we actually do a scene together? And I felt like that could happen. But really brilliant actors like Steve, they do just pull you up to their level.”

Did he resist doing impressions of Coogan’s most famous character, the Norwich DJ and TV host Alan Partridge? “I wouldn’t dare,” he chuckles.

His own morphing into Keane is one of Saipan’s highlights, especially given his softly-spoken demeanour in reality. “He’s a very gentle, amiable character,” says Leyburn.

The actor, who featured in the BBC’s hit Sally Rooney adaptation Normal People and is currently on stage in London in a production of The Playboy of the Western World, certainly seems a million miles from the surly Keane, whose curmudgeonly reputation has only been enhanced by his regular appearances on Sky Sports’ Premier League coverage as a pundit.

“I think he’s uncompromising, genuinely, and I think there’s a lot to admire about that,” says Hardwicke. “Like most people, you meet people halfway in an interaction, or you tend to soften things. I always think of preparing for a role, whether they’re real person or fictional, in the same way.

“It’s all physical. It’s all about how someone carries themselves through the world, how their brain affects their body and vice versa. I just played around with walking in those shoes and going, ‘How does it feel to not alter yourself or change yourself, to make other people feel at ease?’”

With only a few weeks to prepare, Hardwicke trained at London’s Before the Lights gym to get in shape. Keane may have come of age “in that era where you’re on the pints four nights a week, and then you play on Saturday”, but he never followed suit. “He was one of the early adopters of a really clean diet and a particular training regime.”

Hardwicke tried to put himself in Keane’s mindset, although it was a struggle. “I couldn’t be further from that. I really couldn’t. Honestly, five weeks was enough for me. I felt like I couldn’t shoot anymore. This film couldn’t be longer than it was.”

In advance of the shoot, meanwhile, Coogan met McCarthy, who was happy to talk through the notorious events. And Keane? “We reached out,” says Barros D’Sa, cautiously. “We let him know about it. We haven’t spoken directly to Roy.”

While the film has already been released in Ireland in early January, the filmmakers seem braced for the unknown when it comes to reactions from either party. “We don’t know how it’s going to unfold,” she continues. “It’s really up to them to react however they want to react.”

Leyburn nods in agreement. “One of the great things about Roy is he’s very forthright with his opinions. We all love him for that. So we’ll see.”

It meant that Hardwicke, who grew up in Cork, in Ireland, where Keane is from, had to do his prep work from afar. Now the film is done, would he like to meet the man himself? “I’d love to have a drink with him,” he grins. “When I saw the film, I thought, if he has one complaint, it’s he looked much better at 31 than I do at 28!”

Although it’s hard to imagine either Keane or McCarthy being overly pleased at this emotionally raw moment in their lives turned into movie, the filmmakers never wanted to sensationalise events.

“We’ve got nothing but respect for both Roy and Mick,” adds Leyburn. “They both had very valid approaches to that World Cup, and they were both put in a really difficult situation, which wasn’t of their own making. And the tragedy is just it couldn’t work out. The more we delved into the story, the more we saw how alike they were and how they both wanted the same thing.”

No strangers to real-life stories, Leyburn and Barros D’Sa previously made 2013’s Good Vibrations, about Terri Hooley, a record-store owner instrumental in developing Belfast’s punk scene. But here, they take a more surreal, dreamlike approach – typified by a giant promotional cut-out of Keane’s head that can frequently be seen around the hotel.

Largely set in the rooms and empty corridors where Keane is having his meltdown, the film echoes other works – like Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining and the Coen Brothers’ Barton Fink – where a hotel setting becomes a reflection of the protagonist’s state of mind.

“It feels like a psychodrama,” says Hardwicke. “The island and the hotel become a theatre of the psyche for Roy. What it does is it takes us away from a straight retelling or a docu-drama. We’re used to seeing those factual dramas now, aren’t we? You get three or four episodes, and it is about telling true events in a concise way. I don’t think that is what Saipan is doing. It’s based on true events, and it’s thoroughly researched by Paul, but it’s about the way that you tell that visually.”

More than anything, it shows Ireland at a tipping point, says the actor. “I think we live in a very, very different Ireland now than we did 23 years ago. And if it’s not too lofty to say, there is some connection to our culture, whether it’s our sporting culture, whether it’s people like Roy, whether it’s our rugby team in the last 10 years, whether it’s our musicians and cultural figures now, like Fontaines DC or CMAT or Kneecap.

“I think there’s a sense that we live in an Ireland now that is quite front-footed on the world stage and is maybe less apologetic about its presence.”

Saipan is now showing in UK cinemas.

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