Steve Coogan to play Mick McCarthy in film about Roy Keane’s World Cup walkout

Yes, you read that right.

The Irish film directed by duo Glenn Leyburn and Lisa Barros D’Sa (Good Vibrations, Ordinary Love) will centre around the infamous incident involving the then-Republic of Ireland manager and captain at the training camp for the 2002 World Cup, which saw Keane walk out on his Irish teammates.

McCarthy will be played by comedy legend Steve Coogan, and rising Irish star and Corkman Éanna Hardwicke (Normal People, Lakelands) will have the honour of playing Keano.

Saipan: Cast revealed for film about Roy Keane's Saipan World Cup bust-up with Mick McCarthy

According to Variety, who broke the story, Saipan is described as being about “the events leading up to Ireland’s incendiary 2002 World Cup campaign”.

The event was a cultural phenomenon in Ireland at the time and stemmed from an argument between McCarthy and Keane over the training conditions in Ireland's world cup camp in Japan.

Read next: Ireland’s last match at a World Cup showed what might have been for Irish football

Following the fallout, Keane decided to walk away from the Ireland team and left for home, causing huge spectacle upon his arrival and subsequent interview, where it was revealed that he told McCarthy to "stick your World Cup up your arse".

The public was extremely divided at the time over who was to blame for the incident and it is still a contentious topic to this day.

The film will be produced by Macdara Kelleher and John Keville for Wild Atlantic Pictures (Evil Dead Rise, Cocaine Bear) along with Trevor Birney and Oliver Butler for Fine Point Films (Kneecap) with Patrick O’Neill, Eoin Egan and Rachael O’Kane serving as executive producers.

“A million words have been written about what happened on that fateful week in 2002 on the tiny island of Saipan,” said producers Kelleher and Keville.

“Next year, audiences will finally get to experience firsthand the feud between Roy Keane and Mick McCarthy and why it was labeled ‘the worst preparation for a World Cup campaign ever’.

"We are so excited to have Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn direct this iconic story with our equally iconic cast.”

The directors added: “We’re thrilled to be working with this extraordinary cast and creative team to tell the story of an infamous moment in Irish and football history that drew battle lines across a nation, cast its hopes, dreams and sense of identity into disarray, and briefly made a tiny volcanic island in the Pacific one of the most famous places on earth.”

Saipan will be made in association with Screen Ireland and Northern Ireland Screen and is set for a release in 2025.

Filming is set to take place in Ireland and Saipan in the upcoming months.

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