Steve Coogan on his Roy Keane film - and his part in Posh and Becks' first meeting

4 days ago

Colin PatersonEntertainment correspondent

Aidan Monaghan

Steve Coogan plays former Republic of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy in Saipan

Despite having little interest in football, Steve Coogan is starring in a new film about former Manchester United hero Roy Keane - and reveals he was with Keane's teammate David Beckham the night he met Victoria.

Steve Coogan is up front about not caring who plays up front. He is not a football fan.

Growing up in Greater Manchester, he says his biggest childhood involvement with the sport was through doodling in football-themed colouring books.

"In those pre-enlightened days, if they were City players, they were obviously the enemy," he says, explaining that his family sided towards United.

"Our way of humiliating these City players was to put earrings and lipstick and eyelashes on them as a way of feminising them.

"We thought this was an insult, but of course, these days, it's just a choice."

Despite his previous lack of passion for the beautiful game, Coogan is now starring in a new film about midfielder Roy Keane, playing the role of his international manager, Mick McCarthy.

The film's title, Saipan, comes from the name of the western Pacific island where the Republic of Ireland went to prepare for the 2002 World Cup.

What followed was the football fallout that divided a nation; Keane disagreeing so vehemently with McCarthy's training camp methods that he quit and went home.

Aidan Monaghan

It's getting hot in Éire. Saipan's sauna scene, with Coogan as Mick McCarthy and Éanna Hardwicke as Roy Keane

Some media commentators at the time described the event as a civil war, with friends and families divided between Team McCarthy or Team Keane.

"Calling it the Civil War Two is quite funny, but there is definitely some truth in that," says Coogan, who like McCarthy is second generation Irish, an aspect of the role that appealed to him.

"The Civil War was about how Ireland should conduct itself in relation to the rest of the world and in relation to the British," he expounds.

"And this is sort of no different."

For Éanna Hardwicke, who plays Keane, Ireland's pre-World Cup implosion was one of his earliest childhood memories.

"I was five, so I was interested in the sticker books more than anything.

"I remember being coached by adults, 'This is what you say if anyone asks you about it'.

"They were very much Team Mick and I think they were coming at it from the generational side, where it was like, 'That is not the way that you comport yourself, and it's disrespectful.'"

Aidan Monaghan

Hardwicke says the film looks at the many issues behind the Keane/McCarthy dispute

Coogan made the decision, before filming started, to call Barnsley-born McCarthy, who as well as managing the Republic of Ireland twice (from 1996-2002 and 2018-2020), was capped 57 times as player.

"I wanted to speak to him because I read the script and although it was very good, I felt like it was weighted a bit too heavily towards Roy.

"Given that I was playing Mick, I felt like I should sort of be in Mick's corner," explains Coogan, who at 60 is 17 years older than McCarthy was in 2002. He can, however, still pull-off the manager's trademark "pair of shorts" look, having climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to celebrate his landmark birthday.

"He wasn't so anxious that he wasn't happy to talk me," continues Coogan. "But I think he was concerned that it would be too negative to him in a way."

Lorraine O'Sullivan/INPHO via Getty Images

Keane and McCarthy in 2001, a year before Saipan, after the Republic of Ireland beat The Netherlands 1-0 in a World Cup qualifier

Hardwicke decided to take the opposite approach.

"I had a very clear sense of what Roy thought about all of this, because so much was written about it and so many interviews were given at the time."

So, like many a Premier League midfielder in the 90s, he decided to give Roy Keane a wide berth, instead using existing material for his research.

Getty Images

David Beckham and the then Victoria Adams married in 1999, two years after meeting on a night out in Manchester at which Steve Coogan was present

One Manchester United-related revelation which Coogan imparts is that, in 1997, he was present at a historic football/pop culture crossover moment.

"I was out in Manchester, this was a long time ago, with David Beckham and Ryan Giggs," he says.

"And I was on a night out after this charity event, the night he met Victoria Beckham."

Yes, Coogan was at the genesis of Posh and Becks.

"I was sort of there, hovering," is his summation of his involvement.

"You were his wingman?" I ask, slightly incredulous at how this detail has only emerged 29 years later.

He is now trying to play it down: "Not really, no. Ryan Giggs was there, too," lowering himself one position in the power rankings of Beckham's posse for that evening.

Then details start to return to him about Beckham's attire. "I remember he was very trendy. He was wearing a suit with shoes and no socks, a fashionable thing for a young man to do. Has that gone away now?" he enquires hopefully.

So when David was chatting to Victoria, was Coogan left having to make small talk with the other Spice Girls?

"No, it wasn't quite like that," he reminisces, before the story takes another strange turn.

"When I was on tour, someone stole all our musical equipment and the Spice Girls lent me theirs."

This was around the time of Coogan's Portuguese crooner alter ego, Tony Ferrino.

I again ask for clarification on what his link with the Spice Girls was.

"They were in Manchester at the same time that I was doing gigs. And David Beckham was there, too.

"So, you know, I've been around for a while. I've seen a few things."

Saipan opens in cinemas on 23 January.