Steve Coogan on starring in Roy Keane feud film despite not being a football fan

Despite having little interest in football, Steve Coogan stars 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 outspoken about not caring who plays up front. He’s not a football fan.

The artist, who grew up in Greater Manchester, says that his biggest interest in this sport during his childhood was doodling in football-themed coloring books.

“In those pre-enlightenment days, if they were City players, they were clearly enemies,” he says, explaining that his family sided with United.

“The way we humiliated these City players was to put earrings, lipstick and eyelashes on them as a way of feminising them.

“We thought it was an insult but of course these days it’s just a choice.”

Despite Coogan’s previous lack of passion for the beautiful game, he now stars in a new film in which he plays midfielder Roy Keane’s international manager Mick McCarthy.

The name of the film, 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 objected so strongly to McCarthy’s training camp methods that he quit and went home.

Some media commentators at the time described the incident as a civil war in which friends and families were divided between Team McCarthy or Team Keane.

“It’s quite funny to call it Civil War Two, but there’s definitely some truth to it,” 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 behave towards the rest of the world and towards Britain,” he explains.

“And this one isn’t much different.”

For Éanna Hardwicke, who plays Keane, Ireland’s pre-World Cup collapse was one of her earliest childhood memories.

“I was five years old and more interested in sticker books than anything else.

“I remember adults coaching me: ‘This is what you would say if someone asked you about this.’

“They were very much like Team Mick and I think they were approaching it from a generational perspective, ‘You don’t conduct yourself that way and it’s disrespectful.’ It was something like that.”

Before filming began, Coogan decided to call Barnsley-born McCarthy, who has managed the Republic of Ireland twice (between 1996-2002 and 2018-2020) and has been capped 57 times.

“I wanted to talk to him because I read the script and although he was very good, I felt like he was a little too hard on Roy.

“Given that I was playing Mick, I kind of felt like I had to be in Mick’s corner,” explains Coogan, who is 60 and 17 years older than McCarthy was in 2002. But he can still sport the manager’s signature ‘shorts’ look, having climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to celebrate his milestone birthday.

“He wasn’t so worried that he wasn’t happy to talk to me,” Coogan continues. “But I think he was worried that it would be very negative for him in a way.”

Hardwicke decided to take the opposite approach.

“I knew very clearly what Roy thought about all this, because so much was written about it and so many interviews were given at the time.”

So, like many Premier League midfielders in the 90s, he decided to give Roy Keane wide latitude for his research rather than using existing material.

One statement Coogan quotes about Manchester United is that it was there at a historic football/pop culture crossover moment in 1997.

“I was in Manchester, that was a long time ago, with David Beckham and Ryan Giggs,” he says.

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

Yes, Coogan was involved in the birth of Posh and Becks.

“I was kind of there, floating around,” is his summary of his involvement.

“Were you his wingman?” I ask, a little in disbelief how this detail came to light 29 years later.

He now tries to downplay it: “Not really, no. Ryan Giggs was there too.” He dropped one spot on Beckham’s power rankings that evening.

Then details about Beckham’s outfit begin to come to mind. “I remember he was very fashionable. He was wearing a suit with shoes and no socks, which was a fashionable thing for a young man to do. Has that gone away now?” he asks hopefully.

So while David chatted with Victoria, Coogan had to make small talk with the other Spice Girls?

“No, it wasn’t exactly like that,” he recalls, before the story takes another strange turn.

“While we were on tour, someone stole all our music equipment and the Spice Girls lent me theirs.”

This was the time of Coogan’s Portuguese singing alter ego, Tony Ferrino.

Once again, I want clarification as to what her connection is to the Spice Girls.

“They were in Manchester when I was giving concerts. David Beckham was there too.

“So, you know, I’ve been around for a while. I’ve seen a few things.”

Saipan opens in theaters on January 23.