Saipan

A few days before the 2002 World Cup the Ireland national team is training in Saipan. The pitch is bad, the equipment lacking, and captain Roy Keane says so openly. Manager Mick McCarthy listens patiently at first. The tension grows at a press conference and the two come face to face at a team meeting. Keane is angry at how little seriousness has gone into the preparation, McCarthy at Keane's attitude. The argument gets so sharp that Keane is sent home; the country's best player returns before the tournament even starts. Lisa Barros D'Sa directs with Glenn Leyburn. Eanna Hardwicke plays Roy Keane and Steve Coogan plays Mick McCarthy. Alice Lowe and Peter McDonald are in the cast. It is an Irish production. The film rests on the real Saipan incident of May 2002, counted among the most argued crises in the history of Irish football. It had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on 4 September 2025 and opened in Ireland on 1 January 2026. The matter it treats is a clash of what professionalism means; both men have defensible reasons and the film takes no side. Steve Coogan plays McCarthy as a calm, tired man. The narrative also shows how the press and public opinion blew the matter up. The film knows the real event is still argued over and tries to humanise both sides. The narrative is pressed into one camp and a few days. The ending closes with Keane's return home. Its limit is reach; for anyone who does not know Irish football, the scale of the event is not fully clear. Who it is for: viewers who like sports drama and adaptations of real events. Who it is not for: it needs local context and the ending closes in disagreement.