Love him or loathe him, football hardman turned hirsute, glowering pundit, Roy Keane undoubtedly inspires opinions. Saipan takes a famous face-off between Keane and the manager of Ireland’s national side, Mick McCarthy, and spins it into an entertaining big screen story. The film tells the tale of major tensions that arose during a disastrous pre-World Cup training camp on the titular island. The year is 2002 and Ireland have qualified for the tournament hosted by Japan and South Korea. Rising star Éanna Hardwicke (TV’s The Sixth Commandment) plays Irish captain and Manchester United legend Keane, while Steve Coogan is Yorkshireman McCarthy, the team’s affable and apparently out-of-his-depth manager. 

Used to Premier League professionalism, on arrival at the camp a spoilt and stroppy Keane is appalled by the lack of facilities, nutritious food and even footballs. Casting a withering eye over it all, he voices his disgust at every available opportunity, with the fallout threatening to derail the team’s preparations. Working from a screenplay by Paul Fraser, married filmmakers Glenn Leyburn and Lisa Barros D’Sa (Ordinary Love, Good Vibrations) tell the story in buoyantly nostalgic, visually fun fashion as a montage-heavy patchwork with archive footage aplenty. It’s a highly stripped-back version of events, with Keane’s teammates barely registering beyond their happy hedonism and desire to play ball.

There’s something devilish in Keane’s eyes that Hardwicke can’t quite capture but he has his accent and indignance down to a tee, and nails the physicality and drive of a superstar athlete, while Coogan brings charisma and incomparable comic timing to the flailing McCarthy. It’s not as insightful nor quite as funny as you might hope, but it tells both sides of the story and builds compellingly to that explosive conclusion.

Saipan is in cinemas from Friday 23 January.