Ireland training in Saipan(Image: INPHO/Andrew Paton)
David Connolly admits he doesn’t “know how to feel” about the upcoming release of Saipan – a movie about Roy Keane’s sensational 2002 World Cup departure.
Starring legendary Alan Partridge actor Steve Coogan, as then Ireland manager Mick McCarthy, the film is a dramatisation of the bust-up between McCarthy and Keane, which led to the Manchester United star’s exit ahead of the finals in Japan and Korea.
Connolly, a member of the squad 23 years ago, brought a camcorder with him and shot plenty of behind-the-scenes footage from the island that became Ireland’s pre-World Cup base.
Is he tempted to make his tapes available to coincide with the big screen release?
“When people have asked me about the tapes and they’ve wanted to meet, I’ve met them, some production companies and stuff like that,” he replied, speaking to MirrorSport via DailySpins.
“I’ve showed some of them if they’ve asked. I brought some of the footage and showed them a little bit, just because it’s interesting, not because… But I haven’t really progressed anything from there.
“They were just taken 23 years ago as a bit of fun really, not with any intention to do anything with them.
“I’ve had a bit of fun posting stuff about it [online] and I’ve still got them, and they are hanging around the house somewhere, but I think that’s probably how they’ll remain for the foreseeable future.
“But there’s good footage in it and they were happy days, fun times with the lads.”
Connolly made one appearance during the World Cup – as a substitute in Ireland’s heart-breaking penalty shootout defeat to Spain in the last-16.
Capped 49 times and a scorer of nine senior Ireland goals, his club career took him from Watford to Feyenoord and Excelsior in the Netherlands, to Wimbledon, West Ham, Leicester, Wigan, Sunderland, Southampton, Portsmouth and Oxford.
He continued: “I just recorded everything – from going shopping to training to just talking in the rooms, just because it was something fun to do then.
“It’s ironic that not long after I tweeted it out [about the tapes] that it was announced about a film being made about it.
“I don’t know how I feel [about the film]. I just wonder. I’ll have to wait and see how good it will be.”