A former team-mate opened up on the rift he had with Roy Keane and the kind way in which it was mended
Roy Keane and Jason McAteer played alongside each other for Ireland(Image: Getty Images)
Former Republic of Ireland international Jason McAteer has disclosed that Roy Keane’s gesture of settling his cafe bill, following two decades of silence between them, left him deeply moved. The two ex-footballers endured a strained relationship after Keane’s infamous fallout at the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, dubbed the ‘Saipan incident’, where the former Liverpool player and Keane were international colleagues.
The contentious confrontation witnessed Keane and team boss Mick McCarthy famously lock horns, with the ex-Manchester United midfielder subsequently departing the competition early.
Several months later, Keane and McAteer faced each other in the Premier League when Sunderland took on United. The duo exchanged plenty of verbals throughout the match, with Keane eventually striking out with an elbow and receiving his marching orders.
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Appearing on The Late Late Show, the former Bolton winger shared a touching account of how the notoriously tough midfielder quietly repaired their broken relationship through a kind act after years of animosity.
“Everyone fell out with Roy,” McAteer jokingly told host Patrick Kielty. “It wasn’t just me. We fell out, you know, the infamous Saipan incident. Me and him had gone through our Irish careers together as we’re similar ages, then there was the Man United/ Liverpool thing where we didn’t get on and then we got older, and we patched it up a little bit.
“Then the Saipan incident happened and we proper fell out. Then we had an incident on the pitch where United came to Sunderland and we had a big fight in the middle of the pitch.
Roy Keane was sent off for an elbow on McAteer(Image: Getty)
“For 20 years, we actually didn’t speak. And we would bump into each other. I bumped into him at Wembley. I held the door open and he just walked through.
“He did say ‘thanks’ but he proper blanked me. I’d see him on planes and at various different places and he would walk past me like he’d never met me in the street. I was a little bit gutted but I was kind of thought, ‘Well, if you’re going to treat me like that, I’m going to treat you the same’.
“So, when he’d said something in the press, derogatory about me, I’d go back at him and it was like that for 20 years. My wife wanted to go for a cup of coffee after the school run and I said, ‘Come on, we’ll go’, This is only last year, so we go in and he’s in there with his family and I’m like, ‘Oh god’.
“Anyway, he doesn’t let on to me and I go around the corner just to get out of the way and ten minutes later he gets up and walks out with the family. Then 20 minutes later I asked for the bill. The waitress comes over and she says, ‘Your bill’s been paid’ and I said, ‘Who’s paid the bill?’ and she said, ‘Roy’s paid your bill’ and I got really upset and I’m getting emotional now thinking about it.
Jason McAteer revealed what really happened with Roy Keane(Image: UnderTheCosh/Twitter)
“I just thought, ‘We’ve wasted 20 years’, and he’s gone and bought me breakfast 20 years later, what a time to do it. When I left, I rang Jamie Carragher as he does the [Stick to Football] podcast with him and I said, ‘Roy has gone and paid my bill in the cafe after 20 years, to hold out an olive branch. Will you just ring him and ask him if I can have his number and I want to say thank you’.
“An hour later, he [Carragher] rang me back and said, ‘Roy appreciates the thank you but you’re not having his phone number.”
In an interview with Four Four Two in April 2025, McAteer shared his views on the notoriously prickly former Republic of Ireland captain. “As a player, Roy was absolutely sensational. As a person, he’s very complex. There are two sides to him,” he said.
“I see the pantomime villain that he plays on television, and that suits him – people like it, there’s a demand for it. But I’ve also seen the emotional side, the funny side, and I like that character.”
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