Steve Coogan thinks being "laser-focused" is key to success

Reflecting on Keane's falling out with his coach, Steve told Sky News: "I think he was not bothered about whether people personally liked him. It was about whether he was achieving what he was supposed to do. And that is so laser-focused and you need people like that to achieve great things.

"And often people who achieve great things are very wanting in other areas because everything is subsumed by this drive and this one direction. And so, it's almost like to have someone who's excellent at one particular thing, to then expect them to be a completely rounded individual is almost impossible."

Eanna Hardwicke plays Keane in the new movie, and he relished the experience of portraying the famously competitive soccer star.

The actor insisted that Keane's high standards didn't excuse his falling out with McCarthy, which happened weeks before the start of the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan.

Eanna said: "I think it's too high a standard sometimes, but it's never an excuse for bad behaviour.

"I'm doing a play in the National Theatre at the moment and I was just talking to somebody backstage who said they worked with some of the last generation of amazing British theatre actors who came of age maybe in the 60s, 70s, and they said working with them was tough because of the discipline and what they demanded of his own compromising.

"And obviously we live in a slightly different world now and we need to make those compromises, but I think there is something quite powerful as well about being around people who go, you know, I really want this to be the very best it can be, and I'm always inspired by that."