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Roy Keane | 'The benefit of being suspended, me and Scholesy were out every night!'

Roy Keane told the Off The Ball audience at September's roadshow about what he did with his idle ...



Roy Keane | 'The benefit of be...
Soccer

Roy Keane | 'The benefit of being suspended, me and Scholesy were out every night!'

Roy Keane told the Off The Ball audience at September's roadshow about what he did with his idle time in the week leading up to the historic 1999 Champions League final.

Keane was suspended for the game after yellow cards against Inter and Juventus, as was Paul Scholes. It meant that Jesper Blomqvist and Nicky Butt came into the team for the decider against Bayern.

Scholes and Keane spent the build-up to what would be one of the biggest nights in the club's storied history sampling the Barcelona nightlife.

The pair famously joined the post-match celebrations in their club suits and Keane - alongside Gary Neville, who did play that night at Camp Nou - told the story at the Off The Ball roadshow last September.

Keane says he wasn't too keen on going out onto the pitch to join the others after their momentous victory.

"The backroom staff were like, 'Oh, you better go out," recalled the midfielder last September, "and we were, like meh, so we were putting on an act."

Gary Neville eeked out the nub of the story: "You'd been out for lunch that day though."

"No, I don't think so," said Keane, initially denying, before expanding, "but we'd had good craic.

"The benefit of being suspended, me and Scholesy were out every night coming up to the night before the game.

"There was definitely an element of that (being worse for wear) because coming up to the game we stayed up all night as you would, drinking and eating salads.

"So I think me and Scholesy were definitely the worst in the morning, but I think there was an element of drowning our sorrows to it.

"But we had a couple of nights out in Barcelona when we were over there. I was rooming with Denis Irwin and I don't think Denis was too pleased with me because I was coming in early in the morning.

"I don't think I was jumping on him or messing around but he could hear me coming in. And he was getting ready for a match so I was a bit unprofessional for them few days.

While the post-match pictures tell the story, Neville got a clue from the smell of booze from Scholes before the game.

"I always remember Scholesy coming over to me in the pre-match," says Neville, "and going, 'fucking hell (at the smell of booze). Do you know the (shrugs) emoji? He [Roy] doesn't know about emojis, so..."

Was Keane not involved in the hectic celebrations due to the three days of boozing in Barcelona?

"You know what," replied Keane, "even if I wasn't suspended I don't think I would have been jumping around like Yorkie [Dwight Yorke] anyway!"

There was another significant reason for Roy Keane and Paul Scholes being so glum.

"You're also missing out on a pretty big bonus," says Keane, but the Cork man didn't really miss out, "I made up for it in my next contract negotiations."

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Champions League Final 1999 Gary Neville Roy Keane