Roy Keane and Denis Irwin's historic success with Man United

Next summer, all eyes will be on the FIFA Club World Cup, a new tournament that is technically an extension of the competition that ran from 2004 to '23 after an expansion of the Intercontinental Cup.

The idea is for a global version of the UEFA Champions League, with the likes of Manchester City and Real Madrid competing alongside an eclectic mix of clubs including Lionel Messi’s Inter Milan and Argentine giants Boca Juniors.

FIFA has the competition billed as the club version of the FIFA World Cup, with the structures mirroring the global carnival, the problem is the already stuffed ecosystem.

In Cork, the idea of a tournament designed to crown a world champion will evoke memories of Roy Keane and Denis Irwin, especially on the 25th anniversary of Manchester United’s 1-0 victory over Palmeiras in the 1999 Intercontinental Cup final.

The Mayfield representative in the squad got the only goal while his team-mate from Togher helped keep a clean sheet against a team stacked with future World Cup winners with Brazil. It made Alex Ferguson’s side became the first British club to win the trophy, a feat which eluded Celtic under Jock Stein, Brian Clough’s version of Nottingham Forest, and Liverpool.

Keane drew a line with his 35th-minute strike and made sure that United ended a decade of dominance in England with a world club champion crown. The perfect ending to a period that began with Irwin lifting the European Cup Winners Cup and the UEFA Super Cup.

Following an unprecedented treble success, becoming world champions was the next step. 

That involved taking on a Palmeiras side hell-bent on building on their first Copa Libertadores title under Luiz Felipe Scolari, who was three years away from leading Brazil to World Cup glory.

This helped set up a massive clash between two global powers, and brought over 50,000 people to the National Stadium in Tokyo.

United weren’t thinking that far ahead when they landed in the Far East.

“It was tiring with the jet-lag, waking up at 5am wide awake", Ryan Giggs told the club’s media team. "It took a couple of days. In the last couple of days before the match we got into the swing of things."

United were also going through a rough period in cup competitions as they started the season out with defeats in the FA Charity Shield and UEFA Super Cup. The Red Devils were also downed by Aston Villa in the Football League Cup, and they vacated their spot in the FA Cup over the fixture clash with the 2000 FIFA Club World Cup.

None of this mattered when the game kicked off in Tokyo as Manchester United played the same brand of football that put them on top of the Premier League at the turn of the millennium.

It came down to a Giggs’ cross that Palmieras goalkeeper Marcos failed to get to. Keane lunged in during a moment of uncertainty by the Copa Libertadores champions and fired into an empty net.

HONOUR

The United captain finished the night with the honour of lifting the trophy, and that was followed by a speech ahead of the squad’s return to England for a Premier League game with Everton at Old Trafford.

Things got better when they met the Toffees, as the world champions marked their homecoming with a 5-1 hammering of their Merseyside rivals.

The victory has gone down in United’s history as the day they became a truly global club, with the natives infatuated with the team in Tokyo. Keane and Irwin were singled out for praise over their relationship with the locals. 

They stayed behind to sign autographs and take pictures at the squad’s first training session.

25-years later it remains one of the club’s greatest days and a reminder of Cork’s role in the forever-growing and changing story of world football.