This is a list of top 10 football/soccer movies based on audiences and critics scores from sites as IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metarcritic. The list doesn’t include documentaries, only feature films.
10. Goal! (2005)
Goal! is a 2005 sports drama film directed by Danny Cannon and starring Kuno Becker as Santiago Muñez, a young man with a rough background who is offered the chance to trial with Newcastle United, one of England’s top football clubs. The film was made with full co-operation from FIFA, which is one of the reasons why actual teams and players are used throughout the film. The $50m deal that was struck between the producers and Adidas was, at the time the biggest ever between a corporate brand and a film production.
9. The Keeper (2018)
The Keeper (Trautmann) is a British-German biographical film directed by Marcus H. Rosenmüller and starring David Kross as the footballer Bert Trautmann. The film tells the love story of a young English woman and a German PoW, Trautmann, who together overcome prejudice, public hostility and personal tragedy. Although the subject of the film was a sportsman, the film has been described as “not primarily a sports film” but instead a drama.
8. Escape to Victory (1981)
Escape to Victory is a 1981 American sports war film directed by John Huston and starring Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine, Max von Sydow and Pelé. The film is about Allied prisoners of war who are interned in a German prison camp during the Second World War who play an exhibition match of football against a German team in Nazi-occupied Paris.
7. A Shot at Glory (2000)
A Shot at Glory is a film by Michael Corrente, starring Robert Duvall and the Scottish football player Ally McCoist. The film features the fictional Scottish football club Kilnockie FC, based on a Second Division Scottish Football League club, as they attempt to reach their first ever Scottish Cup Final. Robert Duvall plays the club manager, Gordon McLeod. Jackie McQuillan (McCoist) is the team’s striker, an ageing player on the verge of retirement, who has recently been signed from Arsenal. McQuillan is a legendary ex-Celtic player who, as well as being married to McLeod’s daughter, has a reputation for being troublesome. The two men put their personal problems aside as they try to prevent the small fishing town of Kilnockie from losing its club, which is owned by an American businessman (Michael Keaton) who wants to move the club to Dublin in Ireland.
6. Green Street (2005)
Green Street (Green Street Hooligans) is a 2005 British-American independent drama film about football hooliganism in the United Kingdom. It was directed by Lexi Alexander and stars Elijah Wood and Charlie Hunnam. A wrongfully expelled Harvard undergrad moves to London where he falls in with a violent West Ham football firm (the Green Street Elite) run by his brother-in-law’s younger brother and is morally transformed by their commitment to each other.
5. Rudo y Cursi (2008)
Rudo y Cursi is a 2008 Mexican comedy film starring Diego Luna, Gael García Bernal and Guillermo Francella. It is directed by Carlos Cuarón and produced by Cha Cha Cha Films. In the fictional farming village of Tachatlán, in the Cihuatlán Valley of Jalisco, Mexico, young men dream of escaping the drudgery of the banana plantations. Two of them, a pair of half-brothers, play in local football matches. Tato (Gael Garcia) is the star striker and Beto (Diego Luna) is the eccentric goalkeeper. During one match they are spotted by a talent scout and he offers one of them the opportunity to go to Mexico City with him and try out for one of the country’s big teams. As the scout’s roster is already full, he says he can only take one of the brothers and they decide to settle it on a penalty shot. Tato scores the penalty against his brother, therefore earning the right to head to the capital.
4. Bend It Like Beckham (2002)
Bend It Like Beckham is a 2002 British family romantic comedy sports film produced, written and directed by Gurinder Chadha. The film follows the 18-year-old daughter of British Indian Sikhs in London. She is infatuated with football but her parents have forbidden her to play because she is a girl. She joins a local women’s team, which makes its way to the top of the league. The film’s title refers to the football player David Beckham, and his skill at scoring from free kicks by curling the ball past a wall of defenders.
3. Looking for Eric (2009)
Looking for Eric is a 2009 British-French film about the escape from the trials of modern life that football and its heroes can bring for its fans. It was written by screenwriter Paul Laverty and directed by the English director Ken Loach. The film’s cast includes the former professional footballer Eric Cantona and Steve Evets, former bass guitarist with The Fall. Eric (Steve Evets), a football fanatic postman whose life is descending into crisis, receives some life coaching from the famously philosophical Eric Cantona.
2. Shaolin Soccer (2001)
Shaolin Soccer is a 2001 sports comedy film directed by Stephen Chow, who also stars in the lead role. A former Shaolin monk reunites his five brothers, years after their master’s death, to apply their superhuman martial arts skills to play football and bring Shaolin kung fu to the masses.
1. The Damned United (2009)
The Damned United is a 2009 British sports drama film directed by Tom Hooper and adapted by Peter Morgan from David Peace’s bestselling novel The Damned Utd, a largely fictional book based on the author’s interpretation of Brian Clough’s ill-fated 44-day tenure as football manager of Leeds United in 1974. It was produced by BBC Films and Left Bank Pictures with additional funding from Screen Yorkshire and Columbia Pictures.
