A good sports movie is difficult to make – or, at least, difficult to find.
The paint-by-numbers underdog tale of an unfancied team or player triumphing against all odds is all too common.
Add to that the challenge of filming a convincing football match using teams of actors, and it can feel like finding a good football film to watch is more of a challenge than it’s worth.
Here are some top 7 football movies of all time;
1. Bend it like Beckham
The daughter of orthodox Sikh rebels against her parents’ traditionalism by running off to Germany with a football team (soccer in America).
2. Goal
The extremely talented Santiago Munez is given a chance at professional football, after being spotted by a scout who has ties with Newcastle United.
3. The damned United
The story of the controversial Brian Clough’s 44-day reign as the coach of the English football club Leeds United.
4. Green Street hooligans
A wrongfully expelled Harvard undergrad moves to London, where he is introduced to the violent underworld of football hooliganism.
5. United
United is based on the true story of Manchester United’s legendary “Busby Babes“, the youngest side ever to win the Football League and the 1958 Munich Air Crash that claimed eight of the their number.
6. Shaolin Soccer
Young Shaolin follower reunites with his discouraged brothers to form a soccer team using their martial art skills to their advantage.
7. Pele birth of a legend.
Pele’s meteoric rise from the slums of Sao Paulo to leading Brazil to its first World Cup victory at the age of 17 is chronicled in this biographical drama.
