Bend It Like Beckham, Pele: Birth of a Legend: 10 best ever football films and documentaries

It’s that time of the year again, when football fever is at its peak, with the FIFA World Cup final just round the corner. There is no substitute for the beautiful game that is called football in some countries and soccer in others. While many argue about the world’s greatest player, or the world’s best team, let’s take a closer look at some of the best films and documentaries ever made on the subject of footy.

Bend it Like Beckham is a 2002 sports comedy-drama that made lots of waves with its unusual plot of an Indian girl who enjoys playing football and wants to become a professional. What follows are situational comedy scenes and the dilemma of being a South Asian in a sport that was predominantly dominated by David Beckham at the time. Directed by Gurinder Chadha, the film stars Parminder Nagra, Keira Knightley, Jonathan Ryhs Myers and Anupam Kher.

This is a 2018 biographical sports film about an ex-Nazi who eventually became an accomplished and legendary goalkeeper. Bert Trautmann was a German goalkeeper, who played in the first division of English football, which is now called the Premier League. Bert passed away in 2013 after being a player and manager for several decades. What makes his story unique is that he was an ex-Nazi who completely changed by the end of the Second World War and took to football as his calling when he refused to go back to Germany, after being captured by the British army during the Second World War.

This film is the classic underdog versus trained villains story. It is about a group of prisoners who are challenged to a football match by Nazi leaders, with a chance at redemption through an unlikely victory. This is a 2021 Croatian-American sports historical drama directed by Dominik and Jakov Sedlar and starring Franco Nero, Armand Assante, and Caspar Phillipson. The film is inspired by true events which happened in the spring of 1944.

This fits in the category of the romantic comedy teen sports film. The film has a hilarious plot, in which high-school crushes, romance and latent gender confusion get seamlessly woven into the film. Directed by Andy Fickman, this classic 2006 film stars Amanda Bynes, Channing Tatum and Laura Ramsey among others.

This 2019 film was first screened at the 2019 Cannes film festival. As the title suggests, this is never before seen footage of the footballing legend, Diego Maradona, starting from his childhood, his teenage struggles, to his meteoric rise to fame and later struggles with alcohol and drug addiction. Maradona will forever be recalled as a legend for winning the 1986 World Cup for Argentina.

For all true football fans, the name Pele is synonymous with the best player to have ever played the sport. The film details the rocket rise of Pele from the slums of Sao Paulo to leading Brazil to its first World Cup victory in 1958, as a teenager at the age of 17.

This is an American comedy sports drama. The film stars Will Ferrell and Robert Duvall as a father and son who exploit their own sons' soccer teams to try and beat the other. Directed by Jesse Dylan and released in 2005, the film received mixed reviews, but is a classic comedy film of the time.

The football world of today is incomplete without references to Ronaldo, the current social media superstar, who is considered to be one of the living football legends. Although, Ronaldo had a disappointing run at the 2022 World Cup, it has not dimmed his star power on social media and the football world at all. This documentary takes a behind the scenes look into his childhood, family life and some never before seen footage of his career.

Just like Ronaldo, no discussion of the current state of world football is complete without the mention of Messi, the short nimble footed and much admired football player, who is already considered to be one of the greatest players of all time. This documentary explores his beginnings in Rosario, an Argentinian city and chronicles his career with inputs from his youth coaches, childhood friends and several others.

This is a biographical sports film directed by Letizia Lamartire that details the Italian football legend, Roberto Baggio right from his younger days as a struggling footballer, plagued with injuries that almost ended his career prematurely. It also talks about his faith in Buddhism that eventually gave him the strength to become one of Italy’s greatest players, his relationships and almost winning the World Cup for Italy in 1994.