Lights, camera, action! Ten best football films

After much head-scratching, we’ve picked out the 10 best football films of all time in our opinion and thrown in a couple of documentaries for good measure.

10th: Goal of the Dead (2014)

This French comedy horror involves a professional player getting more than he bargained for when he returns home to play against his local team. Instead of being welcomed with open arms, the hostility is palpable and soon the match turns into a zombie apocalypse. Smart satirical flick on hooliganism, following the crowd and the winning-at-all-costs mentality.

9th: Marvellous (2014)

Based on the true uplifting story of Neil Baldwin who refused to accept the limitations of his learning difficulties and went on to lead an extraordinary life which saw him lose his job as a qualified clown but pick up a new one as Stoke City’s kit man and mascot. Manager Lou Macari described him as the “best signing I ever made”. Touching BBC drama with lots of humour and a brilliant performance by Toby Jones as Baldwin.

8th: Bend It Like Beckham (2002)

British feel-good comedy from Gurinder Chada which centres around 18-year-old schoolgirl Jess who is torn between her love of football and meeting the expectations of her British Punjabi Sikh parents. Thanks to her friend Jules, played by Keira Knightley, she gets a trial with Hounslow Harriers and from that point the course is set to keep the big secret from her disapproving family.

7th: The Miracle of Bern (2003)

A touching tale which has West Germany’s World Cup victory in 1954 as a backdrop, but the real drama revolves around the return of a man 11 years later after being released from a Soviet prisoner of war camp and his struggles with reintegration. His son has adopted a surrogate father in his absence, Helmut, who eventually goes on to score the winning goal in the final against Hungary. One of Germany’s best-selling films for obvious reasons.

6th: Fever Pitch (1997)

England’s run to the 1990 World Cup semi-finals was the start of a national obsession with football which still applies today, but at a local level it was Nick Hornby’s memoir about the torments of being an Arsenal supporter that captured those feelings at club level. In this adaptation, the drama focuses on Gunners nut Colin Firth as he juggles the strains of his side’s incredible title-winning 1988-89 season and his burgeoning love life with a new starter at the school where he teaches.

5th: Mike Bassett: England manager (2001)

This expletive-heavy mockumentary follows the laugh-out-loud travails of Ricky Tomlinson, surprisingly given the job that no-one wants despite only having previously managed in the lower leagues. Pele and Ronaldo make cameo appearances as we follow England’s farcical World Cup qualification bid and their unexpected trip to the finals thanks to Luxembourg’s shock 2-0 victory over Turkey in the final group match.

4th: The Two Escobars (2010)

The first of the documentaries in our top 10 best football films of all time is the tragic story of Colombia defender Andres Escobar. His own goal in a 2-1 defeat by the USA at the 1994 World Cup led to him being shot dead after a night out in Medellin eight days later following a brief argument with three men in a parking lot. The other Escobar is renowned drug lord Pablo, who had also been killed during an exchange of gunfire with police during a raid six months earlier. This excellent, gritty slice of real life examines the links between criminal gangs and football in Colombia where violence was rife.

3rd: Bostock’s Cup (1999)

Nick Hancock stars in this cult ITV comedy drama about a dinner gala celebrating the now defunct Bostock Stanley’s FA Cup triumph 25 years earlier in the same season they were relegated from the Third Division. Auf Wiedersehen Pet star Tim Healy plays journeyman manager Bertie Masson during that rollercoaster 1973-4 campaign, but perhaps there were hidden forces behind that win at Wembley? A mysterious phone call sets the ball rolling into an investigation by small-time journalist Mike Tonker.

2nd: Diego Maradona (2019)

Gripping documentary of one of the world’s greatest players during his 1984 move from Barcelona to Napoli where he won two Serie A titles and the UEFA Cup. Guardian reviewer Peter Bradshaw described it as “goals, nightclubs, goals, adulation, goals, gangsters, keepy-uppy, girlfriends, pregnancies, pregnancy denials, cocaine, weight gain, press fickleness, despair” which sums up this mesmerising two-hour examination of a complex, troubled sporting genius.

1st: The Damned United (2009)

This adaptation of David Peace’s book on Brian Clough’s explosive, short-lived reign as Leeds manager is just a great film and fully deserves its status as top dog in our football flicks list. Martin Sheen is outstanding as the man who replaced Don Revie but lasted just 44 days at Elland Road before he was sacked for alienating United’s star players. A great cast comprising Timothy Spall as Peter Taylor, Stephen Graham as Billy Bremner and an uncanny lookalike Colm Meaney playing Revie does justice to a cracking script that leaves the viewer gripped throughout.