The best football films – ranked

Sport and cinema are bound by their ability to provoke emotion and make people dream.

Whether it be seeing Hugh Grant turn fairytale romances into swooning realities (I can admit Notting Hill is a modern masterpiece) in literally any of his 1990s to early-2000s performances or witnessing David Beckham whack a dead ball into the top bins from 30 yards to send England to the World Cup, sport and screen are both very powerful.

And when done right, sport on screen can be unforgettable. So, here at 90min have ranked some of the best football films ever made.

As a disclaimer, this list is purely based on opinion. Please don’t have a go if you don’t find Green Street 2: Stand Your Ground at the top of this list – although, if you’re expecting to find it there, you should probably take a look at yourself rather than give anyone else grief.

Okay, this could quite easily be plopped onto the list of worst football films ever made, but any movie that gives Pele, Bobby Moore and Ossie Ardiles screen time is pretty sensational by our standards.

The legendary ballers joined stars like Michael Caine and Sylvester Stallone in 1981 to portray an underdog story of the mightiest proportions.

A group of Allied prisoners of war find themselves in the midst of a Nazi propaganda stunt having agreed to play an exhibition match with a German side, although fail to follow the script as heroic performances lead the Allies to a 4-4 draw in spite of predictably violent opposition and biased officiating.

Football is only the uniting front for the Allied team’s hidden agenda, however, as in the raucous pitch invasion that follows the dramatic draw, the men in white disguise themselves before surging through the gates to their freedom.

Escape to Victory by no means boasts a ground-breaking plot but, boy, is it a good watch.

An almighty classic. Keep your Pride and Prejudice, we’ve got Santiago Munez in Goal!

The story of a dream-driven boy, portrayed by Kuno Becker, who longs to switch his laborious life of gardening alongside his father in Los Angeles for a starlit footballing career, Goal! simply…