FIFA World Cup 2026 | From Escape to Victory (1981) and Bend It Like Beckham (2002): The connection of movies & football

In the football folklore of Brazil, there is a curious story of a young man called Carlos Henrique Raposo who bore a striking resemblance to German football legend Franz Beckenbauer. Football films have come a long way, using both documentary and fiction formats to explore such fundamental subjects

Raposo looked so much like Beckenbauer that he even earned the nickname, Kaiser, after the German player who was known as der Kaiser because of the way he bossed over the midfield.

The Porto Alegre-born Raposo was not a football player. But he conned his way into some of the biggest football clubs in the world by conjuring up stories of his talent.

In an apparently fake career spanning over a decade in the 1980s, Raposo was signed by big Brazilian clubs like Flamengo, Botafogo and Fluminense without him playing even a single match.

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Eight years ago, a football documentary that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival told the story of Raposo, reflecting how fake news, alternative reality and post-truth have caught contemporary society in a stranglehold.

Kaiser: The Greatest Footballer Never to Play Football, the story of Raposo, and many other films around football made across the world today provide a fascinating account of the spectacular link between football, the most popular sport, and film, a popular mass medium.

From the age of movies like Escape to Victory (1981) and Bend it Like Beckham (2002), football films have come a long way, using both documentary and fiction formats to explore such fundamental subjects as freedom, war, migration, racism, poverty, gender equality and human rights by filmmakers around the world.

Below are eleven football films, including Kaiser: The Greatest Footballer Never to Play Football, for fans of the beautiful game to watch during the ongoing FIFA World Cup 2026:

Freedom Fields (2018), Libya - 97 minutes - Director: Naziha Arebi

Photo: Courtesy of IMDb

The story of a group of accidental activists, the documentary is about Libya's first women's national football team. Fighting patriarchy and gender stereotypes, the women footballers create a team and change the face of the sport in the civil war-torn African country by using football as a tool for reconciliation, trauma relief, healing and empowerment.

Sudani From Nigeria (2018), India - 123 minutes, Director: Zakariya Mohammed

Photo: Courtesy of IMDb

A charming portrait of Kerala's football crazy district of Malappuram, the Malayalam feature film is about migrant footballers from Africa playing in its popular seven-a-side tournaments. The migrant players and the cash-strapped local club owners share a passion for the game and support each other to survive against all odds.

The Two Escobars (2010), USA - 104 minutes, Director: Michael Zimbalist, Jeff Zimbalist

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A football tragedy played out in the streets of Medellin ruled by drug lord Pablo Escobar, the documentary tells the story of Colombian football star Andrés Escobar, who was shot dead only days after he scored an own goal in Colombia's 1994 USA World Cup elimination by the hosts.

Kaiser: The Greatest Footballer Never to Play Football (2018), UK - 98 minutes - Director: Louis Myles

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British director-producer Louis Myles, who adapted former Guardian football correspondent Rob Smyth's book of the same name, relates the documentary to contemporary society, showing how Brazilian Carlos Henrique Raposo tricked clubs and fans into believing he was a football player by telling fabulous stories.

Just Charlie (2017), UK - 97 minutes - Director Rebekah Fortune

A happy English couple celebrating the signing of their teenage son by a premier league club see their dreams come crashing down when it's revealed that the boy's gender has undergone changes. An absorbing transgender drama, the feature film raises questions on expectations of parents and friends and the need to understand and believe in people.

Forever Pure (2016), Israel - 85 minutes - Director: Maya Zinshtein

Racism in sport is the theme of the Emmy Award-winning Israeli documentary about the outrage caused by the signing of two Muslim players by the Beitar Football Club in Jerusalem.

More Than Just a Game (2007), South Africa - 90 minutes - Director: Junaid Ahmed

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The story of how during the apartheid, political prisoners of Robben Island in Cape Town, where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for 18 years, kept their spirits alive by forming a football league, called the Makana Football Association, an honorary member of FIFA today.

Egaro: The Eleven (2011), India - 117 minutes - Director: Arun Roy

Mohun Bagan defeated a British team, the East Yorkshire Regiment, in 1911, a victory considered a landmark event in the history of Indian football. It was the same year the British rulers moved their capital from the then Calcutta to Delhi.

Forbidden Games: The Justin Fashanu Story (2017), UK - 80 minutes - Director: Adam Darke, Jon Carey.

Britain's first black footballer to earn a million-pound transfer fee, Justin Fashanu became the first professional English footballer to come out as gay in 1990. The documentary probes the rejection experienced by the star of such clubs as Norwich City and Nottingham Forest, who killed himself in 1998 aged 37.

11 Metri (Eleven Metres) - 2011 - Italy - 87 minutes - Director: Francesco Del Grosso

An Italian documentary about the danger lurking in successful sporting careers, 11 Metri explores the life of Italian footballer Agostino di Bartolomei, AS Roma captain and a penalty-taking genius, who didn't employ long strides to the ball, but just stood near the ball and kicked. Bartolomei committed suicide, on the tenth anniversary of A S Roma's loss to Liverpool in the 1984 European Cup final, in penalties.

Ando Dreams (2023) - India - 63 minutes - Director: Meena Longjam

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The Manipuri documentary is about Laibi Devi, the founder of AMMA FC, which has helped several young women unleash their talent to become professional footballers while supporting them in fighting poverty and child marriage.