Film Junk Poll: What is the Best Soccer Movie?

Posted by on July 2nd, 2010   Filed under: Polls

With the World Cup quarterfinals going on this weekend, a lot of people still have soccer on the brain, and a few weeks back the L.A. Times posted an interesting article asking why there are no great Hollywood soccer movies. The answer, I think, is somewhat obvious, since soccer is still gaining steam in North America, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been some decent independent and foreign soccer flicks originating from other parts of the world. Just to prove it, we’ve got a list of ten of the standouts in this week’s poll. Go ahead and cast a vote for your favourite, then tell us about some of the other noteworthy footy films that we missed in the comments below.

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  • Big Hungry

    Victory (1981) with stallone and Pele is my first choice but I will choose another one on the list.

  • Big Hungry

    Looking at this with my contacts in now I see Victory! ok that is my choice!
    The alt in the title caused me to miss it with blurred vision with out contacts. I was wondering how this movie was not on here. My fault and I am happy now!

  • Teo

    guilty pleasure would be football factory but you guys left it out :/

  • Pretty upset the Big Green didn’t make it on the list.

  • Red

    I’m so disappointed you didn’t include “Ladybugs.” The Dangerfield/Brandis duo is right up there with Scorsese/DeNiro.

  • Glad you didn’t go for all those garbagey football hooliganism movies that the Yanks like.

    Escape to Victory I suppose. Though Kes has the best football scene in any film.

  • Juan Costrada

    Shaolin Soccer is magical and its delayed release was a travesty. The Disneyfied cut version was absolutely horrid in comparison. The offbeat tone and slight misogyny are replaced with typical moralizing over self-belief. I think they even cut the butcher who had a pigs carcass flung over his shoulders.

  • Brendan

    Will Ferrell’s “Kicking and Screaming” is another glaring omission.

  • Shaolin Soccer is more than the “best soccer movie,” it’s one of the best movies of the last decade. Crap, now I want to watch it again and my copy is thousands of miles away…

  • Kicking and Screaming is terrible, but Ladybugs needs to be part of this poll in order to make it valid.

  • Ian

    No Lady Bugs. For Shame.

  • Nathan

    Why isn’t Alive in this list? That is by far my favorite soccer movie. :)

  • Jesse

    MEAN MACHINE

  • rob

    i refuse to vote as MEAN MACHINE is not there

  • rob

    @me: just saw shaolin soccer is there. great movie. Not as good as MEAN MACHINE

  • pcch7

    The Damned United

  • Hugo

    Where the hell is Soccer Dog on this poll? This poll is bias against dogs!

  • Gil

    Ed O’Neill is… Soccer Mummy!

  • Gregory’s Girl of course!