The 7 best World Cup films ever, according to the soccer film experts (read: us)

The Men’s World Cup is here!

Which, of course, means plenty of World Cup film lists are floating around.

Since we like to think we know a thing or two about great soccer films, we thought we’d share some our favorite Men’s World Cup films — all of which have screened K+S at some point.

We’ve looked for streaming options for these films, but many are just not available in the US. (Some might be online somewhere, but you didn’t hear that from us.)

Les Yeux dans les Bleus

Before Hard Knocks and All or Nothing, director Stephane Meunier showed what life was truly like inside a team. This up-close-and-personal view of France’s World Cup win in 1998 goes inside player’s rooms, private meetings, and team meals.

  • The scene alone with Zinedine Zidane in the locker room after he gets a red card is pure sports-doc gold.

American Fútbol

Four American friends embark on an epic soccer adventure through Central and South America. With the 2014 World Cup in Brazil as their final destination, they embrace the passionate fútbol culture of Latin America — and supercharge their own passion to support the US national team.

Rent on Amazon.

One Night in Turin

Gary Lineker's goals. David Platt's volley. Paul Gascoigne's tears. Chris Waddle’s missed penalty. This was England at the 1990 World Cup in Italy.

Director James Erskine’s film recalls all the joy and pain of the run to the semis, interwoven with the political context of Thatcherism and the specter of hooliganism.

  • The early ‘90s soundtrack is brilliant, and Gary Oldman is the narrator.

Game of Their Lives

Directed by Daniel Gordon (FIFA Uncovered), this feature doc tells the story of the North Korean team that competed at the 1966 World Cup.

The squad of unknowns stunned Italy before disappearing back home.

Gordon brilliantly interweaves the historical account with his attempts to meet the seven surviving players in North Korea.

Rent on Vimeo.

Tres Millones

Filmmaker Yamandu Roos and his father, Jaime Roos, a famous Uruguayan singer, travel to South Africa to follow Uruguay’s talented team at the 2010 World Cup.

Roos’s fame gets them access to the likes of Edinson Cavani, Diego Forlán, and Luis Suárez as La Celeste reach the semifinals.

Ultimately, though, this is a story of a father and son and a shared passion music, stories, and fútbol.

Stream on Apple TV or Amazon.

One: The Story of a Goal

As El Salvador descended into civil war in the early 1980s, the national team stunningly earned a berth in the 1982 World Cup.

The internal politics and corruption that ensued crushed any notions of a Cinderella story for the team. And they lost 10-1 to Hungary in their opener.

But none of that can dampen El Salvador’s enduring pride about that team’s unlikely achievement.

Watch on YouTube (Spanish).

Mundial: The Highest Stakes

A retelling of the Poland’s 3rd place finish at the 1982 World Cup in Spain, achieved against the backdrop of martial law back home.

The team were unable to prepare properly because of the politics, but the talent of Boniek, Młynarczyk, Smolarek, and others were not to be denied.

And the fans in Madrid and Barcelona embraced the team and the global pro-Solidarity movement burst into view in the stadiums.

K+S to curate screening at soccer film festival in Wrexham, Wales

Childhood friends from Kearny, NJ, Tab Ramos, John Harkes, and Tony Meola representing the United States at the 1994 World Cup.

On Sunday, November 13, K+S will present a special screening of the brilliant soccer doc SOCCERTOWN, USA at the Wal Goch Festival in Wrexham, Wales.

Yes, that Wrexham.

Home of Wrexham AFC, famously owned by Hollywooders Ryan Reynolds and Rob McIlhenny and subject of the hit series Welcome to Wrexham.

  • The Wal Goch Festival is in its first year and is part of the Welsh celebration of their first World Cup appearance since 1958. Of course, they will face the US in their World Cup opener. So the screening will explore American soccer culture to help the Welsh fans prepare and get excited.

SOCCERTOWN, USA, which previously screened at K+S New York, is about the long history of Kearny, New Jersey, where US World Cup teammates Tony Meola, John Harkes, and Tab Ramos grew up together.

Special Panel Discussion

Following the screening, K+S co-director Oliver Parman will host a panel discussion about American soccer culture. The expert panel includes:

  • Jesse Marsch, Leeds United manager and former longtime MLS player

  • Tom McCabe, SOCCERTOWN, USA producer and soccer historian

  • Owain Fon Williams, former Welsh international

  • Megan Feringa (moderator), American-born Welsh soccer journalist

Kicking + Screening Soccer Film Festival returns to New York City on December 1

KSSFF is coming back to New York. Just in time to satisfy the city’s World Cup fever!

The next Kicking + Screening Soccer Film Festival in New York City will take place December 1-2 at Crossbar on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

“We are thrilled to host this year’s festival right in the middle of the biggest soccer event on the planet,” said cofounder Rachel Markus. “We have had an amazing array of great features and shorts submitted this year, and we look forward to once again showcasing some of the best soccer films in the world. These films deserve an audience and a spotlight. That’s what K+S is all about. ”

The film lineup and tickets will be released in the coming weeks.

13 Festivals: The 2022 edition of KSSFF New York will be our 13th festival in the Big Apple.

  • The festival was founded in 2009, and other than a pandemic-related cancelation in 2020, has consistently taken place in New York City.

  • K+S has also organized festivals in London, Liverpool, Amsterdam, Rio de Janeiro, and Abu Dhabi, among other cities.

A new location: After more than five years in midtown Manhattan, KSSFF New York 2022 will see the festival move to a new venue, Crossbar, a recently opened soccer-themed concept space. The venue is located at 250 West 86th Street (MAP).

  • The multi-purpose space includes an intimate screening venue, a bar and restaurant, a small-sided indoor playing field, and an Upper 90 soccer shop.

  • “We are very excited about the new experience we will create at Crossbar, the coolest new spot on the New York soccer scene,” K+S cofounder Greg Lalas said. “It’s going to be an intimate and personal experience reminiscent of the early K+S festivals.”

  • K+S’s partnership with Crossbar will extend beyond this year’s festival to launch a monthly soccer film series, starting in the first quarter of 2023.

Enhancing the World Cup: The calendar for KSSFF New York 2022 has been carefully chosen to take place while the FIFA World Cup is in full swing.

  • “Our goal is to provide fans with the opportunity to keep the World Cup party going day and night,” Markus said. “We are concentrating on World Cup-related programming, and with all the World Cup games taking place during the day, we hope KSSFF will give fans in the NYC soccer community the chance to extend their passion to an evening experience.”

How a bit part in a Will Ferrell film inspired a pro soccer player's move to Hollywood

Andy McDermott was an elite college soccer player and played pro for seven years. But all he really wanted to do was be an actor. 

And he made it happen. 

Since retiring from the game, he’s gone on to appear in the Will Ferrell film Everything Must Goand TV shows The Mosquito Coast and Chicago Med, among others. 

K+S caught up with McDermott recently.

K+S: You played college soccer at Northwestern. What position did you play and what kind of player were you?

McDermott: I'd say I was a "box-to-box #10." Ha. At NU those days, we struggled to compete in the Big 10, since we had to recruit incredible students who also happened to be good at soccer. It was an uphill battle. I loved the challenge, and I benefited hugely by playing every minute of every game during my four years, but I left the field after every match completely shattered by trying to do too much. 

Funny, my first coach as a professional, Bret Hall, re-taught me the game at age 21 - he told me that all great teams have Piano Players and Piano Carriers; in college I was the Piano Player, but if I wanted to play professionally, I needed to become the Carrier. And I did. I was that mediocre talent who could run all day and would rather die than lose, so they kept me putting me in the starting 11.

K+S: After college, you played pro in the American lower leagues for seven years, then retired. How did the transition to acting come about?

McDermott: After 9/11, I knew I was going to serve somehow. Then we started our family. We wanted to live somewhere warm, so I ended up working for the tactical response unit of the Phoenix Police Department. I loved it. 

But then they started filming Everything Must Go in Scottsdale. I was asked to audition for the cop role because, well, I was a cop. After a day of filming on a big set like that, and working with Will Ferrell and hearing him encourage me to keep going — the worst thing you can tell to a wannabe actor, like gasoline on a fire — I started getting calls from LA for different projects. I was 37 and had four little kids. But we made the insane decision to move to LA. We sold our house. I gave up the job. And we went for it. 

K+S: Have your acting and soccer passions ever crossed?

McDermott: Not really. Actually, one show for which I did a couple of episodes was called Matador. Ironically, even though it was a soccer show and I had been a professional player, my character had no interaction with the soccer story. I had auditioned for one of the lead roles earlier — the British arrogant prick — but they gave that role to a younger Australian actor. Shocker. 

K+S: Ever get any roles because of a soccer connection?

McDermott: Funny story. I met a close friend in Hollywood through a men's league connection, and he's now president of a huge studio. He invited me to play in the secret industry soccer game in Santa Monica — invite only, directors, writers, producers. I went once, scored 4 goals, and probably played a bit too dominantly for their liking. But, you know, I was trying to get in a room with these guys and begging to break into their stupid Hollywood nonsense so I could feed my family. And now all of a sudden here we are on a soccer field. So…dig it out, right?

K+S: What renowned soccer player, current or past, would you love to play in a biopic?

McDermott: Oh man, this is a great question. I have so many heroes and anti-heroes and legends, from George Best — the name of my bulldog, actually — to Lothar Matthaus to Roy Keane. 

But I'm on a weird connection with David Beckham. We are the same age, we both have 4 kids, we both have a son named Cruz — he copied me — and we were both living in LA at the same time. Oh, and we are both bazillionaires. Ha!

K+S: What’s your favorite soccer film of all time, and why?

McDermott: Easiest question: Victory. Because Sly and Pele and Michael, and because I'm 46, and because beating Nazis, and because has there even been any other soccer movie like it? 

Last story. This is what inspired me to write Mack, a soccer film. On set with Will Ferrell, waiting for them to move cameras and lighting and everything else, he handed me a baseball glove and we were having a catch. 

I asked him, "Man, think about The Natural, Hoosiers, Remember The Titans. How come no one has ever made that great drama movie with soccer at the heart of it?" 

And he said, straight-faced, "What, you never saw Kicking and Screaming?"

Actors who played soccer (kinda) seriously, from Cristo Fernandez to Julia Stiles

Eric Cantona, Pele, Vinnie Jones,…

Over the years, a few accomplished footballers have made the jump to acting.

In our minds, though, those names will always be players first, actors second. (Note: That might change for Cantona if the rave reviews for an upcoming Netflix drama are any indication.)

There are also actors who tried to make it on the field before they decided that the big screen was their true calling.

The game was their first love, their first passion. And a few even played at a decent level.

Here are a few actors and on-screen personalities who played soccer seriously before they decided they were better off on a set than a field.

Cristo Fernandez

Ted Lasso star Cristo Fernandez, who plays Dani Rojas

By now, Dani Rojas’s catchphrase on Ted Lasso — “Futbol Is Life” — has become a global phenomenon. But it has some basis in reality for the man behind Rojas, Cristo Fernandez. Before he became an actor, Fernandez was an up-and-coming talent in the academy at Tecos, a club in his hometown of Guadalajara, Mexico. A knee injury forced a career change when he was 15.

Elisabeth Shue

Elisabeth Shue's soccer story came to life in 2007's Gracie

Long before she won our hearts in The Karate Kid and received an Oscar nomination for Leaving Las Vegas, Shue was a talented soccer player in New Jersey. Times were different then, though — she had to play on a boys’ team. "Every time I played, I knew everyone was watching me,” she said. “And they definitely hit me a little harder. But I would always hit them a little harder back.”

In 2007, Shue and her brother, Andrew — who actually played for the LA Galaxy in 1996 — made Gracie, a soccer film about her experiences growing up.

Watch Gracie on Amazon.

Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart played soccer at William & Mary

To get the scoop on the legendary Daily Show host, we actually contacted his former coach at The College of William & Mary in Virginia. “Jon was a good player, a walk-on who became a three-year starter. He scored the goal in 1983 at UConn in a huge 1-0 win for us. And, as you can imagine, he was very funny in the locker room.”

Colin Farrell

Colin Farrell as a schoolboy footballer

In Bruges star Farrell dreamed of following his father and uncle, both of whom played for Irish club Shamrock Rovers, into footy fame. But the young Farrell’s skills weren’t quite as strong as his acting talent. “Certainly, when I was 13 or 14, I knew for sure that I'd dropped the ball, so to speak," he said. Footy’s loss. Hollywood’s gain.

Julia Stiles

Julia Stiles brought her soccer chops to her breakout role in 10 Things I Hate about You

It’s probably a coincidence that Stiles’s breakthrough on-screen performance came in 10 Things I Hate about You, which just happened to have several soccer scenes. But we choose to think otherwise. She was mad about the game, and even as an undergrad at Columbia was playing some serious footy in an Irish league in the Bronx. She often showed up at soccer practice after a film shoot and her makeup and fake tattoos “would get all smeared.”

Watch 10 Things I Hate About You on Apple TV.

BONUS: A young Tom Cruise playing soccer

Tom Cruise playing soccer as a boy