We can already hear David Baddiel, Frank Skinner, and The Lightning Seeds' 'Three Lions' playing in the background, and with Harry Kane lacing up his boots, there couldn't be a better time to celebrate the beautiful game now that the 2026 FIFA World Cup is officially under way.
With this in mind, let's check out some of the best football movies currently available on streaming. Whether critically acclaimed darlings, cult classics, or guilty pleasures, here are nine football movies to check out ahead of the World Cup. We've stuck to fictional movies, rather than documentaries.
(Before you complain that Shaolin Soccer or Mike Bassett: England Manager aren't on the list, we're sorry to report they aren't available to watch on any streaming service in the UK currently.)
Fever Pitch
Man meets woman, he's obsessed with Arsenal, and the rest (as they say) is history. As a loose adaptation of Nick Hornby's autobiographical book from 1992, Fever Pitch sees Colin Firth and Ruth Gemmell as a new couple trying to navigate their own struggles while he's distracted by Arsenal's first chance in 18 years to win the First Division Championship League.
While football fans will know how things end when it comes to Arsenal's real-life match against Liverpool in the '88-'89 season, how Paul and Sarah's story intersects with this will remain a mystery unless you check out Fever Pitch.
Watch now: Channel 4
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The Damned United
If not for playing Tony Blair, many will remember Michael Sheen for his stellar turn as Brian Clough in Tom Hooper's The Damned United. Jumping between the past and present, the 2009 movie follows Clough's grand ambitions to outdo Don Revie as his predecessor, as well as the not-so-small hurdle of Leeds United's infamous 44-day disaster.
Hooper expertly covers what will forever be immortalised as one of the most scandalous collapses in football history. Propped up by Timothy Spall, Jim Broadbent, Colm Meaney and a typically brilliant Stephen Graham, The Damned United isn't just Sheen's show.
Watch now: BBC iPlayer
The Beautiful Game
Tugging at our heartstrings, The Beautiful Game more than lives up to the idea of Pelé's mantra about football. Bill Nighy leads the cast as Mal, the manager of England's homeless football team. With success in their sights, the team heads to Rome to compete in the Homeless World Cup.
Writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce worked closely with the actual Homeless World Cup, with many of The Beautiful Game's characters evolving from real-life people he met on the way.
Watch now: Channel 4
Mean Machine
Long before Vinnie Jones was unfavorably branded as X-Men: The Last Stand's Juggernaut, he'd made quite a career for himself on the football pitch. Putting these skills to the test with a British spin on The Longest Yard, Jones plays Danny Meehan, a disgraced former English football captain who finds himself banged up in Mean Machine.
There's the usual corrupt prison governor who threatens Meehan with a longer stint behind bars unless he takes part in an exhibition match, and even though the titular Mean Machine has a motley crew of murderers and psychopaths to work with, there's plenty of comedy to be found here.
Watch now: Sky Cinema | NOW | Paramount+
Bend It Like Beckham
Subbing in the fairer sex, a pre-Pirates of the Caribbean Keira Knightley did a lap as Jules Paxton in Bend It Like Beckham. Knightley importantly plays second fiddle to Parminder Nagra's Jess Bhamra, with Bend It Like Beckham being one of the first Western movies to cast a South Asian woman in a starring role.
Jess has to juggle her new passion for the Hounslow Harriers with her strictly religious family, feelings for coach Joe (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), and grand ambitions to one day meet David Beckham. Sadly, scheduling conflicts meant we didn't get a cameo from the big man himself. Think East Is East with a football twist.
Watch now: Netflix
Offside
The mere story behind how Jafar Panahi's Offside got made is enough to land it on the list, with much of the critically acclaimed Iranian movie being filmed in secret during a 2005 football match between Iran and Bahrain.
The story focuses on a group of women who hatch an elaborate plan to infiltrate a World Cup qualifying match by disguising themselves as men. Panahi was inspired by his own daughter's experience trying to sneak into a stadium. Unfortunately, the movie's defiance of Iranian law means it was banned from being shown in the country.
Watch now: MUBI
Early Man
You might not immediately think of Aardman Animations when mentioning football movies, but then again, you might not have seen Early Man. Away from the Chicken Run and Wallace & Gromit movies, Early Man is an underrated adventure from Aardman's Nick Park.
Eddie Redmayne plays Dug, a chirpy Stone Age caveman who challenges some formidable Bronze Age invaders to an all-stakes game of football. A who's who of British talent rounds out the cast, with everyone from Tom Hiddleston to Maisie Williams lending their vocals to this claymation caper.
Watch now: BBC iPlayer
Escape to Victory
John Huston's Escape to Victory is held by many as the definitive football movie, telling the story of Allied prisoners forced into an exhibition match when at the mercy of German forces. Itself inspired by the 1942 'Death Match', where Ukraine's FC Start faced retaliation after its players bested German occupiers, Escape to Victory thankfully finds more levity.
Aside from Michael Caine's Captain John Colby, a pre-Rambo Sylvester Stallone plays Captain Robert Hatch as he tries to 'hatch' an escape plan, while Max von Sydow gives a complex performance as Major Karl von Steiner. There's a reason Escape to Victory remains a Christmas staple for households around the UK.
Watch now: Sky Cinema | NOW
She's the Man
A very different kind of sports comedy to Bend It Like Beckham, She's the Man swaps the word football for soccer. Again facing ridicule as a promising female athlete, Amanda Bynes' Viola Hastings masquerades as a guy when her soccer team is cut.
Despite being a truly bizarre take on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, She's the Man has become a cult comedy that feels like a mix of The Parent Trap and White Chicks. Like the latter, we're just not sure it would get made today. Also, without She's the Man, we're not sure Channing Tatum would be the Hollywood megastar he is today.
Watch now: Prime Video | ITVX
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Tom Chapman is a pop culture-loving writer and NCTJ-accredited Broadcast Journalist with over seven years of experience covering the small and silver screen.
Starting his career with a post at Movie Pilot in Berlin, Tom took on freelancing full-time with regular stints at Digital Spy, Screen Rant and Comic Book Resources.
These days, you can still find him covering all things Marvel and Star Wars at Digital Spy, while dipping his toe in bylines at Yahoo! and IGN.
Tom likes to think his spirit animal is a cross between Gale Weathers and Olenna Tyrell.
