10 great football films of the 21st century

The season may be over, with Arsenal grabbing the Premier league title win after a 22-year wait, but – as Gunners midfielder Declan Rice famously declared – “It’s not done”: the 2026 World Cup is set to the dominate the summer. 

The street celebrations in north London have been a glorious example of the best of football culture, providing a little bit of hope and respite amid a gloomy global outlook. A recent documentary, Ultras (2025), also honoured the more positive aspects of fan culture, while not shying away from the darker elements of hooliganism as seen in 21st-century football films such as The Football Factory (2004), Green Street (2005) and Awaydays (2009).

The focus of this list, however, is predominantly on the skill involved in playing football and the socioeconomic impact of the game. Films that could have made the cut include Diamantino (2018), a weird and wonderful satire of celebrity football culture. In a similar eccentric category is Corneliu Porumboiu’s Infinite Football (2018), which touches on philosophical and humanitarian issues through a portrait of a man who wants to make an octagon-shaped football pitch. Queer films such as The Pass (2016) and The Last Guest of the Holloway Motel – the 2025 documentary in which English defender Tony Powell reflects on his life, with mention of the tragic story of Justin Fashanu – strike a bittersweet tone in their handling of discrimination against gay professional footballers.

The documentary films chosen below celebrate the greats while also examining fame. They look at who has been shut out of the game and what progress has been made in terms of women’s football. The dramatic titles are stories about underdogs, bitter rivalries, passionate fans, community, mental health and the working-class roots of the game, with a little bit of whimsy and culture-clash comedy thrown in for good measure. The embarrassing FIFA-backed puff piece United Passions (2014) deserves only a dishonourable mention here. 

Director: Gurinder Chadha

Sure, some of the acting may be atrocious and the parallels it draws between the immigrant experience of a white Irish man and a young Sikh woman prompt unintended hilarity, but Gurinder Chadha’s fictional film about women’s football was way ahead of its time. Since its release, the Lionesses have gone from strength to strength in the international field, winning the Euros in 2022 and 2025. Hopefully it’s something the planned sequel will explore. 

The original is a culture-clash comedy and coming-of-age story that shows a blossoming friendship between Keira Knightley’s Jules and Parminder Nagra’s Jess. The two actresses share great chemistry on and off the pitch as they get to grips with family expectations, love and aspirations of playing football at a professional level. David Beckham may not have appeared in the film, but who cares when you’ve got Shaznay Lewis from All Saints doing kick-ups? It’s a vibrant time capsule of early 00s popular culture and attitudes.

Director: Jafar Panahi

Jafar Panahi is a master at humorously highlighting hypocrisy and discrimination. His hand-held camera spends most of this film on the periphery of Tehran’s Azadi stadium for a World Cup qualifying match between Bahrain and Iran with passionate female fans who have been shut out of the game. Women are banned from attending live matches under the Iranian regime and Panahi was prohibited from making this docu-fiction film, and yet here it is. 

A group of young women (played by non-professional actors) dress in traditional male clothing and dare to sneak into the match. They’re soon placed under the watchful eye of soldiers with whom they debate their place in society, while also soaking up the atmosphere from the cheers and boos they hear from the pitch. This is a football film made by a courageous rebel: it celebrates the rebellious spirit of women who aren’t afraid to risk their freedom for fundamental human rights.

Directors: Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno

Video artists Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno filmed French footballer Zinedine Zidane with 17 synchronised cameras at the Real Madrid vs Villarreal match on 23 April 2005. It was their intention to place the viewers up close and personal to his psyche and physical state by closely watching his every movement. It’s truly a unique way to watch a football match, inspecting the sweat drip from his face, the rage building as his eyes glance at the scoreboard when the team are 1-0 down, before he scores to equalise. 

With an intense post-rock soundtrack by Mogwai, this experimental documentary is not only an impressive technical achievement but a mesmerising experience. Zidane chimes in at crucial points on childhood memories and perspectives on life, and half-time is made up of brief snippets of news stories. Explosive behaviour eventually gets him sent off – despite David Beckham’s best attempts to calm him down – bringing the film to its conclusion at the 90-minute mark. 

Directors: Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas

Beginning at the end of the football season with a relegation play-off match, Linha de passe introduces us to a family of four brothers and their pregnant mum living on the poverty line in São Paulo. Disappointment and hardship is a given in Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas’s film about faith in a system that doesn’t serve the family’s needs. Every single one of them is looking for an escape from their cramped apartment. For Dino, it’s through his skill as a footballer, but he’s finding it hard to make his mark in a local team where bribery seems to be the main selection factor. 

This is an underdog story, but not one with a rags-to-riches narrative. It drinks in the city’s surroundings, economy and the character’s aspirations, where criminality is only a desperate decision away. The film ends at the beginning of the football season, with Dino taking his big shot, as do the other family members, before a cliffhanger of possibility and hope.

Director: Ken Loach

If you’ve attended a premier league game this season you may have noticed signs for male mental health campaigns on the digital displays, such as Inside Matters or Together Against Suicide. They encourage men to talk about their troubles instead of suffering in silence, which is something Ken Loach’s football comedy (written by Paul Laverty) approaches with sensitivity and a surreal sense of humour. 

Postman Eric is spiralling into loneliness and self-destructive behaviour when suddenly his footballing hero Eric Cantona (gamely playing himself) pops out of a poster and offers philosophical advice. Eric may be hallucinating, but their conversations are truly lovely and it’s enough to set him on a new path. The film, shot entirely in Manchester, works on multiple levels. It addresses a loss of community when local fans are priced out of the game while also celebrating male friendships and the positive changes that can be enacted when people rally together with an invigorating energy.

Director: Tom Hooper

Spite is a great motivator and in Tom Hooper’s adaptation of David Peace’s novel, football manager Brian Clough embarks on a petty personal vendetta against Leeds United’s Don Revie. Michael Sheen stars as Clough in an unforgettable performance that powers along a film about blind ambition and heated rivalry. Sheen ably switches between tyranny, unhinged determination and arrogance with a mesmerising fury that borders on hilariously Machiavellian. 

Charting the 44 days he managed Leeds United, the film switches between timeframes to also show his successful stretch at Derby County and his partnership with Peter Taylor in which he had to eventually eat humble pie. Hooper conveys the stress and responsibility of being a pioneering tracksuit manager with a ticking-time-bomb intensity, showing the realities of having to straddle the line between business and sport. Power plays and division caused by cash flow issues place the viewer in the psychological state of a man on the edge as the pressure keeps mounting.

Director: Asif Kapadia

In director Asif Kapadia’s documentaries, fame and tragedy often collide. His portrait of Argentinean footballer Diego Maradona, who was both worshipped as the greatest footballer alive and reviled for his ‘Hand of God’ goal in the 1986 World Cup game against England, begins with archive footage following a car speeding its way to Naples football stadium. Maradona is shown as an accident waiting to happen. His career-defining time playing for SSC Napoli, and Argentina on an international level, is intercut with thrilling goals, interviews with those close to him and narration from the man himself. 

Kapadia portrays a conflicted man who pulled himself out of poverty through sport and was willing to do anything to support his family even if it meant cheating and lying. His talent was undeniable, but he was eventually exploited by a club that refused to release him from his contract until scandal struck. Becoming entangled with the mob who fuelled a notoriously unwieldy cocaine addiction is presented as his downfall in a heady documentary underscored with pain and sacrifice.

Directors: Ben Nicholas and David Tryhorn

This is Pelé in his own words towards the end of his life, as he reflects on his incredible football career and his apolitical stance during the rise of the military dictatorship in Brazil. There is a frankness when he speaks about his actions off the pitch and a powerful emotionality when he talks about the big losses (1950 World Cup) and the big wins. His success on the pitch is still unrivalled and he is the only player to have three World Cup titles to his name, which is something this documentary shows in thrilling detail, while also filling in the gaps of his personal life. 

Sports journalists chip in explaining how he rose up from poverty and was a symbol of emancipation, as do his former teammates at Santos FC who he is filmed reuniting with over a long lunch. Simply put, there’s real joy in watching archive footage of one of the greats score amazing goals over and over again.

Director: Alexandre Koberidze

In Alexandre Koberidze’s mischievously funny and poetic masterpiece, football is everywhere and is for everyone. It’s for the street kids who paint their backs with the name Messi, for the young woman practicing her skills on a pitch with rusty goalposts, and even for the dogs who have their own particular preference on where they will watch the World Cup. Vardy the dog is a massive England fan and will only watch matches at the kebab hut behind the theatre. 

Set in the Georgian town of Kutaisi, this is a captivating tale of summer vibes and anticipation. It takes its lead from silent film and wonderfully captures the excitement of the tournament while also taking the viewer on a gorgeous tour of the local area. A love story at the centre of the film, between a pharmacist and an amateur footballer who are under a curse, is the charming leaping-off point for a director who finds beauty and magic in the most unexpected places.

Directors: James Erskine and Rachel Ramsay

The erasure of women in football history is given a modern reckoning to set the record straight in this bittersweet documentary, executive produced by Alex Morgan and Serena and Venus Williams. It charts the covert 1971 Women’s World Cup that took place in Mexico, despite FIFA and the FA’s best efforts to stop women competing in a professional capacity. Told by the women footballers who participated in the tournament, it’s both a celebration of their skill and a lament for all the lost potential and derailed careers in the years it took a chauvinistic institution to decide it wasn’t unladylike to kick a ball round a pitch. Or, perhaps, for them to roll over and realise women’s football could too be a lucrative source of income. 

It’s not only a compelling historical record of women’s football, it’s a documentary that allows the passion of the women at the centre of the film to really shine through.