Best films about football

Get the flags out. Swim in cheap lager. Miss that vital penalty. The World Cup is with us once again and England expects ... to go out in the quarter finals. If the thought of Honduras v Switzerland and New Zealand v Slovakia fails to excite, just pause the live coverage and get the DVDs out. Football films are usually terrible, but often entertainingly so. Here's the GWG's shortlist of the best films about the beautiful game:

1. Escape to Victory (1981)

P.O.W.S in a German camp play their way to freedom. Michael Caine lines up with Bobby Moore, Stallone goes in goal and gets huffy. John Huston's film is wonderfully silly, worth watching for spotting footballers (look there's John Wark!) and for Pelé's beautiful slow-mo scissors kick. www.amazon.co.uk

2. There's Only One Jimmy Grimble (2000)

You're a teenage boy. You've got a dream. You want to play for Man City. OK, so this is a far fetched premise but its got Robert Carlyle, Ray Winstone and Gina McKee on side and an amusing fairy tale plot about pair of magic boots. This is sentimental stuff, best watched when your team has just come back from a goal down to win in the last minute. www.amazon.co.uk

3. Once In A Lifetime (2006)

The fascinating documentary tells the story of the rise and fall of the New York Cosmos. It's the 1970s and a group of businessmen want to bring football to the US. A selection of talents at the end of their careers - Pelé, Carlos Alberto, Franz Beckenbauer - arrive to make football, for the briefest of moments, pure American showbiz. www.amazon.co.uk

4. Purely Belter (2000)

The characters in this amusing comedy-drama will do anything to get their hands on a Newcastle Utd season ticket. With a touch of Ken Loach and a little bit of The Full Monty about it, this film from Mark Herman - of Brassed Off and Little Voice fame - will almost make you want to root for the toon. Almost. www.amazon.co.uk

5. The Damned Utd (2009)

Well crafted and entertaining, Tom Hooper's adaptation of David Peace's book is memorable for its central peformance. Michael Sheen is magnificent as Brian Clough, struggling to assert his arrogant self at Elland Road, faced with a group of players that resist him from his very first day in charge. www.amazon.co.uk

6. Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait (2006)

There are not many players you could happily watch for ninety minutes, but Zidane is one of them. This documentary focuses on the Frenchman to the exclusion of everyone else on the pitch. We follow Zidane as he runs, pauses, watches, takes the ball, passes, goes past players and gets sent off in a match for Real Madrid against Villareal. www.amazon.co.uk

31 May 2010