Underplayed Gems

Goal! (2005)

Goal! poster
Directed by
Danny Cannon
Genre
association football film
Country
United Kingdom, United States
Runtime
1h 53m
Rated
PG-13
Rating
6.8 of 10 from 1,221 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

A young amateur footballer from a poor background gets a chance to try out for a big club. The film follows his struggle to make it as a professional player.

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What happens

Goal! (also known as Goal! The Dream Begins) is a 2005 British sports drama film directed by Danny Cannon from a screenplay by Mike Jefferies, Adrian Butchart, Dick Clement, and Ian La Frenais. It is the first installment in the Goal! trilogy and stars Kuno Becker, Alessandro Nivola, Marcel Iureș, Stephen Dillane, and Anna Friel. In the film, Santiago Muñez (Becker), an amateur player, earns an unlikely chance to play professional football. Goal! was made with co-operation from FIFA, which enabled the inclusion of FIFPro likenesses of real teams and players. Adidas contributed a reported $50 million towards the film's budget and marketing campaign, marking the then-biggest deal between a corporate brand and a film production. Goal! was theatrically released in the United Kingdom by Buena Vista International on 1 October 2005. The film received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for the sports sequences and Becker's performance but criticism for the screenplay, with many labelling it cliché. Goal! underperformed at the box office, grossing $27.6 million worldwide. The sequel, Goal II: Living the Dream, was released in the United Kingdom in February 2007. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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