Okay. Let\u2019s get the awkward bit out the way first. It\u2019s not coming home \u2014 not this year at least, despite Thomas Tuchel and his Three Lions\u2019 best efforts. But while England may have stumbled at the last hurdle, the World Cup Final \u2014 pitting Lionel Messi\u2019s Argentina against Lamine Yamal\u2019s Spain \u2014 is almost upon us. And even though the prospect of a Jude Bellingham-free final still smarts a little, we\u2019ve checked in with the docs at Empire HQ and football fever still has a hold on us all.<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n And so, before the big game kicks off at New Jersey\u2019s MetLife Stadium this Sunday evening (8pm, don\u2019t forget!), we thought we\u2019d round up a hat-trick of essential football movies to get you in the mood for the big game. Now obviously the world’s game has a long, storied, and colourful cinematic history \u2014 and as such you’ll have to forgive us if we missed your faves (let the record state that strong cases were made in office for Mike Bassett: England Manager<\/em>, The Damned United<\/em>, Next Goal Wins<\/em>, and the modern classic that is Goal!<\/em>) But still, we reckon the golden trio we’ve landed on are all cup-worthy bangers.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Without further ado then, rip into a bag of queso-flavoured crisps, crack open a Quilmes, and get ready to triple-bill these three essential football movies. As the great Alan Partridge would say, \u201cBack of the net!\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Director:<\/strong> John Huston | Runtime:<\/strong> 1hr 56m | Buy\/Rent on:<\/strong> Amazon, Apple TV, Sky Store<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Starring:<\/strong> Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine, Max von Sydow, Pel\u00e9, Bobby Moore, Osvaldo Ardiles<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n The first thing that comes to mind when you think of John Huston\u2019s loosely true story inspired 1981 classic Escape To Victory \u2014 which pits a squad of allied POWs in WWII against the dirtiest German XI imaginable with freedom on the line \u2014 is its insane ensemble. Here is a movie in which the likes of Sly Stallone and Michael Caine share a callsheet with some of the greatest players to have ever graced a pitch \u2014 from Pel\u00e9 to Bobby Moore to Osvaldo Ardiles. But look past the star players, the bicycle kicks, and what surely remains some of the best cinematic football ever committed to film, and you\u2019ll find a rousing testament to the indomitability of the human spirit that exemplifies the very best that the beautiful game represents. It\u2019s still a mad shout to have had Sly between the sticks, mind, but that\u2019s football for you! JK<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Diego Maradona \u00a9TMDB<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Director:<\/strong> Asif Kapadia | Runtime:<\/strong> 2hrs 10m | Buy\/Rent on:<\/strong> Amazon, Apple TV, Sky Store<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u2018Rebel. Hero. Hustler. God.\u2019 So reads the tagline for acclaimed Senna<\/em> and Amy<\/em> documentarian Asif Kapadia\u2019s Diego Maradona<\/em>. And while that may sound to the uninitiated like a little bit much for a footballer, it\u2019s pretty much bang on the money for this<\/em> footballer \u2014 for Diego Armando Maradona. Pieced together from over 500 hours of never-before-seen footage, Kapadia\u2019s doc charts Maradona\u2019s rise from the slums of Villa Fiorito to World Cup winning glory at Mexico \u201886 and a borderline messianic spell at Italian outfit Napoli. But this isn\u2019t just another rags-to-riches tale. Maradona\u2019s is a story of gangsters, glory, goal-scoring and addiction, of on-pitch heroism and off-pitch hubris that\u2019s equal parts inspirational and cautionary, brilliant and tragic \u2014 and Kapadia somehow manages to capture both man and myth, allowing us to draw our own conclusions. If you love football, this is unmissable. And if you don\u2019t? Honestly, still pretty unmissable, actually. JK<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Director:<\/strong> Gurinder Chadha | Runtime:<\/strong> 1hr 52m | Streaming on:<\/strong> Netflix<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Starring:<\/strong> Keira Knightley, Parminder Nagra, Jonathan Rhys Meyers<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Finished watching these footie films? Why not check out The 59 Best Movies Streaming On Netflix UK? Or our guide to what to watch on Disney+? Or why not start working through Empire\u2019s 100 Greatest Movies Of All Time, a list studded with more stars than Argentina and Spain combined? Just because the World Cup\u2019s coming to an end, it doesn\u2019t mean your summer of top-notch, blockbuster viewing has to be.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Okay. Let\u2019s get the awkward bit out the way first. It\u2019s not coming home \u2014 not this year at least, despite Thomas Tuchel and his Three Lions\u2019 best efforts. But while England may have stumbled at the last hurdle, the World Cup Final \u2014 pitting Lionel Messi\u2019s Argentina against Lamine Yamal\u2019s Spain \u2014 is almost […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11921,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-47"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11920"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11922,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11920\/revisions\/11922"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Escape To Victory (1981)<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/3-essential-football-films-you-should-watch-before-the-fifa-world-cup-final.jpg\")
<\/div>\nDiego Maradona (2019)<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Diego](\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/3-essential-football-films-you-should-watch-before-the-fifa-world-cup-final-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nBend It Like Beckham (2002)<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Bend](\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/3-essential-football-films-you-should-watch-before-the-fifa-world-cup-final-2.jpg\")
<\/div>\n