10 famous footballers who starred in movies

See if you can spot Pele, Sylvester Stallone, Bobby Moore, and Michael Caine in this shot from a filmCristiano Ronaldo was all set to feature in Martin Scorsese’s upcoming movie, but with the director opting to cut the Portuguese superstar off his roster of actors, there was a huge hue and cry over the reported €20m the Los Blancos man will be pocketing for doing next to nothing.But Cristiano Ronaldo is not the only footballer for whom the movies have come calling. Apart from a footballing superstar fest in Goal and all its parts, there have been films over the years that have featured some prominent footballers sometimes in big roles.Below, we take a look at these popular names in football who have actually featured and starred in movies as a hobby and some that went on to make a full time career out of it.

#1 George Best (Cup Fever)

The greatest player to ever pull on the green shirt of Northern Ireland, George Best scored 137 goals from 361 appearances for Manchester United. He also led United to their first ever European Cup triumph as he scored the winner in the final against Benfica to settle the match in favour of the Red Devils.

Best portrayed himself in 1965 sports film 'Cup Fever' which tells the story of a young team whose encounter with the Man United squad inspires them to go on and win their cup competition. The late Irishman also appeared in a British comedy in 1971 titled ‘Percy’.

#2 Bobby Moore (Escape to Victory)

Bobby Moore captained West Ham United for more than ten years and was captain of the England National team that won the FIFA World Cup in 1966. Widely regarded as one of the greatest defenders of all time, Pelé named him as the greatest defender that he had ever played against.

"My captain, my leader, my right-hand man. He was the spirit and the heartbeat of the team. A cool, calculating footballer I could trust with my life. He was the supreme professional, the best I ever worked with. Without him England would never have won the World Cup.”, quoted World Cup winning coach Alf Ramsey about his star centre back.

Moore assumes the role of Terry Brady in the film Escape to victory alongside a host of other established actors like Michael Caine and Sylvester Stallone. He has also appeared in several episodes of the TV series ‘Till Death Do Us Part’.

#3 Zinedine Zidane (Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait)

Three time FIFA World Player Of The Year and UEFA Champions League winner with Real Madrid in 2002, Los Blancos Legend Zinedine Zidane has full 90 minutes of the camera focused on him as he inspired director Douglas Gordon to make a movie of him on the pitch.

Titled ‘Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait’, the film is a documentary focused purely on Zidane during the Spanish Liga Real Madrid vs. Villarreal CF game on April 23, 2005 at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium. The movie was filmed in real time using 17 synchronized cameras. Minutes from the final whistle, Zidane was sent off for partaking in a brawl.

Zidane has also featured in the mega blockbuster Goal and in the French movie titled ‘Asterix at the Olympic Games'.

#4 Paul Breitner (Potato Fritz)

World Cup winner in 1974 and five-time Bundesliga champion German legend Paul Breitner holds the unique record of being one of the only four players to have scored in two different World Cup final matches, the others being Pelé, Vavá and Zinédine Zidane.

He also had a successful spell with Real Madrid winning two La Ligas and one Copa Del Rey in his time with the Spanish outfit. One of Germany's most controversial players, he’s regarded as one of the greatest footballers ever and was named in the FIFA World Cup All-Time Team in 1994.

Not many know that he’s flirted with a career in movies while he was still playing as he featured in two action adventure films, with one being a German language western. He played a frontier soldier helping Hardy Kruger’s ranger plant potatoes in the 1976 spaghetti-western ‘Potato Fritz’, and in 1986 he starred in the action-adventure, Kunyonga - Mord in Afrika. Since neither of the films came even close to replicating the success of his football career, he quickly gave up the idea and is now an established TV pundit and newspaper columnist.

#5 Ally McCoist (A Shot at Glory)

Having won 9 Scottish Premier Division titles as well as 9 Scottish League Cups, McCoist finds himself ranked fifth on the Scottish top tier league's all-time highest goal scorer list. He was the coach of his beloved ‘Rangers’ from 2011 to 2014 and was also inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame in 2007.

McCoist starred in the film -‘A Shot at Glory’ alongside Robert Duvall. He assumed the role of a high-flying footballer from Arsenal who gets recruited by a second-tier Scottish club, managed by Robert Duvall and owned by Michael Keaton.

Duvall and McCoist are shown to clash over the playing philosophy and the path along which the club is heading, but over the period of the film, the warmth of the small town wins McCoist over and he leads the club to great success.

#6 Eric Cantona (Looking for Eric)

Cantona won four Premier League titles in his five year stint with Manchester United. Since then, Cantona has made a successful transition to a full time acting career after he hung up his playing boots.

He debuted on the silver screen with Shekar Kapur’s Oscar winning, ‘Elizabeth’ (1998) and has featured in over two dozen French movies, since then. The French striker played a version of himself in the movie, ‘Looking for Eric’ (2009). He has also starred alongside Mads Mikkelsen and Eva Green in a Western titled, ‘The Salvation’.

#7 Vinnie Jones (X-Men: The Last Stand)

Jones has perhaps been the most successful in making the transition from a professional footballer to a professional actor. The Welsh midfielder has averaged over 350 English League appearances with the likes of Chelsea and Leeds United and won the FA Cup with Wimbledon in 1988.

He made his acting debut in Guy Ritchie’s gangster blockbuster titled, ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ (1998), and he’s never looked back since. His penchant for playing tough guy roles is reflective of his on-field persona of a tough tackling midfielder.

Vinnie’s role in ‘Snatch’, where he played the invincible Bullet Tooth Tony, earned him the adoration of many. Later, he played the role of a disgraced footballer in ‘Mean Machine’ and has since appeared in films like, ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’, ‘Swordfish’ and ‘Company of Heroes’.

#8 Pele (Escape to Victory)

FIFA World Cup winner on three separate occasions with Brazil, words cannot do justice to his ability as a player. Regarded by many as the greatest player to have played the beautiful game, Pele made a novel appearance in the film Escape to Victory as a Trinidad and Tobago player named Luis Fernandez.

The film is based in the World War II period and sees a group of Nazi officers come up with a propaganda event in which an all-star Nazi team will play a football match against a team composed of Allied Prisoners.

The Prisoners agree, planning on using the game as a means of escape from the camp. Luis Fernandez is shown as a member of the allied football team and the film captures one of his overhead kicks in a breath-taking manner.

#9 Diego Maradona (Maradona)

Maradona was pivotal in Argentina’s World Cup success in 1986 and his virtuoso yet controversial performance in the semi-final against England gave us two of the most famous goals the world has ever seen. His brilliant career also saw him carry a Napoli side to two Scudetto wins and a UEFA Cup triumph.

The documentary ‘In the Hands of the Gods’, puts major focus on Maradona but, the Argentine features in it only for a few seconds. The film tracks the travels of five young English freestylers hiking through North and South America in a bid to meet with their footballing idol.

A documentary on El Diego by Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica, titled ‘Maradona ‘,covered all aspects of his life and premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008. Other films portraying the Argentine’s video footage or the man himself are – La Mano de Dios (Maradona, the Hand of God), El Camino de San Diego (Saint Diego's Road), Amando a Maradona (Loving Maradona).

#10 David Beckham (Class of 92)

Since his playing days, David Beckham was always touted for the silver screen. As a footballer, he has enjoyed a very successful career having featured in Manchester United’s treble-winning campaign and also won the La Liga while plying his trade with Real Madrid.

Many expected the ex-English international to feature in ‘Bend It Like Beckham’, but his name was all he lent to the movie. However, Beckham did feature in ‘Goal’, a film the tracks the rise of footballer Santiago Munez and has also featured in the documentary movie ‘Class of 92’.

‘Class of 92’ illustrates the rise to prominence and sporting superstardom of six talented young Manchester United academy graduates namely – David Beckham, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Phil and Gary Neville. The film covers the period 1992-1999 and details how the six played a pivotal role in Manchester United's European Cup triumph of 1999.

The former English captain was reportedly offered a role as the next James Bond but that one hasn’t been confirmed by any reliable sources. Beckham himself has kept mum about those rumours.