Goal! (film)
First installment of the Goal! trilogy.
Goal! (also released as Goal! The Dream Begins) is a 2005 British sports drama directed by Danny Cannon, with a screenplay by Mike Jefferies, Adrian Butchart, Dick Clement, and Ian La Frenais. It kicks off the Goal! trilogy and features Kuno Becker, Alessandro Nivola, Marcel Iureș, Stephen Dillane, and Anna Friel. The story centers on Santiago Muñez (Becker), an amateur footballer who gets a surprise shot at playing professionally. FIFA backed the production, allowing the use of real teams and players through FIFPro likenesses. Adidas put up an estimated $50 million for the film’s budget and marketing—at the time, the largest corporate-brand deal with a movie. Buena Vista International released the film in UK theaters on 1 October 2005. Critics gave it mixed reviews, applauding the soccer scenes and Becker’s acting but panning the screenplay as clichéd. It underperformed at the box office, earning $27.6 million worldwide. The sequel, Goal II: Living the Dream, came out in the UK in February 2007. Santiago Muñez, a Mexican undocumented immigrant in Los Angeles, is a talented footballer who plays for a local team while working as a gardener with his father, Hernan, and as a busboy at a Chinese restaurant. During a match, former player and Newcastle United scout Glen Foy spots him and sets up a trial with the club. Santiago saves up for the trip to England, but Hernan steals the money to buy a truck for the family business, dismissing his son’s chances. Santiago’s grandmother, Mercedes, secretly gives him cash and urges him to leave before Hernan finds out. In Newcastle, Santiago stays with Glen and starts his trial. During a muddy training match, he struggles under pressure from teammate Hughie McGowan. Manager Erik Dornhelm is unimpressed but agrees to let the trial run a month after Glen’s request. At a medical, Santiago lies about having asthma to club nurse Roz Harmison, fearing it will hurt his chances, and gets a one-month contract. Despite bullying from Hughie, Santiago befriends fellow trialist Jamie Drew. He adapts to English conditions, and a reserve match is scheduled at the end of his trial to decide his future. Before the game, Hughie destroys Santiago’s inhaler, triggering an asthma attack. After another poor performance, Newcastle lets him go.
- Release year
- 2005
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Director
- Danny Cannon
- Lead actor
- Kuno Becker
- Genre
- Sports drama
- Box office
- $27.6 million worldwide
Lore & Background
The film was the first of a planned trilogy. Originally the lead role was supposed to be played by Diego Luna but he left to pursue other projects and was replaced by Kuno Becker. Michael Winterbottom was also slated to direct the film but after creative differences he was replaced by Danny Cannon. Shooting for the film commenced in January 2005 and locations included Pinewood Studios, London, Newcastle, and Los Angeles. The musical score was composed by Graeme Revell, who previously collaborated with director Danny Cannon on Phoenix (1998). A soundtrack album was released on Oasis' Big Brother Recordings label in 2005 and contains three Oasis songs unavailable elsewhere, including the exclusive Noel Gallagher song 'Who Put the Weight of the World on My Shoulders?'
Reader's Guide
Goal! 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. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 42% based on 83 reviews, with an average score of 5.20/10. The website's critics' consensus reads: 'Impressive sports action sequences are the highlight, as the run-of the-mill story invokes every known sports movie cliché'. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 53 out of 100 based on reviews from 19 critics, indicating 'mixed or average reviews'. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of 'A' on an A+ to F scale. Roger Ebert praised the film, awarding it three stars out of four and calling it 'surprisingly effective'. The film underperformed at the box office, grossing $27.6 million worldwide, but by the time it reached DVD, huge sales made it the gold standard for sports films in the UK, many European territories and South America. In 2018, SPORTbible voted Goal! the 'Greatest Football Film of All Time'. In 2021, Newcastle signed a Mexican-American striker named Santiago Muñoz, noting the remarkable similarity to the film.
Did You Know?
- 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.
- The film was made with cooperation from FIFA, which enabled the inclusion of FIFPro likenesses of real teams and players.
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