Britain’s favorite soccer movie topped as followers choose their greatest liked classics

Hooligan films such as Green Street and Football Factory polled high, but it was a feel good favourite that finished top of the country’s most beloved footie flicks.

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Bend It Like Beckham has been voted Britain’s favourite footie film. The 2002 classic, starring Keira Knightley and Parminder Nagra, pipped Escape to Victory and The Damned United to top spot.

Credited with inspiring a generation of women to take up the sport, Bend It Like Beckham followed a young Sikh woman striving to realise her dreams on and off the football pitch.

It topped a poll of 2,000 Brits conducted by Hotel Football ahead of the World Cup this summer. Escape to Victory – the 1981 film which depicted a team of Allied prisoners of war taking on German soldiers as cover for a bid for freedom – came second.

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The Damned United, which looked at Brian Clough’s ill-fated tenure as Leeds United manager in 1974, came third.

Hooligan film The Football Factory, starring Danny Dyer, and Mike Bassett: England Manager rounded off the top five.

Chanel Goy, of Hotel Football, said: “Football has always produced incredible stories, from underdog triumphs and fierce rivalries to unforgettable moments that bring people together.

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“Film gives those stories a different kind of life and allows fans to relive the emotion, drama and humour that make the sport so special both on and off the pitch.”

Hotel Football is sponsoring Mythos Manchester, a new film and tv event launching in the city this summer.

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Top 10 football films of all time

1. Bend It Like Beckham
2. Escape to Victory
3. The Damned United
4. The Football Factory
5. Mike Bassett: England Manager
6. Green Street
7. Mean Machine
8. Goal! The Dream Begins
9. Shaolin Soccer
10. Looking for Eric

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