10 Best Football Movies on HBO Max to Stream Right Now

Over the years, we had many great sports movies bestowed on us. Basketball, baseball, athletics, and other great inspiring stories made great resource materials for movies and TV series. Football and soccer (European football) is the most important secondary thing in the world, and they provided us with great stories that inspire us today. HBO Max is one of the notable streaming platforms in the world, and that prompted us to list good football movies to stream in 2022.

With World Cup and the new NFL season on the horizon, we decided to list the ten best football movies on HBO Max. Of course, that will include both versions of football – American and soccer. If you are interested in this list, stay with us until the end of the article.

10. Semi-Tough (1977)

Directed by: Michael Ritchie
Writer(s): Walter Bernstein, Ring Lardner Jr.
Release date: November 18, 1977
Running time: 108 minutes
Starring: Burt Reynolds, Kris Kristofferson, Jill Clayburgh, Robert Preston

Synopsis: Wider receiver Shake Tiller and Running Back Clyde Becket are playing football for a Miami pro football team, which Big Ed Bookman owns. The owner’s daughter Barbara Jane is roommates with both men, and throughout the movie, the trio is in a love triangle. The movie depicts and makes fun of self-improvement seminars that became popular in the 1970s.

9. Bend it Like Beckham (2002)

Directed by: Gurinder Chadha
Writer(s): Gurinder Chadha
Release date: April 12, 2022 
Running time: 112 minutes
Starring: Parminder Nagra, Keira Knightley, Jonathan Rys Meyers, Anupam Kher

Synopsis: One of the best sports movies of the 2000s comes in the form of the British film, Bend It Like Beckham. The movie follows women’s soccer and two girls who want to follow their dreams and become professional soccer players. Jess is of Indian descent and is inspired by soccer superstar David Beckham to become a professional soccer player.

She fights with her old-fashioned family, who want her to get married and have children. On the other side, Jules is in a similar situation – her parents don’t like her playing soccer. This heartfelt movie introduces us to cultural differences and obstacles and girls whose love of soccer propels them to pursue their dreams.

8. Varsity Blues (1999)

Directed by: Brian Robbins 
Writer(s): W. Petter Illiff
Release date: January 15, 1999
Running time: 106 minutes
Starring: James Van Der Beek, Jon Voight, Paul Walker, Ron Lester, Scott Caan

Synopsis: In the fictional town in Texas, West Canaan Coyotes, a high-school football team, doesn’t know anything besides winning. Football in Texas is religion, and everyone, from children to seniors, considers football really seriously. After the star quarterback, Lance Harbor, is injured, the experienced coach Bud Kilmer must put the pressure on the second-string quarterback John Moxon, who looks differently on how to play football. The movie follows the obsession for winning and the pressure teenagers are put under.

7. We Are Marshall (2006)

Directed by: McG
Writer(s): Jamie Linden
Release date: December 22, 2006
Running time: 131 minutes
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Matthew Fox, Ian McShane, Antony Mackie, Kate Mara

Synopsis: In the 1970s, the lives of the entire football team, coaches, and some fans are abruptly taken away when a plane crash occurs on the way home. The surviving members of the team and a new coach must now find a way to get back to “normalcy” and keep the footballing program alive for future generations. 

6. Blind Side (2009)

Directed by: John Lee Hancock
Writer(s): John Lee Hancock
Release date: November 20, 2009
Running time: 126 minutes
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw, Quinton Aaron, Lilly Collins, Jae Head

Synopsis: The movie follows Michael Oher, an American football offensive lineman who overcame rough childhood that almost stopped him from becoming a professional football player. With the help of his adoptive family, the Tuohys, Oher’s education and pursuit of being a college footballer rise tenfold. The film presents us with what kindness can do to people in need.

5. 12 Mighty Orphans (2021)

Directed by: Ty Roberts
Writer(s): Ty Roberts
Release date: June 11, 2021
Running time: 118 minutes
Starring: Luke Wilson, Vinessa Shaw, Wayne Knight, Jake Austin Walker, Robert Duvall

Synopsis: In the 1930s, the Great Depression destroyed the American economy to the point of people starving and being unable to live normally. One coach with a troubled past and a group of kids from the orphanage who didn’t have shoes to play football took over the football season. The resilient group reached the Texas state championship, even catching the attention of then-American president Franklin Roosevelt. The movie was based on a true story.

4. Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In (2021)

Directed by: Jason Ferguson
Genre: Documentary
Release date: March 6, 2021
Running time: 108 minutes
Starring: Sir Alex Ferguson

Synopsis: Scotsman Sir Alex Ferguson is one of the biggest and most successful coaches of all time. Manchester United legend won everything in European football and propelled the English club to the popularity that it enjoys today. The documentary follows a young Scottish footballer who had a great career, his coaching beginnings in the Scottish League, ending the dominance of Glasgow club Celtic and Glasgow, and finally getting the “gig” on then struggling English giant in the 1980s. Sir Alex Ferguson’s career at Manchester United wasn’t great initially, but building the culture and players that later concurred the European and world football, stayed dominant for over twenty years until his retirement in 2013.

3. FC Roma (2016)

Directed by: Tomas Bojar, Rozálie Kohoutová
Writer(s): Tomas Bojar, Rozálie Kohoutová
Genre: Documentary
Release date: 2016
Running time: 76 minutes

Synopsis: This Czech documentary follows FC Roma football club, which nearly becomes the league’s winner after non-Romani teams in the third league refuse to play against them. The documentary deals with xenophobia against people who just want to play football. An emotional documentary that presents the struggles Romani people goes through every day, despite being part of Czech society.

2. No Place For You In Our Town (2022)

Directed by: Nikolay Stefanov
Writer(s): Ralitsa Golemanova, Mariana Sabeva, Nikolay Stefanov
Release date: 2022
Running time: 82 minutes

Synopsis: Another documentary on this list comes from Bulgaria, where soccer is one of the biggest sports in the country. With soccer came fans, and with fans, the hardcore supporters called Ultras, who would do anything for their football club. The documentary follows around the hooligans from the small town of Pernik, a mining town that has declined since the fall of the Soviet Union.

1. Wildcats (1986)

Directed by: Michael Ritchie
Writer(s): Ezra Sacks
Release date: February 14, 1986
Running time: 106 minutes
Starring: Goldie Hawn, James Keach, Swoosie Kurtz

Synopsis: When a football coaching position on the Central High School football team is vacated, the daughter of a famous football coach Molly McGrath leaves her previous track team coach job to leave her first football team. Being a female coach who tries to lead the all-male high school football team presents a huge challenge for Molly, who wants to prove that she knows football.