Goal!
Short description
Santiago Múñez, a young man living with his family in a Los Angeles barrio, has grown up dreaming of playing football professionally. The odds seem stacked against him until a former player turned scout spots him and offers him a trial at Newcastle United, setting up a move to England and a shot at a career he had only imagined. Away from home, Santiago must win over a sceptical manager and teammates and adapt to a demanding game, while his father opposes the whole venture.
Danny Cannon directed the film, the fourth of his features in the chronological order given, following Judge Dredd, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer and Phoenix. Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais and Mike Jefferies wrote the screenplay, with Jefferies producing alongside Mark Huffam and Matt Barrelle. Kuno Becker plays Santiago, with Tony Plana as his father Hernan, Stephen Dillane as scout Glen Foy, Alessandro Nivola as teammate Gavin Harris, Anna Friel as nurse Roz Harmison and Marcel Iureș as Erik Dornhelm. It runs 118 minutes and was made for about 10 million US dollars, taking roughly 28 million worldwide.
On IMDb the film holds 6.7 out of 10 from around 68,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.8 out of 10 from about 1,250 votes. A critics' rating of 5.5 out of 10 from 81 reviews places it below both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Diego Luna was long considered the main candidate for the leading role, ultimately choosing to pursue other projects.
- Michael Winterbottom was originally supposed to direct, even starting work on the film, but he left the project due to the producers’ insistence on having a finished script before the start of filming.
- One of the roles was supposed to go to Stellan Skarsgård, who turned down participation in the film immediately after director Michael Winterbottom left. In one interview, he stated that his only motivation for participating in the project was the desire to work with Michael Winterbottom.
- Brian Johnson, the soloist of the famous rock band AC/DC, appears in a cameo as one of the Newcastle fans. Fans of this team are often called Geordies in England; before AC/DC, Brian Johnson sang for a time in a band also called Geordie.
- The final scene, in which Santiago scores a goal for Newcastle against Liverpool, uses footage from a football match between these teams that took place in the 2004/2005 season. In reality, that goal was scored by Newcastle's French midfielder, Laurent Robert.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
