10 Footballers Who Became Actors

Dan Fitch looks at the footballers who swapped a life on the pitch, to appear on the big screen.

Football is a notoriously difficult sport to accurately recreate on film, so it's no surprise that movie-makers often turn to real life footballers to play these parts and make the action more authentic.

Not all footballers-turned-actors limit themselves to merely kicking a ball about on screen. Some have stretched themselves to deliver lines a little more complex than 'We'll take each game as it comes' and 'I'm sick as a parrot'.

Here are 10 footballers who became actors.

10. John Harkes

The former USA international John Harkes, portrayed another former USA international in the 2005 film The Game Of Their Lives. Harkes played the part of the Scottish-born Ed McIlvenny, in a film based around the USA's 1-0 defeat of England at the 1950 World Cup.

Unsurprisingly for a Hollywood movie, the plot was not historically accurate. Ed McIlvenny was actually the USA captain against England, but in the film the skipper is Walter Bahr, who is played by Wes Bentley of American Beauty fame. Harkes is also credited with playing a character called 'Dude' in a 2007 episode of Without a Trace.

9. Mel Sterland

John Harkes wasn't the only former Sheffield Wednesday star to appear on the big screen. Mel Sterland acted in the Sean Bean film When Saturday Comes, ironically playing the part of the captain of Sheffield United.

As the unnamed Blades skipper, Mel Sterland doesn't like Bean's Jimmy Muir, probably because he's at least fifteen years to old to be making his debut as a professional footballer. The film also starred the Sheffield United legend Tony Currie, who played himself.

8. Paul Breitner

Who ever heard of a German Western? The Oscar nominated German director Peter Schamoni helmed the cowboy film Potato Fritz, which featured the crazy hair of the then Real Madrid star, Paul Breitner.

Breitner played a character in Potato Fritz named Sergeant Stark and even got to ride a horse. The German international would go on to play Basgen in the 1986 crime thriller, Kuyonga - Mord in Afrika.

7. Stan Collymore

Considering that the sequel to Basic Instinct is set in London, it is no surprise that basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction features many faces familiar to British audiences. What it doesn't explain though is why Stan Collymore was cast in the film.

In his only acting role to date, Collymore plays a football player named Kevin Franks, who gets involved in some ill-advised sexual shenanigans with Sharon Stone, while the nutty blonde drives a sports car at high-speed. The car crashes into the Thames and Collymore's character drowns, though rumours abound of a deleted scene in which Gazza turns up with some chicken and a fishing rod to save him.

6. Ally McCoist

The 2000 film A Shot at Glory told the tale of the fictional Scottish team Kilnockie, who defeat the odds to reach the Scottish Cup Final. McCoist plays Jackie McQuillan, a veteran striker signed from Arsenal, alongside Robert Duvall, who played the club's manager.

McCoist's performance was actually more accomplished than Duvall's attempt at a Scottish accent, but it remains his only acting part. The film also featured Steve Tosh, Didier Agathe and the current Bolton manager, Owen Coyle

5. Franz Beckenbauer

In 1973 Franz Beckenbauer played himself in the semi-fictional film Libero. We're guessing it was a bit like Larry David playing himself in Curb Your Enthusiasm, only with less moments of awkwardness and more moments of bringing the ball out of defence.

Beckenbauer also appeared as himself in a Monty Python sketch which involved a football match between philosophers representing Greece and Germany. 'Der Kaiser' was the only footballer in a German team that included the likes of Kant, Wittgenstein and Nietzsche.

4. Allan Simonsen

When a striker does a bit of diving to win a penalty, they are often accused of going down like they've been shot. When the Denmark legend Allan Simonsen collapses in the box in the film Skytten, it's literally because he's been shot.

The former Barcelona and Charlton Athletic hitman (a sentence that has conceivably never been written before), is gunned down by an actual hitman, who goes on a deranged shooting rampage in an ill-conceived effort to keep Denmark nuclear-free.

3. Pele

Just about everyone knows that the legendary Brazil striker Pele was one of the stars of Escape to Victory, in which he acted alongside Michael Caine, Sylvester Stallone and several footballers such as Ossie Ardiles, Bobby Moore and half of the Ipswich Town team.

Pele has also made several other less heralded screen appearances, such as in the 1987 film Hotshot, in which he plays a football legend named Santos, alongside the likes of Mario Van Peebles and Jimmy Smits. The British film Mike Bassett: England Manager, also featured an appearance from Pele, playing himself.

2. Eric Cantona

Having retired from playing football aged 31, Eric Cantona has committed himself to a career on stage and screen. In 1998 he appeared in the Oscar winning Elizabeth and in 2003 donned a fat-suit to play an obese policeman in The Over-Eater.

In 2009 Cantona produced and starred as himself in the Ken Loach film Looking for Eric, in which he mentors an obsessed Manchester United fan, whose life is falling apart. Whilst Cantona's dedication to intelligent filmmaking is admirable, we're still waiting for him to utilise his kung-fu skills in a martial arts flick.

1. Vinnie Jones

Say what you want about his acting ability, but there is no doubt that of all the footballers who have crossed over to the silver screen, it is Vinnie Jones who has forged the most successful career.

Since making his acting debut as Big Chris in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels in 1998, Jones has been credited with 53 acting roles. Whilst it's true that many of his films have gone straight to DVD and that one of his credits is for the voice of a dog in Garfield 2, Jones is at least making a living from acting - though obviously not enough of a living, to not have to appear on Celebrity Big Brother.

Published: 17 Feb 2011