The 13 best football documentaries to stream today, from scandals to superstar strikers
Get deeper insight into the world's best teams and players
Morgan Truder
Football never really stops, but when there isn't a match on, there's always a documentary waiting to drag you back in. Thankfully, the genre has come a long way from grainy season reviews and club-produced puff pieces (although they still exist).
From dressing-room bust-ups and boardroom disasters to tactical masterclasses and career-defining moments, modern football documentaries have become essential viewing in their own right. Some offer unprecedented access to the biggest names in the sport, while others prove that football's most compelling stories often happen far away from the spotlight.
Whether you fancy reliving a nation's greatest summer, watching a fallen giant implode or spending time with one of the game's all-time greats, these are the football documentaries worth streaming right now.
Sunderland ‘Til I Die
![Sunderland 'Til I Die | Official Trailer [HD] | Netflix - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/tIqatfxGB0M/maxresdefault.jpg)
If glossy docs like All or Nothing don’t quite do it for you, you’ll find something more authentic here. As Sunderland try to get back to the top flight, they have to contend with issues all big sides face when they drop down a league.
Questionable commitment from players on big wages, relegation heartache and finding a manager who can inspire a team lacking in direction all feature. The real stars are the non-playing staff, who give this more life than your typical doc following around a football club.
Bobby Robson: More than a Manager
This one is guaranteed to give you all the feels. Sir Bobby managed some of the greats, many of whom are now carving out their own managerial careers.
Sir Bobby: More than a Manager covers his European heroics at Ipswich, time in Barcelona and his spell as England manager, along with his battles with ill health. Views from Mourinho, Pep Guardiola, the original Ronaldo and a particularly touching contribution from Gazza make this a great account of one of the game’s most loved characters.
Next Goal Wins
In 2001, American Samoa lost 31-0 against Australia in a World Cup Qualification game, which, some 20 years later, remains a record defeat in the competition.
This tells the story of how Dutch coach Thomas Rongen tried to erase their tag as the worst team in international football, getting the players into shape and scouring for others to bring in to raise the quality of a side that only knows what it likes to lose. It also struck a chord with Jojo Rabbit director Taika Waititi, who made a film about the events.
The Four Year Plan
This has nothing to do with international football but everything to do with the inner workings of a football club. The Four Year Plan covers the arrival of a consortium of high-profile owners at Queens Park Rangers, which included Bernie Ecclestone and the larger-than-life Flavio Briatore.
You get to see managers walk in and out of the club, and the owners try to exert influence on decisions made on the pitch. It’s hard to imagine a major club will ever give this kind of access to a camera crew again.
Take The Ball Pass The Ball
If you need more Pep in your life, this doc focuses on Guardiola’s four trophy-laden years at Barcelona, when he had the likes of Messi, Xavi, Iniesta and Pique to call upon. His success clearly had a big influence on the Spanish national side where that tiki-taka football helped Spain become World and European champions.
Despite being one of the most covered teams in world football, this is still a great insight into what it was like to be part of arguably one of the greatest ever club sides.
Les Bleus: Une autre histoire de France
Before the days of Pogba, Griezmann and Varane, there were Zidane, Wiltord and L'Ébœuf. Le Bleus tells the story of the French national side between 1996 and 2016, a period where they lifted the World Cup on home soil and became European champions two years later.
It explores how the national side was pulled into the country’s politics and the transition period that led to the Zidane headbutt final in 2010. Settle into the subtitles of this French-language doc, and you’ll be rewarded with a look at one of the best international sides in modern history.
Becoming Zlatan
The 38-year-old Swede has played for some of the greatest European club sides and has never been shy to voice his opinions on and off the pitch. With that big personality and the skills to match, Zlatan was the perfect documentary subject.
Becoming Zlatan covers his early days at Malmo, joining Ajax and his time at Juventus. A lot of his best moments have been played out in front of the cameras, but this documentary collates great archive footage of Ibra’s early days, making it worth a watch.
Don’t Take Me Home
The title alone may make you shudder at the memory of the chant that swept Euro 2016. Don’t Take Me Home recounts the Welsh national team’s journey to qualifying for the finals of a major tournament for the first time in 58 years. They were knocked out in the semi-finals by eventual winners Portugal.
While not groundbreaking in football documentary terms, Don’t Take Me Home does a nice job of taking you back to a summer when the team of Bale, Robson-Kanu, Joe Allen and company showed a lot more unity than their English counterparts.
KROOS
KROOS follows the man who makes things tick for Real Madrid and covers his time at Bayern Munich, the move to Real Madrid and his role in the German national side. That includes being part of the team that humiliated Brazil at the 2014 World Cup.
This documentary sheds light on a player who has played on the biggest stage. And is best pals with Robbie Williams, apparently.
All or Nothing: Manchester City
If you can live with an at-times sanitised version of events during a mostly successful period for the Blue side of Manchester, this is a fascinating insight into an expensively assembled side that has played some of the best football ever seen in the top flight.
The real viewing rewards lie with manager Pep Guardiola and his meticulous and obsessive approach to tactics. City fans will love it outright. Everyone else will love it for the window into Pep’s world. The good news is that if you enjoy this, there are plenty of All or Nothing docs on Amazon Prime ranging from Arsenal to the Brazilian national team.
That Peter Crouch Film
Football documentaries often lean serious, but That Peter Crouch Film does something different. It treats one of English football’s most recognisable figures with a mix of warmth, self-awareness and a fair bit of mischief.
It follows Peter Crouch as he looks back on a career that defied the usual script, from early doubts about his frame and style to Champions League nights and goals that made him a cult hero. It also leans into the persona built off the pitch, the jokes, the media appearances and the sense that he was always slightly in on it, even when others were not.
Part nostalgia, part self-mythology, the film works because it does not try to over-egg the legend. It simply lets Crouch tell it as he sees it, from robot celebrations to late-career reinvention, making it an easy watch whether you followed him or not in the end really lands.
Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In
Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In follows Sir Alex Ferguson as he reflects on the career that turned him into one of the most dominant figures in sport. It’s part memoir, part portrait of resilience, with Ferguson revisiting the highs of European nights, relentless league campaigns and the mindset that kept him chasing standards long after most would have settled.
But the film is not just about trophies. It also opens up on the health scare that forced him to step back and rethink life away from the touchline, adding a more personal edge to a figure usually associated with pure control and intensity. What emerges is less the shouting manager of legend and more a man looking back at what it all cost and what it meant in the first place.
Diego Maradona
Diego Maradona, directed by Asif Kapadia, is less a straight sports documentary and more a descent into the machinery of fame. Built from hundreds of hours of archive footage, it pieces together a life that always seemed to be running at full tilt, whether on the pitch or nowhere near it.
At its centre is Diego Maradona during his peak years at Napoli, where he becomes both an icon and an escape route for a city desperate for something to believe in. The film lingers on the footballing brilliance, but it is just as interested in the pressure building around him, the deals, the entourage and the sense that control is always just about to slip.
Kapadia’s approach is deliberately claustrophobic, cutting between glory and collapse without much breathing space. The result is a portrait that feels less like nostalgia and more like inevitability, a story of genius constantly negotiating with its own limits.
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