The footballers who hit cinema screens

Football depicted on film is largely terrible but is the same true for footballers acting?

Many players have turned to acting when they hang up their boots, choosing to tread the boards as a second career, while others have branched out into film and TV while still at the top of the game.

Here are some of the best, or at least more notable examples, of footballers choosing to exercise their acting chops.

Fitz Hall

The player, known as "One Size" through his long career with teams such as Oldham Athletic, Southampton, Crystal Palace, Wigan Athletic, Queens Park Rangers, Watford and Newcastle United was in a film before ever being a professional footballer. Hall appeared in Luc Besson's highly rated sci-fi film The Fifth Element when he was a teenager. The 16-year-old was on screen for less than five seconds but remains recognizable and it is something that he has said he still receives messages about long after his playing days wrapped up. 

George Best

The Manchester United winger was arguably the game's first superstar, becoming known as the "Fifth Beatle" at the height of the Fab Four's fame. His movie career was less notable than his football one, where he won the European Footballer of the Year in 1968. Best played himself in Cup Fever, a film about Manchester United inspiring a Belfast team, and then Percy, a 1970s comedy centered on the world's first penis transplant. Best passed away in 2005.

Ally McCoist

The bubbly Scottish striker has made a post-match career as a radio personality and team captain on the popular British sports quiz A Question of Sport. He managed to star in a film alongside Hollywood royalty Robert Duvall toward the end of his playing days. A Shot at Glory told the tale of a minor Scottish side going to the cup final with McCoist as their star striker. The Rangers legend proved he could act by playing a former Celtic player.

Frank Leboeuf

The France defender is the answer to the question, "Who is the only footballer to win the FIFA World Cup and appear in an Oscar winning film?" Leboeuf played a doctor in The Theory of Everything, the 2014 story of Stephen Hawking which won Eddie Redmayne the Best Actor Oscar. Leboeuf is now acting in theater in his native France.

Vinny Jones

The Wales international was a pantomime villain for opposition fans during his time at Wimbledon, Leeds and Sheffield United before turning that into a second career. He was famously the star turn as Bullet-tooth Tony in Guy Ritchie's seminal Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels before heading to Hollywood. He has since acted in Mean Machine and the X-Men franchise, playing on his hardman reputation from his playing days. He also keeps up with football through his Hollywood United team.

Eric Cantona

"I am not a man, I am Cantona," the French striker said in Ken Loach's Looking For Eric, a film where he played a larger than life version of himself imagined by a Manchester postman. Cantona, who retired from football aged 31 was also in the Cate Blanchstt period drama Elizabeth soon after his playing days. Most recently he appeared with former Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher in one of the singer's music videos.

David Beckham

Another man who wore the Manchester United No.7 like Best and Cantona, Beckham is a global superstar long after hanging up his size eight-and-three-quarter Adidas Predators. He appeared in Guy Ritchie's King Arthu: Legend of the Sword in the pivotal scene and has also played himself in the first two of the Goal franchise. We are sure to see Beckham on the big screen again before too long.

Zinedine Zidane

Beckham's former Real Madrid teammate also appeared in the largely forgettable Goal films but has more strings to his IMDB database bow. He also appeared in the French-language smash Asterix at the Olympics and also starred as himself as a footballer in Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait. He has called time on his acting career though to concentrate on winning UEFA Champions League trophies as Real Madrid manager.

Stan Collymore

The England striker, who now spends his time as a broadcaster and champion of the oppressed on Twitter, was a star at Nottingham Forest and then Liverpool in the 1990s. No one was expecting what came after he stopped scoring. Collymore appeared in the long forgotten Basic Instinct sequel where he had a pre-credits dalliance with Sharon Stone before falling victim to the serial killer in the River Thames.

Pele

The greatest player of all time stretches his claim ahead of both Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi by doing it on film too. Pele was the star of the film Escape to Victory, which depicted a version of the infamous Death Match between the Nazis and the Allies in World War II. Pele scores the decisive goal in true Hollywood style by banging in an overhead kick. The three-time FIFA World Cup winner starred alongside fellow footballers Bobby Moore and Ipswich Town players John Wark and Paul Marriner in a film that many regard as the best ever depiction of the world game on the silver screen.

Ashley Cole

The Arsenal, Chelsea, Roma and Los Angeles Galaxy left back appeared in a film that was less starry than the clubs he shone for in an illustrious playing career. Cole was in the TV series Dream Team and Goal III as himself and was meant to be in Played, a British film about a dodgy football agent that never saw the light of day. He also acted as a producer on the film Dead Man Running.

Neymar

Many would brand him an actor for his diving but the world's most expensive footballer does not carry the same billing in the movies but that has not stopped him appearing on the big screen. Neymar appeared in the follow-up to the Vin Diesel smash hit action film XXX: Return of Xander Cage as himself, sharing the screen with Samuel L. Jackson - although there is no evidence they acted together. 
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