10 great films & documentaries you must watch before the 2026 World Cup | OneFootball

It’s just eight days until the 2026 World Cup is officially underway. There is no better time to start brushing up on your knowledge of football’s greatest competition by rinsing some superb documentaries and films.

This is the perfect opportunity to revisit the tournaments, teams and personalities that shaped the World Cup’s storied history. Some of the greatest stories have been brilliantly brought to life on screen.

Here are 10 World Cup-related football documentaries and films that come with the Planet Football seal of approval.

The Bus: A French Football Mutiny (Netflix)

A documentary that will leave your jaw on the floor.

Charting the chaos of France’s disastrous 2010 World Cup campaign, it reveals the dressing-room divisions, player revolts and public embarrassment that culminated in the team refusing to train and making headlines around the world.

Purely as a portrait of former Les Bleus head coach Raymond Domenech – quite possibly the single weirdest bloke our beautiful sport has ever produced – this is essential viewing.

It’s a Netflix documentary, so the usual sensationalist pinch-of-salt caveats apply. Still, you’ll be left wondering how a team with so much talent could descend into such spectacular chaos.

Next Goal Wins (Prime Video)

This one isn’t strictly a documentary about the World Cup, but it’s a wonderful reminder of where the journey starts for every nation looking to make it to the finals.

Minnows don’t come much smaller than American Samoa. Their story will be stirring enough for you to cancel your subscription to Sky Sports, read every one of James Montague’s books and start listening to The Sweeper podcast.

Just make sure you’re watching the original documentary and not the unnecessary, overly schmaltzy dramatisation.

Captains of the World (Netflix)

One that very much belongs in the modern-day quasi-advertorial ‘All Or Nothing’ type documentaries.

Proper documentarians like Adam Curtis or Ken Burns would rightfully baulk at the sheen and lack of substance.

On the other hand, it kind of feels appropriate for this age of footballers who have been media-managed to within an inch of their life.

Call it a guilty pleasure, but watching superstars Lionel Messi, Neymar and Gareth Bale as they prepared for a legacy-defining tournament is undeniably compelling viewing. Then you can bung on Koyaanisqatsi to reclaim some indie points.

Messi’s World Cup: The Rise of a Legend (AppleTV+)

Another entry in the increasingly crowded genre of prestige football documentaries that sit somewhere between fly-on-the-wall access and painstakingly PR-managed myth-making.

If you’re hoping for a warts-and-all examination of Messi’s career, you’re in the wrong place.

If you fancy spending a few hours reliving one of the greatest sporting triumphs of the modern era, you’ll have a very good time.

Saipan (Prime Video)

Not a classic by any means, but entertaining enough.

Well worth a watch. You might never look at Steve Coogan (or Mick McCarthy) the same way again.

FIFA’s official World Cup films (FIFA+ on DAZN)

The motherload.

Actors including Sean Bean, Pierce Brosnan and Sean Connery have narrated FIFA’s official series of films about every World Cup.

The latest – ‘Written in the Stars’, narrated by Michael Sheen – about the 2022 tournament is available on the FIFA+ streaming service, hosted on DAZN, as with all the rest. Some of the others are slightly more conveniently on FIFA’s YouTube channel.

The newer ones are fine for what they are. Some cool behind-the-scenes footage, but they’re ultimately puff pieces delivered in that weird FIFA corporate-speak that conveniently glosses over the hosting of the tournament in despotic nations.

Where you’ll find real gold are the older ones. Absolutely gorgeous, shot in 35mm film. The story of Mexico ’86, narrated by Michael Caine? Football has quite literally never looked or sounded that good.

As an aside, the FIFA+ service has tons of great stuff available for free, including classic matches in full. Fill your boots.

Maradona ’86 (YouTube)

ESPN’s 30 for 30 series has blessed us with some of the greatest sports documentaries of all time.

Ahead of the 2014 World Cup, they produced an excellent sub-series of ‘Soccer Stories’ on Hillsborough, Garrincha and a particularly good one about Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa at Tottenham during the Falklands War.

One we’d like to give a particular mention to was their short documentary on Maradona at Mexico ’86 – still the greatest individual tournament in history, and quite possibly as good as any footballer, anywhere, has ever been.

Not least because some legend has stuck it up in full on YouTube.

Thirty minutes, easy. You probably spent that long waiting for Arsenal to take throw-ins on Saturday, and this is a considerably more fun use of your time.

Barbosa: The Man Who Made All of Brazil Cry (YouTube)

Another one from that ESPN series we thought worth singling out.

It’s only 20 minutes without the ads and very digestible. Another that’s been uploaded to YouTube in full.

If you’re interested in football history and want an insight into Brazil’s national footballing psyche, you need to know the story of their shock 1950 defeat to Uruguay on home soil.

The Game of Their Lives (YouTube)

North Korea’s remarkable run at the 1966 World Cup earned them unlikely admirers across England, not least after their famous victory over Italy and thrilling quarter-final against Eusebio’s Portugal, in which they raced into a three-goal lead only to lose 5-3.

This thoughtful, award-winning 2002 documentary, directed by Daniel Gordon, explores both the tournament itself and the extraordinary lives of the players who lived it.

Fortunately available, in full, on YouTube.

The Two Escobars (Disney+)

Alright, last ESPN 30 for 30 one. But we simply had to include what’s widely regarded as one of the greatest football documentaries of all-time.

The film tells the tragic, intertwined stories of Colombian footballer Andres Escobar and drug lord Pablo Escobar, exploring how football, politics and narcotics became inseparable in 1990s Colombia.

It’s brilliantly done. A bit like the incredible O.J: Made in America series made by the same production company, it transcends the subject matter. Your housemate or partner who has zero interest in football will be equally captivated.