IN a world in which Escape To Victory is routinely (and not always ironically) hailed as The Great Football Film in the World... Ever!, it's safe to say that football films suffer a bit of credibility gap.

While it's hardly a work of art, Goal! does at least manage to close the gap a little by employing real footballers and casting an actor who can clearly play a bit in the lead role.

Kuno Becker (who looks not unlike Cherries striker Dani Rodrigues) plays Santiago Munez, an illegal Mexican immigrant living in Los Angeles. He's spotted playing for a local team by ex-Newcastle United player Glen Foy (Stephen Dillane) who organises a trial for him if he can make his way to England.

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He does. He screws up the trial, gets another chance, makes progress, slips up, gets another chance, knuckles down and ends up in the first team taking a free kick on the edge of the box in the last game of the season. Victory would secure the Magpies a place in the Champions League. Such nail-biters are to be expected in a football film, but they're undeniably involving.

Fortunately, the central story is not the most imaginative aspect of the film - and neither is the heavily contrived romantic thread involving Anna Friel. Along the way Goal! manages some great stuff on family (particularly father/son) relations; touches on the realities of being a migrant worker living in poverty in the richest country on Earth; and even has a thinly-veiled pop at parasitic football agents - Sean Pertwee turning in a reliably solid cameo as weasel-ly middle man Barry Rankin.

The action is filmed largely in close up thus avoiding The Curse of the Football Film: namely, the pro players making a fruitless attempt at acting in an effort to make the actors look like footballers. It never works and Goal! director Danny Cannon is to be applauded for not even trying.

Football fans will notice the action is somewhat out of date, but can console themselves with Marcel Iures' realistically Wenger-like portrayal of a modern football manager and spotting the likes of David Beckham, Alan Shearer, Raul and Zinedine Zidane. Interestingly, Beckham does his much-anticipated future acting career few favours by delivering his one line with all the grace of a pub league centre half, while Shearer is far more composed.

Goal! makes for solid, middle-of-the-table entertainment that is set for a decent cup run in the shape of a sequel (Santiago at Real Madrid) and a possible three-quel against the backdrop of next year's World Cup.

See it at UCI, Odeon