Football Biopics: Films reveal politics, pitfalls of fame, childhood trauma and resilience

After the military coup in Brazil dismantled the pillars of democracy mid-last century, the country's most famous citizen was soon flooded with offers to join politics. Pele, who had given Brazil a proud place on the global map, refused. But, he still came under criticism for going to the presidential palace to meet the dictator, General Emilio Medici, after Brazil won the World Cup for the second time in 1966.

Pele, a new documentary on the greatest footballer ever, shows how people were less willing to accept a player's conduct off the pitch when freedom was in peril. The film is part of a slew of new documentaries available on streaming platforms that reveal politics, pitfalls of fame, childhood trauma and resilience of football players. From Pele to Diego Maradona and Carlos Tevez to Rafinha Alcantara, the movies give rare insights into the lives of legends who are models to the young and elderly across the world.

While the 2020-21 football season is entering the final lap, here are some of the new films on football to watch:

1. Pelé (2021) - Documentary  - Dir: Ben Nichloas, David Tryhorn - 108 mts

When Pele was called up for the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, children in the host country kept touching his skin wherever he went. "They had never seen a Black person before," he says in a new documentary, titled Pele. The film, which spans his World Cup appearances between 1958 and 1970 -- winning three of them -- offers glimpses into the tumultuous political climate in Brazil after the country plunged into dictatorship in the 1964 military coup.

"I love Pele. But that won't stop me criticising him," says Paulo Cezar Lima, who played for Brazil during 1967-77. "I thought his behaviour was that of a Black person, who only said, 'Yes, Sir'. A Black person who is submissive, accepts everything, who doesn't answer back, question or judge. It is one of the criticisms I hold against him to this day," adds Lima.

Pele's sister Maria Lucia, teammates Mario Zagalle and Dorval Rodrigues are interviewed in the film, which relies heavily on archival footage. In a recent interview with Pele for the documentary, he is shown in a wheelchair having lunch with his former Santos football club and Brazil teammates at its stadium. His friends narrate an incident that happened when Santos was playing in Europe. Pele was injured and the coach said Dorval could wear his No. 10 jersey and no one would know the difference because the rest of the attack too were Black.

"But people immediately knew it was not Pele," recalls Dorval. "The fans chanted his name and Pele had to come on though he was injured," he adds. "That is because I was handsome and people noticed my absence," Pele joins in while the others tell him not to eat too much. "We have a game tomorrow," they joke.

(Available on Netflix)

2. Diego Maradona  (2019) - Documentary - Dir: Asif Kapadia - 130 mts 

Oscar-winning British director Asif Kapadia's new documentary, which premiered at the Cannes film festival in 2019, focuses on Maradona's eventful years at the Napoli football club. Arriving from Barcelona at a world-record fee (10 million dollars), the diminutive Argentinian won the hearts of Neapolitans helping their club achieve success. When Maradona joined Napoli in 1984, it was a poor club, close to bankruptcy and facing relegation. “I asked for a house, I got a flat. I asked for a Ferrari, I got a Fiat,” says Maradona in the film. Within four years, Napoli won two Italian Serie A titles and a European championship. He also led Argentina to World Cup victory in Mexico 1986.

But he also fell into trouble, facing allegations of proximity to the mafia and drug addiction. A young Italian woman claimed on television he was the father of her newborn son. Maradona also became the most-hated man in Naples after the 1990 World Cup in Italy where Argentina beat the hosts in the semi-finals. Released before the death of Maradona in November last year, the documentary has footage from the 1986 Mexico World Cup where he scored two famous goals — the ‘Hand of God’ and the long run and dribble — against England in the quarter-finals.

Kapadia, who received 500 hours of footage from Maradona’s personal archive for the movie, sent archive hunters to Italy and Argentina to dig out important moments in football history. The two-hour-ten-minute film begins with Maradona’s walk into the San Paolo stadium before he was presented to the Napoli fans.

(Available on Netflix)

3. Apache: The Life of Carlos Tevez(2019) - Dir: Israel Adrián Caetano - TV series - 8 episodes

"I was not fully aware how close I came to dying," says Carlos Tevez in the new documentary on him. Tevez, who played for Bocca Juniors, Manchester United, Manchester City and Argentina, is referring to the incident when he received 50 percent burns. Tevez was an infant then and would go on to carry the scars of injuries.

Apache: The Life of Carlos Tevez begins with his mother and sister running to the hospital with the baby. The Fuerte Apache neighbourhood in Ciudadela near Buenos Aires where Tevez grew up was notorious for gangsters, drugs and violence. His adopted parents -- Segundo Tevez and Adriana Tevez -- become the difference between staying alive and getting into trouble.

"Segundo and Adriana are the foundation of what I have become," says Tevez in the film, which shows him growing up in Fuerte Apache in the middle of gang wars and bloodbaths. "It is because of them that I learned to differentiate between good and evil," he adds. In Fuerte Apache, where boys just wanted to have a nice car and nice gun, it was easy to fall into crime. But, Tevez had his adopted parents and football.

"Fear was normal for us. Bullets would be flying when we were playing," says Tevez, whose first question when he is selected to Bocca Juniors as an academy member, is whether the club would give his family a new house. "We were just kids running for a ball, trying to not get involved in drugs and deaths," adds Tevez, who was selected to Argentinian national team for FIFA U-20 World Cup when he was only 16. Tevez, who appears at intervals in the film, never met his biological father, who was shot dead a few months before he was born. His biological mother's sister and husband took him in soon after he was born, bringing him up as their own.

(Available on Netflix)

4. Resilencia (2019) - Documentary - Dir: Jep Barcelona - 46 mts

Two years ago, Rafinha Alcantara, Brazilian footballer and midfielder for Barcelona, suffered a knee injury during a match between Barcelona and Atletico Madrid. It was an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury that required a knee surgery. Soon, Alcantara undergoes the surgery, rendering him out of action for weeks. During the recovery, he is visited by his brother Thiago Alcantara, who plays for Liverpool and Spanish national team.

Alcantara's struggle with his injury and his recovery is the subject of Resilencia, a documentary directed by Spanish filmmaker Jep Barcelona. "For every footballer ACL injury is a very serious injury," says his doctor. Several Barcelona players, including goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Sergie Roberto, appear in the film.

"When I got to the locker room, I started crying. Messi and Roberto were trying to comfort me," says Alcantara about the injury.

Out of the surgery table, the player finds out that the recovery road is not an easy path. "The most annoying part for a footballer is recovery," he says. "You lie on a bed and you depend on someone else to do everything for you," he adds. It is more difficult to go to see a match of your club. It is difficult being inside a stadium, you have the urge to play."

(Available on Amazon Prime Video)