The Beautiful Game is an uplifting story of hope and triumph against the odds that sees a mismatched team of homeless people making it to Rome to compete in a football tournament, the Homeless World Cup. The little-known event is real, and has been advocating for an end to homelessness for two decades. The Netflix movie is the best exposure that the tournament has had yet, and could ideally raise tremendous awareness for the plight of unhoused people all over the world.
The Homeless World Cup is a real event that has been around for over twenty years. Founded by Mel Young and Harald Schmied in 2001, the event was organized to help advocate for an end to homelessness, and to raise awareness for those affected by not having a place to live.
The first Homeless World Cup event took place in 2003 in Austria, and the overwhelming success of the tournament led to it being repeated annually all over the world, including in Scotland, Cape Town, Milan, Melbourne, Mexico, and Paris. The organization has managed to attract the support of a network of more than 70 national partners around the world that help with the event, providing football programs and social enterprise development.
There are various conditions that players must meet to be eligible to play. They must be over sixteen and have been homeless, and there have been several documentaries made about the event over the years. The international headquarters of the Homeless World Cup is located in Scotland’s capital city of Edinburgh at 1 Broughton Market.
The Beautiful Game | Image via Netflix
How The Homeless World Cup Inspired ‘The Beautiful Game’
The Beautiful Game focuses on a team and their coach, played by Bill Nighy. The filmmakers were keen to capture the atmosphere and vibe of the tournament. To help create the authenticity, real Homeless World Cup players. particularly from the U.S. team, were cast within the production, including Lisa Wrightsman, the coach of the U.S. team in Sacramento in 2023 who also played in the event in Rio in 2010. If you watch carefully, you can spot her in the movie in the number 3 shirt — she scores a goal in the match against England.
In an interview with Time magazine, Lisa would say, “The Homeless World Cup gave me a vision of life [that] I’m excited about. And if this is the result of me being sober and doing good things, I’m going to do more of those things.”
The filmmakers did everything they could to pay homage to real-life people and the event, all while producing an entertaining movie.
Is It a True Story?
The Beautiful Game is not based on a true story. The film was written by veteran film and TV writer Frank Cottrell Boyce, but even though the story is a work of fiction, it no doubt captures the nature of the real-life event. It is safer to say that the film was inspired by the real-life tournament and the experiences of the real people who have taken part in it.
Of course, the story relies on aspects of drama between the characters created solely for the film, and the writer makes sure that the leads have a backstory and arc that we can follow as viewers. But the tournament and the positive ramifications that is has had are all real.
More on The Beautiful Game:
Review | Ending Explained | Filming Locations
