11 footballing icons we desperately need a documentary on: Guardiola, Perez…

With the calendar increasingly packed full, it feels like we as fans barely go a day without a game of football to watch these days, which can often feel quite exhausting.

So, what do we do on those odd days where we haven’t got a fixture to continue feeding our football-induced coma with, or in the seemingly endless summer off-season? Watch football documentaries, obviously. It’s the rules.

We’ve all seen and heard of the most iconic documentaries about the game’s biggest idols and there’s a new one set to drop on Jose Mourinho imminently. But what about the ones that are yet to be made on a big scale?

We’ve come up with a list of 11 footballing icons we’re desperate to see a full-length documentary on.

Florentino Perez

Think Mourinho is football’s ultimate pantomime villain? Think again. An hour or two on the sheer mastermind that is Don Florentino would feed us for years.

A truly one-of-a-kind footballing brain, there’s so much to cover from the endless Galacticos, his return to Real Madrid in 2009, the European Super League and much more.

Whoever produces it will be printing money.

Paolo Maldini

There are very few people in football – or even sport – who have a legacy like Maldini does.

25 seasons playing for Milan, following in the footsteps of his father Cesare and becoming one of the game’s greatest defenders, before retiring and serving as the club’s technical director to bring them back from ruin to become champions again.

Il Capitano deserves a blockbuster.

Andre-Pierre Gignac

Europe’s ultimate anti-footballer has a story like no other in the modern game.

READ: Andre-Pierre Gignac: The anti-footballing hero living the dream in the Mexican sunset

Roy Hodgson

For many younger football fans, Hodgson’s reputation is that of a man who was defeated by Iceland at Euro 2016 as England boss and an elder statesman of football’s previous generation who simply won’t retire.

But there’s much more to Roy than that. He was the hip, young alternative manager before it was even cool to be.

His managerial career began in Sweden with two Allsvenskan titles and took him all around Europe, including to Inter in the 1990s and then back to England. A documentary on his career and life would make for brilliant viewing.

Robin van Persie

Overcoming persistent injuries to establish himself as the most lethal striker in the Premier League and perhaps Europe, the one thing that eluded Van Persie in his search for legacy was silverware.

So when he crossed the divide and headed north for Manchester United in 2012, the world stood still.

Issued the number 20 shirt, his 26 Premier League goals in 2012-13 ensured Sir Alex Ferguson bowed out from football having won Manchester United their 20th league title and 13th Premier League. An instant legend in Manchester.

There’s more to that than we know right now, and we need the ins and outs.

Pep Guardiola

The one man that the immortal Ferguson could never quite topple, Guardiola is quite possibly the greatest football manager – and brain – of all time.

One documentary wouldn’t do justice to his genius as a player and later a manager, turning Barcelona into a complete football institution after years of misfiring, before heading to Germany and later eclipsing his successes at Barca with Manchester City, while noisy neighbours United continued to decline.

There has been a documentary on his work at Barcelona and City have produced stuff in-house, but we need a full personal biopic on the freak that is Pep.

Besides, it’s only fair if we’re getting one on Mourinho.

Carlo Ancelotti

While we’re on the topic of managers, Ancelotti might just be the most underrated manager ever at the elite level.

Off the back of a stellar playing career, the Italian coach was a trailblazer through the 1990s and 2000s and has a trophy cabinet that will make you feel more useless than a chocolate teapot.

There was also the extremely strange Everton spell.

No matter the circumstances, we’ll always find time for a well-produced deep dive on the most decorated manager in Champions League history, who continues to prove timeless.

Pierluigi Collina

On the surface, a documentary about referees doesn’t sound all that enthralling. But Collina was *the* referee.

Nobody has quite consistently commanded the respect of players and managers like the Italian did during his career. He also remains the one and only referee to transcend the reputation of officials and be remembered as a legend of the game.

A documentary exploring his work, including profiles from those who shared the pitch and dressing rooms with Collina would no doubt be fascinating – and perhaps shed better light onto how officials operate today.

Silvio Berlusconi

Before Perez, there was Berlusconi. And nobody quite shook up football like the late Italian media tycoon and former Prime Minister did in 1986.

Never has one person in football managed to cut such a contrasting and polarising figure.

READ: Silvio Berlusconi’s absurd helicopter arrival at Milan set the tone for modern football ownership

Ian Wright

He’s way too cool and down to earth to ever want a documentary bigging up his personality and life’s work, but a documentary on Wrighty would be a treat.

A man who clawed his way into football when the world was against him, to becoming an Arsenal legend, to now carving out a career in media as one of the game’s most important voices and continually championing the women’s game, he has an exceptional story that needs to be told.

Someone give this man his flowers. Please.

Neto

On 28 November 2016, an aircraft carrying Brazilian side Chapecoense crashed in Colombia, killing 71 of the 77 people on board. Only three players on the team survived.

Neto was one of those three and underwent several surgeries following the crash but made a miraculous recovery and returned to action for the side in March 2017. He eventually retired in 2019, before taking over as the club’s football superintendent a year later.

A tragic reality lived by a man who somehow came out of the other side and achieved unthinkable things to bounce back. The world deserves to know about his story.

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