The only footballer to win the Euros and appear in an Oscar-winning movie
Speaking in a general sense, footballers and the film world generally don’t tend to mix, although there are some exceptions to the rule, which has even culminated in Oscar-winning recognition on occasion.
Eric Cantona made one of his first movie appearances in the sweeping period drama Elizabeth, which earned an Academy Award for its makeup. Neil Paterson is the one and only former professional to have an Oscar engraved with their name, but beyond that, the pickings become increasingly slim.
Escape to Victory might be a classic and staple of Sunday afternoon rewatches that pairs Sylvester Stallone and Michael Caine with Pele and Bobby Moore, but that’s one bright spot in an ocean of nonsense that includes Ally McCoist’s tilt at leading man status in A Shot at Glory, Stan Collymore getting shagged to death in Basic Instinct 2, Neymar coming across as a robot in xXx: Return of Xander Cage, and the majority of Vinnie Jones’ entire performative career.
Cantona may have an Oscar-winning feature to his name, but he didn’t win any major trophies with his national team. ‘King Eric’ ended his career without having ever played in a World Cup, and he only took to the pitch in a single European Championship. However, one of his countrymen won the pair of them and surprised many with their newfound career when they popped up in a prestige biopic.
Many have been left to ponder what became of Frank Leboeuf when he ended his career, with the bald-headed central defender’s most famous spell coming during his Chelsea years. He left in 2001 to join Marseille before spending the rest of his playing days in Qatar and ended up finding a surprising new vocation.
Believe it or not, Leboeuf ended up studying at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute for acting when he resided in Los Angeles, starring in several plays, a couple of TV shows, and a feature or two. When the casting department working on the Stephen King biopic The Theory of Everything were on the hunt for the perfect person to play the pivotal role of ‘Swiss Doctor’, they knew there was only one place they could turn.
He gets an entire scene and plenty of dialogue, too, ominously intoning the gravity of Eddie Redmayne’s condition to on-screen partner Felicity Jones. People watching who only knew him from his tough-tackling days were probably wondering what the hell he was doing there, but he ended up making history in the bargain.
As a member of France’s victorious squad in 2000, when Redmayne took to the stage to collect his ‘Best Actor’ trophy for playing Hawking, Leboeuf became the first – and only – footballer to have won the Euros and acted in an Oscar-winning movie.
