The only professional footballer to have won an Oscar
Football and cinema don’t really go hand in hand. Few professional players go on to become actors, and only a handful of movies have ever been created that celebrate the majesty of the beautiful game. Sure, the likes of Vinnie Jones, Eric Cantona, David Beckham, Neymar, Bobby Moore and even Pelé have starred in Hollywood movies, but only one football player has managed to win an Oscar.
One thing we can tell you with absolute certainty is that Beckham didn’t come anywhere close with his awful performance in Guy Ritchie’s 2017 action movie King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, in which the former Manchester United man gives a pantomime impression of an evil knight. Elsewhere, Neymar didn’t win any awards for his bizarre bit-part in xXx: Return of Xander Cage, taking down a robber with his football skills before being obliterated by a falling satellite.
Still, not every single footballer is as bad as Beckham and Neymar on the silver screen, with Eric Cantona and British filmmaker Ken Loach forming an indelible bond during the making of 2009’s Looking for Eric. Alongside actor Steve Evets, Cantona translates his ethereal grace as one of football’s greatest players to the world of cinema, giving a magnetising performance as the protagonist’s imaginary friend.
Regardless, only one player has ever gone all the way to the Academy Awards, with the Scottish footballer Neil Paterson enjoying a professional career at Dundee United in Scotland years before he would go on to win an Oscar.
A feisty footballer from a young age, Paterson first started playing for Buckie Thistle before enjoying a brief stint at Leith Athletic. Years later, Paterson was brought to Dundee United, with the team signing the left-sided attacker and making him captain, scoring nine goals in 26 appearances as a result.
Football was clearly not quite Paterson’s true passion, however, with the player quickly moving on after one season, seeking a career as a sports journalist. Then, another career change was brought on by the arrival of the Second World War, with Paterson joining the navy and picking up the pen at the very same time to spark a career in literature.
Clearly a jack of all trades, Paterson’s proficiency in writing novels took him to success with such releases as The China Run, Behold thy Daughter and the short story Scotch Settlement, which became a feature film in 1953 in the form of The Kidnappers thanks to a screenplay penned by the writer himself.
Skip forward five years, and Paterson had six more writing credits to his name, including the Jack Clayton movie Room at the Top, for which he won an Oscar for ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’, making him the only person in the world to play football at the highest level and win an Academy Award. Bravo.
