Goal!

Since he was a young boy, Santiago Munez (Becker) has lived and breathed football. Fleeing Mexico for the promised land of America, he is playing for a local league team when he is spotted by an English football coach who arranges a trial with Newcastle United.

Thrust into a foreign land - water-logged pitches, icy winds and black pudding - Santiago has to risk everything to win the approval of the manager.

As the month's trial with Newcastle nears its end, Santiago finds a potential soulmate in pretty nurse Roz (Friel) and just as it seems everything is going Santiago's way, fate cruelly intervenes.

The first instalment of Danny Cannon's football trilogy is an uplifting modern day fairy-tale set against the cut-throat world of the Premiership.

Screenwriters Dick Clement and Ian Le Frenais, creators of The Likely Lads and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, enliven Santiago's rags-to-riches journey with earthy northern humour.

Director Danny Cannon engineers some exhilarating action on the pitch, intercutting his actors with footage from live Premiership matches.

Cloying sentimentality scores a couple of own goals and with two more films to come, there's no dramatic tension.

Showing in cinemas across Sussex from today.