Being an Arsenal fan myself, it seems almost traitorous to watch this documentary. However, I do love a good documentary on any subject, football ones especially. Arsenal have had some great documentaries made about them too, from 89 to ‘Invincible’ to Rocky and Wrighty: From Brockley to the Big Time, I’ve seen and loved many of them. There are also countless documentaries on the big stars of the game Messi, Ronaldo, Maradona, Gazza, the list goes on so it’s nice to see a film on for want of a better term a less ‘big time’ player.
That might sound slightly harsh on Jermaine Defoe, he is after all a Premier League and World Cup veteran for England who has been in the spotlight throughout his career. And the majority of his career is still featured in this documentary. From starting as a kid at his local team which included several players that went on to play Premier League football, through (almost) his last run at Sunderland they mention his Scottish Premier League win with Rangers in the end credits there isn’t much missed out. But there are quite a few stories and parts of his career skimmed over by virtue of it only being about ninety minutes long (very standard).
His controversial move as a teenager to West Ham, the death of his cousin, his season at Portsmouth and even just more thoughts from him about these things would have been nice. It doesn’t feel like we get Defoe’s thoughts on favorite matches or goals or team-mates or anything like that either, I know it’s not entirely that kind of documentary but still would have been nice to have that included somewhere down the line. It does feel like the director didn’t want to press him too much about anything controversial either (there’s even probably some twisting on truth or differing opinions about some elements of Defoe’s goalscoring form at times the lead up to the 2006 World Cup being the most obvious).
But that’s actually a small complaint. Because what is in this documentary is very entertaining. And Defoe has had an interesting enough career for it to be so, and for this film to be made. He’s played for a handful of clubs, but loved by fans at pretty much every one of them, always scored goals. He’s been around and played with some of the best players ever certainly English football has ever seen and you can tell he’s never lost sight of that.
He also has some great stories off the pitch too. His relationship with his father and death soon after, then his stepbrother dying shortly after that, his cousin not long after those two died. There are also parts about how the media seemed to treat top English players, wanting to knock them down once they’ve hit success, and how this affects players mentally; few people mention that you just had to suck it up and get on with it as a player back in those days (still today I’d wager), I would have liked more exploration into these areas myself or any racism issues which I’m certain he’ll have faced but are not brought up at all here.
The last part is especially about Defoe’s time at Sunderland and meeting a six year old boy, Bradley Lowery who has cancer. It is really nice to see how Defoe relates with Bradley, you can tell that they are very important to him and his family. This is a sad but necessary end to the film. When he started showing around his new house which has a cinema room in it where we were watching the movie and a swimming pool that he cannot use because he does not know how to swim, I had no idea if I would be able relate or even like this guy. However, by the time you finish watching credits (well actually opening few minutes mention living at Grandmother’s house during childhood) you will realize what kind of person Jermaine Defoe is.
This documentary is an uplifting, sometimes heart-wrenching look into life of one of the Premier League’s top goal scorers ever and true representation highs as well lows involved in being a professional football player illustrated by only few individuals such as Defoe himself among others who have played the game at highest level. Any fan of football should see it!
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