Summaries

Synopsis

At a local park in London, young kids have gathered to play football, both to enjoy the much-loved sport and also to train themselves to be part of academies someday. A young man named Vinny (Micheal Ward) watches the game from a distance with extreme enthusiasm, as he is a great fan of the sport until the ball gets out of play and rolls close to his feet. Vinny does not spend a moment before running with the ball, showcasing his own skills, and refusing to let the children continue their training.The act angers a few of the children's parents, who are frustrated at an adult man showboating in front of the kids, and Vinny seems to be in trouble. Right at that moment, an elderly man walks in and helps Vinny out after having spotted his skills with the football. This elderly man is Mal Bradley (Bill Nighy), a famous coach and scout who has started a very new and unique career after his professional days are officially over. Mal has been putting together a team to represent England in the upcoming Homeless World Cup, to be held in Rome, and has also been training them to win the competition. Mal was at the park looking for Vinny. Kevin (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor) is the goal keeper.

The Homeless World Cup is a very real social welfare football competition, generally held every year, in which national teams all over the world play in four-a-side indoor football matches. The tournament follows the usual group stage and knockout format, and the rule states that the playing participants must be homeless, along with being socially and financially backward.

Although being able to participate in such a competition is almost like getting a second chance in life, Vinny turns down Mal's offer, and he is rather offended at being presumed to be homeless. He states that he has a stable job, along with a house and a family, all of which are lies. He is the father to a young daughter, Evie, and although he is still on speaking terms with his ex-partner and goes to meet the family often, Vinny cannot afford to be with them because of his financial condition. The young man works a menial job at a logistics company, which is not stable at all, and there are days when he has no work and, therefore, no pay either.

Despite all these unfavorable situations, Vinny refuses to be a part of Mal's team, simply because he feels participating in the Homeless World Cup is beneath his dignity. Mal is convinced that having a striker of his caliber in the team will greatly help England in the competition. Therefore, the coach continues to try and convince the young man, leading to Vinny eventually changing his mind.

Among the other players in the team is Nathan (Callum Scott Howells), who is mostly very friendly and slightly simple-minded, too, not understanding the complications of any situation very well. Once the team has been finalized and they are about to fly to Rome the following day, Nathan is seen taking some time for himself and visiting his parents' house.Nathan wants to enter the house and spend the night with his parents, but his mother refuses to let him in, stating that he is not allowed to enter the house because of their current arrangement.

The next day, when the team is preparing to fly to Italy, the mother reaches the airport alone and meets up with Nathan, almost as if apologizing for her behavior the previous night. This also immediately makes the young man happy. The whole matter becomes clearer only after the team reaches Rome and Vinny is made to share the hotel room with Nathan.All of the participating players in the tournament have their own stories of great struggle and uncertainty. For example, Cal (Kit Young) had his troubles with alcoholism; Jason (Sheyi Cole) grew up in poverty and took refuge in petty theft; and Aldar (Robin Nazari) is a Syrian refugee who has been given asylum in England. Similarly, Nathan also had his fair share of problems in the past, and they were with regard to his addiction to heroin.

Nathan had gotten addicted to heroin as a teenager, which ultimately destroyed quite a few important years of his life, and this was what essentially made him homeless and helpless. Nathan was forced to cut ties with his parents, or at least stay away from their house, as part of his rehabilitation. It is clear that his mother genuinely wants to reunite with him and have him stay with her again, but she cannot do so since his rehabilitation effort is still ongoing. This is revealed when Vinny sees Nathan drinking methadone at the hotel, which he must take on a regular basis in order to stay fit and healthy.

Vinny still holds himself higher than everyone around him, mostly seeing the others as lowly drug addicts and thieves, and his judgmental and snobbish attitude soon create problems for the team. Nathan is tremendously affected by it due to his own personality as well. Based on the experiences that his life has made him go through, Nathan has a tendency to hold himself responsible for situations.Thus, he starts to believe that he has let Vinny down and that he has not been a good roommate to the new player. Vinny doesn't sleep for a single night in his room that he shares with Nathan, instead preferring to sleep at a park bench.Gabriella (Valeria Golino) is the official organizer of the homeless world cup and has a thing with Mal. Protasia (Susan Wokoma) is a nun leading the South African team. The team was detained in South Africa since one of their players was Zimbabwean and in South Africa illegally. Protasia refused to give up on the player and insisted all of them would travel together or none at all.

In the group stage, England is drawn with a mediocre Portugal team, newcomers Japan, and a veteran South African team. Their first match against South Africa is forfeited, leading to England getting the points for it since the South African team failed to arrive in Italy in time. In the match against Portugal, Vinny makes his debut for the national team and is immediately effective, bringing in the points for England.However, things take a different turn when the South African team finally arrives in Milan, and Vinny agrees to have the earlier forfeiture canceled and play the match fairly. In fact, Vinny was goaded into this action by Protasia, who plays to Vinny's ego and claims that South Africa is the best team in the competition.Jason has a crush on the US player Rosita and makes an inappropriate sexual comment to her. Rosita gets her coach to complain to Mal. Jason knows that he has offended Rosita and needs to apologize to her, which he does.

Cal finds Vinny sleeping on a bench and tells him his story. They bond and the next day Vinny shares his football tricks with Cal.

Since the South African team lost their jerseys in transit, they were gifted new ones by the host team, Italy.But the fierce South African side manages to beat England, forcing the latter to have to win their last game against Japan by a big margin in order to qualify for the next round.After a bad performance during the South Africa game, Vinny tells off Nathan very rudely, almost directly blaming him for the team's loss. Nathan gets too engrossed and caught up in this guilt and self-blame, and in the process, he does not take his methadone medicine in time. This naturally messes up his condition (right in the middle of the match with South Africa), and within a day, the young man is in no state to play football. He wants to return to England, and Mal agrees to the ask, stating that he had promised to keep the player safe, failing which he is bound to let Nathan return.

As first-time participants in the tournament, the Japanese team is made up of elderly men who are ecstatic to be made a part of a group at such a late stage in life. The added excitement of traveling to a foreign country, that too at a popular tourist destination like Rome, is all the more overwhelming.Therefore, despite their young coach Mika's (Aoi Okuyama) best efforts, the team is happy just to be participating, and they aim to score only one goal against England. They managed to score two, making them feel all the more accomplished, and England won the game by a big margin, qualifying for the next round.

The team finally has to face host nation Italy, and this is ultimately where their journey ends, as England loses the game in the penalty shootouts. Even though England loses the match, they win the respect of the audience.While the chance to win the cup is over, England still has an opportunity to win bronze medals as they face the USA in the third-place match. The team manages to win this important match despite Vinny not being present after another egoistic fallout.Team USA's best player, Rosita (Cristina Rodlo), also manages to get scouted by a college and continue her attempts at turning professional. This comes following a certain fear that she might get deported from the country after failing to win the tournament. In the end, the England players are able to secure bronze medals at the tournament, which is a great feat, too, and Mal expresses his pride in them for this achievement as well.

Vinny's reason for his attitude is that he too has been suffering from a different emotional difficulty. Vinny is livid when he finds that his daughter and his partner know that he is at the homeless world cup.During his teenage years, Vinny Walker was a top prospect, showing great promise with his footballing skills, and he had been selected by West Ham United as a junior player as well. In fact, Mal had scouted the young boy then, noting down the very special abilities and skills that he possessed, and the coach had indeed identified Vinny shortly after seeing him for the first time, even after so many years.

However, Vinny could not make a career in football, as he was deemed not good enough after a few years, just like many young aspirants are forced away from the difficult sport simply because of steep competition.It was because of this failure that Vinny had grown so bitter, and at present, he is unable to see good in any situation. He is genuinely still haunted by his old dreams and aspirations and the failure that he had to face so early in life. But despite these struggles, he still has a deep passion for football, and so when the South African team wants to loan him as a replacement for their injured striker, he agrees. In this manner, Vinny gets the chance to play in the Homeless World Cup Final, even though his own team has been eliminated.

Vinny delivers a great performance once again and helps the South African team win the tournament. Finally, he realizes the great chance that he has gotten through the competition, and this is largely helped by Mal telling him how he had scouted the player so many years ago. Although Mal had thought he would have to console Vinny for reminding him of the past, Vinny actually cherishes the information, excited by the fact that a legendary scout like Mal Bradley had seen so much potential in him.

Vinny is seen back in England, encouraging the new set of players who will train for the competition next year, and he is seemingly about to become a part of the coaching setup, too.