Matt Barrelle has gone from kicking a ball on Bondi Beach to producing the biggest feature film yet about soccer.

After watching Brazil beat England in the 2002 World Cup, Barrelle and an English friend, Mike Jefferies, decided to ditch everything to make a movie about the romance of football.

"At that point, we thought, 'Where is Rocky in soccer boots?' - we have got to make this film," Barrelle said during a brief visit to Sydney yesterday.

"So we camped out in Hollywood, and annoyed people to tears for two years, trying to convince the big studios the world needed a big story about football."

The pair ended up convincing a galaxy of football stars to join the cast, including David Beckham - in his first speaking role in a feature film - Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane and former England captain Alan Shearer.

The finished product is called Goal!, the first in what Barrelle describes as a "rags to riches" trilogy about a Latin American teenager, played by Mexican actor Kuno Becker, plucked from the streets to become a professional footballer in Europe.

It includes cameo appearances by AC/DC guitarist Angus Young - as a Newcastle United football fan - and the actor and part-owner of Sydney FC Anthony LaPaglia, who also had a role in casting Becker, Barrelle said.

"As part of his trial, Kuno was asked to play with Hollywood United, a team LaPaglia plays in in Los Angeles with the film's director Danny Cameron and [singer] Robbie Williams," Barrelle said. "He scored a winner past LaPaglia - and at that point he said, 'get that guy on'."

Becker tells a different version of his on-field casting. "They just said I wasn't good enough," he joked yesterday. "They kept casting new people and I think they hated me." But, after weeks of gruelling training with a coach, Becker made the grade, although he had both ankles and his nose broken during filming.

"The guys I was playing with in the film are serious professionals. I am not a football player. They were great guys, but very tough," said Becker, who gave up a promising career as a violinist to take up acting 10 years ago.

The final part of the Goal! trilogy will be shot at the World Cup in Germany this year. Unprecedented co-operation from FIFA, the sport's governing body, has allowed the filmmakers intimate access to the professional football world.

"It has just opened the doors of authenticity, using real teams, real clubs, real players and real stadiums, and once we had that you can really get an insight into that life," Barrelle said.

He has also made it a personal mission to include the Socceroos in the third film.