da bwin： GOAL sat down with the actor to discuss his new soccer movie, his own experiences with the game and a recent reference to one of his most iconic roles

da dobrowin： Michael Fassbender wants to make this part pretty clear. He may be a man of many talents: acting, speaking, auto racing. Soccer, or football as his Irish-German heritage requires him to call it… that's not necessarily one of them.

As most kids do, he played plenty when he was younger, and he admittedly had his moments. Those moments, though, were few and far between. There was some skill there, he says, but he was always bound for a different field.

Now, though, as he prepares for the release of his new movie, Next Goal Wins, on Friday, Fassbender has plenty to say about his relationship with the beautiful game. The movie sees him take up one of the strangest roles of his career: Thomas Rongen, a Dutch-American coach that feels like a character totally different from anything Fassbender has done previously.

Famous for his work in X-Men, Inglourious Basterds, Prometheus and Steve Jobs, Fassbender's latest role sees him cast in Taika Waititi's goofy sports comedy detailing the underdog story of Rongen's time as coach of the lowly American Samoa national team. It's a role that saw Fassbender step out of his comfort zone and back onto a football pitch, something he didn't get to do for quite some time.

Ahead of the movie's release, GOAL caught up with Fassbender to discuss his own soccer skills, how a famous Liverpool comeback impacted him, Harry Kane's homage to one of his most famous characters and stepping into the shoes of Rongen…

Searchlight PicturesBecoming Thomas Rongen

On the surface, it feels like this all has to begin with one question: how in the world does an award-winning actor find himself playing a former MLS Cup-winning coach in a biographical comedy? Well, to understand that, you first have to understand the story a little bit.

Next Goal Wins tells the story of Rongen's brief stint in charge of American Samoa in 2011. At the time of his arrival, Rongen had just been dismissed by the U.S. Under-20 men's national team after failing to qualify for the World Cup. He the took over a team that, back in 2001, had lost to Australia 31-0 in the most lopsided loss in international soccer history. In the years since that beatdown, it never got any better for the program.

When Rongen arrived, American Samoa was very legitimately the worst international team in the world. The movie tells the story of what happened next. Rongen, who himself was at a crossroads struggling to cope with the tragic death of his stepdaughter, Nicole, several years prior, ended up leading the team to just its second-ever victory in a 2014 World Cup qualifier against Tonga. It was a historic moment for the country, and one that would soon push Rongen into the spotlight with the release of a documentary, also titled Next Goal Wins.

That documentary, ultimately, drew interest from award-winning director Waititi due to his own Maori heritage. And that brings us to Fassbender, who was brought in to play Rongen, the wacky main character that has a bit more nuance than meets the eye.

"I was introduced to the story by talking to Taika," Fassbender tells GOAL. "I wasn't aware of this story until I watched the documentary and then after I watched the documentary, I was like, 'Oh, I do remember something about this, the game against Australia'. Then it was just, I was looking at the character that was in the documentary and then I started talking and sort of the first thing was like, 'Do I try and do a Dutch accent?' We decided early on not to bother and I was quite thankful for that because it's 90-95 percent improvisations, so to have the freedom to move and be nimble without having to worry about an accent really helped."

AdvertisementSearchlight Pictures… Or something close

While the movie does stay true to Rongen's story in some aspects, there are some changes aside from the accent. The film adds a bit more humor to the already-comical Rongen, who is depicted very much as a fish out of water in American Samoa. While the story sticks to many real-life events, including Rongen's inclusion and welcoming of Jaiyah Saelua, a fa'afafine player that became the first transgender player to play in a World Cup game, there are some big differences between Rongen, the coach, and Rongen, the character.

"Really the character that we ended up delivering in the film is very different, I think, to the real Thomas Rongen," Fassbender says. " I never met Thomas Rongen and I knew that we were going to depart from who he really was. There was obviously a crucial part of his real life story, the connection with his daughter that's very much going to be at the forefront of this character and really the crux of everything about this character.

"It's very much a broken person that we meet at the beginning of the film, and it's only through arriving in American Samoa that he starts to heal as a person. It's the team that really helps him on his spiritual journey."

Searchlight Pictures'Average footballer at best'

Born in Germany to an Irish mother and German father, Fassbender is no stranger to the beautiful game. It was very much part of his upbringing in Killarney, as it is for most children all over the world.

Fassbender, obviously, went elsewhere with his talents. He's now a top actor, having been nominated for two Academy Awards and two Golden Globes. He's one of Ireland's most famous faces, one renowned for his ability to shapeshift into and out of various accents depending on the role. And, outside of work, he's done quite well in auto racing, driving in the European Le Mans Series.

But this movie brought him back to his childhood a little bit, even if, all these years later, he feels that his on-field skills have stagnated, to say the least. "Especially in Europe, soccer or football is the biggest sport," he says. "It's the number one sport. I tried it. I played it all through both primary school and secondary school. I would say I'm average at best. I can run fast and if the ball hits me in the right part of the body, it might go to the place it's supposed to go! I am okay.

"For me, I'm not a huge football fan. I will tune into certain games. I am a Liverpool fan. Obviously, I've watched the World Cup as well and Champions League games."

It's one trip to a Champions League game, though, that sticks out for Fassbender, who has a cherished memory from a famous night at Anfield…

GettyMagical night on Merseyside

It was one of the most famous nights in Liverpool's history, and Fassbender was there. Over four years later from that famous comeback against Barcelona at Anfield, the 2019 Champions League semi-final remains one of those matches that everyone remembers. Liverpool fans, most of all, will remember where they were and who they were with for that "corner taken quickly", for that night when the Reds took down mighty Lionel Messi and Barcelona.

Fassbender remembers, too. He was there in amongst it, in the crowd for his first, and so far only, game at Anfield. He couldn't have picked a better one, could he?

"It was incredible because it was my one and only time I've ever gone to Anfield. I chose the perfect game," he says. "We had the tickets like months in advance, and I remember my friend Connor was like, 'Oh, should we still go? The chances of qualifying past the semis are pretty impossible', and I was like, 'No, we have to go, we gotta go'.

"Then arriving there, the atmosphere, the fans, obviously I'm going to be biased as a Liverpool fan, but I think they're the best fans in the world. The hairs on the back of my neck were just standing up. The performance that night was just awe-inspiring. It's one of those moments, really, where sport can really inspire on a level that I don't think any other medium can."