On the face of it Jermain Defoe, former Tottenham and England purpose ace, is maybe a barely unlikely determine to get his personal documentary, even on this period of wall-to-wall streaming occasions. He by no means fairly achieved the super-elite standing of his England colleagues Wayne Rooney or Steven Gerrard; nor has he established a equally fond area of interest within the public creativeness as Peter Crouch, whom he partnered up entrance at each Portsmouth and Tottenham. The truth is, Defoe’s story, as outlined right here, is in some methods the rags-to-riches story widespread to many footballers within the fashionable period, although maybe extra turbocharged than most given his apparent precocity as a schoolkid.
Defoe affords a disarming form of honesty, mulling over the impact on his lifetime of his largely absent father who, it seems, spent a lot of his time in a West Ham United-adjacent boozer, and increasing on his admiration for his unswervingly loyal mom. He additionally touches on a private life that may solely be described as “vibrant”, suggesting {that a} have to not be seen as dependent left him one thing of a commitmentphobe, to place it mildly. (Even the undignified public scuffle over a failed paternity check will get a point out, with Defoe adamant he was delighted to be a father, as he thought he was going to be.) It’s, nonetheless, his reference to Bradley Lowery, the six-year-old Sunderland supporter with neuroblastoma who died in 2017, that maybe elevates Defoe’s story in the direction of some form of sense of redemption; it’s not too softhearted to agree that, sure, Lowery was the kid Defoe has not but had himself.
In all, Defoe comes out of this movie fairly effectively: top-level sports activities stars are evidently the pushed, extremely centered form of folks that don’t actually do self-reflection, however Defoe has sufficient about him to make himself look unusually susceptible, commendable in a movie that in any other case appears to perform as a job pitch for a future profession in administration. As a movie, this documentary isn’t actually pulling up any bushes, but it surely will get throughout a way that Defoe needs a bit extra out of his life than merely taking part in soccer. “It’s extra than simply kicking a ball,” he says, and he’s received quite a lot of emotional battle scars to indicate for it.
