EXCLUSIVE: Michael Fassbender on being at Anfield for one of Liverpool's most famous matches, a homage from Harry Kane and finding the voice of Thomas Rongen in Next Goal
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
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, Inglorious 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...
Read on goal.com
