What if I were to tell you that one of the finest film directors on the scene is a Brighton fan? He hates P****e, loves De Zerbi and remembers the dark days.
He is also the mind behind numerous critically acclaimed feature length films, including: Kaiser! The Greatest Footballer Never to Play Football (2018), Calcio (2019), Stop the Tour (2019), Liverpool: The 30 Year Wait (2020) and Croatia: Defining a Nation (2022). His name is Louis Myles, and he has worked with figures at the very top of the modern game whilst remaining very much one of us. I had the pleasure of interviewing Louis in January 2023 and this is what we talked about.
Louis Myles began his professional life as a student actor, a field in which he briefly excelled before moving behind the scenes of sports television. He grasped an opportunity to work on statistics for terrestrial Champions League football coverage. It was meant to be a one-off, but he ended up being kept on for the season after a stroke of luck: “a producer came and asked me for a very obscure fact related to that night’s games; it just so happened I’d researched this exact thing earlier that day”. A move to Match of the Day followed, and this is where the filmmaking career began to take off. Louis was tasked with creating a 10 minute short film (featuring Christopher Ecclestone) marking Sir Alex Ferguson’s 21-year anniversary as Manchester United manager. Sr’Alex had blanked the BBC for the previous decade and the film represented an institutional intention to get him back onside.
Kaiser!
One of Louis’ biggest successes is the 2018 film he co-wrote and directed, Kaiser! The Greatest Footballer Never to Play Football. The film follows the story of Carlos ‘Kaiser’, a Brazilian, tenacious, determined individual, who convinces top clubs that he is a professional footballer despite having no footballing ability whatsoever. Feigned injuries, shatter-proof relationships with people in boardrooms and many forms of chicanery all feature in this story. Chosen as one of the top 10 greatest football films ever by The Guardian, it is well worth your time. But what are the logistics of getting such a project off the ground? The embryonic phase was when Louis was working on a film celebrating the 21st anniversary of his beloved computer game, Football Manager. Business Director Dr Tom Markham alerted him to the story of Carlos “Kaiser” Henrique Raposo after he and “a couple of bored traders” unearthed it pretty much by mistake when scrolling through Reddit.
Louis ventured to Rio de Janeiro with a couple of cameramen. As he puts it, “we were either coming back with a story or having the most expensive holiday ever”.
This presented a big opportunity but also the bigger question of whether such an endeavour would be possible. Who would commission it? Would Kaiser be up for it? Louis ventured to Rio de Janeiro with a couple of cameramen. As he puts it, “we were either coming back with a story or having the most expensive holiday ever”. Kaiser and a substantial network of supporting characters all ended up starring in a wonderful film that isn’t really about football. As is so often the case, in this instance football is the prism through which wider society can be viewed. Louis sees Kaiser as a film that covers football but also has something to say about the human psyche more generally, the need for characters like this in the world and the need for belief in society.
The BBC
Louis’ creative output has also involved stories that are closer to home. In the wake of Liverpool’s league triumph in 2020, Louis produced a film for the BBC, ‘Liverpool: The 30 Year Wait’. The film starts at the beginning of Liverpool’s league trophy drought, this being their first title success in 30 years. Back in 1990, football was, with the impending dawn of the Premier League, about to change forever. Failing to recognise the winds of change and modernise accordingly, Liverpool fell way behind their friends in Manchester. Interviews with the likes of Rick Parry, Roy Evans, Gerard Houllier and Rafa Benitez are interspersed with nostalgic footage of Liverpool teams of yore, some rather better than others. The chronological nature of the film was a deliberate decision made by Louis to avoid focusing too much on the team that had just won the league. Charting the history from one title win to the next provided an opportunity to reflect and give what Louis describes as “the soundtrack to people’s lives”. The success story is all the richer for being furnished with the context that underpins it.
Stories
When considering the material that past events have thrown up, is there cause for concern given the confines of football in its current state; an often bloated, sterile, predictable sport? You look at films like ‘Kaiser’ and wonder whether this kind of tale is from a bygone era. Is the game we now know still capable of throwing up interesting stories? In previous decades you could have a chat with Romario simply by heading to the beach; good luck finding Neymar there now. What about people like Kaiser? Is it possible to come across a character like his in the present day? “Would Kaiser exist now in that form? No. Are there similar characters out there? Yes, absolutely. There’s always a story”. It’s quite comforting hearing someone as well versed in the modern game as Louis say that yes, football will always have the capacity to enthral. For all of the myriad issues the modern game has caused, at its heart football will always be a conduit for stories.
You look at films like ‘Kaiser’ and wonder whether this kind of tale is from a bygone era. Is the game we now know still capable of throwing up interesting stories?
Despite my dangling of the nihilistic carrot, Louis is clearly very much an optimist, a believer in the potential good that football can achieve; “at its very core it still has this ability to do the things you like, which is something to look forward to at the weekend, something to bind a community, something to bind a family, to talk about”. And this really encapsulates what much of Louis’ creative output shows; the power of football as a vehicle for communal experience.
Being in this line of work has allowed Louis to closely work with some of the most celebrated and respected figures in the game. ‘Croatia: Defining a Nation’ is a recent FIFA release, describing the incredible rise of a young football nation against the backdrop of political instability. While some pivotal figures decided not to take part due to the emotional rawness of the subject matter, Slaven Bilic features prominently. Louis describes Bilic as “erudite and thoughtful. He’s as cool as you think he is”. Another FIFA feature, HD Cutz, consists of interviews with current star players at the eponymous barber’s (not Paul OBE). Speaking of Paul, Pogba features on the show and is apparently “the nicest guy you could hope to meet”. He makes cheesecake for everyone to enjoy during the filming of his episode (does Souness like cheesecake I wonder?). Louis admits that interviewing footballers is not always the most interesting of tasks, but many of them are relatable human beings.
The modern game
When it comes to the modern game more generally, Louis believes that football clubs need a long-term model in order to achieve their aims: “If you want to get somewhere, you have to go through a process as a club”. As his Liverpool film shows, failing to adapt to a changing landscape can have lasting effects on the fortunes of a football club. However, within this long-term view, there also has to be a sense of incremental development. How do you get to the next step? Can the person currently in place take you all the way? What happens when they leave? Do these questions sound familiar? The Solihull Scolari got BHAFC to a point, but who’s to say RDZ and whoever follows him (weep) won’t take us further? The process is bigger and more important than the people operating within it.
How do you get to the next step? Can the person currently in place take you all the way? What happens when they leave? Do these questions sound familiar?
Speaking of glow-up Graham, Louis cites Chelsea as an example of a club in need of “massive cultural and structural change”. The Abramovich ‘model’ enjoyed incredible success over a 20 year period in which some of the finest managers in the game were cast aside after small dips in form. Their new owner might have proposed for West London derbies to be held in space, for sub goalkeepers to be cloned to confuse the kitman and for fans to only sing chants if they’ve purchased a hymn sheet, but there is clearly an intention to try A Different Way. Removing the engine from Brighton & Hove Albion FC is one approach, but the overall structure is the biggest thing. They couldn’t and never will get to the heart.
Brighton
And what about Brighton and Louis Myles? He says “Brighton games are a place where I can act like a child”. Ain’t that the truth? A lifelong fan and current season ticket holder, Louis juggles his love of the club with raising two young daughters, one of whom is “half interested in it”, and of course his work. It must be pretty amazing to have viewed the recent rise of BHAFC from the vantage point that he has, enmeshed in the higher echelons of the game. One thing we can say is that word is spreading. Louis recalls from his time working on Croatia: Defining a Nation that Zvonimir Boban, ex-Deputy Secretary-General at FIFA and current Chief of Football at UEFA, is intrigued by our current position and how we’ve got there. Furthermore, the recent World Cup success enjoyed by the club has extended a reach that was already becoming global: “It’s not just a local thing; it’s pretty much an international brand now”.
What about stand-out memories as a Brighton fan? The first game at the Amex is an obvious answer to this but Louis wasn’t there; he was working on an athletics event. However, not long afterwards we played West Ham in the league. “The short pre-match video got me. It was just emotional. It was a terrible game; we lost 1-0 to a team managed by Sam Allardyce”. The symmetry of Bobby Zamora’s return also raises a smile, but in purely footballing terms, Louis doesn’t have to venture too far back: “my favourite football memory at the moment is the last two games”.
Louis’ work and his love of Brighton and Hove Albion speaks to an interpretation of football that is longitudinal and nostalgic. Football has an amazing way of highlighting societal issues, defining identities and giving people the chance to reflect.
Louis’ work and his love of Brighton and Hove Albion speaks to an interpretation of football that is longitudinal and nostalgic. Football has an amazing way of highlighting societal issues, defining identities and giving people the chance to reflect. Whilst watching us demolish Man U and Al Nassr’s finest last season, Louis, together with his parents, could scarcely believe it: “we used to go to Canvey Island away, can we believe this?” Who’s to say what the future will hold? Is Europe on the cards? A trophy? A Leicester? “It’s about the journey. When we do win something or qualify for something then there will be another look back at where we’ve come from, like we did when we went up. That’s your life: if you’re into it then you’re into it and that’s just what you do”.
This article was originally published in Dogma Issue 8, Jan/Feb 2023 and has been amended slightly for publication here.
