Abstract:

Even today, fervent football (as soccer is known worldwide) fans continue to marvel at the miracle team that slipped into the world spotlight for a few mesmerizing goals, then disappeared forever. The fate of the Italians is well known: They were pelted with rotten tomatoes by angry fans at home. But what happened after the Koreans returned to the Hermit Kingdom? For sports diehards, it's the greatest story never told. Until now. The answers come from ardent football fan Daniel Gordon, who quit his job as a television sports producer in Britain to independently mount an unprecedented mission in the People's Paradise. Granted the first permission for a Western crew to film in the reclusive state, he spent 10 days in late October touring football clubs and visiting the former stars. Fleshed out with never-before-seen North Korean archival material, the result is an amazing documentary, "The Game of Their Lives." In many ways, it's also the story of one fan's own personal fever pitch. "This has been a lifelong quest," concedes Mr. Gordon. That might seem overstated since he's only 29. Still, few can claim comparable football fanaticism. A lifelong supporter of his home squad, Sheffield Wednesday, he completed a 25-year history of the team, "A Quarter of Wednesday," years before he himself was 25. That led to a job at Sky Sport, and a series of successful sports documentaries on the premier league and top players like English national treasure, Michael Owen. Lingering always at the back of Mr. Gordon's football-addled brain was the almost mythical legend of the North Koreans.