Netflix is reportedly working on a new fly-on-the-wall documentary series covering the Premier League’s most notable goalscorers.
The Daily Mail revealed that Manchester City’s Erling Haaland and Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah have both been approached by Netflix to feature in the docuseries, with Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins also reportedly set to appear.
However, it is understood that Haaland and his representatives have turned down the offer from Netflix, which would be a huge blow for the streaming platform as the Norwegian striker bagged 34 Premier League goals to break the record for most goals in a single season last year. It remains unclear whether Salah or Watkins will accept the invitation.
The striker-centric docuseries looks to mirror the recent Netflix NFL ‘Quarterback’ series, which featured quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins and Marcus Mariota.
The Quarterback series detailed the daily lives of the three aforementioned NFL athletes, from their personal lives, through to the high-pressure moments of leading their respective teams to winning games.
Netflix intends to mirror this content via the lens of a Premier League striker, giving football fans a deeper insight into the art of goalscoring, as well as revealing personal information about some of the league’s best goalscorers.
If the development of the proposed docuseries progresses, it is understood that filming will start at the beginning of the 2024-25 Premier League season, with a network release in autumn 2025.
This style of sports documentary has proved to be a success for the global streaming platform, as it was revealed last January that the likes of LeBron James, Jimmy Butler and other NBA athletes will feature in a new docuseries moulded in the same style as Quarterback.
Netflix has made sports-adjacent programming one of its primary focuses over the past several years stemming from the overwhelming success of the F1 ‘Drive to Survive’ docuseries.
The streaming giant has since gone on to create similar sports docuseries in sports such as tennis, football, american football and more.
The platform has also marked its first foray into the realm of live sports broadcasting rights, which many insiders viewed as only a matter of time. Netflix inked a 10-year deal with the WWE to become the new home of WWE RAW from 2025 onwards, whilst it will also stage the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight in July.
