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Ciaran Kelly

The 'inspirational' fictional tale which is still helping Newcastle United to attract new signings

Callum Wilson finds the film Goal! 'inspirational' because the Newcastle United striker worked his way up from the bottom to 'get here to this point'.

The film's protagonist, Santiago Munez, is a Mexican illegal immigrant living in Los Angeles who goes on trial with Newcastle and later fires the Magpies into the Champions League.

Goal! has proved popular around the world and Papiss Cisse, Jonas Gutierrez, Isaac Hayden, Kenedy and Islam Slimani are just some of the players who have referenced the film when they have spoken about the attraction of moving to Newcastle in years gone by - and Wilson is no different.

Wilson previously watched Goal! with his son, Oritse, and the 28-year-old admitted that the film got the 'little boy' inside of him excited and made him think 'that's the one for me' when it came to a move to St James' Park.

"The film's inspirational in terms of the journey and things like that and that's what I liked because I was basically at the bottom and worked my way up to get here to this point," Wilson has since told NUFC TV.

"I'm just waiting for the fans to get back now. I was disappointed scoring two at St James' Park with no fans there. Technically, one of them could have been a potential winner and you want to be celebrating that like it's a match-winner in a full house.

"I'm just waiting for that time when the fans are back in and it's packed again and I think it will only elevate my performance. Definitely."

Wilson became the first Newcastle player since Les Ferdinand, a quarter of a century ago, to score four goals in his first four Premier League games for the club following his £20m move from Bournemouth last summer.

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