For most football fans, attending a FIFA World Cup is the trip of a lifetime. For a group of friends from England, it became the beginning of an entirely new life.

A new documentary called Lost Down Mexico Way tells the remarkable true story of five working-class football supporters who travelled from the West Midlands to the FIFA World Cup 1986 in Mexico — and never really went home.

The group, known by nicknames including Adder, Rabbithead, Batesy, Arnie, and Texas Steve, were young men who had recently lost their jobs during a difficult economic period in Britain. Looking for adventure, they scraped together enough money to travel more than 5,000 miles to experience their first World Cup.

What they found was far more than football.

The friends quickly fell in love with Mexico’s culture, atmosphere, and sense of freedom. After following the tournament through cities such as Monterrey, they continued travelling through Central America before eventually arriving in Texas.

There, they discovered opportunities that were hard to find back home. Jobs were plentiful, life felt different, and before long the group decided to stay in the United States rather than return to England.

Nearly four decades later, they are still there.

Some built successful businesses. Others raised families and married in America. Despite creating new lives overseas, their friendship remains intact, with regular visits and conversations continuing 40 years after their World Cup adventure began.

The documentary serves as a reminder that football has always been about more than what happens on the pitch. Sometimes a World Cup can change a person’s life forever.

What started as a football trip to Mexico in 1986 became a life-changing journey that none of them could have imagined.