Lino Banfi stated that, although he already had told the idea of the 5-5-5 formation (aka B-Zone) to director Sergio Martino, he had no idea of how to explain the presence of 15 players. In fact, his explanation was improvised during filming.
In the scenes of the first march Roma-Longobarda filmed at the Stadio dei Marmi there are four real AS Roma players of the time of filming playing a cameo: Roberto Pruzzo, Francesco Graziani, Odoacre Chierico and Carlo Ancelotti. The other players wearing an AS Roma jersey are extras.
Actor Gigi Sammarchi stated in an interview that most of his gags were improvised. He stated that it was quite easy because mangled Portuguese word easily resemble some dialectal Italian words.
The scene where Inter FC strikes a headed goal to Longobarda was reused in the movie Mezzo destro mezzo sinistro - 2 calciatori senza pallone (1985), directed by same Sergio Martino and starring again Gigi Sammarchi and Andrea Roncato.
The definitive plot was inspired by the move of Brazilian footballer Junior from Flamengo to Turin FC. Director Sergio Martino had met the executives of Turin FC Luciano Nizzola and Luciano Moggi on a plane to Rio de Janeiro during the movie pre-production while they were dealing the move, which materialized some days before the filming began.