Sing is a master of Shaolin kung fu, whose goal in life is to promote the spiritual and practical benefits of the martial art to modern society. He experiments with various methods, but none bear positive results. He then meets "Golden Leg" Fung; a legendary Hong Kong soccer star in his day, who is now walking with a limp, following the betrayal of a former teammate, Hung, now a rich businessman. Sing explains his desires to Fung, who in turn offers his services to coach Sing in soccer. Sing is compelled by the idea of promoting kung fu through soccer, and agrees to enlist his former Shaolin brothers to form a team under Fung's management. Sing and Fung attempt to put together an unbeatable soccer team. After some failed attempts, Sing's brothers all agree to participate in the team. Fung invites a vicious team to play against them for a scrimmage, and the thugs proceed to give the Shaolin Team a literal beating. When all seems lost, the Shaolin disciples reawaken and utilize their special powers, dismantling the other team's rough play easily. The thugs then give up and ask to join Sing's team.
Sing meets Mui, a baker with severe acne who uses Tai chi to bake mantou. He takes her to look at very expensive dresses at a high-end department store after hours. She soon forms an attachment to Sing and even gets a makeover in an attempt to impress him. However, this backfires and when Mui reveals her feelings to him: he tells her he only wants to be her friend. This revelation, coupled with the constant bullying from her overbearing boss, leads Mui to disappear.
Team Shaolin enters the open cup competition in Hong Kong, where they chalk up consecutive and often ridiculously one-sided victories due to their special Shaolin techniques. They end up meeting Team Evil in the final, owned by none other than Hung. Team Evil had been injected with an American drug, granting them superhuman strength and speed, making them practically invincible, and they bring Team Shaolin back to reality when Team Evil's amazing capabilities prove more than a match for them. After Team Evil takes out Team Shaolin's two goalkeepers, Mui, who has shaved her hair and improved her face, reappears to be a goalkeeper for Team Shaolin.
In their final attack, Team Evil's striker leaps into the sky and kicks the ball with enormous force towards Mui, who prevents him from scoring with her tai chi. Mui and Sing combine their martial arts skills and rocket the ball downfield. The ball plows through Team Evil's goal post, thereby scoring the winning goal. Sing is then thrown into the air in celebration as the trophy is presented to him and his team.
A newspaper article then shows Hung being stripped of his title of soccer chairman and sentenced to jail for five years, while the players of Team Evil are permanently banned from playing soccer professionally. Sing goes out for a morning jog and feels joy at seeing the people around him practicing Kung Fu and implementing it into their daily lives, his lifelong dream having become a reality. The camera pans to a large poster of Sing and Mui, who have since married and became famous for winning a world championship in bowling, among other things.
