Items30The creator’s order
  1. 1The Damned United (2009)The Damned United (2009) 7.5/10 on IMDbReleased Mar 27, 2009The best film yet made about soccer management. Michael Sheen plays Brian Clough through the 44 days he lasted at Leeds United, cutting back to his earlier success at Derby County. It is all about the job off the field: his open contempt for the players' style and his predecessor, the friction in…0
  2. 2Escape to Victory (1981)Escape to Victory (1981) 6.7/10 on IMDbReleased Jun 17, 1981Prisoners of war take on a German team, and John Huston fills the squad with real players: Pelé, Bobby Moore and Ossie Ardiles, then at the peak of his playing career, line up beside Sylvester Stallone and Michael Caine. Several Ipswich Town players filled out the cast and doubled for the stars,…0
  3. 3Fever Pitch (1997)Fever Pitch (1997) 6.7/10 on IMDbReleased Apr 4, 1997If you have ever planned a wedding, a vacation or a job interview around your team's schedule, this is your film. Colin Firth plays a schoolteacher whose obsession with Arsenal runs his life, and Nick Hornby adapted his own memoir to build the romance around the 1988-89 title race. Everything leads…0
  4. 4Looking for Eric (2009)Looking for Eric (2009) 7.1/10 on IMDbReleased May 27, 2009Ken Loach makes a film about what a club means to the people who follow it. A middle-aged Manchester postman, a soccer fan whose life is coming apart, starts taking advice from Eric Cantona, who plays himself and steps out of a poster on the wall. It sounds like a gimmick, and Cantona is very funny…0
  5. 5Bend It Like Beckham (2002)Bend It Like Beckham (2002) 6.7/10 on IMDbReleased Apr 11, 2002Jess, the daughter of Indian parents in London, is not allowed to play organized soccer, so she plays in the park until Jules spots her and brings her into a women's team. The comedy about two families clashing still works, but what has changed is how the film reads now: it took the women's game…0
  6. 6Purely Belter (2000)Purely Belter (2000) 6.7/10 on IMDbReleased Nov 3, 2000Two broke Tyneside teenagers want Newcastle United season tickets, the tickets cost £1,000, and they have nothing. That is the whole plot of Mark Herman's comedy, and it is enough, because the film understands how a club can be the one thing a kid has to look forward to. Their schemes to raise the…0
  7. 7Gregory's Girl (1980)Gregory's Girl (1980) 7.1/10 on IMDbReleased Nov 29, 1980A Scottish school comedy where soccer is the way in rather than the whole story. Gregory loses his place in the school team to a girl who is simply better than him, and promptly falls for her. The film's gentle joke is that he is the last person to accept she earned the spot. Expect awkward teenage…0
  8. 8Mike Bassett: England Manager (2001)Mike Bassett: England Manager (2001) 6.8/10 on IMDbReleased Sep 28, 2001The funniest film about the England job, and a sharp one about the circus around it. After the national manager has a heart attack, Mike Bassett is handed the post and promptly announces that England will win the World Cup. What follows sends up tabloid back pages, tactical stubbornness and the…0
  9. 9There's Only One Jimmy Grimble (2000)There's Only One Jimmy Grimble (2000) 6.6/10 on IMDbReleased Aug 25, 2000A family film for the young player who dreams bigger than his confidence allows. Jimmy is a shy, bullied Manchester schoolboy with a difficult home life, and a pair of supposedly magic boots gives him the nerve to show what he can do. The fairy-tale device is obvious, but the film is honest about…0
  10. 10Sixty Six (2006)Sixty Six (2006) 6.7/10 on IMDbReleased Nov 3, 2006England's greatest day in soccer, seen by a boy with a very personal reason to resent it. His bar mitzvah falls on the same day as the 1966 World Cup final, and the closer England get, the more his big moment is threatened. It is a sweet, funny family comedy, and a clever way to show how a…0