Bend It Like Beckham

But that’s a baseball movie, you idiots…right?! Nope. It’s a  soccerphilia fest from the mind of Nick Hornby that came out way before Drew Barrymore lisped her way through—we’ll just come out and say it—a pretty sucky film of the same name. In this Fever Pitch, Colin Firth stars as a one of Hornby’s typical self-absorbed, specifically-obsessed-but-ultimately-changed-by-love male protagonists. His favorite soccer team is the driving force in his life…until he meets the love of his life, who happens to hate the game. Life lesson in this soccer flick? That if you love a team of men obsessively, you can love one woman just as much. And it’s a lot more fulfilling. How sweet.

She’s The Man

Eric Cantona philosophizing in Looking For Eric

Eric Bishop worships two things: Manchester United and soccer legend Eric Cantona. But his life and relationships are in shambles, until one evening he smokes some weed and hallucinates a conversation with Cantona his hero. Suddenly, Canton starts appearing to him in other situations and becomes a sort of invisible life coach for Bishop. He turns his life around, yada yada yada. And the moral is…marijuana actually fixes lives not ruins them? No, no. Looking For Eric clearly isn’t endorsing that, but rather speaks to soccer fans by demonstrating how athletes can be really important and inspirin role models, even for adults. That is, when they’re not inspiring hooligan riots.

The Cup