20 best soccer movies with their posters and trailers

6. The Damned United (2009)

A look at Nigel Clough’s 44 day reign at Leeds

Nigel Clough is one of the most successful British managers of all times. His feats while at Nottingham Forest have earned him cult status at the club and reserved his place in the pantheon of football’s managerial greats. However this film was about Clough’s meagre 44 day tenure as manager of Leeds United in 1974, which was an abject failure.

After Alf Ramsey failed to guide England to the 1974 World Cup, he was replaced by Don Revie, who was then a manager at the peak of his powers, enjoying tremendous success with Leeds. The resultant void at Leeds was filled by Clough, who was till then the manager of Derby County. Clough had been a vocal critic of Leeds’ overtly physical and sometimes violent style of play under Revie, and his appointment was met with tremendous anger from Leeds fans.

Clough had a longstanding feud with Leeds and Revie, going back to 1968, when Leeds took on 2nd division side Derby in the FA Cup. Revie did not acknowledge Clough despite them having played for Sunderland and both of them being from the same part of Middlesbrough. Leeds won that match and stoked a fire in Clough for revenge, and his quest for the same is investigated in this movie.