So last night I was watching Spice World and was struck by a couple of things. First of all, Sporty Spice was wearing a hideous England kit from the 90's as seen here. Second of all, she discussed soccer on two occasions. The second time she discusses the sport, she is doing so with a scantily clad Italian back-up dancer. She can be overheard say: "AC Milan? Nah, you're a bit weak in midfield..." (This happens around the 33 minute mark of the movie.)
Now, while the movie does an excellent job of avoiding sexual innuendo, it does a poor job of relating accurate statements about soccer. The movie was released at the end of 1997, and filming started in June 1997, which would have been after the 1996-1997 season. So lets take a look at AC Milan's 1996-1997 season.
The 1996-1997 season was not great for AC Milan as they finished in 11th place. However, if you look at the midfield personnel for AC Milan we can start to see that Sporty Spice's words were mere filler not fact.
From Wikipedia:
"Milan's primary line-up under Capello (1996): Sebastiano Rossi; Christian Panucci, Alessandro Costacurta, Franco Baresi, Paolo Maldini; Roberto Donadoni, Demetrio Albertini, Marcel Desailly; Zvonimir Boban; George Weah, Roberto Baggio."
In 1996-1997 Donadoni was not back, but Albertini, Desailly, and Boban all were. Additionally, Edgar Davids was brought in for the season. All of those players had careers that went on strong until the year 2000. While that is not an indication of strength, the player with the LEAST number of international caps is Boban at 59. Some of that may have to do with the fact he was a Croatian international. So, I was not paying attention for the era, but the numbers seem to indicate that the midfield for AC Milan was in no way weak in 1996-1997.
Movie Rating: Fantastic movie, but Unrealistic!
-Blue!
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