The Spice Boys was a media pejorative used to describe a group of high-profile

Liverpool F.C. Liverpool Football Club is a professional football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1892, the club joined the Football League the following year and has p ...

footballers in the mid-late 1990s, typically

Jamie Redknapp Jamie Frank Redknapp (born 25 June 1973) is an English former professional footballer who was active from 1989 until 2005. He is a pundit at Sky Sports and an editorial sports columnist at the ''Daily Mail''. A technically skillful and creat ...

, David James, Steve McManaman, Robbie Fowler and

Jason McAteer Jason Wynne McAteer (born 18 June 1971) is a former professional footballer. His primary position was in centre midfield, though he was also an able right winger and full-back. During his professional career from 1992 to 2007, McAteer played ...

, but occasionally teammates such as

Stan Collymore Stanley Victor Collymore (born 22 January 1971) is an English football pundit, sport strategist, and former player who played as a striker from 1990 to 2001, most notably for Nottingham Forest and later Liverpool, who he joined from the for ...

and

Paul Ince Paul Emerson Carlyle Ince (; born 21 October 1967) is an English professional football manager and former player who is the current manager of EFL Championship side Reading. A former midfielder, Ince played professionally from 1982 to 2007, st ...

. The name was a play on the Spice Girls, who were extremely popular at the same time and famed for their '

Girl Power Girl power is a slogan that encourages and celebrates women's empowerment, independence, confidence and strength. The slogan's invention is credited to the US punk band Bikini Kill, who published a zine called ''Bikini Kill #2: Girl Power'' i ...

' persona.

Term

The term ‘Spice Boys’ was coined by the ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print c ...

'' following (unfounded) tabloid rumours that Fowler was dating Spice Girl

Baby Spice Emma Lee Bunton (born 21 January 1976) is an English singer, songwriter, actress, and media personality. She rose to fame in the 1990s as a member of the girl group Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed Baby Spice. With over 100 million record ...

(

Emma Bunton Emma Lee Bunton (born 21 January 1976) is an English singer, songwriter, actress, and media personality. She rose to fame in the 1990s as a member of the girl group Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed Baby Spice. With over 100 million recor ...

). In the late 1990s, the influx of television and marketing revenue from the newly revamped and globally marketed FA Premier League saw footballers’ wages soar. Photogenic players such as Jamie Redknapp and Welshman Ryan Giggs emerged as merchandising and mass-marketed ‘poster boys’ of the British game, with many players landing high-profile product endorsement contracts, such as Jason McAteer’s with

Head & Shoulders Head & Shoulders (H&S) is an American brand of anti-dandruff and non-dandruff shampoo produced by parent company Procter & Gamble. It was introduced in the United States on 1 January 1961 based in Manhattan and used the slogan THE AMERICA AND WORL ...

, while David James was signed up as an Armani

underwear Undergarments, underclothing, or underwear are items of clothing worn beneath outer clothes, usually in direct contact with the skin, although they may comprise more than a single layer. They serve to keep outer garments from being soiled o ...

model in 1997. With the fame of Premier League footballers reaching unprecedented levels, criticism of the perceived underachievement of the Liverpool squad soon followed. ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'' later described the ‘Spice Boys’ as a "Group of high-spirited, fun-loving young players who were a central feature of Liverpool's talented and entertaining, but perpetually under-achieving, squad of the Nineties. At least, that's the generous description. Others saw them as just an irresponsible bunch who were a bad influence in the dressing-room and should not be given house room."

Incidents

Several incidents around the behaviour of the so-called Spice Boys generated major media attention, notably the squad’s decision to wear matching cream

Armani Giorgio Armani S.p.A. (), commonly known as Armani, is an Italian luxury fashion house founded in Milan by Giorgio Armani which designs, manufactures, distributes and retails haute couture, ready-to-wear, leather goods, shoes, accessories, and ...

suits to the 1996 FA Cup Final - a game they went on to lose to key rivals Manchester United. Robbie Fowler told the ''

'' in 2008 that "People still remind me about the white suits all the time. It's one of those things - if we had won the game nobody would have mentioned it but we lost and it has become infamous." McManaman and Fowler were also associated with the controversial "dentist's chair" story prior to

Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

. Rumours of a controversial 1998 Christmas party also filled the press.

Decline of use

Following the departure of Liverpool manager Roy Evans in 1998, with his co-manager

Gérard Houllier Gérard Paul Francis Houllier (; 3 September 194714 December 2020) was a French professional football manager and player. Clubs he managed include Paris Saint-Germain, Lens and Liverpool, where he won the FA Cup, League Cup, FA Charity Shield, U ...

taking full charge, the majority of the Spice Boy players were slowly transferred out of the squad or put under greater pressure to perform. The term gradually declined in media use, although was briefly revived when, in 2004, several of the ex-Liverpool team were reunited at Manchester City, under Kevin Keegan.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spice Boys (footballers) Liverpool F.C. Nicknamed groups of association football players 1995–96 FA Premier League 1996–97 FA Premier League

Term

Incidents

Decline of use

See also

References