Football Manager Stole My Life Read online

  If Chelsea’s new £7million signing, Kevin de Bruyne, makes a name for himself you’ll know who to call!

  Together, our computer game dreams became reality.

  Kristof Terreur is Sports Interactive’s head researcher in Belgium. By day he works as Sports News Editor for Belgium‘s biggest newspaper, Het Laatste Nieuws. You’ll find him on Twitter @elterror81.

  THE POWER

  OF BABEL

  Jeroen Thijssen

  Head researcher, Netherlands

  Quite simply, Football Manager stole my life.

  It is difficult to perceive how exactly, but it certainly has.

  I remember playing several football management games in the early days on the Commodore 64, as well as on the PC. However, I am not sure I imagined myself sitting here many years later as a head researcher for Football Manager – never mind contributing to a book on the game.

  Entire weekends were spent playing the game with my best mate, usually in the English lower leagues, while other teenagers ventured outside a bit more.

  I’ve been responsible for the Dutch research since 2002 and I do it with great pride and interest. We have the important responsibility to make sure that game is as accurate as possible. This can be a challenge, especially if you are looking at young players that might turn out to be an absolute legend, or there are those that fail in their careers and fade into obscurity.

  I had my reservations, or rather had to laugh, at the outrageous price Liverpool paid for Ryan Babel. But, to be fair, I also had my doubts whether Robin van Persie would ever even wear the Arsenal shirt in a league game. In my defence, he was not a model professional back then and not even the pro scouts get it right all the time. On the other hand, it’s always fantastic to see the more unknown players in the game develop in real life too, and ultimately get picked up by decent teams. Kennedy Bakircioglu is a good example there. He had been great in several versions of the game, and wound up having two stellar seasons at FC Twente.

  Several seasons ago I also regularly visited youth games at my local (and favourite) team ADO Den Haag. I was watching a youth game and was looking for some help regarding the youth prospects. One of the ADO staff asked me if I was a scout.

  “No, Sir,” I replied, “but I work for a game called Football Manager and I’m looking for more information on these youth players.

  “Besides, I’m sure Ferdi Sonmez is on Arsenal’s radar already.”

  I was invited into their meeting rooms as both youth team managers helped me with player names, positions and their preferred foot.

  Sadly Ferdi plays in the amateur leagues these days. This scouting lark isn’t as easy as it sounds!

  Jeroen Thijssen is Sports Interactive’s head researcher for the Netherlands.

  You can follow him on Twitter @FM2013NL or join www.facebook.com/fmnederland.

  LEO

  AND OSKITZ

  Ivan Abella Villar

  Head researcher, Spain

  My colleague Nordin and I have researched Spanish football for Sports Interactive since 1997, so thousands of players have crossed our paths. Many of them showed great promise from a young age – some fulfilled that potential and others drifted away. Others caught us by surprise.

  One we remember fondly is Xabi Alonso, because we started to track his development when he was very young.

  Xabi had football in his veins. His father (Periko) won many caps for Spain in the 1980s, while his brother (Mikel) is also a professional, though not to the same standard. The other brother (Jon) is a referee.

  He started in the youth ranks of Real Sociedad – a club that only signed Basque players or those from overseas. Working with a limited pool of potential players, it meant they had to look after the talented ones they did have. In their B team, or ‘Sanse’ as it’s known in San Sebastian, Xabi played alongside Pablo Blazquez, who was a Championship Manager fan and helped us with the research of some Basque clubs.

  It was 1999 and both players shared a room in the academy, so they were close – though we’re still waiting for that Xabi shirt he promised to send! He told us all about Xabi and said he’d be the future ‘No 5’ of the Spanish national team.

  In the name of objectivity, we treated his words with some caution, but before long he was in John Toshack’s senior team and indeed captained them from an early age.

  This is where football can sometimes be random and unfair.

  In that same year, our co-researcher Blazquez was in Toshack’s thoughts for the first-team, and he even warmed up alongside Javier Saviola in a match against Barcelona. He and Xabi were the pearls of the B team, but shortly after that match against Barca Blazquez suffered a serious injury that he never really recovered from. They’d been with each other every step of the way, but now one would go on to become a world champion while the other has been retired for more than six years.

  Xabi was one success story, but over the years there have been others.

  We first heard of Lionel Messi when he was 16 and playing in Barcelona’s youth ranks. Our researcher there told us this tiny Argentinean could achieve great things in football, but that he was a bit small.

  We first entered him in the 2004 database, under the name ‘Luis Leonardo Messi’ and we gave him a Potential Ability of -10 – the highest you can give. His Current Ability was only 65, but we adjusted that through the season as he gradually made his first-team breakthrough.

  At the same time, we rated another player just as highly – Oskitz Estefania at Real Sociedad.

  When he was 14, Barcelona and Real Madrid tried desperately to sign him, but he declined their offers to stay loyal to the Basque club. He was handed his debut at 17, before being loaned to Eibar, alongside an 18-year-old David Silva.

  Sadly, in the following pre-season he sustained a terrible knee injury in a South Korean pre-season tournament and he’s only played at a lower-league level since.

  We honestly thought at the time he could match up to Messi, but I guess that’s football. It can be a cruel sport – and that’s reflected in Championship/Football Manager too.

  Along the way we’ve also made some memorable mistakes. In 2007, a Spanish player, Josu Sarriegi, moved to Athens to sign for Panathinaikos – who were known there as PAO. As we wrote the database, however, he accidentally became attached to the similarly named PAOK. Consequently, a famous Greek newspaper published an article making light of the ‘surprise transfer’.

  The most famous one we made was quite similar, but even more ‘galactic’ in its impact. In January 2007, Real Madrid were still in their ‘Galactico’ period when David Beckham opted to move to LA Galaxy. Once again, though, due to spelling mistakes we sent him a bit further – to Australia, and a lower division team called Adelaide Galaxy. The FM forums were flooded with complaints, to the extent that SI had to release a patch fixing the error.

  Nordin and I even thought about making t-shirts emblazoned with ‘I sent Beckham to Australia’.

  Ivan Abella was head researcher for Spain from 1997 to 2011, and still translates the game into Spanish, alongside working in a bank.

  Honorino Zamora – known as ‘Nordin’ in the FM community – has been involved with Sports Interactive since 1998. He’s presently manager of a morgue.

  MICAH

  MAKER

  Karl Barrett

  Head researcher, Manchester City

  I’ve worked as the Manchester City researcher for Sports Interactive since the spilt from Eidos in 2004. During that time, I’ve created many young players of different nationalities who have gone on to play for City’s senior side and represent their countries – including the likes of Stephen Ireland, Vladimir Weiss, Ched Evans and Dedryck Boyata. My two personal favourites, however, are from a little bit closer to home. Both have been capped by England and won major honours early on in their careers.

  I first saw Micah Richards as a midfielder and he was so powerful pushing forward that I mistook him for an attacking midfielder. Indeed, in the
first Football Manager, he was down as an AMC, something, looking back, that I got terribly wrong. This wasn‘t helped by me going to watch a City XI take on one of my local non-league sides, Stalybridge Celtic, in a pre-season friendly, when he scored a hat-trick in a 4–3 win for City. From that first glimpse it was easy to see that he was an amazing athlete who could bully the opposition with his pace and strength. I remember him not being allowed to take part in the first leg of the FA Youth Cup final in 2006 because he‘d just established himself in the City first team. Without him, the back four just weren’t the same and Liverpool cruised to an easy 3–0 victory.

  He was brought back for the second leg and captained the side. With Richards restored to the ranks, it was a completely different City performance but they could only manage a 2–0 win despite completely dominating from start to finish.

  He progressed to be a City regular and became England‘s youngest ever defender when he was capped in 2006. Now he’s a City icon, having helped them pick up the FA Cup and Premier League title.

  In that Youth Cup final second leg I mentioned, City’s two brilliant goals were scored by Daniel Sturridge. I‘d known about him from an early age, though it was a good few years before he was old enough to be included in the game. He made his first appearance in a January update and I’d armed him with the stats to become a very good young player. It wasn‘t long before people were posting about him on the SI forums, saying he was a hot new prospect on the game. A month or so after he was included in the game, I saw a report in the paper linking him with a move to Chelsea. Obviously, the Chelsea scouts had been playing Football Manager! He eventually made that move and now proudly possesses a Champions League medal.

  Karl Barrett is Football Manager’s eagle-eyed Manchester City researcher. When he’s not running his eyes over the stars of tomorrow, he works for a family-run electrical wholesalers. If you want to track him down on Steam to talk FM, his gamertag is ‘Bazry’.

  LOVE ’EM

  OR HATEM

  Jerome Boudin

  Head researcher, France

  For the last 10 years I’ve worked as France’s Head Researcher for Sports Interactive and I’ve seen a lot of good players in that time.

  I’m a Stade Brestois 29 supporter, so Franck Ribery is probably the most famous player I’ve seen before he became a star. I knew of his talent early on, but following his move to Metz in 2004 he achieved widespread fame with an outstanding performance in a 3–1 win over Marseille – when he laid on all three goals for his team.

  Every Football Manager fan knows of Hatem Ben Arfa, who has been regarded a wonderkid in France since he was 12 years old. In 1999 he was selected to attend the prestigious Clairefontaine Academy. He was the youngest involved at the time and even featured in a television documentary which followed the boys’ progress. A famous clip showed him having an argument with Abou Diaby. All of his coaches since then have praised his big potential, and I think we’re now seeing confirmation of his great talent at the very highest level.

  I regularly attend French youth tournaments, so sometimes see players who are a cut above the rest. Football Manager addicts should keep an eye on Wesley Said, who is one of the brightest prospects from the 1995 generation. The Stade Rennais FC forward first impressed me at the Montaigu tournament – a well-established Under-16 international competition – in April 2010 when he was a stand-out despite being one of the youngest involved.

  You can find Jerome Boudin at www.frenchtouch.org.

  DIRTY

  SANCHEZ

  Mark Hill

  Head researcher, Northern Ireland

  The joys of Irish football mean I have no wonderkids to speak of. However, I was once contacted, out of the blue, by a scout from a club competing in the Champions League asking after Jonny Evans – shortly after he was first capped by Northern Ireland. I loosely knew the scout through the Champ Man/FM scene but he was keen to know whether Jonny would be interested in a season-long loan to the continent. He wanted me to make the initial contact if I knew him. I didn’t, but I was up for the challenge.

  This was back in the pre-Facebook days, so Bebo was my first port of call and it all went downhill from there. Despite my best efforts to come across as professional as possible via social media, Jonny clearly wasn’t too receptive as the next day he deleted his account.

  Not one to give up easily, I then contacted his girlfriend via the same social network site – from memory I think I got a two-line response that again wasn’t too receptive. Needless to say, Mr Evans didn’t turn up in Europe on loan at the age of 18 and it was probably for the best, given his progress since then at Man Utd.

  My highlight was probably an exchange with Lawrie Sanchez. I was in my first year of university and hadn’t been looking after the Northern Irish research for too long before one day I got a call from Nick Habershon at SI Towers. He informed me that he had taken a call from the newly-appointed Northern Ireland manager, Lawrie Sanchez. Apparently Lawrie was keen to talk to someone about the Northern Irish data in the game.

  I called and Lawrie answered almost immediately. I introduced myself and once Lawrie explained that a friend of his had suggested he utilise the Football Manager database as ‘there’s a lot of good stuff in there’, what proceeded was effectively an interview.

  How do you rate the players?

  How often do we update the data?

  What sort of contact network do we have established?

  How reliable is it?

  These questions were fairly straightforward and relatively easy to answer, which put me at ease, but it was the topic he turned to next that was key to the purpose of his call.

  How do we know if a player is eligible for a nation i.e. Northern Ireland?

  Lawrie was looking outside the box at this early stage for players who could qualify for Northern Ireland. Our problems at a national level were well documented, but some of our best players were the likes of goalkeeper Maik Taylor, who were not born in Northern Ireland, spoke with a broad English accent but qualified for ‘our wee country’ as the local faithful refer to the team.

  I was stumped. This was a question I wasn’t prepared for, but here I was speaking to the national team manager. Caught like a rabbit in the headlights, and trying desperately to sound like I had a clue what I was talking about, I said our ‘contact network’ were capable of finding out player eligibility. It was sort of true, at a push.

  Lawrie said he was particularly interested in British passport holders and gave me a few names to investigate. The only one I can still remember is Calvin Zola, who was progressing through the ranks at Newcastle around that time. I was to get back in touch with him once I’d found solid leads to potential players. Needless to say, at 18, my scouting skills weren’t the best and nothing developed from then on.

  But as Northern Ireland rose through the rankings, beating the likes of Spain and England along the way, at least I was able to point to the famous name stored on my mobile phone.

  “Yeah, me and Lawrie? We go way back.”

  Mark Hill works full-time as a Football Consultant, compiling stats and player information for the betting industry and the IFA. You’ll find him on Twitter @FM_Ireland and @markhilltweets.

  MARK OF

  GREATNESS

  Stuart Milne

  Head researcher, Scotland

  If I was asked what the most challenging aspect of being the head researcher for Scotland is, I’d say it was the management of expectations. Before sitting down to write this I was shown the submission by Paulo – the Brazilian HR – as he talks about all the great players he’s seen come up through the ranks in Brazil over the years: Kaka, Diego, Neymar and Robinho. And I sit here and think, ‘Who have I seen come through in Scotland in that time?’

  Kenny Miller? Wow.

  Callum Davidson? Awesome.

  Derek Riordan? Terrific.

  The thing is, there haven’t been that many great Scots that have come through in the 12 years I’ve
been in charge of the Scottish research, but that’s more down to players simply not living up to anywhere near their potential than anything else.

  Every year I’m inundated with requests to make sure a certain player is given massive potential and ensure he’s ‘treated right’. So far for FM2013 it’s Tony Watt. He scored two goals on his debut and so he must be destined for the very top of our game.

  I ask, ‘What about those that have come before him, like Mark Burchill?’ But they reply, ‘They were average! They were never going to amount to anything! But this Tony Watt … he’s the real deal’. It remains to be seen whether or not Tony Watt becomes the next superstar of world football. I could be doing him a disservice, but probably not.

  Inevitably you get a certain amount of flak from people for not rating their favourites highly enough. I used to be accused of being a Rangers supporter by Celtic fans and vice versa. One even set up a petition against me. Then I confirmed I was a Dundee United fan and ever since I’ve been accused of overrating them, so there’s no winning.

  I’ll hold my hand up to overrating Steven McConalogue, though.

  He was meant to be such a good player back in his youth days. Sadly, whether it was his size, his Scottish diet or maybe even seeing how good he was in the game, he didn’t come anywhere close to fulfilling the ‘-2’ I gave him back in the day.

  Of course, I can’t mention the Scottish research without bringing up Mark Kerr. To most readers of this book, Kerr is a Championship Manager legend. You could buy him for almost nothing from Falkirk and he’d be a superstar for you, whether you were managing Burnley or Barcelona.

  The thing is Kerr was never even rated that highly. He just had a combination of stats that the match engine turned into instant gold. His legend is as a result of a complete accident.