Hundreds of scouts gather data on the tens of thousands of real players included in the game’s database. But they’re not always right.
Each generation includes teenage prodigies tipped to be the next big thing; legendary names that any Championship Manager fan will recognise. But for a lot of these kids, CM was the height of their fame – they never quite managed to match their in-game exploits.
Ever wondered what happened to the players that made up the core of your quadruple-winning sides of yesteryear? Read on.
1. Tonton Zola Moukoko
Edition:CM 99/00
Position: Attacking midfielder
In the game: Perhaps the most famous CM player of all time, Congolose-born Swede Moukoko began the 99/00 game in Derby County’s youth team. He was Waitrose quality for a Lidl price; the Maradona of the Midlands, for as little as £500k. When CM is cited in divorce cases, it is surely because of a disagreement over whether “Tonton” should be the child’s first or middle name.
In real life: Tonton never made it big – after Derby he returned to Sweden to knock about the lower leagues due to “family issues”. He’s still there, as a player/youth coach for IFK Lidingö FK.
By all accounts he’s pretty happy with his cult status. There are several Facebook fan pages devoted to him , and Sports Interactive (the company that makes Football Manager)brought him over to the UK for a five-a-side game last year in what is surely the first case of a player getting a testimonial for their fictional exploits.
2. Maxim Tsigalko
Edition:CM 01/02
Position: Striker
In the game: It didn’t matter that they didn’t spell his name correctly (it’s actually “Maksim Tsyhalka”) – Max was blessed. If deployed correctly, as a poacher in the box, the Dinamo Minsk kid was known to score more than 100 goals a season. And all for a price of less than £2m.
In real life: Retired by the age of 26, in 2009, because he was so injury prone he might as well have been made of biscuits. His twin brother is still a pro goalie, though, and luckily doesn’t appear to have the same problems keeping his body in one piece.
3. Ibrahima Bakayako
Edition:CM 97/98
Position: Striker
In the game: He made Bergkamp look like a white van with the parking brake left off, slowly backing into a canal.
In real life: His nickname with Everton fans was “Baka-joke-o”, as his £4.5m move to Merseyside gave a return of only four goals. Since he left England in 1999 he’s travelled Europe’s minor leagues, most recently finding some success in Greece’s second division.
4. Serge Makofo
Edition:CM4
Position: Striker (mostly)
In the game: Every time you started a new game, Makofo – at then-new despicable franchise club MK Dons – played in a different position, but no matter where you put him he excelled. And thanks to his club’s financial problems, you could get him for close to nothing.
In real life: Non-league journeyman, with seasons at such glamorous clubs as Maidenhead United, Potters Bar Town and Grimsby, where he was so awful even the club’s chairman called him a “disaster”.
5. Cherno Samba
Edition:CM 01/02
Position: Striker
In the game: The kind of striker that doesn’t so much “kick a ball” as “hadouken the f**k out of it”.
In real life: He scored 132 goals in 32 youth games at the tender age of 13, so the hype seemed fair. Except, well, like a lot of “teenage” African stars with missing birth certificates, “young” Cherno literally looked like a man playing against boys. He’s officially only 27, but he’s been released from his last club in Norway and by all accounts is nearly past it already.
6. Freddy Adu
Edition: CM 03/04
Position: Winger/Striker/Attacking midfielder
In the game: A ludicrously gifted 14-year-old, Freddy could slot straight into the first-XI of almost any team in the world. He’d only get better from there.
In real life: Ah, hubris. Freddy’s still only 22, but his early fame has made everything he’s done since look like failure. Everyone was treating him like a true superstar for so long – he was endorsing Campbell’s Soup and appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated before he could grow facial hair – that, when it became clear that he was probably only Quite Good at best, it gave the phrase “the next Freddy Adu” something of an Ozymandian quality.
He currently plays for Bahia in Brazil, on loan from the Philadelphia Union.
7. Kennedy Bakircioglu
Edition: CM 01/02
Position: Midfielder
In the game: Need a European playmaker to pull the strings in midfield? Does he have to be bald? Is Zidane too expensive? The unpronounceable Bakircioglu was your man.
In real life: Kennedy was actually a decent player in real life, playing for Ajax and Racing Santander. But his early, failed trial at Manchester United haunted him, and there’s a really weird interview he did once where he describes sitting up late at night playing CM just to see what would have happened if he had been signed by Fergie. Also, he’s a bit famous for his combovers.
8. Andri Sigþórsson
Edition:CM 3
Position: Striker
In the game: He had his potential rating set to the maximum of 200, making him theoretically the best football player it was possible to be.
In real life: While not quite reaching the heights CM scouts thought he would, poor old Andri did look to have a promising career until he suffered a career-ending knee injury in 2004. He is apparently “now in charge of his father’s successful chain of bakeries”.
9. Taribo West
Edition:CM 01/02
Position: Defender
In the game: Available on a free from AC Milan, Taribo was the solid first signing every manager made at the beginning of any new game.
In real-life: After an early career being fought over by Italy’s biggest clubs, Taribo spent much of the 00s flitting around backwater European leagues while sporting the hairstyles that were terrible even for footballers.
Also, most famously, the chairman of Partizan Belgrade publicly accused him of lying about his age. He wasn’t 28 when he signed for them in 2002, he was actually 40.
10. Mark Kerr
Edition:CM 01/02
Position: Midfielder
In the game: The greatest Scottish – nay, British – player of all time, who could control, organise and command a football match as readily as Ellen Page could manipulate dream cities and landscapes in Inception.
In real-life: Scotland’s greatest footballing hope spent most of his career pissing about in midfield for Dundee United. His most memorable moment is throwing away a cup final against Rangers with a notoriously poor backpass.
11. Tommy Svindal Larsen
Edition:CM 97/98
Position: Defensive midfielder
In the game: As far as CM players are concerned, Larsen was the best midfield player of his generation. Sitting in front of defence, pinging balls out to wings and shielding the goal from attack, he was a rock. Our rock.
In real-life: He played 24 times for Norway, and spent most of his time pottering about playing for Nuremberg and the wonderfully-named Odd Greenland. As far as we can tell from the recent photo we found of him, he now spends his time working the Dr House impersonation circuit.