Footballers from computer games

[BFTD]

James Coppinger and Stephen McConologue also seemed to have great scoring stats. Coppinger was good but McConologue was pish.

^^^ this.

Ended up with the pair of them in one game. McConologue still playing, apparently, and holds the record for most caps and goals by a Scotland schoolboy. Shame it didn't work out, but at least he gets to say he was a pro.

[johnnynivenEC]

This whole thread, and freddy adu's never been mentioned once!!

[drs]

There was one of the FM games (maybe 2009 or so) where Greg Cameron at Dundee United was a must buy.

You could generally pick him up for £65k, give him a few run outs as a sub and then at the end of the season some English team would always buy him. I once sold him to Fulham for £10 million and bought a new spine for my Hearts team which then won the league and got to the Champions League semi final.

In FM 2001 there was a Swedish guy, something like Lunden, who could be picked up for around £250000 and who was immense - placed in the AMC role just behind the front two he was guaranteed to score 20 a season.

It was always a shame when a FM legend turned out to be mince in real life.

[Albertlegend]

Can't believe I forgot about Alex Farnerud and Aaron! Those are a great shout!!

[mizfit]

Yildirim in FIFA 16, started a career with Bolton before taking the Bursaspor job.

He was on loan from Galatasary, seems every time I took a shot he scored. I couldn't persuade them to sell him next season and as per computer game logic he ran the show against us in the next game.

p***k.

[Man of Aran]

I'm struggling to remember who it was exactly but one of Livi's foreign imports from around 2002 was a must buy on CM4. Think it may have been Guillermo Amor.

You could get him on a free and he retired after about 6 months but he always turned into the greatest coach in the world.

Could appoint him as your assistant and go on holiday for entire seasons when you were about 20 seasons in and getting a bit bored.

[BFTD]

Rolando Zarate always ended up a naturalised Scot in CM 01/02. Think he scored something like 6 in 6 when I played as Scotland manager, but sadly could never manage to unseat the divine Stephen McPhee, poor guy.

[JamieT1314]

Porras of Spain was my boy in this game. Also, our very own Craggs, 11 for Scotland.

This remains the only game that's inspired me to smash a controller. 3-1 ahead with about 15 minutes to go against Italy in the semi final and they started flying in all over the place.

Final score was 3-5. I was twelve, and there were genuine tears.

It was some game, proper fun.

[Gordon EF]

1. Gordon Love - CM 03: The obligatory 'take your own team as far as you can game' with East Fife. Lovey was a pacy right winger whose overall stats frankly made him out of his depth as soon as we made the step up to the second division. But his performances kept him in the team long after the initial 'dross' had been moved on to make way for 'big ticket' signings like Stevie Craig. Lovey really came into his own once we got into the SPL though. He went on a run of about 15 games where he'd score precisely 1 goal every single game. An absolute legend who kept us up in that crucial 1st season and laid the foundations for the title wins and Champions League forays to come.

2. Edin Dzeko - FM 11: You could get him for relatively cheap if you were a decent team at the start of the game. I went Spurs and he was a must buy. He spear-headed my 4-1-2-2-1, bulldozing all opposition he faced. With Luka Modric providing the trickery in behind and Aaron Lennon under strict instructions to get the head down, head for the line and cut it back every time he got the ball, Dzeko had a fucking field day.

3. Taribo West CM 03: Like Dzeko, if you were a tier 2 type team, big Taribo was a relatively cheap option who'd instantly improve your squad. He could play anywhere across the back or as a holding mid. He was fucking mental though. For every few commanding defensive performances, he'd have a game where he ended up breaking some guy's legs, giving away a penalty and being sent off within the first 5 minutes.

4. Oliver Kahn - CM 04: He wasn't even my player but I was Dortmund manager and my friend was Bayern manager. We took CM very seriously. My pal got to the Champions League final in his second season and faced Real Madrid. It was a pretty tight affair, 0-0 going into the last 10 minutes. Lucio makes a fairly innocuous back pass to Kahn from about 30 yards. As the ball is rolling towards him, the stationary Oliver Kahn randomly breaks his leg and crumples to the ground, letting the ball pass through him and into the net. Bayern lose 1-0 and my pal went into one of the most glorious rages I'ver ever witnessed. Thank you Oliver.

5. The Dunfermline chairman - CM 04: After a few successful seasons at Kilmarnock, I thought I'd declare my interest in the vacant Dunfermline job, for a laugh. After Dunfermline thought I was interested, they refused to hire another manager and decided to hold out for me indefinitely, losing every player they had due to nobody being there to re-sign them and plummeting down the leagues. They ended up perpetually fielding sides made entirely of 'fake' u-18s and would finish every season bottom of the 3rd division with 1 or 2 points to their name, still hoping that I'd rekindle my interest in the job and lead them to glory.

[Sunrise]

Quite a few of my best players never saw their career peter out in real life - curse of FM/CM wonderkids! Here's my five I can think of (mostly from CM 03-04 and all with Aberdeen) -

1. Steven Naismith - at the start of his career, a superb scorer for Aiberdeen on our run to the UEFA Cup semi-final... before my computer got wiped .

2. Anton Ferdinand - similar to Naismith appeared for my Dons in what was an early point of his career, no knowing he would be decent in the future.

3. Ryan Wilkie - at the time a promising up-and-coming youth with Liverpool, real-life think he didn't make it, last club was Nairn County two years ago... had the best sides after him in-game but my Aberdeen squad was his destination, we were that strong!

4. Bobby Duncan - Aberdeen youth in 2001-02, scored a lot though perhaps helped by twelve-year-old me boosting the clubs reputation to make them better! Last seen at Peterhead IRL in another career which failed to take off.

5. Tony McParland - in every Scotland side I saw in early-noughties Champ Man games, had a chequered career in the real world of course. Scouts always gave him great reports.

Honorary mentions to Adam Carella and Calum McHattie of Aberdeen.

[BFTD]

Why is it so compelling to read other people's Championship/Football Manager stories?

I forgot all about Fergus Tiernan - just had to look up his name, as it's so long since I've thought about him. Picture the scene...

I've started a game as Scotland manager, but failed to qualify for the first couple of tournaments.The World Cup Qualifiers come around again, and we end up in the play-offs, against the Czech Republic. First leg is at Hampden, and we get destroyed 3-0. To make matters worse, a bunch of regular players are either injured or knackered by the time of the second leg, so a severely weakened team takes the field, including young debutante Fergus.

Game finishes as a 4-0 win, with Fergus scoring all four goals, including three penalties. Scotland qualify and don't miss another tournament for about 14 years. Poor wee Fergus is a regular pick for squads until his retirement, but never plays a game in a Scotland shirt again, finishing with an international record of 1 cap and 4 goals. I reckon someone could probably dine out on that for the rest of their life

[Pars fan]

1. Gordon Love - CM 03: The obligatory 'take your own team as far as you can game' with East Fife. Lovey was a pacy right winger whose overall stats frankly made him out of his depth as soon as we made the step up to the second division. But his performances kept him in the team long after the initial 'dross' had been moved on to make way for 'big ticket' signings like Stevie Craig. Lovey really came into his own once we got into the SPL though. He went on a run of about 15 games where he'd score precisely 1 goal every single game. An absolute legend who kept us up in that crucial 1st season and laid the foundations for the title wins and Champions League forays to come.

2. Edin Dzeko - FM 11: You could get him for relatively cheap if you were a decent team at the start of the game. I went Spurs and he was a must buy. He spear-headed my 4-1-2-2-1, bulldozing all opposition he faced. With Luka Modric providing the trickery in behind and Aaron Lennon under strict instructions to get the head down, head for the line and cut it back every time he got the ball, Dzeko had a fucking field day.

3. Taribo West CM 03: Like Dzeko, if you were a tier 2 type team, big Taribo was a relatively cheap option who'd instantly improve your squad. He could play anywhere across the back or as a holding mid. He was fucking mental though. For every few commanding defensive performances, he'd have a game where he ended up breaking some guy's legs, giving away a penalty and being sent off within the first 5 minutes.

4. Oliver Kahn - CM 04: He wasn't even my player but I was Dortmund manager and my friend was Bayern manager. We took CM very seriously. My pal got to the Champions League final in his second season and faced Real Madrid. It was a pretty tight affair, 0-0 going into the last 10 minutes. Lucio makes a fairly innocuous back pass to Kahn from about 30 yards. As the ball is rolling towards him, the stationary Oliver Kahn randomly breaks his leg and crumples to the ground, letting the ball pass through him and into the net. Bayern lose 1-0 and my pal went into one of the most glorious rages I'ver ever witnessed. Thank you Oliver.

5. The Dunfermline chairman - CM 04: After a few successful seasons at Kilmarnock, I thought I'd declare my interest in the vacant Dunfermline job, for a laugh. After Dunfermline thought I was interested, they refused to hire another manager and decided to hold out for me indefinitely, losing every player they had due to nobody being there to re-sign them and plummeting down the leagues. They ended up perpetually fielding sides made entirely of 'fake' u-18s and would finish every season bottom of the 3rd division with 1 or 2 points to their name, still hoping that I'd rekindle my interest in the job and lead them to glory.

Worth it.

[The Grass Is Greener.]

Slightly off topic but what was the game mode called in PES where you picked a few teams each and made a squad up from the teams selected? Have I got this right? I was more a FIFA player but remember something along these lines when I played it at mates.

[Dunning1874]

Pretty much all the Championship Manager legends being mentioned here are from 01/02 so I'll throw in some from 02/03.

1. Simon Rusk - Scottish holding midfielder at Boston United. Regardless of what team you were or what level you were at you could throw him straight into the first team and he would be a God. The one downside was his disciplinary record, as you got to the point 10 seasons in where he was being suspended for five or six games at a time as he'd accumulated so many points through bookings over the years, Still, an essential player in deploying the 4-1-3-2 formation successfully.

2. Andres D'Alessandro - Not cheap to get him away from River Plate, but if you were building a Europe dominating dynasty he was brilliant and would win World Player of the Year for several successive seasons. Having him, Mark Kerr and Stevie Nicholas as the midfield three was absolute scenes.

3. Gary McCutcheon - The reason I preferred 02/03 to 01/02 was mainly Morton starting in the Third Division and the challenge of winning three successive promotions. If you could get McCutcheon at the end of the first season when his Kilmarnock contract ran out it made the First and Second divisions a piece of piss, which you often could as Kilmarnock never ever started him for some reason. Routinely had an goalscoring ratio better than a goal a game in the lower leagues. Fond memories of him and Dean Walker, signed for £5K from Forfar, tearing the First Division apart as we finished first with St. Mirren second, beating them four times on the way.

4. Rolando Zarate - Always a nervous wait as Scotland manager when you had to pray he wouldn't leave Livingston for the likes of Bayern Munich or Juventus before he'd been in Scotland for four years and you could start picking him for Scotland. The likes of Kiegan Parker, Stephen McConalogue and most importantly Steven Milne always had excellent international goalscoring records, but it was getting Zarate that elevated the team to genuine tournament contenders.

5. Fernando Lopez - Third choice keeper at Livingston so was easy to get hold of for under £100K, as soon as he got a run of first team games he would quickly become world class. Unfortunately he was the type to request a transfer as he wanted to move to a bigger club, but he would go for £10 million.

Honourable mentions to John Cunningham, another guy you could get for under £10K, Gary Teale and Alex Notman, who also achieved Scotland legend status.

[Latino Lover]

Slightly off topic but what was the game mode called in PES where you picked a few teams each and made a squad up from the teams selected? Have I got this right? I was more a FIFA player but remember something along these lines when I played it at mates.

Can't remember what edition it was but I believe it was from around 06/07 when Watford were back in the premier league, the edition which sportsters in Edinburgh had for years where Newcastle were amazing on the game with Owen, luque, martins, emre and n'zogbia. I digress, you could select a mishmash from 2-4 sides and get a random assortment from those in your squad, you could keep 'shuffling' if you wanted one player in particular. I didn't bother with it much after the novelty of playing a United Yugoslavia team v ussr/cis or British isles team etc as the daft strips annoyed a pedant like myself far too much, apparently it was quite popular however as you could just quickly dip in and have a friendly with these mixed sides. Never appeared again to my knowledge, much like the beloved stadium editor going after a few, a definite backwards step for the series.

[RandomGuy.]

They also had a World Cup (Or Euros) Qualifying mode that I enjoyed, again only seemed to last one version of the game though

[Latino Lover]

Yeah that true had non playable sides with fake players for all the also rans. I used to be obsessed with pes to the point where one had was slightly deformed into a claw. This thread has brought glorious memories back. Started to leave faith when it downsized, hardly ever bother now on 360 but tempted to set up the ps2 and play the glory editions again.

[Alert Mongoose]

Willie Howie in the middle of a three man midfield with a forward arrow. Helped me to Dundee Utd winning the Champions League for fifteen straight years. After retiring we went on to win every tournament possible all the way through to 2043 when the game crashed during the summer break. There may have been the odd pre-match save and reload when things didn't go so well.