Football Manager 26 is on the verge of release, but the Daily Star team has gone for a trip down memory lane to relive our glory days and love for the many wonderkids we found over the years
Eder Alvarez Balanta was a beast at the back(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
The dream of managing your boyhood club, taking them to the Premier League title and becoming a legend is something many of us long for. And for most of us – well, let’s face it, all of us – the reality of that is something that will never happen. But thanks to the iconic computer game series Football Manager series, it’s actually something football-mad men and women have been doing for decades now.
And during those legendary game saves, some of which can go on for decades in the gaming world, gamers have come across future legends and those who were tipped to be the next big thing, called wonderkids.
Some failed (Freddy Adu), while some went on to rule the pitch (Leo Messi, obviously) – and then there are those who some managers turned from a random name into a club icon in Football Manager that nobody else would have heard of in the real world.
Michael Duff was one of those signings you HAD to make back in the day(Image: Getty Images)
So the Daily Star team has got together to share their wild FM wonderkid stories ahead of the release of the latest version of the game, Football Manager 26.
Liam Shaw – Sports Sub Editor
I think back to roughly FM12/13, the signings of Luka Jovic, Eder Alvarez Balanta and Lucas Romero (special mention to the last two, who would sign for literally anybody and be good enough for… literally anybody) played an instrumental role in getting Blackburn Rovers back to the top of English football (with a little help from an Argentine sugerdaddy buying out Venkys and building a stadium named after… himself).
Bernardo Silva and Geronimo Rulli were also instrumental, but both spat their dummy out when approached by Chelsea and eventually left, sitting on the bench on £300k a week – I have never forgiven them.
Anyone remember Tommy Svindal Larsen?(Image: Bongarts/Getty Images)
Special mention to not a wonderkid of sorts, but 6ft 4in striker Libor Kozak scoring 30+ goals for Granada in La Liga in his opening season, something I doubt he has ever replicated for anybody, ever. Those front post corners, great times.
Matt Robbins – Assistant night editor
I’m not sure Championship Manager 97/98 actually labeled them as Wonderkids but Tommy Svindal Larsen was my first purchase on practically every save that year.
More recently, Carlos Vela and Anthony Vanden Borre were cornerstones of my FM 2007 West Ham dynasty and ended up on the coaching staff when I was about 68 (not in real life).
Anthony Vanden Borre peaked in 2007(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
That same save also saw me pick up some fella called Fernando Torres on a free and then score 78 goals the next season.
For me the game has got too complicated now – I want to have it on the coffee table while watching TV, rather than analyse absolutely everything. I might try again for FM26 though.
Cam Winstanley – Sports reporter
My umming and ahing over who the GOAT is has been decided as Marcos Leonardo.
£12.25million from Real Madrid after he failed to make the grade at the Santiago Bernabeu, the Samba star was my first signing after taking over a struggling but cash-loaded Middlesbrough mid-season in the Championship. Despite scoring 27 goals in 20 games in his first half campaign, we were unfortunately too far off the pace to win promotion, but Marcos returned by bagging 38 in 41 games as Boro walked the league with 99 points.
The new game launches soon
His star continued to shine bright in the Premier League, firing Boro to four league titles, the Champions League, the Europa League, four FA Cups, and two Carabao Cups. He finished his 11 years at the Riverside (or the Steve Gibson Park as the new 50,000-seater stadium was called) with 307 goals in 465 games.
Honourable mentions to: Richairo Zivkovic, and the late Billy Vigar, who fired me to back-to-back promotions with Eastbourne Borough to League Two.
Simon Hamalienko – Senior Content Editor
Kyle Joseph who was a youth academy player at Wigan who made a move to join Falkirk in 2023 and helped them achieve Europa League glory, resulting in an England call-up.
He spent six years playing for Falkirk becoming the all-time top goalscorer before I took him with me to Burnley who just got relegated to Championship. Promotion with him being top goalscorer before I took the Fulham job. And guess who came with me? And despite my scout saying he is no longer good enough to help the team. He proved them wrong to help Fulham win the Premier League with 22 goals.
Kyle Joseph is a niche one, but a Fulham legend to some(Image: Getty Images)
In reality, he was loaned to Oxford by Wigan before moving on to Blackpool. Now currently 24 and playing at Hull City. So there is still time to reach his FM potential.
Andy Dean – Deputy Sports Editor
I think everyone who ever played the game during a certain era made ‘Mike’ Duff from Cheltenham their first signing for £20k.
He actually signed for Burnley for about that fee in real life then played about 400 games for us – and played international football for NI – so he was one who was a bargain buy in reality and virtual reality.
Adam Cailler – Senior reporter
Sherman Cardenes is a club legend for Southport in the year 2018. That Columbian genius took my Conference North side from the doldrums of non-league to the glory days of Premier League football, and even gave us a run the the Champions League.
Southport legend Sherman Cardenes(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Mainly a right-winger, he could also play up front if needed, and scored 32 goals in his first season on loan – before I nearly made the club bankrupt to sign him.
I posted something about him on Instagram a while ago, and he followed me as a result . . . my childhood is now complete.
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