10 Championship Manager Cult Heroes
Fiction and reality are two very different things, especially when it comes to football simulators.
Everyone who ever played Championship Manager has a nostalgic story or four, whether it was taking FC Twente to two consecutive unbeaten seasons, European glory with Strasbourg or dragging Bournemouth to the Premier League (who knew?!), the nostalgia is almost as great as the experience was. Each new edition was met with increasing excitement as new features and leagues were added over time.
We all know what the best part of the game was however.
Championship Manager (and its spiritual successor Football Manager) is a football game played entirely on paper. Potential more often than not turned into real ability. This threw up a number of quirks in the game, where by previously anonymous players would become complete superstars. It was a world where Freddy Adu really became the next Pele, where a little known Belarussian kid became a world beater, where a Norwegian journeyman became the most important midfielder in world football. It was a wonderful world, and here are 10 of the greatest heroes of the game.
For now, this list contains players only from the Championship Manager series from before the Great Split.
10. Anatoli Todorov
Where better to start than with, the youthful Bulgarian goal machine that was Anatoli Todorov?
As an Eastern European footballing aficionado, I would always keep a keen eye on the leagues and teams of the region. My favourite Bulgarian team was Litex Lovech (mostly because of their wonderful orange and green kit), and my otherwise trivial search of their players was turned on its head with the discovery of this beauty.
Making his mark in the 03/04 version of the game, Todorov had speed, creativity and finishing ability up the ying-yang, was available for as good as nothing and performed consistently at all levels. You usually had to wait for a work permit, sure, but was it worth the wait? You bet your eyes it was.
In the real (pfft, what even is reality?) world, Anatoli Todorov is still plying his trade in the nether regions of Bulgarian football, although now he does so for Septemvri Sofia. He started his career with the same club, and it would seem it'll end there. In the CM world Todorov was a striker's striker, but in reality he is a creative(ish) midfielder.
Only 30, there's still time for him to reach his potential, except there isn't really time.