10 Championship Manager Cult Heroes

8. Tommy Svindal Larsen

Championship Manager Freddy Adu
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Svindal Larsen appears on 100% of these lists, and for good reason; he was the very definition of complete midfielder in many versions of the game. My favourite all-time football player is Tugay, and in Championship Manager Svindal Larsen was something of a Tugay-on-steroids. 

He would sit in front of your defence and protect them better than a well-armed henched and jealous boyfriend, all the while pinging passes left, right and centre to anyone and everyone. He probably scored goals too, but he didn't need to. He was Tommy Svindal Larsen, and he did for Championship Manager midfields what Nikola Tesla did for electricity.

How did Svindal Larsen get on in the dank, hollow land that we call reality? Not too badly, actually. He holds the record for most appearances for Norwegian Youth Teams, clocking up a fine 99 appearances at all age levels. He also appeared 24 times for the national side, and spent most of his club career at Odd Grenland and Nurnberg in Germany. 

It is in Championship Manager that Svindal Larsen is most fondly remembered though. He was to teams what Arn Anderson was to the Four Horsemen, what Rahul Dravid was to the Indian batting line up. Surrounded by flair and creativity, Svindal Larsen was the anchor that made sure it didn't all go to pot. 

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.