10 Championship Manager Cult Heroes

7. Ibrahima Bakayoko

Championship Manager Freddy Adu
Tony Marshall/EMPICS Sport

Truth be told, Ibrahima Bakayoko's plight in real life was a bigger blow to me than finding out that Father Christmas wasn't real. Bakayoko signed for Everton in October 1998 for £4m or so, and I was a little excited. Not because of Bakayoko's impressive performances for Montpellier in the years previous, oh no. I was excited because in a sea of people who couldn't pronounce his name, I knew the truth. Ibrahima Bakayoko was the greatest striker on the planet.

He had to be, because he was unbelievable on Championship Manager 97/98. Bakayoko scored goals for fun, he made goals for fun, he was a joy to manage and he'd do this year after year after year. It was therefore understandable to assume that he would do the same at Everton, that he would fire them to glories the Toffees fans hadn't seen for decades. 

Unfortunately, it became quickly apparent that Ibrahima Bakayoko in real life was a different kettle of fish to Ibrahima Bakayoko in Championship Manager. In fact, one was a kettle of fish and the other was more akin to a kettle of faeces. It was then that I realised that maybe, just maybe Championship Manager wasn't the gospel when it came to the quality of football players worldwide. My heart was broken.

Ibrahima Bakayoko broke my heart. 

Contributor
Contributor

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.