I am currently at blackpool training and thinking over some opportunities in Europe. He even trained in Blackpool, the poor guy. Instead of Milan or Madrid, it was Philadelphia and Jagodina in Serbia for Adu.

Everybody wanted to see this 14-year-old wonderkid.” “But you’re talking about a 14-year-old kid! Some people understood that but a lot of people expected me to put up a lot of stats. “Pretty soon into my career I realised that there was a lot of pressure because everyone expected you to score or assist every single game,” Adu said in an interview in late 2021.

It’s perhaps no surprise that the hype didn’t match reality. All of that also led to his stats in multiple CMs being outrageously good, with his young age and added bonus. Adu was dubbed the next Pele, even featuring in adverts with the legend himself. It led to an incredible level of hysteria.

It’s perhaps no surprise that the full power of the United States’ sports marketing industry was aimed at making one 14-year-old boy the biggest star in the world in 2004.Īdu made his professional debut for DC United at just the age of 14 and would score before his 15th birthday, prompting Nike to sign him up. They’ll always be world beaters to us though.

So here are 11 Championship Manager legends who didn’t quite achieve their virtual success in real life. But not many would repeat such success in the real world. Plenty became cult heroes for dedicated CM players, lifting multiple Champions League’s and turning Huddersfield Town into European giants. We decided to have a look at what 11 of the greatest to ever pull on the digital shirt did in the real world.įrom late night training sessions lit by the blue light of an ancient PC to Champions League finals that you put a whole suit on for, Championship Manager gave us some of the best moments video games ever have.īut while we were living out our fantasies in an alternate universe where we were the greatest football managers in the world, plenty of the pixellated players you would set out in your boundary-pushing ‘diablo’ tactic were real-life footballers trying to navigate their way through the game. Championship Manager is one of the greatest football video game series ever, but some players who were legends in the games did comparatively little in real life.

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