The streets of the Gunma Prefecture witnessed one of the wildest parties this part of Japan had ever seen as the homegrown heroes of Thespakusatsu Gunma paraded the J1 League, AFC Champions League and Emperor's Cup trophies.
Our fourth iteration of the Wonderkid Factory may well be our best yet as, 17 years into Wonderkid Factory IV, our homegrown Thespakusatsu Gunma squad won a second J1 League title, their first domestic cup and became Champions of Asia in 2042. Furthermore, 12 of the homegrown players are in the current Japan squad.
The meteoric rise of Unió Esportiva Sant Andreu picked up pace as exciting homegrown attackers led them to a massive overperformance, securing European football in their first season in LaLiga. That raised expectations and created a massive challenge for manager Oriol Ribas to manage domestic and continental football.
Supporters of Thespakusatsu Gunma were becoming all too accustomed to the feeling of being second best. They saw their side finish 2nd in J1 League for the fifth time in nine seasons in 2041, which, in fairness, they probably couldn't have dreamed of before manager Robaato Rasamu arrived at the club 16 years ago.
The Catalan Turf Wars rivalry was really heating up, as promotion meant Sant Andreu would be playing at the same level as cross-city rivals FC Barcelona for the first time.
Robaato Rasamu passed 15 years in charge of Thespakusatsu Gunma, fresh from leading the club to a fourth 2nd-place finish and a sixth top-four finish in J1 League. In those 15 years, Rasamu had led Gunma into battle 680 times, winning 332, drawing 163 and losing 185 en route to leading the club out of the third tier and competing with Japan's elite. And, ultimately, they achieved the pinnacle as Gunma secured their maiden J1 League title in 2038.
The new, true pride of Cataluña, Unió Esportiva Sant Andreu, consolidated their position in Spain's second tier for a third season, thanks largely to the goal contributions of their homegrown academy products. Manager Oriol Ribas now faced the challenge of reshaping the squad to try and build on two 15th-place finishes.
Thespakusatsu Gunma's first J1 League title defence didn't exactly go to plan as they suffered a slow start but recovered to the board's expected top-half finish in 2039. And manager Robaato Rasamu recognised it was time to shake things up a little.
We recently took a sidestep away from our primary focus of Football Manager to, for the first time in the 7 years of FM Addict, play another game. Shock horror! And I enjoyed the experience of playing Football Academy Manager so much that I wanted to continue playing. So I fired the game back up and made it through 20 seasons of our first save in the game.
The rapid rise of Barcelona's Unió Esportiva Sant Andreu continued as their exciting young team survived with relative ease in their first-ever season in Spain's second tier. And Ultras leader turned manager Oriol Ribas continued to focus on youth ahead of his fifth season at the helm.
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