Five consecutive league titles had Trebor Mahtal riding a wave of success as he stepped down from yet another club on his EuroTrip Football Manager adventure. He departed Slovenian side NK Aluminij with 19 league titles in 11 different countries in his back pocket.
Unusually, very few jobs of interest popped up early in the summer of 2051 so Mahtal was forced to play the waiting game. However, the FC København manager Jesper Harryson resigned in early July after 11 years and 11 titles at the club. Mahtal applied, was quickly offered an interview and the chance to remove the existing staff, and offered the vacant managerial role on 18 July. Mahtal was slightly reticent to walk into such a dominant club but felt this was an unrivalled opportunity.
Who Are FC København?
Football Club København is a professional club located in the Danish capital Copenhagen. The club was founded in 1992 in what’s been described as a ‘superstructure’ above Boldklubben 1903 and Kjøbenhavns Boldklub. It was originally created as the two Copenhagen sides suffered financial difficulties and used the Boldklubben side’s licence to compete in the Danish Superliga. The club known as The Team of the City wasted no time in winning the Danish league, lifting it at the first attempt in 1993 and won 14 more between 2001 and 2023.
On paper, this doesn’t look like the most exciting challenge. København have won the last 23 league titles, 27 out of 28 during this save and 29 of the last 30 back to 2022. However, based on the players he’d seen over recent seasons, Mahtal thought the quality at the club would give him a chance to have a final crack at European competitions. Indeed, København sits 25th in the European coefficients, only behind RB Salzburg (17th) in the playable leagues available to Mahtal. In 28 years of being in the Champions League, they’ve never surpassed the Champions League round of 16 and have lost in the knockout playoff round in the last six seasons – but did win the Europa League in 2041.
He walks into a club valued at £571m, has £83m in the bank and a £46m transfer kitty. It still plays at the 57,581-capacity Parken and has decent infrastructure of 20 youth recruitment and junior coaching but only 14 training and youth facilities. However, Mahtal was slightly disappointed with the players he inherited. København had gone on a selling spree over the last few seasons, making over £300m in sales in the last five seasons, including selling striker Jorge Caicedo to Man UFC for £112m. That wasn’t to say they didn’t have quality, far from it. Mahtal inherited a seriously strong squad that was right up there with the best he’d ever had, especially in attacking areas. However, they did lose two big players for huge money as 30-year-old centre back Mamadou Djilla joined Chelsea for £58m and striker Michal Hadascok forced a move to Inter for £60m.
The best player remaining was elite striker Yannick Wiegand, midfielder Yves Koné, winger Dan-Roger Jensen Liland, who Mahtal converted to a holding midfielder, wonderkid winger Sebastián Villarroel, goalkeeper Karim Ouakrim and strikers Jordan Pizarro and Karl Emil Høglien. Obviously, that meant a lack of defensive-minded players, although they had solid centre back Mbaye Diop, Mahtal’s former Molde full back Gerardo Navarro and strong left back Rafael Moro.
Mahtal added to that with attacking midfielder Julius Buysse for £12.5m from Gent, winger Tomislav Raic-Sudar for £19.5m from Anderlecht and three centre backs in Junpei Takasa for £6m from Yokohama F-M and Vicente Pinero and Braian Fiorotto on loan from Barcelona and Boca. Mahtal’s rebuild continued in January as he sold off a few older players and replaced them with 19-year-old holding midfielder Rodrigo Pinheiro, who already has three Brazil caps, for £17m from Internacional, left back Luís Fernandes for £15m from Liefering and striker Fernando Reygadas for £4.5m from Católica.
He cooked up a wild 4-3-3 formation, alongside more standard but still pretty offensive 4-4-2 and 4-2-3-1 approaches. But he was definitely favouring the 4-2-3-1 after the big sales.
Massive Superliga Expectation
The minimum expectation of Mahtal this season was to win København’s 24th consecutive title. The club was made 4/11 favourites ahead of OB (12/1), his former side Midtjylland (13/1) and Nordsjaelland and AaB (16/1). His Danish return began long before he was ready for it with a home game against Brøndby on 23 July, but his side dominated and won 4-1 led by a Hadascok brace.
Mahtal introduced the 4-3-3 and it looked decent as they racked up 31 shots but only won 2-0 at Hillerød. A big test of whether he would use it in the long term was next time out at home to OB and they delivered with a dominant 4-0 victory with makeshift DMs Liland and Koné scoring before Wiegand edged a 2-1 at AaB. But he eventually settled on the 4-2-3-1, which proved wise as they scored 14 in four games against Vejle, Viborg, Lyngby and AGF. That teed up Mahtal’s first reunion with Midtjylland, who handed Høglien the first of his brace before Buyssen’s first for the club.
København continued to score goals for fun, including a 5-0 thrashing of Hillerød, but finally lost 2-0 at OB in early November. Mahtal got a chance to give the lads four days off and was rewarded as Høglien’s brace led a 3-0 victory over AaB which sent them into the winter break with an 8-point lead over OB. They picked up where they left off, cruising to a 2-0 victory over Lyngby then defeated Nordsjaelland twice in a week 3-1 at home then 4-0 away led by Wiegand’s early brace. A rotated side lost 3-2 at Midtjylland but they went into the Championship Group with a 13-point lead.
The group began with the exciting Høglien scoring twice in a 4-0 thumping of Midtjylland. They continued their flying form and Pizarro’s late brace edged a 2-0 win at OB that secured a 24th straight title – and Mahtal’s 20th of his career in 12 different countries. He threw rotated sides in for the remaining six games, which were played over 13 days. They eventually won the league by 21 points from Midtjylland, finishing on 83 points after 27 wins, 2 draws and 3 defeats, scoring 82 and conceding just 20. They also went on to win the ODDSET Pokalen with a team of backup players, proving the dominance of this club.
Competing With Europe’s Elite
København’s relative success saw them go straight into the CL league phase. They opened up with a tricky trip to Dortmund but played well to earn a 2-2 courtesy of their former midfielder scoring an own goal. Next up was a must-win game as they welcomed Baník Ostrava, dominated the game and won 2-0. They backed that up with Villarroel scoring both goals in a 2-1 win at Austria Wien, but a busy schedule caught up as they got thumped 5-0 by Atlético. Pizarro’s late double edged a deserved 3-2 win at home to Marseille before a superb performance to win 3-1 at Sevilla as Pizarro, Koné and Moro put them three up inside 24 minutes. They wrapped up qualification in 7th place as Pizarro and Wiegand defeated Salzburg 2-1 before a 1-0 loss at Newcastle.
A tricky final 16 tie followed against Tottenham and Mahtal racked up 1,500 games in Football Manager with a trip to London. His team couldn’t earn a victory that such an accolade deserved but did hold on for a 2-1 defeat after Spurs dominated. They were without both centre backs for the home leg and got a bit of a scare as Spurs’ striker missed a sitter after two minutes. But København dominated the first half and got their reward as Høglien levelled the tie up then moved ahead with Villarroel’s wonderstrike. Spurs undeservedly leveled it up again but the hosts continued to dominate and the two wingers again delivered late on to wrap up a superb 4-1 victory.
Next up was Napoli starting at home and they did so wonderfully as Pizarro powered home a close range header from Villarroel’s excellent cross after 8 minutes. Nothing else happened in the first half but the same two players linked up 23 seconds after the break. Napoli had a lot of shots and eventually got into it with a very lucky goal from a corner that was dubiously awarded by goalline technology, but København edged a 2-1 win. Mahtal rested the entire team for the league game between the legs, which did the trick as they limited Napoli to just nine shots and Wiegand’s goal just before half time sent them through.
That teed up a semi final against Man UFC, who had former striker Caicedo and Mahtal’s former Slavia defender Johnny Navarrete, who was named the 10th-best player in the world by Goal50, and midfielder Fernando Teixeira. The away leg was first and København frustrated the hosts so much they kicked Koné out of the game. And UFC eventually nicked a slightly fortuitous 1-0 win in the 87th minute.
Koné was missing for the biggest game in Mahtal’s career and København’s history at a very chilly Parken. They started brightly as the familiar sight of Villarroel crossing for opposite winger Høglien put them in front on 12 minutes. UFC were at it again, kicking Jensen Liland out of the game, as they created absolutely nothing, but then neither did the hosts and it drifted to extra time. Mahtal went for it and got his reward as, just as everyone was expecting penalties, Reygadas poked home from close range. However, three minutes later UFC got a very dubious equaliser from a corner. And penalties it was. It wasn’t looking good as their best player Wiegand missed their first penalty but UFC hit the post with their third then Milan Cirovic saved from Teixeira, only for Pinheiro to immediately miss! Both sides scored their fifth before Cirovic was at it again… giving Navarro a chance to be a hero, and he smashed it into the bottom corner. FC København were into the Champions League Final!
Historic Champions League Final!
The Champions League Final saw Mahtal head back to one of his former hunting grounds as FC København took on Chelsea at Rajko Mitic, the home of Crvena zvezda. København were obviously in their first Champions League Final, while Chelsea were appearing in their second of this save, which they lost to Liverpool in 2031. Mahtal’s main injury concern was Jensen Liland, who wasn’t quite ready to start, so he lined up:
Cirovic; Navarro, Diop, Pineiro, Moro; Pinheiro, Koné; Høglien, Wiegand, Villarroel; Pizarro
Subs: Reygadas, Ouakrim, Takase, Jensen Liland, Raic-Sudar, Buysse, Fernandes, Fiorotto, Jahic, Halilovic
København made a superb start as he jumped in front of the keeper to head home Moro’s cross and quickly doubled his tally by turning home Villarroel’s low cross. Wiegand forced a good save out of the keeper with a 30-yard free kick as Chelsea offered nothing, sending them in 2-0 up at half time. But it immediately got even better as Wiegand’s wonderful floated pass picked out Høglien just 48 seconds after the break. That killed off any chance of a comeback as Chelsea continued to offer nothing and København cruised to a comprehensive 3-0 victory.
FC København were Champions of Europe!!
Mahtal Revels In European Glory
Mahtal chose to come to København to have a pop at the Champions League and, while he was confident this was the best squad he’d ever worked with, he wasn’t sure they’d be able to compete at the highest level. However, he was proven wrong as his team of standout players more than held their own.
The star player was probably Wiegand, who scored 19 goals with 16 assists and a club-high 7.45 average rating in 43 games. He was pushed close by Pizarro with 26 goals and 9 assists and probably Mahtal’s two favourite players Høglien with 22 goals and 8 assists and Villarroel with 9 goals and 15 assists, while youngster Raic-Sudar impressed with 6 goals and 10 assists.
Mahtal had only ever intended on having one season at København, but the impressive domination he enjoyed meant he was definitely going to quit in the summer. So on 3 June 2052, he resigned as manager in the knowledge that his players were going to get picked apart by Europe’s elite. He leaves København with a wild 79% win ratio after 321 days and 54 games, of which he won 43, drew 3 and lost 8, scoring 131 and conceding 49.
Where would European champion Mahtal end up as he departed Denmark and went in search of his 19th club? Join us on Friday to find out!
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