When Lionel Messi moved to PSG it felt like a wasted opportunity. But the World Cup winner's move to the United States with Inter Miami feels even more so. A more interesting challenge would have been to see how arguably the world’s greatest-ever player would fare in arguably the world’s best league. So we put it to the test in FM23.
Trebor Mahtal's overperformance had attracted the attention of one of the biggest clubs in European football. Parma came with an offer that upped Mahtal's wages to £86k per week until 2032.
Trebor Mahtal led his exciting West Ham wonderkids to back-to-back titles led by the exceptional Ronaldinho and Hidetoshi Nakata in 2025. And more exciting times were in store for Irons fans.
Trebor Mahtal led West Ham United to their first-ever league title in just his second season in charge led by future superstar Ronaldinho and a team that had been wholly rebuilt from the one he inherited.
The start of 1999 saw an exciting new name join West Ham United, as Mahtal beat the likes of Milan and Juventus to the signature of Ronaldinho for £2.3m from Gremio.
Having just completed a Football Manager Experiment using a custom database in the European Super League, we were keen to take on another fantasy challenge in FM23. So the release of The Mad Scientist's annual retro database was very timely.
In four seasons, we'd taken Vélez Sarsfield from the bottom tier through to becoming European Super League champions. The key to this success had undoubtedly been Endrick, who'd scored 126 goals in 121 league games and 161 goals in 157 games in all competitions for the club.
Vélez Sarsfield had made light work of progressing through the lower reaches of the fictional European Super League database which was, effectively, a global super league. But their rewards for significant cup and league success in season 3 were game- and club-changing finances.
Vélez Sarsfield quickly progressed to the second tier of the new-look European Super League as we dominated the Rest of the World Africa division led by the talents of striker Endrick.
We completed the first task in rising through the fictional European Super League database by leading Vélez Sarsfield to promotion from the Pepsi Elevation League. But now could we make it back-to-back promotions?
Football Manager Addict 