by MaddFM.
The year is 2012. Manchester City have won their first Premier League title in 44 years after Sergio Aguero scored THAT goal which sealed the league title on goal difference over arch-rivals Manchester United. Chelsea became the first team to win the Champions League under a caretaker manager after Roberto Di Matteo took the reins following the sacking of André Villas-Boas earlier in the season. Lionel Messi is about to win his fourth Ballon d’Or award and Spain are now World and European Champions after smashing Italy 4-0 in the final having been victorious in the World Cup final against the Netherlands just two years earlier - inspirational for Spaniards watching at home in particular a 9-year-old Pedri and an 8-year-old Gavi. How little they knew back then.
A lot can happen in 10 years and what better way to look at what may have been than to delve into the multiverse of Football Manager 2013 to see how the next 10 years were predicted to unfold, culminating in the simulation of World Cup 2022 to see how the in-game mechanics and researcher input saw the world at the time and predicted how football would evolve 10 years down the line. Strap in folks, it’s a rollercoaster…
At the start of FM13 Marouane Fellaini becomes the most expensive transfer of the Summer Transfer Window after his £27.5m move from Everton to Man City - all of the narrative considering he would move to Man Utd in real life just a year later. 10 seasons on and the narrative balance is restored with the most expensive in-game transfer being Ilkay Gundogan’s £46m move from Dortmund to Man Utd - go figure right? Incidentally, by the time we hit the summer of 2022 Man Utd (led by José Mourinho) are again Premier League winners while it’s Markus Babbel’s Dortmund who are crowned Kings of Europe after beating Barcelona 1-0 in the Champions League final courtesy of a goal from former Real Madrid player Rodrigo - that must have been tasty for him indeed, hope no-one tells him that in real life he has ended up at Leeds United of all places. While in reality Germany (2014) and France (2018) saw a spell of World Cup dominance for European nations, Brazil have won both tournaments in-game making them heavy favourites for the 2022 competition which doesn’t include giants Portugal, Croatia or the Republic of Ireland (sigh) who all missed out on qualification. Strangely Norway have qualified in a world where Erling Haaland doesn’t even exist so make of that what you will.
World Cup 2022 according to FM13
England Manager Stuart Pearce (you heard me) has announced his 30-man preliminary squad to travel to Qatar who are included in-game as hosts even if a Winter tournament is not (who saw that coming right?). The squad is peppered with newgen talent but the Top 5 inclusions in terms of in-game value are Chelsea’s Jack Wilshere, Porto’s Wilfried Zaha (must have missed that call from the Ivory Coast), Chelsea’s Raheem Sterling (they got that one right), Man Utd’s Will Hughes and Man City’s Ross Barkley, while the #1 jersey is hotly contested by Stoke’s loyal Jack Butland, West Brom’s Alex Smithies and Fraser Forster of AC Milan. Yes, that’s a thing. In this universe Harry Kane (also at West Brom) has never earned a cap for England, nor has Harry Maguire who has just signed for Championship side Hull from Burnley mirroring a real-life move he actually made in 2014 - how does this game always know?!
Out of 30 players only 3 actually went on to feature in Gareth Southgate’s final 26 man squad for the real-life World Cup - Luke Shaw, Jordan Henderson and Raheem Sterling. Granted newgens have a part to play, but knowing what you know now can you imagine if England’s current real-life World Cup hopes rested on the likes of Wilshere, Phil Jones, Ross Barkley, Nathan Redmond and Ryan Shawcross? Let’s see how they got on..
England XI vs Cameroon, Mon 13th June 2022.
Man like Stuart Pearce rocking an old-fashioned 4-4-2 for England’s opener against Cameroon - I suppose we can imagine some of the newgens that feature as a few real-life current players; Simmons can be Trent seeing as 31-year-old Kieran Trippier has found himself at St. Pat’s Athletic in the League of Ireland, Rowlands can be Declan Rice seeing as he is a Londoner and the two Strikers up top must be the multiverse’s answer to Harry Kane and Callum Wilson. They go on to win 2-1 before an embarassing 3-0 defeat at the hands of Sweden and a rescued 1-1 draw with Australia which puts them 2nd in their group and sets up a Last 16 clash with wouldn’t you know it, Brazil, who topped Group E ahead of Belgium. Meanwhile Spain, Italy and France all top their respective groups while Argentina crash out at the hands of Japan .
England’s woes continue and no doubt Stuart Pearce is living up to his nickname as a Neymar-inspired Brazil thrash them 6-1, Ryan Shawcross with the consolation goal for England which we all expected. High-flying Holland give Germany a 4-1 hiding - hardly surprising considering it’s a side with former Newcastle legends Vurnon Anita, Jetro Williams and Tim Krul in their starting XI. Japan continue their heroics by beating the Czech’s 2-0, while Spain, Italy and France all progress to the Quarter Finals at the expense of Russia, Paraguay and Serbia.
Last 16 Results
The Quarter Final sets up a mouth-watering clash between Spain and France which goes to Extra-Time and requires a Bojan penalty to seal it for the Spaniards (yes the former Stoke City chap) after Paul Pogba had equalised in the 90th minute for the French who prefer Moussa Sissoko over Antoine Griezmann for some unknown reason. Spain also seem to have Erik Lamela starting for them so in hindsight he must be happy with his life choices. Japan’s dreams of World Cup glory are crushed in a 6-goal drubbing by Brazil, Italy need penalties to overcome a Carlos Fierro inspired Mexico (see our Wonderkid Hall of Fame for more info) and Manolo Gabbiadini seals it for the Azurri (remember him?), while it’s a similar story in the game between Belgium and Holland where 20 penalties are needed before Thibault Courtois steps up and misses to send the Dutch through to the Semi-Final. Not dramatic at all here.
Holland have a new hero in Ricky van Wolfswinkel (yep him of former Norwich City fame). Memphis Depay’s 92nd minute own goal looked to have won it for the Italians in extra-time but Ricky pops up in the 119th minute to send the game to penalties, this time Marco Veratti is the villain as he misses to send the flying Dutchmen through to the final. In the other Semi-Final clash we have a thrilling stalemate between Spain and Brazil until that man Neymar pops up to send Brazil through to their third World Cup Final in a row, it’s almost a certainty they will become champions for a 3rd time but let’s not forget, this is FM we are talking about…
Here we are. The World Cup Final according to Football Manager 2013. Holland versus Brazil who surprisingly have never met in a World Cup Final previously despite both sides being at the pinnacle of international football during the 1970’s. The famous Oranje against the iconic yellow and blue Seleção - not out of the question that this could happen in real life, however for now we will have to settle for FM13’s visualisation of how the World Cup 2022 final plays out and having scored 23 goals in 7 games so far in this year’s competition compared to Holland’s 15 (plus two penalty shootouts needed) - surely our collective money is on Brazil for this one…right?
But of course. It was him. The man, the myth, the legend. Luc Castaignos. Not a newgen, no. Old school FM’ers will remember Luc Castaignos from earlier versions of Football Manager, however his was not the name we might have expected to start a World Cup final let alone scoring the brace which handed Holland their first ever World Cup trophy after losing out in 2010, 1978 and 1974 respectively. Luc Castaignos, whose name now gets listed alongside Bergkamp, Van Basten, Gullit, Koeman, Rijkaard, Cruyff et al in the Dutch Hall of Fame list, the most unlikely of heroes but of course, this is exactly what we hoped for in this simulation! 10 years on and the FM13 multiverse has determined that Castaignos would start for and win Holland the World Cup final while in real life, despite a career largely at the top level of European football following spells at Feyenoord, Inter Milan, FC Twente, Eintracht Frankfurt and Sporting CP, poor Luc Castaignos has never even been capped by the Dutch national side and though the game predicted him playing and scoring prolifically for Monaco and Holland by July 2022 at age 30, sadly his real life career did not continue in an upward trajectory and at age 30 now he finds himself without a club following a stint at OFI Crete in the Greek Super League. Perhaps someone managing a Dutch lower league should take a look at him 👀
Luc Castaignos - FM13 vs FM23
For now we pay tribute to Luc and to Football Manager 2013 for it’s valiant effort in predicting the World Cup 10 years down the line…never an easy task (as The Independent proved in 2013) however where it may lack in terms of accuracy and foresight, it more than makes up for in entertainment and wonder at what could have been and how things never go quite as one might expect. Dare we form our own predicted England World Cup winning side 8-10 years from now and see how we do in the unlikely (but likely) event that we are still podding and blogging here well into our 40’s and 50’s? Stay tuned 😄.
Thanks for reading.
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