by José Rodriguez.
I spent my FM23 journey in the Swedish Arctic Circle with Kiruna FF. The goal here was to focus recruitment of Central American players and homegrown talent. When you've been with a club for ten seasons, it's natural to have a hard time choosing your favorite player. But for me, the decision was easy, it is one of our newgen forwards. A man by the name of Richard Bengtsson.
As someone who plays with attribute masking on, one of my favorite things to do at the beginning of every season is to look at all the newgen free agents, trial them and then offer contracts to anyone that looks decent. Richard Bengtsson was one of those players.
2023 Profile
He began his career as a 16-year-old in Sweden's fourth tier, Division 2 Norrland, scoring 18 goals and providing 6 assists in just 23 matches. He continued to improve every season as we climbed up the leagues, eventually breaking our all-time league scoring records and becoming the club's all-time leading scorer. He was the leader of the team, taking the Captian's armband at 20 years old.
What impressed me the most about Richard was his consistency. Even when we signed some incredible strikers, particularly in the last four seasons as we tried to compete in Europe, he always found himself back in the starting lineup. Perhaps it was my fondness for having "homegrown academy" players playing against the European elites, or maybe he was just that good.
All in all, Richard Bengtsson finished his 10th season at the club with 43 goals in 36 (5) appearances, tying fellow Kiruna academy wonderkid striker Mirsad Ziba for most goals scored in a season. He truly is an exceptional player and a testament to always trust your gut and not to be so fixated on star ratings.
2031 Profile
Career stats:
All-Time Appearances: 354
All-Time Goals: 275
All-Time Assists: 59
All-Time Rating: 7.74
League Appearances: 250
League Goals: 201
Leauge Assists: 43
League Rating: 7.60
Richard Bengtsson was the perfect example of a player who possessed all the right attributes in the right places. He may not have been a wonderkid, but he was consistent and reliable, which made him an essential player in the team. Even though he was called into the Swedish squad regularly, he never got the chance to feature in a match for the national team. Regardless, his outstanding performance at Kiruna FF made him a legend at the club and therefore he is my FM23 Player of the Year.
Thanks for reading!
What a story and what a deserving nomination for FM23 Player of the Year! If you enjoyed this be sure to drop José a follow (@YouthIntake on Twitter), you can also find all of his save adventures and FM content over at CoffeeHouseFM.com.
Fancy writing about your FM23 Player of the Year? Drop us a line on Twitter or reach out to MaddFM directly.
