My FM20 Player of the Year — 5 Star Potential

It’s time for MaddFM to give us his FM20 Player of the Year following save stints at Southend, Newcastle and currently at Greuther Fürth in Germany #MayTheFürthBeWithYou.

Being the guy who has typed up and read in detail all of the nominations published so far on site here, I have naturally had plenty of time and inspiration to deliberate my own FM20 Player of the Year. If you were to ask me who the best player in the game is at the start of an FM20 save I’d probably lean towards the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Sergej Milinkovic Savic or Bernardo Silva (outrageous he is). If I’m asked who I think is the best wonderkid in the game, I’d point you in the direction of Sebastiano Esposito or Adam Hlozek who turn out to be absolute worldies in the game after a couple of seasons.

But that’s not what this is. FM20 Player of the Year is reserved for special players..that one player who has had a huge impact on your save, that digs you out of games when you need him most, that you knew about before anyone else, signed when no-one else wanted him, or that you have developed and brought along with you on your journey to managerial greatness - forever associating them with this year’s edition of FM for years to come. For me, that player is none other than Alex Blesa, who despite having relatively mediocre attributes, average potential and a low value/asking price has been absolutely immense for me in my current Greuther Fürth save - helping to bring us from the dregs of Bundesliga 2 all the way to the higher echelons of the Bundesliga and (at the time of writing), Europa League football for the lowly Bavarian side.

In real life Alex Blesa is an 18 year old Spanish Attacking Midfileder who has just recently made his debut for La Liga side Levante. At the start of FM20, Blesa is a 17 year old unknown entity with 4 star potential sitting in the Levante U19 squad just waiting to be snapped up for what is usually a bargain €1m - €1.5m transfer fee; you might think this is expensive for a 17 year old valued at €275K but trust me, it’s a steal if you are bringing him to a mid-table or lower league club.

Blesa at the start of FM20

I’ve long been a fan of the Shadow Striker role, having enjoyed much success with it previously through the likes of Xadas at Newcastle in FM17, Bradley Dack at Blackburn in FM18 and Mickael Cuisance at Tenerife in FM19. I find that they get into fantastic goal-scoring positions along the edge of the box, link up play between Midfield and Attack without dropping too deep and put great pressure on opposition defenders forcing them to clear the ball rather than play from the back. Football Manager defines the Shadow Striker as:

“one of the team’s main goal-scoring threats. Usually coupled with another forward in support, the shadow striker pushes up into goal-scoring positions as the ball moves into the final third and looks to close down opposing defenders when out of possession”

We signed Blesa to play this role and he does exactly that - as time has progressed so too have his attributes particularly in terms of Flair, Off the Ball, Technique and Decisions and even though not a superstar on paper, he has consistently performed even after moving up a division - regularly getting into goal-scoring positions, consistently finding the net and most importantly he is a big game player often scoring against some of the top opposition sides in the league.

6 seasons later

The icing on the cake? Despite only having 11 in the Long Shots attribute, the lad packs an absolute humdinger from outside the box and regularly pops up to smash home from 30 yards - see for yourself:

All in all - for €1.4m we brought in a player who at the time of writing has racked up 39 goals and 22 assists in 175 appearances to date, not bad considering the lad is still only 23 years old. Interestingly he has just been given German citizenship in game and having not been capped for Spain as yet, perhaps a battle for his allegiance will ensue if his form continues to improve - will he be known as Señor or Herr Blesa in years to come? Only time will tell.

Thanks for reading,

MaddFM aka Paul.

You can find more of MaddFM’s Football Manager content on his blog here where you can catch up on his latest save exploits, FM General Interest posts and pieces written exclusively for The Byline, Sports Interactive’s official platform for Football Manager content and Wednesday Wisdom articles.

Interested in sharing your own FM Player of the Year? Drop us a message or reach out to MaddFM for more info.

MaddFM .