World's Best Wonderkids 15 Years Ago

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Well, it’s safe to say that 15 years ago there were a few names on everyone’s lips that just aren’t anymore. These wonderkids were assigned the highest possible potential on Football Manager, the excellent football simulator that scouts over 300,000 players every year. These kids were the absolute best of the best back then, but where are these former Wonderkids now? Where did they end up? Did any of them reach their potential?
Surprise! None of them turned into Messi himself, but some of these wonderkids actually turned out to be pretty good. Then there are other young stars on this list that you have never heard of for a reason. You be the judge! Did they fail or did they succeed, I’ll certainly judge them first but you can rank these wonderkids any way you want.
Much Love,
FM Senpai
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#FootballManager #Gaming #Hashtags

[@ZealandonYT]

Go to nordvpn.com/zealand to get the two-year plan with an exclusive deal PLUS one month free. It’s risk-free with NordVPN’s 30-day money-back guarantee

[@kngaman9]

Fun fact: Aarón Ñíguez is Saúl Ñíguez's (yes, the guy from Atletico who played for Chelsea last season) older brother!

[@kngaman9]

@trident gaming as far as I’m concerned, Saúl has never scored in a Champions League Final

[@Nurmoja]

@@kngaman9 technically he scored a penalty in the shootout vs RM in the second (most recent) final

[@kngaman9]

@@Nurmoja oh yeah, but does that truly count as a goal tho? 👀

[@kngaman9]

@trident gaming you mean the crazy goal vs Bayern right?

[@Gordon6182]

Jeez, Aarón Niguez. I'm a Rangers fan & I don't even recall this guy!

[@felipewilliams3047]

Dear Zealand, whenever you are looking at a South American player, check the translate Wikipedia page from the Spanish version! The English ones are outdated, so for example Matias Fernandez didn’t retire on 2019, he played for his boyhood club on 2020 and it’s still playing at Deportes La Serena on 2022! Arguably one of their best players.

[@justinwong3755]

7:55 I got curious and did a google search. The two GKs are Lucas Molina and Emiliano Molina, and both were bright prospects. Lucas died in his sleep from a heart attack in 2004 (aged 20) and was a part of Argentina U20 at the time, and had a few starts for Independiente. Emiliano was on the reserve team when he died from a car crash in 2005 and was the U17 Argentine GK, and he is actually about a year and a half younger than Ustari, and was only 17 when he died. Must've been heartbreaking.

[@ratedpending]

A few months before the death of the two goalkeepers, their coach died of a heart attack from smoking-related conditions as well.

[@GodfreyRaphael]

I thought Zealand was just being hyperbolic, like those two keepers got injured in quick succession. Never thought that they actually died.

[@JTB_FM]

i believe emiliano molina was good friends with aguero as well as they played for the same club and the u17

[@mattep74]

Poor kids

[@lowencraft1404]

Sus. Very sus

[@romuloreck]

I watched Alexandre Pato's debut for my team Internacional in 2006 and he was destroying defenders like it was nothing at 17, he literally looked like prime Messi. He was on the team that went on to beat Barcelona in the club world cup that year, if anything this guy was actually underhyped for what he had shown in such a short time

[@mmello1993]

I remember The game against Palmeiras

[@IgorPereira88]

the "coloridos" found each other

[@mmello1993]

@@IgorPereira88 Sou Corinthians kkkk

[@markmorris7123]

Was my favourite player.. Still is..Love the way he plays the game

[@DavyVDBogert]

He for sure didn't 'go too soon'

[@BadVera]

Hello, by the way, Mati Fernández still plays professionally here in Chile. Also, the 2006 season he had with Colo Colo was some of the best football I have seen in my life. He was really special.

[@sjewitt22]

@45 commando I remember him.

[@twakilon]

On Gago, he was insanely good in 2018 for Boca. He made it back to the National Team even. But he never made over 20 appearances because he was always injred. He had like 3 ACL ruptures in that spell with Boca Juniors alone.

[@sebasiegrist9341]

And now he become a rather competent coach. It's a shame how he had recurrent injuries in the worst occasions.

[@MarianoGallicchio]

On Gago, maybe Zealand miss the fact that he PLAYED THE WC FINAL in 2014. An another final on 2018... hummm .

[@One.Zero.One101]

Gago ka rin.

[@Albent]

In defense of Gago, his career ended because he was basically made of crystal. He had a severe problem with injuries, which increased with age. After returning to Argentina, he had three Achilles tendon injuries in a row. First on September 2015 (aged 29) only 24 second in into a match, alone, just by jumping. He came back on January 2016, but in April he had the same injury, returning in December 2016. The third one was on December 2018. He didn't played again until June 2019. He retired in November 2020, aged 34. He's basically Redondo.

[@addrenry784]

most incredible signing I ever made was on championship manager 98-99 - Colin Luckett, £21k. amazing penalty kicker, LB from non-league, capable of carrying games at any level. in real life, only played a single game in the conference for Stevenage before retiring from football.

[@michabiak7710]

i did it in CM 99-00 and Mads Jorgensen

[@dannykoning5486]

This was the FM I played the most. Still in love with the grass background.

[@andergraciano]

11:19 fun fact: in Brazil we call Internacional (a Brazilian team) "Inter" as well, but I guess Zealand was thinking of the Italian team. haha

[@Kimera794]

Probably not

[@gpolonia]

About Pato, by his own admission he said his injuries at Milan were caused by poor attitude in training. He was commenting on Leao and advising him not to repeat his mistake. After his first few seasons in Italy everybody thought he'd be a future Ballon d'Or. Chelsea offered 50M for him. He would have been the most expensive player in history at the time

[@SaimonAndrew]

As a chilean, the case of Matias Fernandez really hurts until today. The guy was a beast with 19years old. He was awarded as the Best Player in SouthAmerica that season in 2006. I dont know what happened to him, but he was never close to that level never again

[@yeostots]

one of my favourite players

[@captainyank138]

He was a fun fifa player to use since of his 5 star skills

[@yeostots]

@@captainyank138 I used to always buy him in FM. scored alot of Free kicks for me. My go to were usually him and Nani

[@hectoreduardofuentealbapel7830]

Couldn't adapt after Villareal. Then injuries came and...well

[@cristobalarandakenny8256]

2 thingss: 1) Gago actually was a good player for the amount of injuries he had. He even got the starting playmaker role for Argentina for a couple of years, if im not mistaken he torn his achilles twice or three times and also had a couple of ACL tears, but he was extremely techincal. 2) this list make remind me of Cirigliano, im sure he was prob a wonderkid in some fm (around 2009-2011), he was offered to real madrid, city and inter before getting injured, going to the mls, later to serie b, and this week he got arrested for a breaking and entering while armed with a pistol, a shame for a talent who was touted to be the next Argentina's number 5

[@googleforcedhandle]

gago got completely and utterly destroyed by injuries, when he was fit he was arguably the best player in the arg league, which wasnt often.

[@joegoout]

A Zealand video on the legend that is Freddy Adu would be amazing. Put him in a current database, sim his career 20 times and see what he achieves on average. It's time to give the lad a second chance.

[@albinjohnsson2511]

The last I heard of him was when he signed for a rather obscure team in the 4th division here in Sweden. He didn't play a single game before they sacked him for being unfit.

[@iamAyal]

Zealand just uploaded this at the end of his stream, what a mad lad

[@tristanytatauxa]

man matias fernandez was so good, miss him at sporting for sure, ill never forget the freekick against city

[@shaund3299]

Was happy to see Giovanni Dos Santos. The best player I have ever seen in an Ipswich shirt. Was only there for the last 2 months of the season hence only 8 appearances. Never seen a player able to glide across the pitch and change direction so quickly. Still often talked about by ITFC fans despite his short stay. There was a lot of rumours that his attitude was not good at spurs I think he had a falling out with Harry Redknapp over clubbing and being late for training.

[@LettucePlate]

15:42 it's funny that we were calling people the next Messi in a year where Messi was 21.

[@FM-JBG]

Nicolás Millán was the first real fm wonderkid I came across. Shame he couldn't handle the pressure irl.

[@Fcappellafc]

Pato really had the potential to carry the torch passed on by Ronaldo R9 and they were very similar: explosive dribblers, natural finishers, showed their talents at the Milan rivals at a young age... and had injury problems though Pato's wasn't as career-threatning as R9's... maybe what drew the line between them was the mindset. Ronaldo make a spectacular comeback after his injury to win player of the year awards and Pato went on to see his stardom wane due to his poor work ethic (just search 'pato corinthians penalty' to see what i mean)

[@lordwaleane5397]

Terrible Panenka.

[@matthewvaughan8192]

Sorry but how the hell does a panenka fail prove your theory he has a shit work ethic? Lots of great players have made that mistake in key moments

[@matthewvaughan8192]

It’s got a lot more to do with how traumatic the respective injuries are. An ACL tear can occur a number of different ways, some more scarring than others. Worst case scenario it traumatises you to the point you won’t run full speed or get physical with defenders for fear of it happening again, and slowly but surely your confidence erodes away. This happened to both players just to different extents. Pato obviously had a lot more to overcome

[@sanku1999]

@@lordwaleane5397 pato couldn't handle his own physical imo. He was fast, strong, could dribble like players half his size. That will take toll on your body.

[@Fcappellafc]

@@matthewvaughan8192 here in Brazil anywhere he moved to after Milan he was treated as a star but was more than lackluster. This penalty was just an example that pretty much sums it up. In São Paulo he had plenty of games where he would do jackshit, at the time he was Corinthians biggest signing and he he did that penalty

[@henrygascoigne7870]

May i recommended next time using transfermarkt‘s stats by competition feature instead as it shows assists and minutes played aswell.

[@pauloapaezjorgeemilio1772]

A mexican here. I don’t know if the story is real but the version I heard is that PSG actually made an offer for Ochoa. The problem was that while they were offering for him, Ochoa was playing the gold cup with Mexico. There he was one of the guys who had to do an anti-drugs test. Every guy who made that test got positive for clembuterol (not sure if I wrote that correctly), which is a substance that helps at making muscles. The PSG guys heard about it and the offer was no more. Months latter when a lot of players of the mexican league show the same results there was an investigation. Apparently some beef producers were using clembuterol in the cows to get more meal from each cow. The mexican federation had a deal with those producers to supply the meal for the league teams and for the national team because it was cheaper. I know the part about clembuterol in beef was truth because it was on the news for a few weeks, I’m not sure about the PSG part, but if it’s truth then Memo’s career would be one of the saddest I have heard of.

[@Brizyy]

Pato was so fucking good, my favourite goal of his is the one against Barcelona 20 seconds into the game. Cant even imagine how good he could have been if not for the injuries.

[@lordwaleane5397]

That solo goal?

[@yodarights7772]

As an ipswich fan, I will just say that as a consolation gio dos Santos played ridiculous In those 8 games before getting injuries.

[@ElSuarez]

Who else has just seen him live publish it on stream 😂

[@LuisMartinez-cd6uo]

Gio Dos Santos doesn't play for club America anymore. He had a horror injury when he finally started to pick up form(I think against Chivas, America's rival) and then never recovered from it. As a Mexican I remember growing up watching all these players excited. It's kind of saddening seeing how most of them turned out. Memo Ochoa was never given the proper chance after his stellar 3 seasons in France. He kept Ajaccio in the 1st division for their first 2 seasons. He was supposed to go the a bigger team but there was the "tainted meat" incident back in the 2011 gold cup which ruined his chance to go to a bigger team.

[@davidfox4922]

Terrific, a great trip down memory lane. Just wondering though, what was Messi's potential ability set at in '07?

[@luismachado8286]

Pato recently tore up his knee once again, man has had a completely cursed career.

[@Dru1927]

I'll always remember Giovanni Dos Santos for ripping my team to shreds for Ipswich on the last day of the season in the last game at our old historic stadium (Ninian Park 2009). We lost 3-0 :( He might not have reached his potential but he made an impact on me unfortunately, so thanks for that haha

[@johny9693]

Aaron Niguez, Bojan and Henri Saivet were the best front 3 I ever had on fm 08.

[@ShanePLUR]

1. I am playing a 2010 league save on fm22 atm having alot of fun with Ronaldinho,zlatan,Messi combo at barca. 2. I finally started watching Ted lasso 2 episodes in so far and really enjoying it. Wouldn't have known it existed if not fir your channel and I know alot of people in it. I'm from england been playing fm or cm since cm 97 got every single one since. Anyways just wanted to say thanks for helping me believe in lasso.

[@Sceivious]

Love these videos. Really takes me down memory lane while at the same time being very informative.

[@777jimothy]

Aww man it feels like yesterday I was reading scout reports about all these guys In world soccer magazine. The Mexico U21s were ridiculous at the time I lost my mind when Arsenal were able to sign Vela. Pato was a world star for a brief period at Milan but yeh injuries really killed him

[@pierfrancescocosta6336]

Speaking of Mexican talents, I'm curious how Marcelo Flores will turn out, by the way...

[@JuanKerr83]

Gago, Marcelo, Higuin and Aguero where all players I would sign for Liverpool when they were all in South America. Good times

[@JCRV97]

Fernando Gago suffer from injuries like no other player I've known. Played in the 2014 World Cup Final. Respeto para Pintita.

[@mb2786]

I remember NICOLÁS MILLÁN, Mixalis Pavlis, Juan Carlos Chera, Bourouzikas, Herr Lubin. Great wonderkids.

[@tmage23]

7:20 "Manchester United is a great club and I enjoyed winning things". I don' think that sentence will be uttered in any language for a while.

[@bbqR0ADK1LL]

Another failed wonderclub

[@dfg13_]

Facao at Atlético was the best 9 of the world. A pity

[@SmileySadFaceHD]

Vela was the most frustrating thing as a mexican. He had all the talent in the world but never really cared about football that much beyond it being his job. He even said once that prefered a ton more to watch basketball than football, perhaps why he moved to the US so soon. And him quitting the national team before a World Cup because of differences with the manager at the time also was a huge dissapointment.

[@stainypoo]

regarding fernando gago, top player and so talented earlier in his career, he was played with several bad bad injuries and that's why he barely played. x2 Cruciate Ligament Rupture, x2 achilles tendon rupture etc

[@madmanRAB]

Great type of content some real flashbacks with some names I'd forgotten about WOW

[@billgee187]

Anderson coming in as a sub and scoring/winning in the penalty shootout of a champions league final was worth a shout out, dude 😎

[@matoCC14]

Oh man, as a chilean and fan of Colo Colo, we all though he was going to be ballon d oro material. He won the best player of america before going to Villareal and, to this day, he's beloved because he's just an amazing sweet guy who, for the time he was here, made an entire country dream. He was just an unreal talent. His weak point? Mentality. It was like he just never had the drive to be the guy who could have been, like Arturo Vidal for example. But as a talent and to the generation who saw him, Matias was THE guy when it comes to players who left a memory here

[@vvvicho21]

y lo más débil también su mentalidad. no pudo triunfar nunca fuera de chile (entre comillas) porque no se atrevía. perdió todo el coraje en españa y se convirtió en un mediocampista correcto pero que no tenía la chispa que en el colo. estar lejos de la familia le pesó.

[@Mombot_z]

For historical sake, this is the video where Zealand KZbin subscriptions hit the 200k mark. Hammers you are awesome 👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻, TY! Looking forward to all the fun times ahead! 💞…(add on edit here) mombot failed to tag the correct video, I meant to tag latest video which is next video released. Goodness, such a mom thing to do!

[@ferdo19tato]

This concept is amazing, You could this for every fm!

[@CptJamesForce]

A-Jack-Key-O for the pronounciation haha, been there and it was great! Also, Carlos Vela is still definitely a terror as someone who supports a team also in the MLS Western Conference (Minnesota United specifically)

[@alastairnicolson4992]

That's the French pronunciation, not the Corsican...

[@georgeradford-evans415]

Feels criminal to be this early love you Zea

[@mahbluebird]

A few that I remember from back then: Ignacio Camacho Jermaine Beckford Ezequiel Garay Royston Drenthe Micah Richards Bojan

[@timmoleft7147]

in the 2008 game, one of my 'projects' is to sign Ignacio Camacho (whose 'Determination' was 10) and then sign Matteo Brighi from Roma, whose Determination was 18 and use Brighi to tutor Camacho (Brighi also had the PPM 'Dictates Tempo' - Camacho became a beast at that point). Micah Richards and Bojan are good shouts also - on the 2008 game, when the first update came out Micah Richards was actually made slightly worse because his original stats in the first release made him too good and unrealistic.

[@pwalmsley9]

I miss the good times when you didn't have to worry about work permits for those American wonderkids. Bringing in Bojan, Miguel Medina and Carlos Fierro as my options up front was awesome.

[@markmorris7123]

Pato.. Hes still one of my favourite players..Even now he shows glimpses of brilliance.. Fantastic player. Personally I never rated theo. I remember when Sven picked him for the world cup and the media hyping him up like mad.. but honestly i never saw him play well consistently..He was very fast, and he could finish nicely on the inside of his foot, even when he was running at pace.. But most people in England thought Sven was mad for picking him.

[@Gwynbleidd1724]

This FM was my most addictive. Had a great team of wonderkids

[@levicarvalho9557]

You really should've done better research on Fernando Gago. The man was really good when not injured and played in two world cups. Playing a lot of years for Real, Roma and Boca isnt something anyone can do, AND he was injured most of the time. Also, from 2007 to 2009 he played a lot of games at Real Madrid, playing 43 games in the 07/08 season. There was a reason those teams kept him, despite of the consistent injuries. He was a lot better and well known than Matias Fernandez, for example, in the football world.

[@ashr7307]

Any chance of a video in the future on manager ability scores? I'm never 100% on how important each is when creating my manager.

[@JD-qw2vz]

Nicolas Milan and Sherman Cardenas we’re in fire in this game

[@zarva2]

Aarón Ñíguez is brother to Saúl (At Madrid). Their dad used to work for the Spanish FA and someone made some favours here for sure. No other way a player this bad had so many calls from Spanish junior teams.

[@lukemontgomery1774]

7:38 that bag on the doornob in the background has a weird resemblance of Marc Cucurella lol

[@gm2407]

Man United and Arsenal both signed players from Barcelona at 16 because they could not sign contracts in Spain until 18. So united got Pique and Arsenal got Fabregas.

[@lsuowen]

Pato currently plays for my hometown club. I can say from watching him in person every week that his talent is evident, but to quote SpongeBob, the man has glass bones and paper skin. It’s a real shame that injuries left him in a position where he never had a chance to fully string together performances and make good on that potential. He had a knee injury that kept him out for all but 4 games last season and he just picked up what looks like a season ending knee injury this past week.

[@topoisomerace]

Nice video Zealand. Good research and well summarized.

[@lukefairs2088]

Wikipedia only shows league appearances and goals so these players overall played and scored more than what wiki says

[@Asalieri2]

I'd like to see your take on Freddu Adu... from "the next Pele" to playing for beer money in a nothing Las Vegas team...

[@nscvinicius]

As a Corinthians supporters, I hate to remember we paid a lot of money to buy Pato just so he could try (and fail miserably) a panenka as make us drop from a cup run. He then went to play for our rivals for 2 years just so we could get rid of some of his wage.

[@rhodrambles3943]

Ochoa and Guardado have seen me through many a football manager save. They are the reason I always scout Mexican players. Would keep an eye on Alejandro Gomez at Atlas and far better known Marcelo Flores at Arsenal

[@javierbd09]

They’re both retiring on my most reason save. Summer of 2023.

[@domiNATEgame14]

Where is Sherman Cardenas?

[@FrankitoGotti]

Fun fact: A lot of people seem to think that Fernandez couldn't reach his level because of injuries (which might be true to some point), but actually, he never made it because he went full religious and ended up priorizing that before football. At least, that's what its said here in Chile in the football communities.

[@captainyank138]

Good man

[@kchuk2218]

Put some respeck on Carlos Vela's name. That boy was and is mad talented. He only scored 3 PL goals, but he managed 8 more in cup competition. Look them up, they're all very good. I think he just decided to get the most out of soccer in a way that let him enjoy his life. No shame in it!

[@robbieshand6139]

I'd like to hear about Ryan Gauld, who was known as 'Scottish baby Messi' about 10 years ago after he signed to a Spanish club. He seems to have disappeared into obscurity however and isn't in the national team.

[@GarkKahn]

Gago was great, sadly he had many injuries and that ruined his carrer Now he's managing my team racing club and things go well

[@thomasvollmer5928]

Sweet! The version I first got in contact with FM! Little fun fact: The squad of Werder Bremen was actually better, than Bayern :D Why? Well: Wiese, Naldo, Mertesacker, DIEGO, Frings, KLOSE, Klasnic

[@bigdaddy2429]

Memories of that porto team that had Falcao, Hulk, Guarin, Fernando, Otamendi.

[@richardjhughes0]

Forever sad about Pato not "making it". A staple of many FM saves over the past few years, despite his age.

[@thesmeeth]

I'm surprised Bojan isn't on this list considering he was literally known as the next Messi at his time at Barcelona. Always the first person you'd bring in on loan on Champ Man and he'd singlehandedly win you trophies.

[@ThaGamingMisfit]

I expected him too, but maybe he wasn't seen as a wonderkid by FM and they were right if so. He's the typical example of an eternal promising player that never delivered.

[@antoniopimentel3546]

as a sporting i can say matias fernandez was a an outstanding player he was instrumental and solo carried sporting multiple times in extremely big matches including vs Man City, after that he went to fiorentina and idk how he did but we could clearly see in Sporting he was on the path of being one of the best in the world. I think his biggest problem was handling 2 games a week and some injury problems

[@danielsantarosa101]

The best thing Pato did for Corinthians was serving as transfer currency in the hiring of Jadson. Not only did we get rid of a lackluster player with no work ethic, but we also got them into our rival and got a great player that helped us win Brasileirão twice in return.

[@PowerChairFootball]

Hey Zealand. Please do a video on unique players who are tempting to make unpopular roles work. Maybe one top tier and one lower tier player/prospect for each role? I ask because my starting point for a save is always "Can I make X work for a club?", where X is a fourth division sweeper keeper, a 'positionless' total football squad. a old-school 4-4-2 with zero horizontal movement, or a 1930s W-M formation. Finding players and winning competitions for these tactics is how I get my kicks; I'm not that fussed about sure-fire wonderkids. I'm not trying to persuade people either way, I just assumed this was normal! I need your picks for next the generational wide target man and libero! A list of absurdly one-dimensional lower league players would inspire a whole year of saves. :)

[@aries666dc]

One of the most painful injury hurt player is pato for sure. He had everything and you just thought he would do what R9 did. Such a pity

[@brendanclay5070]

The disrespect on gago, the guy was quality. Absolutely decimated by injuries unfortunately.

[@tomhinds4380]

As a 29 year old who played FM07 all of these players are still 25….:stop making me feel old!

[@danmobile8531]

Wow some of these names take me back to when I played FM for hours every day.

[@BradleyParkerbrad676]

i cannot believe you didnt include nicholas millan in this list, he always, literally always seemed to become the worlds best player in every save i ever did on FM and has largely had a more underwhelming actual career than anyone in the video

[@LordWay]

I signed nearly all of these on that football manager back in the day

[@Chengyuan79]

Man, love this one here. It was at a time when I was still watching (and playing) football, and playing FM religiously. Actually recognize most of the names here~! :D 😄

[@Lex1e_]

Dear Zealand my wife overheard this video and would in fact like to let you know she enjoyed it. Which is impressive because when I talk to her she just falls asleep.

[@Mihigo26]

A lot of these players suffered serious injuries, which you failed to mention.

[@therealbigmak3283]

I remember watching videos of Anderson when it was announced we had bought him and Nani. He was a completely different player to what we saw during his time at Man Utd. I have a feeling Fergie wanted to mold him into a new Scholes to a degree

[@shahrilroslan3348]

I'm surprised to not see Bojan in the list. 15YO at the time and had really good attributes for his age.

[@OleDybvik]

As a veteran of FM I absolutely love these vids.

[@JLABTV]

Getting reminded of some of the best young talent in my first FM was a blast. But the Inter mistake was not ideal.

[@Kimera794]

That's probably not a mistake though

[@matthewtongue7393]

Make more of these for each year of FM

[@Danstraightedge]

Dude. Bought Carlos Vela on a Celtic save on FM07 for £4m. After he won me two champs leagues I sold him to Real Madrid for £78m. Easily in my personal FM hall of fame.

[@tsaminamina_eheh]

Zealand needs to you that historic ball knowledge. Happy to tutor 🤣

[@MrLucky29Luke]

Wow some of these names brings me back! great memories :)

[@Kevin-rf9rg]

Where's Sherman Cardenas and Nicolas Milan. They were by far the best finds in the early FM's. (in one of them Milan was like 14 or 15 years old and already a monster player with basically 15 - 20's everywhere). Cardenas would always finish the top assist maker in the league (always over 30) and N.Milan would always bang you around 60/70 goals a season (he remains the only player to get me over 100 goals in a domestic season in any championship manager of Football Manager game) - having one or both of them them basically ruined the game for you, you couldn't really lose. *both would go on to have underwhelming careers in real life.

[@MrPaull1989]

Mati Fernandez lived up to all expectations. On fm08. In my all conquering Tottenham team. My king 🤴❤️

[@robWolvesfan1]

I feel so old that I recognise every single one of these names and careers

[@timothyh]

The 2 Ls in Villarreal are like David Villa so you don’t make the L sound, but the city Vila-Real you do say the L sound

[@pierfrancescocosta6336]

Also, I think Walcott shares a pretty similar career path with another co-national: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Both Arsenal youth products, both exceptional and precocious talents, but also both persecuted by injuries that cut their respective potentials short. And yet, the "okay" standards they both had to settle for still guaranteed them a stable place in the Premier League, so that's a testament to their quality! Chamberlain surely has achieved more success during his career, but from what I remember of their time at Arsenal, I think Walcott could have reached even bigger ceilings.

[@mikhaeltontey9443]

Not Arsena youth products. Both of them were Southampton youth players.

[@CRValtierra]

I remember gios goal vs Timmy Howard. That shit was legendary