Football manager wonderkids that made it

[van der star]

Every FM edition includes a few hyped up talents that we all try to buy at some point or the other, in the hopes of grooming them into world class players for our squads. Which ones in recent years actually lived up to this hype in real life and made an impression with their respective teams? I'll start with -

1) Sandro Tonali

Had a fantastic season at Brescia, which has prompted lazy comparisons between him and another Brescia legend, Andrea Pirlo. Everyone's waiting to see where he goes next, and if he'll keep up the form that saw him called up by Mancini to the national senior side.

2) Alban Lafont

La Viola may have struggled overall and narrowly avoided relegation in the end, but they can rest assured that they've got a massive talent playing in goal for them. The shot stopper was in great form throughout the season, and he'll only get better with time.

3) Houssem Aouar

He can score, create, dribble and defend. Lyon keep unearthing these gems on a regular basis, and Aouar is already being compared to the biggest names in the game like Pogba and KdB.

 

[DWelbz19]

Luka Jovic

 

[Adisa]

Toni Kroos.

 

[roonster09]

Verratti had fantastic stats even he was playing in Serie B. He lived up to expectations.

Trent Arnold had very good stats last year.

Joao Felix.

Mois Kean
Dayot Upamecano
De ligt.

 

[Hawks2008]

Neymar, used to sign him and Ganso from Santos all the time. Funny, back then I thought Ganso was going to be the bigger star in real life.

 

[drdoityourself]

Lafont has now left Fiorentina to join Nantes on loan. To say he was in great form throughout the season feels wildly inaccurate. Good stopper but struggling in most other areas

 

[Walrus]

I used to sign Wijnaldum back in about FM13 when he was a teenager. Granted he was more of an attacking player back then, but I would say he has definitely “made it”.

 

[Macern]

Used to sign Lukaku when he was 17 playing for Anderlecht. Same with a young Hazard.

 

[Chipper]

Never heard of any of the payers in the OP. But I do have a question, were they labelled as wonderkids before they had any/much first team football or only after?

I think a player can be labelled as a wonderkid up to the age of 21 in the game so I'd see the really good spots as the ones who get that tag while in U18/19 teams that go on to greatness.

So for Tonali/Auoar that would be FM 18 or before as they both played quite a lot in 17/18 and the game comes out not far into the season, Lafont FM 2016 as 15/16 was his breakthrough season. Were they wonderkids as early as that or only after playing a fair bit?

Edit: Actually found some lists.

Tonali first a wonderkid in FM 19 according to FM Scout, he'd played 19 league games the previous season.

Lafont - FM 2017 with 24 league games the year before.

Auoar - as early FM 2015 with 0 appearances, aged just 16. He's the best spot for me!

 

[sun_tzu]

Cherno samba!

.Although he confessed to never playing Championship Manager, he revealed that his mobile phone provider once cut the delivery time from 2–3 months to next-day delivery on learning that he was serving Samba.[16]

Made it in my eyes
Plus made it as a full international with Gambia
On a more serious note their scouting network really is quite impressive... No wonder clubs sometimes use FM as one of their scouting tools
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.te...couting-network-unearths-wonderkids-real/amp/

 

[Crashoutcassius]

Neymar, used to sign him and Ganso from Santos all the time. Funny, back then I thought Ganso was going to be the bigger star in real life.

Like Diego and robinho at Santos... I got a Diego jersey

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

Lukaku back when he was at Anderlecht.

 

[Carl]

Kompany
Ronaldinho

 

[Amar__]

I used to sign Wijnaldum back in about FM13 when he was a teenager. Granted he was more of an attacking player back then, but I would say he has definitely “made it”.

Wijnaldum was PES biggest star for years, but as a forward though.

 

[jus2nang]

The obvious one here is Zlatan surely? From CM 99/00 I think (before the split).

I think Totti was another, from the original game in 1992.

 

[berbasloth4]

Huddlestone free transfer from derby at 16 was always a nice wee signing I think in 2001 edition.
Lee holmes as well he ends up being the better player

 

[Eric's Seagull]

Although its not Football Manager on Championship Manager 99/00. Zlatan was available for £120k at 18. Very good attributes and was in my United reserve team.

 

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

I don't see how you can definitively say any of those 3 have "made it" as they are all still very young players at the beginning of their career.

Better examples would be Ronaldo, Messi, Rooney, Neymar who were all highly rated in FM before they exploded on the scene.

FM often get players wrong too. Mbappe (or "Mbappe-Lottin" as he was called in the game) was a bang average winger with decent but nothing special potential on FM17. Rashford became nothing more than a Championship player on FM16, yet James Wilson was an absolute monster on FM15.

 

[anant]

List of wonderkids from FM 2013:
https://www.fmscout.com/a-football-manager-2013-wonderkids.html

Few U-18 wonderkids from this version include: Tah, Goretzka, Laporte, Marquinhos, Sule, Fabinho, Christensen, Romagnoli, Rugani, Umtiti, Grimaldo, Shaw, Mendy, Cancelo, Can, Rabiot, Brandt, Carrasco, Draxler, Sterling, Ox, Kovacic, Januzaj, Gnabry,Paredes, Dybala, Depay, Haller among others

 

[TwoSheds]

To Madeira 4lyf

 

[Tarrou]

Tevez and Mascherano

 

[Ramos]

I'm old school so this is mostly from the early 00's:

Kompany, Fernando Torres, C.Ronaldo, Fabregas, Lahm, Robinho, Ronaldinho ...

Ben Arfa, Källström and Saviola sort of made it (but maybe not like their virtual counterparts).

 

[Eric's Seagull]

I'm old school so this is mostly from the early 00's:

Kompany, Fernando Torres, C.Ronaldo, Fabregas, Lahm, Robinho, Ronaldinho ...

Ben Arfa, Källström and Saviola sort of made it (but maybe not like their virtual counterparts).

Used to go for Ronaldinho on CM 99/00 he had fantastic ratings but couldn't get work permit.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

Weird OP because none o those player have made it yet.

 

[markhughes]

Jesus
Kompany
Aguero

Wait, are city using football manager to scout?!

 

[Sir Scott McToMinay]

Robbie Keane 98/99
Kim Kallstrom 99/00(?)

 

[Freak]

Cristiano Ronaldo.

 

[Gehrman]

Eden Hazard

 

[Sky1981]

Javier saviola, great position, cool name, cheap, fm legend. Too bar he failed to live up to his high fm status., although he had not a bar career.

 

[R'hllor]

Saviola ( dunno is he made it exactly ), day after i "discovered" him, couldnt stop talking in school about him.

 

[Gehrman]

How good was messi on FM before he became a superstar?

 

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

How good was messi on FM before he became a superstar?

I bought him on FM05 & he became world class, but not GOAT level. About prime Giggs level.

Obviously they still underrated him, but they knew he was going to be quality before most had heard of him.

I remember he was "Leo" not "Lionel" on that game.

I remember I played a 4-4-2 with United, with Ronaldo on the right, Messi on the left & Rooney & Adriano up front.

 

[Tiber]

Kompany was brilliant In FM, you could always sign him cheap from Belgium

 

[Chipper]

How good was messi on FM before he became a superstar?

 

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

Kompany was brilliant In FM, you could always sign him cheap from Belgium

Yep. He and Vanden Borre were absolute steals when they were at Anderlecht.

 

[matherto]

Rashford became nothing more than a Championship player on FM16

There's still time...

 

[Jonno]

Tielemans

 

[Fıstıkçı Şahap]

Bale (not as a left back though) and Wijnaldum from FM 2008.

 

[jesperjaap]

Not played it for years. I do remember Javier Saviola being the absolute nuts for me long before he left River Plate in real life. You could say he made it having played for Barcelona, Real Madrid amongst others......but he was shite, nothing like the megastar played for me

 

[Gio]

Torres was the dog's bollocks at 17 in the 2001 version.

Cristiano Ronaldo.

He was a miss in CM01/02 though, in the database but without any meaty ability.