The name of Freddy Adu, ranks amongst players of this great game alongside those of Cherno Samba, Tonton Zola Moukoko, Maxim Tsigalko, and To Madeira. Absolute beasts and legends on Championship Manager and Football Manager. Players, who’s digital life far eclipsed their real life counterparts. Players, who would if their professional careers even half matched thier CM/FM numbers would be talked about in the same circles as Messi and Ronaldo. Adu, who started in Championship Manager 4 as a prodigious 14yr old, the youngest ever player in an American professional league, had the world was at his feet. But in a story as old as time, failed to make the grade. A career that spanned Europe and the Americas, 15 clubs in 9 countries where the starlet couldn’t make a name for himself.
But this is where we pick the story up. At the start of FM21, the legend has turned up at Osterlen FF in the fourth tier of Swedish football. This could be the last chance I have to try to make him the superstar he needs to be. At time of writing his IRL season did not go to plan and Adu did not see the season out on the southern tip of Sweden.
After spending 21 season fighting my way from the fifth tier of Israel to Champions League glory, and with only a few weeks left on the FM21 cycle, what a better way to get through the last few weeks than managing one of Championship Manager/Football Manager legends. It is my aim to give Freddy one last tilt at the top, to see what we can achieve with Freddy as the talisman. In FM21 Adu is an attacking midfield left – best role as a winger.
We will be using a formation and a tactic that will hopefully give Freddy the best possible opportunities to show his stuff. Without having to think too much, we will start with the 4321 Gegenpress with Freddy starting wide on the left as a Winger – Attack. Lets hope that even at 30 he has the pace and stamina to show glimpses of that talent we know he has, or at least had!
We are not going to be taking a real good indepth go at this save, its just going to be a bit of fun to see what we can do in the last few week of FM21. The way I play the game we should easily be able to smash through a few seasons. Freddy has a contract until the end of season two, Hopefully with a promotion, or two, under our belt we might be able to sign him to a new one.
Let’s get down to brass tacks and see where we can finish in season 1. We start in Division 2 Sodra Gotaland in May 2020. Our odds for the title are 1.01! If we can’t get promoted I think I might just hang up my FM21 boots.
We started off with a couple of draws before claiming our first win. As you can see from the final table we ended up undefeated. So in 21 years at FC Jerusalem we did that once, first season here we complete that achievement! It wasn’t as easy as that though, 5 draws out of 13 and only a goal difference of +12 shows we didn’t dominate as much as a an unbeaten season would suggest. Only three matches were won by 2 goals or more. The best result a 3-0 win in our penultimate game. Three wins in a row was our best run of wins. We finished 4th in goals scored and had the joint best defence. None of our players won any of the end of season awards. The only record holder was our goalkeeper who got the most clean sheets. But, hey, we won the league and gained promotion to the First division.
But this is a story about Freddy Adu, so how did he get on in his first season in Sweden? It wasn’t a fantastic season in terms of numbers, but as we have just seen the team didn’t blow everyone away. It was a solid season. He didn’t lead the team in any category, but was in top few for most. Only 2 goals was a bit disappointing, but out of only 21 equates to about 10%.
I suppose for a first season at a new club, in a new country, with a new language to learn (although he might have some Swedish in the bank from his time in Finland) leading a side to the title can be considered a success.
We move onto next season, in the next division up. The teams will be better, and so I will need to possibly sign a few new players. This might reduce the time Freddy should be getting, however, since he is our golden boy I will try and give him as much game time as possible. And hopefully, with another promotion in the bank we might be able to keep him for another year. That will be the plan for season two. I will do as much as I can to get him to sign a new contract.
Lets see how season two goes.
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