If you’ve been following me on Twitter, you might know that I had some wonderful news on Wednesday night. My sister had a baby son, making me an uncle and adding some much-needed light to what has otherwise been a very dark 2019.
To celebrate the start of our family’s next generation, I’m going to play a ‘generation game’ spanning 20 years of football.
For this article, I’ve found 20 Premier League players in the Football Manager 2020 database whose fathers were on Championship Manager: Season 99/00 as players themselves. I’ve taken screenshots of all the dads on CM99/00 and written a little bit about their careers before and after the turn of the millennium.
There’s a good mixture here of dads who’ve already been upstaged by their lads, plus some very famous fathers whose offspring are taking their first steps in professional football.
FATHER: Pierre Aubameyang
SON: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Arsenal)
At 30, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is one of Europe’s most-feared strikers. The French-born Gabon international has scored close to a combined 200 goals for Borussia Dortmund and latterly Arsenal, where he’s now captain. Mind you, his old man wasn’t a bad player either.
Pierre Aubameyang (or Aubame, to use his CM99/00 nickname) was a midfielder who skippered the Gabon national team and spent most of his career in French football. Best-known for lengthy stints at Laval and Le Havre, he was a semi-retired shadow of his former self come the turn of the century.
Pierre works as a scout these days, though he turned down the chance to manage Gabon (alongside ex-Rangers and Hull striker Daniel Cousin) in 2018. His elder sons Catilina and Willy also played professional football, but both are now inactive.
FATHER: Adie Mings
SON: Tyrone Mings (Aston Villa)
In his teenage years, Tyrone Mings played semi-professionally for Yate and Chippenham and had a 9-to-5 job as a mortgage advisor. Ipswich took a chance on Tyrone in 2013, and the centre-back’s career has since taken him to the Premier League – with Bournemouth and Aston Villa – and international honours with England.
It’s a far cry from his dad Adie’s playing career. The elder Mings was also a non-league player who turned out for Bath, Gloucester, and – in 1999 – Conference minnows Forest Green. He was more concerned with scoring goals than preventing them, though his Finishing attribute doesn’t exactly scream ‘striker’.
Adie became player-manager at Chippenham in 2006, staying in charge until ‘stepping up’ to become director of football in April 2012. Just four months later, he took up a youth scouting position at Chelsea, where he still works today.
FATHER: Steven Pressley
SON: Aaron Pressley (Aston Villa)
Steven Pressley is one of the few players to have been on both sides of the Old Firm, having started his career at Rangers before turning out for Celtic. He is better-known for an eight-year stay at Hearts, captaining them to the 2006 Scottish Cup shortly before an acrimonious departure from Tynecastle.
Pressley was capped 36 times by Scotland between 2000 and 2006, later serving as an assistant coach to George Burley. Since retiring from playing in 2009, he has managed five different clubs across Britain. He was most recently sacked by League Two strugglers Carlisle in November, having only taken the reins in January.
Steven’s 18-year-old son Aaron is at the beginning of his professional career. The Scotland youth international currently plays as a striker for Aston Villa’s Under-18s.
FATHER: Sten Christensen
SON: Andreas Christensen (Chelsea)
These days, Andreas Christensen is a regular in the heart of Chelsea’s defence under Frank Lampard, and a Danish national team mainstay. However, his transfer to Stamford Bridge from Brøndby in 2012 – when Andreas was just 16 – did not come without controversy.
In November 2018, it was alleged that Chelsea made illegal payments to Sten Christensen while he was employed as Brøndby’s goalkeeping coach to secure his son’s signature. Such payments would’ve been in breach of FIFA regulations, but the Blues were cleared of any wrongdoing in March this year.
Sten previously played as a goalkeeper for Brøndby, though he featured for third-tier Skjold Birkerød at the back end of his career. He rejoined his old club – firstly as a youth-team coach – in 2007, but left shortly after those Chelsea corruption allegations came to light.
FATHER: Abedi Pele
SON: Jordan Ayew (Crystal Palace)
Abedi Ayew is regarded as a pioneer of African football. Playing as an attacking midfielder, he was nicknamed after the legendary Brazilian striker Pelé – an apt choice, going by his scoring record. Between 1982 and 1998, he bagged 33 international goals for Ghana, placing him 3rd on the national roll of honour.
Abedi got his big European break at Marseille in 1987, winning the Champions League with them six years later. Having later turned out for Lyon, Torino and 1860 Munich, he headed for Abu Dhabi in 1998 to end his career with Al Ahli.
Three of Ayew’s sons followed in his footsteps by playing internationally for Ghana. Ibrahim is now with Europa in the Gibraltar National Division, but his younger half-brothers André and Jordan are familiar names to Premier League fans. Earlier this summer, striker Jordan made a £2.5million move to Crystal Palace from Championship side Swansea, where winger André remains today.
FATHER: Paul Barnes
SON: Harvey Barnes (Leicester)
Brendan Rodgers’ Leicester have enthralled the Premier League with their entertaining winning performances this season. One of the Foxes’ breakout stars this year has been their fleet-footed attacking midfielder Harvey Barnes, who could be an outside contender for England’s Euro 2020 squad.
In truth, his old man Paul Barnes never got close to playing in the top tier, let alone representing the Three Lions. Instead, the Leicester-born striker had a moderately successful journeyman career with clubs such as Stoke, York, Burnley and Huddersfield. All in all, he netted over 150 Football League goals between 1985 and 2001.
The screenshot above shows Paul as a 31-year-old with Bury, where he still looks serviceable for Division 2. He kept banging in the goals until the twilight of his career, winning the Conference’s top goalscorer award with Doncaster in 2003.
FATHER: David Hirst
SON: George Hirst (Leicester)
David Hirst was a Sheffield Wednesday icon, scoring over 100 league goals for the Owls between 1986 and 1997. At his early-1990s peak, he was capped three times by England and was the subject of strong interest from Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson.
The Yorkshireman ended his career on the south coast with Southampton. CM99/00 represented his final appearance on the Championship Manager franchise, as injuries took their toll and he was advised to retire in early 2000, aged just 32.
David later joined the academy coaching set-up at Wednesday, where his son George was an England youth international striker being tipped for a bright future. However, he only played two senior matches before leaving Hillsborough in 2018. After spending a season with Belgium, the 20-year-old transferred to Leicester this summer and is making good progress in the Foxes’ Under-23s side.
FATHER: Peter Schmeichel
SON: Kasper Schmeichel (Leicester)
Leicester have a third footballing son in their ranks, and you all know about this one. Goalkeepers Peter and Kasper Schmeichel represent one of only two father-and-son pairings to have won the Premier League (more on the first pairing later).
Dad Peter needs no introduction. A European champion with Denmark in 1992 and then again with Manchester United seven years later, he also won five league titles and three FA Cups while at Old Trafford. After famously claiming the lot in 1999, the red-nosed shotstopper took his gloves to Portugal for a two-year stint at Sporting.
Schmeichel returned to England in 2001 with Aston Villa and then finished his career at Manchester City, just as his offspring was starting out with the Citizens. Kasper took a scenic route through the Football League (via a brief spell on loan at Falkirk) before signing for Leicester in 2011. You know the rest.
FATHER: Mark Chamberlain
SON: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Leicester)
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has been a top-flight fixture for about eight years, firstly as a dynamic winger with Arsenal and lately as a midfield playmaker at Liverpool. Injuries have unfortunately stymied his career at club and international level, but at 26, Alex still has some time left to fulfil his potential.
His dad Mark Chamberlain was a right-winger who also represented England, whilst playing for Stoke in the 1980s. He also played for Sheffield Wednesday, Brighton, Exeter and – most famously – Portsmouth before briefly becoming player-manager at non-league Fareham.
Though Mark stopped playing in 1998, he is still present on CM99/00 as a surprisingly quick and agile 37-year-old free agent. Later in life, he became a youth coach back at Portsmouth, where his younger son Christian Oxlade-Chamberlain (now a midfielder at Notts County) came through the academy.
FATHER: Mike Okoth Origi
SON: Divock Origi (Liverpool)
A teenage Divock Origi came to prominence in 2014, firstly with Lille and then with Belgium at the World Cup in Brazil. His exploits earned him a lucrative transfer to Liverpool, where he’s become a semi-regular up front while carving out a reputation as an impact substitute. Oh, and he’s scored in the freakin’ Champions League Final.
Divock’s career has well and truly overshadowed that of his father. Originally from Kenya, Mike Okoth Origi emigrated to Belgium in 1992, turing out for Oostende and Harelbeke. He subsequently peaked at Genk, winning the Belgian First Division in 1999 and the Belgian Cup a year later.
Mike ended his international career with Kenya at the 2004 Africa Cup of Nations – his third such continental tournament. He continued playing lower-league football in Belgium for a couple more years, eventually retiring at the age of 40.
FATHER: Rory Delap
SON: Liam Delap (Man City)
On CM99/00, Rory Delap was a 23-year-old Dion Dublin wannabe at Derby, being able to play in defence or up front. The Irishman’s stamina and work rate were unquestionable, but just look at that Set Pieces attribute score. Only 5?! Hmm…
Despite seemingly struggling to decide whether to be a defender or an attacker in-game, the real Rory made his living as a midfielder. He made over 100 league appearances for three different clubs: Derby, Southampton, and – most famously – Stoke. Between 2007 and 2013, his long throw-ins made him a cult icon in Tony Pulis’ Potters side as they established themselves in the Premier League.
Delap is still at Stoke today as a first-team coach, briefly serving as caretaker manager after Nathan Jones was sacked earlier this year. Meanwhile, his 16-year-old son Liam is making his Football Manager debut on FM20 as a youth-team striker at Manchester City, having recently transferred from Derby.
FATHER: Souleyman Sané
SON: Leroy Sané (Man City)
Remember when Leroy Sané was left out of Germany’s 2018 World Cup squad and the BBC kept reminding us about it at every opportunity? Of course, the attacker put his international disappointment aside to help Manchester City claim an unprecedented English domestic treble a year later. Sadly, Sané tore his ACL in the Community Shield in August and is expected to miss most of this season.
Leroy’s parents are Regina Weber – a 1984 Olympic medal-winning gymnast – and Senegalese international footballer Souleyman Sané. The elder Sané arrived in West Germany in the mid-1980s, featuring for Freiburg, Nürnberg and Wattenscheid. By Leroy’s birth in 1996, dad was playing for Tirol Innsbruck, where he’d been crowned the Austrian Bundesliga’s top scorer a year earlier.
On the original CM99/00 database, Souleyman was a 38-year-old at LASK, where he didn’t stay for very long. Impressively, he was still playing football in Austria’s amateur leagues until he was approaching his 50s!
FATHER: Shaun Wright-Phillips
SON: D’Margio Wright-Phillips (Man City)
So… who were the first father and son to each win the Premier League? The answer, of course, is Ian Wright (champion with Arsenal in 1998) and stepson Shaun Wright-Phillips (with Chelsea in 2006), whom Ian adopted at the age of three.
CM99/00 was the only Championship Manager game to feature both Wrights. Ian was 35 years old and contracted to Celtic – the third of FOUR clubs he represented during his final season. Shaun was in the database as a 17-year-old striker at Manchester City, though it was as a right-winger that he later made his name with City and Chelsea.
Shaun wound down his career in the United States (playing alongside half-brother Bradley at New York Red Bulls) before retiring in 2017 with 36 England caps – three more than Wrighty Snr. However, a THIRD generation of the family is now pursuing a top-flight football career, as his 18-year-old son D’Margio currently plays for City’s youth side.
FATHER: Phil Neville
SON: Harvey Neville (Man Utd)
It’s fair to say that 17-year-old Harvey Neville has a lot to live up to. His father Phil, uncle Gary and aunt Tracey were all top-level sportspeople who represented England at football or netball. Right now, Harvey is showing early promise in Manchester United’s academy and with Republic of Ireland Under-19s.
Like Peter Schmeichel earlier in this article, Phil Neville was a prominent member of Manchester United’s 1999 Treble-winning team. Often playing at left-back (with his older brother Gary on the right), he spent over a decade at Old Trafford before moving to Everton, playing a total of 505 Premier League games. He was also capped by England 59 times.
Phil later went into coaching, first with United and then as Gary’s assistant at Valencia. He succeeded Mark Sampson as manager of the England women’s team in 2018, leading the Lionesses to 4th place at this year’s World Cup in France. He’ll also coach the Great Britain team at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
FATHER: Marcos Pereira
SON: Andreas Pereira (Man Utd)
The last 18 months or so have seen Andreas Pereira establish himself in a much-maligned Manchester United midfield. Born in Belgium, he moved to Manchester as a 15-year-old in 2011 and was first capped by Brazil – the homeland of his former footballer father – last year.
Although the CM99/00 database only lists Marcos Pereira as Belgian, he was most definitely from the Paraná state of Brazil. He was a rapid 24-year-old striker playing in Belgium’s Second Division for Maasland, midway through a decent if unremarkable career spent almost entirely in his adopted homeland.
During the 2000s, Marcos featured for Sint Truiden and Antwerp in the First Division. In 2010, he finished his career at the now-defunct Fourth Division club Overpeltse, where he was also assistant manager for a while.
FATHER: Chris Swailes
SON: Jude Swailes (Newcastle)
Chris Swailes was an aggressive journeyman centre-half who turned professional at Peterborough in 1991 and continued playing for 25 years. His list of clubs is too long to name them all, but it was perhaps at Bury where he was most fondly remembered, representing the Shakers between 1997 and 2001.
Another four-year stint at Rotherham followed before Swailes played for Oldham, Hamilton, and various non-league teams in north-east England. In 2016, at the age of 45, he hung up his boots after scoring for Morpeth in their FA Cup Vase Final victory over Hereford at Wembley. He now manages Dunston UTS in the eighth-tier Northern Premier League Division One North West.
In September 2001, shortly after Chris moved from Bury to Rotherham, his son Jude was born. Jude is now hoping to forge his own career at centre-back and is in the second year of an academy contract at Newcastle.
FATHER: Andy Woodman
SON: Freddie Woodman (Newcastle)
It feels like we’ve waited ages for Freddie Woodman to establish himself as one of England’s top goalkeepers. A star player from the FIFA U20 World Cup-winning side of 2017, he has yet to challenge Martin Dubravka for Newcastle’s number 1 jersey. Instead, you’ll now find the 22-year-old on loan at Swansea in the Championship.
Freddie was but a toddler when his father Andy Woodman appeared on CM99/00, as the first-choice goalkeeper at Division 2 side Brentford. Andy had just moved to Griffin Park from Northampton, where he won the Division 3 play-offs shortly after his son’s birth in 1997.
Woodman snr spent the next decade bouncing around several lower-league and non-league clubs in the south of England. He served as assistant manager at Rushden & Diamonds in 2006 before taking up goalkeeper coaching positions at Crystal Palace and Newcastle. Following a brief spell managing Whitehawk in the National League South, he became the head of Arsenal’s academy goalkeeping team in 2017.
FATHER: Mauricio Pochettino
SON: Maurizio Pochettino (Tottenham)
If you read my first CM99/00 blog post about where today’s Premier League managers were 20 years ago, you’ll know all about Mauricio Pochettino’s background. Of course, that post is now rather outdated, as Tottenham sacked the man who took them to the Champions League Final and lit the José Mourinho bat signal in November.
Anyway, Pochettino was in the latter half of his first playing stint at Espanyol, where the Argentine defender became a local hero after making over 200 league appearances. It was while living in Barcelona that his two sons – Sebastiano and Maurizio – were born.
Sebastiano was just 22 when Tottenham appointed him as first-team sports scientist in 2015, but he left the club with Mauricio last month. Nevertheless, the Pochettino name lives on at Spurs, where 18-year-old Maurizio plays as a right-winger in the club’s Under-23s squad.
FATHER: Teemu Tainio
SON: Maximus Tainio (Tottenham)
It’s incredible to think that Teemu Tainio was still a teenager when he appeared on CM99/00 as an attacking midfielder at Auxerre. Though the agile Finn became a mainstay at the French club, making 150 Ligue 1 appearances and twice lifting the Coupe de France, it was actually as a defensive midfield anchor.
Tainio came to England in 2005 after joining Tottenham on a free transfer. He wouldn’t make a particularly huge impact during his three years at White Hart Lane, though he did win the League Cup in 2008. Spells at Sunderland and Birmingham continued before he wound down his playing career back in Finland with HJK in 2014.
Tainio later did some scouting work for Tottenham, where his son joined the academy as a right-back in 2017. Now aged 18, Maximus turned professional earlier this year and is developing well in the Under-23s. As for Teemu, he was appointed head coach of FC Haka in 2018, leading them to the second-tier Ykkönen title this year.
FATHER: Dennis Wise
SON: Henry Wise (Watford)
If you’re one of my younger readers, you might know Dennis Wise only as a semi-successful manager (Millwall) and failed executive (Newcastle) who’s sometimes on the telly. If you’re around my age, you’ll likely recall his aggressive midfield displays – and discipline problems – at Chelsea and with England. Anyone who’s about 40 or older may even remember him as part of Wimbledon’s ‘Crazy Gang’ of the 1980s.
As the new millennium dawned, Wise was a 32-year-old with his best years seemingly behind him. That said, he began 1999/2000 by captaining Chelsea to a 3-0 victory over Skonto in their first ever Champions League game. He ended that season by lifting the FA Cup, with his baby son Henry in his arms.
Henry is now grown up – he turns 20 this New Year’s Day – and making his own way in football. After playing in the Arsenal and Derby academies (having started out at Dennis’ boyhood club QPR), he joined Watford’s development squad in July this year.
CHAMPIONSHIP SONS (AND THEIR FATHERS)
Here’s a bonus list of 19 current Championship players whose dads were on the Championship Manager database themselves two decades ago. This includes Swansea’s Icelandic striker Arnor Borg Gudjohnsen, whose father Arnor and half-brother Eidur were both playing professionally in 1999!
| FATHER | CLUB & POSITION (ON CM99/00) |
SON | CLUB & POSITION (ON FM20) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Darren Caskey | Reading (M C) |
Jake Forster-Caskey | Charlton (DM, M C) |
| Edwin de Wijs | TOP (F RC) |
Jordy de Wijs | Hull (D C) |
| Robert Lee | Newcastle (M RC) |
Elliot Lee | Luton (AM C, ST C) |
| John Moncur | West Ham (M C) |
George Moncur | Luton (M/AM RLC) |
| Alan Stubbs | Celtic (SW/D/DM C) |
Sam Stubbs | Middlesbrough (D C) |
| Gary Alexander | Exeter (S C) |
George Alexander | Millwall (ST C) |
| David Johnson | Ipswich (S C) |
Brennan Johnson | Nottm Forest (AM RLC, ST C) |
| Des Walker | Sheff Wed (D C) |
Tyler Walker | Nottm Forest (ST C) |
| Paul Bodin | Bath City (D/DM L) |
Billy Bodin | Preston (AM RLC, ST C) |
| Stuart Ripley | Southampton (AM R) |
Connor Ripley | Preston (GK) |
| Dominic Iorfa | Waterford United (M R) |
Dominic Iorfa | Sheff Wed (D RC, WB R) |
| Andy Rhodes | Emley (GK) |
Jordan Rhodes | Sheff Wed (ST C) |
| Kevin Campbell | Everton (S C) |
Tyrese Campbell | Stoke (ST C) |
| Paul Ince | Middlesbrough (DM C) |
Tom Ince | Stoke (AM RLC) |
| Abedi Pele | Al Ahli (AM C) |
André Ayew | Swansea (M R, AM RL) |
| Arnor Gudjohnsen | IBV (AM/F C) |
Arnor Borg Gudjohnsen | Swansea (AM C, ST C) |
| Paul Furlong | Birmingham (S C) |
Darnell Furlong | West Brom (D RLC) |
| Andy Cole | Man Utd (S C) |
Devante Cole | Wigan (AM RL, ST C) |
| Dean Windass | Bradford (AM/F C) |
Josh Windass | Wigan (AM RLC) |
I hope you enjoyed that trek through Championship Manager history. Would you like to see me write another of these articles, covering some of the major European leagues? Do you have any ideas about new CM99/00 content? If so, please let me know by leaving a comment below or tweeting me @Fuller_FM.
Thank you for reading.
Fuller FM 
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