And now it’s time for something a bit different on Fuller FM. Today, I’ll be revisiting probably my favourite FM game of all time – Football Manager 2013, which just so happens to be celebrating its 10th anniversary next week!
My longest and probably best ever save was on FM13. Starting at my hometown club Romford in the lower reaches of English football, I played on up until 2043, when I led Dagenham & Redbridge to domestic and European glory… but I’m not here to talk about that!
In this mini-series, I’ll be looking at the state of the FM13 game world at the end of the 2021/2022 season, and how things compare to the present day. For the opening installment, I will look at the nominees for this year’s Ballon d’Or, and see what happened to them in this virtual universe…
NOT ON FM13
Since Football Manager cannot add players under the age of 16 without parental permission, the FM13 database doesn’t include anybody born after August 1996. This means that 10 of the 30 nominees for the 2022 Ballon d’Or are NOT in the game:
6: Kylian Mbappé
8: Vinícius Júnior
10: Erling Haaland
=14: Rafael Leão
=17: Luis Díaz
=17: Dušan Vlahović
=22: Trent Alexander-Arnold
=22: Phil Foden
=25: Christopher Nkunku
=25: Darwin Núñez
The other 20 players are all present in the FM13 database, but how many of them were still going strong in 2022 on my save? Let’s find out which players made it to the top of the game, and which ones crashed and burned.
[Note: Most of the player screenshots were taken at the end of the 2021/2022 season. If a player is no longer active, I will instead provide a screenshot from the final season before they retired.]
=25: JOÃO CANCELO
Let’s start with Manchester City’s marauding right-back Cancelo, who started his career in the renowned Benfica academy. Though his virtual counterpart doesn’t have as much technique or creativity, he has still enjoyed a solid career and is in Portugal’s 2022 World Cup squad.
After making nine league appearances for Benfica in 2012/2013, Cancelo was surprisingly released on a free transfer and spent the next four years building up top-flight experience at Marítimo. He moved to Palermo in 2017 and has since become an established squad player with the Rosanero, who finished 7th in Serie A last season.
=25: JOSHUA KIMMICH
Today, Kimmich is regarded as one of the world’s pre-eminent defensive midfielders, having won seven Bundesliga titles and a Champions League with Bayern München, and is Germany’s vice-captain. On recent FMs, he is a ridiculously versatile right-back, a model professional, and consistently one of the game’s top performers.
In this FM13 universe, however, Kimmich’s career went nowhere. The Rottweiler – he was born in the town of Rottweil – was released by VfB Stuttgart at the end of the 2012/2013 season, after making just five appearances for the reserves. He couldn’t find another club, and retired in 2014 at the ripe old age of 19. Ach je!
=25: MIKE MAIGNAN
The first of our two goalkeepers on this list, Maignan started off in PSG’s reserve team, barely featured for the oil-rich Parisians, and had to build his career elsewhere. But while the real-life Maignan is a Serie A champion with AC Milan, virtual Mike is in slightly more modest surroundings at Saint-Étienne.
After a number of loan spells with the likes of Nantes, Ajaccio and Basel, Maignan finally left PSG permanently in 2021 to move to the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard. Taking the number 1 jersey from the departing veteran Stéphane Ruffier, he helped Les Verts to a top-six Ligue 1 finish in his first season. Having a certain Aymeric Laporte in front of him probably helped too.
=25: ANTONIO RÜDIGER
Forget Chelsea or Real Madrid, I’m afraid that this Rüdiger never even made it out of Germany. The strong centre-back was a perennial reserve at VfB Stuttgart and was sent out on loan for five consecutive seasons. He spent the 2020/2021 campaign at third-division Eintracht Braunschweig, two years after featuring for some obscure non-league team called RasenBallsport Leipzig.
On the plus side, Rüdiger did win 46 international caps… for Sierra Leone. He couldn’t quite reach the half-century, as he was released by Stuttgart in 2021 and spent a year as a free agent before retiring. The 29-year-old is now a scout, and not a very good one.
=22: BERNARDO SILVA
Bernardo Silva may be a joy to watch for Manchester City, but in this save, the flamboyant left-footed midfielder has had a frustrating career. He didn’t even get a look-in for Benfica’s B team before being discarded in the summer of 2013.
Over the last nine years, Silva made 217 appearances in Portugal’s Segunda Liga for Varzim, Beira-Mar and União da Madeira, recording an average rating of just 6.64. That being said, the top flight may finally be beckoning for Bernardo, as União were promoted to the Primeira Liga as champions in 2022. Interestingly, his captain in Madeira is a real-life Manchester rival – Bruno Fernandes.
21: HARRY KANE
England’s captain and soon-to-be record scorer is nowhere near the national set-up here. Kane didn’t make it out of Tottenham’s loan farm until 2017, when he was finally given a shot at the first-team by then-manager Laurent Blanc. In 17 Premier League matches, he scored precisely ONE goal.
Kane was released in 2018 and was eventually picked up by Leeds in the following January. After a modest return of 24 goals in 99 Championship games for Leeds, he finally got his long-awaited big move to the north-west – joining Everton for £1.8million. No wonder he looks stunned.
20: CRISTIANO RONALDO
Instead of returning to Old Trafford and tarnishing what remains of his reputation, this Cristiano Ronaldo ended his career with rather more grace. Having scored 290 La Liga goals between for Real Madrid, Cristiano is an undisputed Merengues legend and is now considering a career in management after hanging up his boots in 2021.
Ronaldo won five La Liga titles with Real (compared to only two in real-life), but was rather less successful in the Champions League, lifting the big cup only once in 2016. He also won just one Ballon d’Or during this save – in 2017 – having been overshadowed by his old rival Lionel Messi.
Incidentally, Messi is still going strong at Barcelona, though he is set to retire at the end of the 2022/2023 season.
=17: CASEMIRO
Casemiro never became a Galactico in this universe. In fact, the hard-working defensive midfielder stayed at his boyhood club São Paulo for the majority of his career. He didn’t get his big move to Europe until Saint-Étienne picked him up for £4.6million in July 2020, when he was already 28.
While Casemiro has enjoyed a steady two seasons in France, it’s fair to say he’s not quite the same enforcer who so expertly bossed Liverpool in this year’s Champions League Final. He has also been unable to add to the five Brazil caps that he started this save with.
16: VIRGIL VAN DIJK
Here’s another player who had a respectable career without ever quite reaching CL-winning level. In 2012, van Dijk was a promising young centre-back at FC Groningen – but instead of winning league championships on both sides of Hadrian’s Wall, the Dutchman moved across a different border to sign for Anderlecht.
After two-and-a-half years in Belgium, Virgil headed to Galatasaray for £7.25million in 2016 – the same year he won his only three caps for the Netherlands. Though he has enjoyed some success at Gala (winning four Turkish championships), he was recently dropped to the reserves and put on sale for just £2.1million. Bargain.
=14: FABINHO
One of van Dijk’s real-life Liverpool team-mates has been even less successful. To be fair, the FM13 Fabinho plays as a right-back rather than as a defensive midfielder. But just look at his attributes – 8 Passing, 9 Determination? You’ve got to be kidding, right?
Fabinho was a Primeira Liga semi-regular with Rio Ave between 2013 and 2019, but after drifting out of the team, he was loaned out to Belenenses and then released. In summer 2021, he signed a year-long contract at Paços de Ferreira, playing in 19 matches as his new team were relegated to the Segunda Liga. Somehow, I don’t think he’ll be getting a new deal…
13: SÉBASTIEN HALLER
Haller’s career has been full of ups and downs – his big breakthrough at Eintracht, struggles at West Ham, a resurgence at Ajax, and most recently being diagnosed with cancer shortly after joining Dortmund. On FM13, though, he was the perfect example of just how brutal free agency could be if a player couldn’t find a new club quickly.
The former France Under-19s striker emerged as a first-team regular at Auxerre in 2014/2015, scoring 12 goals as they were promoted from Ligue 1. Sadly, he couldn’t replicate that form in the top flight, and his contract was not renewed upon expiry in 2018. A year later, having inexplicably not been picked up by another club at a lower level, Haller sadly retired from football aged just 24.
Though his virtual career never really took off, real-life events do put things into perspective. Get well soon, Sébastien.
12: RIYAD MAHREZ
Mahrez is a skilful left-winger with great pace and crossing ability, but that’s where the similarities with real-life end. As he never came on Leicester’s radar, the future Algerian international has stayed in France for his entire career.
After scoring eight goals for Le Havre in 2014/2015, Mahrez got his big break in Ligue 1 with Toulouse. While TFC have become a bit of a yo-yo club, Mahrez has stayed loyal and gradually improved his performances over the year. In 2021/2022, he produced two goals and 13 assists as Toulouse returned to the top flight as Ligue 2 champions.
11: SON HEUNG-MIN
Life imitating art, or art imitating life? Son Heung-Min joined Tottenham straight from Hamburg for £9million in 2014 – a year early, and skipping Leverkusen completely. Sadly for Spurs fans, the Korean’s attacking input was much less consistent, delivering only eight Premier League goals in five seasons.
Son was sold to Aston Villa for a cut-price £2.3million in 2019 but still couldn’t find his feet in the PL, not even during a loan spell at Watford. Despite Villa’s relegation to the Championship in 2021, he is still only a backup for Eddie Howe’s side, even falling behind Chris Wood in the pecking order. How embarrassing…
9: LUKA MODRIC
His name is Luka; just don’t ask him how his Real Madrid career ended. Modric was a first-team regular until around 2018 (winning one CL in 2016) but featured just once in the final year of his contract. He certainly didn’t play in any World Cup Finals, not least because Croatia failed to qualify for Russia 2018, and Modric retired from internationals in 2016 – one cap shy of a century.
After a spectacular swansong season with Granada, making a La Liga-high 18 assists, Modric retired from playing in the summer of 2020. He is now the Under-20s manager at the Greek club AS Veroia, because of course he bloody is.
7: THIBAUT COURTOIS
Chelsea fans will no doubt pine for a world where Courtois stayed at Stamford Bridge instead of moving to Real Madrid. This is what they could have won. After starting the save on loan at Atlético Madrid, the Belgian displaced Petr Cech as the Blues’ number 1 in 2015 and was instrumental in their three Europa League wins between 2017 and 2021.
Courtois is now regarded as one of the world’s top goalkeepers (no surprises there) and is approaching 100 caps for Belgium. Sadly, the 2021/2022 season didn’t entirely go to plan, with a serious knee injury derailing him for four months, during which time he was replaced by Bojan Saranov. Yeah, you know… Bojan Saranov!
5: MOHAMED SALAH
This is a different Salah to the one who found his Mo-jo in Rome and then became the Pharaoh of Anfield. In spite of his blistering pace and excellent technique, he never really caught fire at Basel, winning a solitary Swiss Super League title in 2015. Though he was rather more productive at FC Vaslui, he only won one league championship in Romania as well.
Salah returned to Egypt in 2019 and has spent the last few years with Zamalek, for whom he curiously wears the number 6. He is still a regular member of the national team, but he is overshadowed by Liverpool’s current Egyptian superstar – a 22-year-old midfielder named Youssef Saleh. Eh, close enough…
4: ROBERT LEWANDOWSKI
Lewandowski’s goalscoring record at Bayern was ridiculous, and his virtual self wasn’t too far off the mark here. But when the Warsaw war machine did leave Borussia Dortmund in 2013, it wasn’t to their Bavarian rivals – but instead to PSG, who coughed up a cool £32.5million.
Lewandowski has consistently scored 30+ goals in each of his nine seasons in Paris, with his record currently standing at 324 goals – just 20 shy of his real-life Bayern haul. Unsurprisingly, PSG have utterly dominated Ligue 1 since signing Polish Bob (who retired from international duty in 2017), but the Champions League continues to elude them.
3: KEVIN DE BRUYNE
Bayern did get their hands on De Bruyne in 2014, coughing up £10million for Chelsea’s young playmaker after being impressed by his performances on loan at Werder Bremen a couple of seasons earlier. The blond bombshell was moderately successful in the Bundesliga but went on the move again in 2016, signing for Manchester… United.
Having delivered 12 goals and 17 assists in just two seasons at Old Trafford, one manager in particular needed to talk about Kevin. Unfortunately for United, that manager was a certain Josep Guardiola, who brought KDB to the Nou Camp for £18million in 2018. Though he isn’t a guaranteed starter there, he did fulfil his potential by winning the Champions League two years later.
2: SADIO MANÉ
Oh, how Liverpool fans wish they still had Mané! The Senegalese inside-forward’s journey to Anfield was somewhat similar to real-life. Red Bull Salzburg gave him wings in 2012, he flew to the big leagues in 2014, and then he arrived on Merseyside in 2016 – the only difference being that the middle club was Internazionale, not Southampton.
Mané’s virtual career at Liverpool has been more steady than spectacular, mind. He has so far scored 31 Premier League goals for the Reds, who haven’t won any major trophies in that time, and indeed were almost relegated under Owen Coyle in 2021! However, he DID win the Africa Cup of Nations with Senegal TWICE – and he only needed to wait until 2013 for his first.
1: KARIM BENZEMA
Earlier this month, after a spectacular season at Real Madrid, the bespectacled Karim Benzema collected his first Ballon d’Or at the age of 34. At this point in the FM13 universe, Benzema was already a year into his retirement.
Despite reaching an impressive 127 caps for France, Benzema never hit more than 19 goals in any of his nine seasons on this save. After drifting out of Real Madrid’s starting XI in 2016, he was sold to PSG, where he briefly formed a devastating partnership with Lewandowski before gradually being phased out for younger talent. He didn’t make a single appearance in the 2020/2021 season and hung up his boots soon afterwards.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this blast from the past. If there’s anything else you’d like to know about how the FM13 world looks in the year 2022, feel free to let me know by leaving a comment below or tweeting me @Fuller_FM. There will be another post next week, where I look at some FM13 wonderkids who never became superstars in real-life, but I’m open to other suggestions!
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