Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another Fuller FM review. Today, I’m going to look at a brand-new football game that was released earlier this month!
No, it’s not We Are Football 2027. It’s also not that non-league manager game that totally doesn’t look like it was vibe-coded with Claude. I will probably get to those titles another time.
A couple of years ago, I looked back on a versatile and addictive shareware game from the mid-2000s that had sadly faded into obscurity. Now, though, it has risen from the dead and been given a new lease of life.
So let me (re)introduce you to Championship Soccer… 2026!
BACKGROUND
About a quarter-century ago, a young German programmer independently developed his own 2D football simulation game – a game where you could be a player, a manager, or even both. Andreas Osswald’s Championship Soccer was first released as shareware in around 2003, and it gradually built up a small but devoted fanbase.
I enjoyed playing the original CS as a teenager, and I have been coming back to it on and off for the past 20 years or so. Back at the start of 2024, I wrote a review on this site for Championship Soccer Pro Edition – the most recent version from 2010. While the match engine left plenty to be desired and the game had various technical issues on 64-bit systems, I praised its simplicity and its vast customisation.
Unfortunately, there weren’t any realistic data files available at the time, and CS remained in relative obscurity… until about two months ago.
Then a Finnish YouTuber named Ted Meat (or MeatBall) released this video. It went semi-viral, getting 250,000+ views and bringing Championship Soccer’s underrated player career mode to a wider audience. The game’s Discord server also exploded – swelling from about 75 members (with hardly anyone posting on it) to over 2,000 in a matter of weeks.
In the meantime, Osswald had been working on upgrading the original game to run better on 64-bit computers. Capitalising on the sudden surge of Meat-mentum, he brought out a new freeware version of CS, with regular updates throughout the summer. From a personal perspective, I tested this new version extensively and reported several bugs to Andreas – most of which have been addressed and fixed.
But that wasn’t all. On 11 September, Osswald announced the ‘early access’ release of Championship Soccer 2026 – a truly modern update with a 3D match engine, improved AI, and some other new features which I’ll touch on later. It’s available to buy and play right now for £15 (or €15, if your country isn’t wishing it had never left the EU).
As of writing, CS26 is still in development ahead of a planned ‘final’ release at some point later this year. The focus of Osswald’s work will then shift towards Championship Soccer 2027, which is set to be more experimental and ambitious.
So after over 20 years of development, is Championship Soccer truly fulfilling its potential at long last? Let’s take a closer look.
STARTING OUT
CS26 allows you to run up to 200 leagues, featuring up to 5,000 clubs. The default database includes 72 playable nations – most of which have teams and players based on real-life, except that the names are changed for legal reasons. For example, you have Hurry Kana up front for FD Bayarn Munchan, and Nice E’Reolly playing at left-back for Manchestar Coty.
If you’re not a fan of these nixed-up manes, it’s quite easy to import your own databases. There is an extensive, unofficial 2026/2027 ‘datapack’ with more leagues and accurate names, though the quality of the data is… mixed. In what world is Bukayo Saka a centre-forward, for instance?
Other users have imported historic databases from past seasons. My favourite is the 2004/2005 datapack… which actually appears to be from 2002, because David Beckham hasn’t left Manchester United and Wayne Rooney is still at Everton, but that’s not the point.
My point is that pretty much anything goes when it comes to creating your own football universe. There’s even an online manual that explains it all pretty simply. I started creating Championship Soccer files based on a fantasy nation 20 years ago – and for this review, I’ll be using the latest versions of those.
For those of you new to this game, there are multiple ways to play. You can be a player – in any position you like, starting as either a free agent or at a club of your choosing. You can be a player-manager, who sets up your team and tactics, and then you can control either one player or the entire team during matches. But if you just want a classic FM-esque experience, you can choose to simply be the manager.
When it comes to matches, you can also choose to either watch the action play out in the new 3D engine, or you can quickly generate an instant result. There are also various match settings, allowing you to tweak most things to your heart’s content. For instance, reducing the frames per second can slow the game down and theoretically make it easier to play.
WHAT I LIKED
When you’re managing a club, setting up your squad and tactics is quite simple. It’s just a case of dragging and dropping players, and rearranging the dots on the pitch to create your own formation. You can also use the right-click function to set up player runs, like on classic Championship Manager.
There are also now some extra tactical and player instructions, though these are experimental at this stage in development. Pretty much anything goes when it comes to tactics. If you’re feeling particularly brave (or stupid), you can even take out the goalkeeper and play with 11 outfielders!
The transfer market on CS26 is a bit more in-depth than it was on the previous game. You can now negotiate a transfer fee with a club and then (if they accept) discuss wages with the player you want to sign, rather than the old approach of “pay this arbitrary fee or go away”. You can also transfer-list your surplus players and offer them out for loan.
You also now have a backroom of coaches, scouts, physios, and even psychologists. I’m not sure how much impact they actually have, but it’s still nice to have them around.
CS26 now keeps historic data for every club and player in the game, making it easier to truly immerse yourself in the game world. Now there’s a new feature for you, Sports Interactive (nudge nudge, wink wink).
The best way to describe Championship Soccer is that it is a “football sandbox”. It might not be the most complex football simulation out there, but it’s a fine world-builder.
WHAT I DIDN’T
Admittedly, the match engine AI is pretty rough in places. Players tend to make odd decisions on the ball – which is particularly frustrating if you’re doing a player career, and your team-mates won’t pass to you when you’re wide open in a great shooting position.
In terms of defending, backlines often part like the Red Sea, and defenders have a frightening tendency to dribble towards their goal when in possession. The standard of goalkeeping is similarly far from stellar.
I also have mixed feelings about the new match graphics. The original 2D pixels had a nostalgic charm and familiarity that the 3D graphics – sleek and modern as they look – can’t quite live up to. At least the referees get to show off a bit more, with goofy oversized yellow and red cards that would probably have Mike Dean wishing he’d never retired.
I’m also not a fan of the AI-generated background images, which look a bit dull and lifeless. Thankfully, you can replace these with your own if you want to.
WE MUST TALK ABOUT…
The player career mode. As much as I prefer to focus on the managerial side of things, this is – and has always been – Championship Soccer’s big selling point.
As previously mentioned, you can create a player in any position you like. You can then decide the profile of your new player – he might be a ready-made wonderkid who can start in the big time straight away, or a rough diamond who has to work his way through the lower leagues. You can then re-roll your player’s starting attributes until you see a combination you’re happy with.
The in-game controls are quite easy to get to grips with. Your manager will give you regular in-game feedback when you do something well (e.g. scoring a goal, completing a pass) or when you make a mistake (e.g. straying out of position, losing the ball, signing for Chelsea). After each match, you will get a rating from 1 to 10, which will influence how quickly your player develops and how much trust your manager has in you.
This is not like EA Sports FC‘s player career, where it’s pretty much inevitable that you will become a superstar. CS26 is far more realistic and less predictable; you could just as easily become a middling journeyman as a world-beater. Instead of being THE star of the show, you’re just an ordinary character in a much wider world – and that’s a feeling which few football games outside of FM come even close to capturing.
SUMMARY
All in all, Championship Soccer 2026 is a very solid football game. It’s simple and nostalgic enough for older players who want to relive Sensi’s golden years, but it is also customisable enough to appeal to nerdier gamers who wish to build their own worlds. The possibilities are virtually endless.
The match engine could do with a bit of tweaking, and the transfer market is nowhere near as sophisticated as other games. Nonetheless, it is great to see an old favourite being brought back and modernised – and I hope this is only the start of even better things to come.
If you like what you see, you can buy the game right now on Playtesting.de. As previously mentioned, the base game costs £15/€15, but you can optionally pay extra to support the game’s ongoing development – and get Championship Soccer 2027 when that is eventually released.
FULLER FM RATING: 4* – Premier League.
Thanks for reading. If you have any comments, then please leave them below – or contact me on Threads or Bluesky.
