It’s not hard to find the most diverse praise for the Football Manager build model. Loyalty to the database is the most recurrent. The praise of this work is the result of the hard collaboration of several people around the planet – which few people know. And to understand all the rigor in the method, criteria for player attributes, challenges and other details, we went to talk to those who are in the heart of the thing.
“I started collaborating with the database in 2016 and it was a mix of a sense of responsibility with an almost magical feeling of participating in something that I liked so much”, reveals Yan Cavalcanti, 33 years old, a systems developer who works entirely with analytics. soccer and volleyball statistics – and one of the editors of the Football Manager database in Brazil. “I’ve always had the habit of customizing the game a lot before starting to play it. So, basically, my work today is what I used to do just for myself after the game came out.”
It all started there in Championship Manager 98-99, the first simulator played by Yan. “I heard that there was a more complete version of an Elifoot-style game, I went after it and fell in love. I just didn’t like it when I dismissed Romário by mistake”, he laments, with good humor.
Basically, Yan’s work, born in João Pessoa-PB, consists of completely adjusting all clubs in Paraíba, and helping with other regions of Brazil. Nationally, the team of editors has four other people, in addition to a chief editor. The purpose of this group is to keep the game as updated as possible, always.
“We try to make the base robust and faithful. But of course, failures can happen, such as a player being well evaluated in previous years and not going through updates that accompany their real development, which may not have been as good as the initial one. In terms of transfer, we always expect a player to enter the BID (CBF Daily Newsletter) or be a very notorious transaction. There are many rules and standards to be followed. The relationship between us who play and the athletes in the game are very realistic Off-pitch influences and affects every player differently. Every player’s personality has an influence. This level of realism is not seen in other games. But we also know that this level of detail can be difficult for first-time players. “
When the Football Manager version is close to being closed, the team manages to adjust data for around 150 players a day. Generally, the bigger clubs, and some states, have their own researcher. There are volunteers who help and end up “adopting” a team, which allows for a detailed breakdown of athletes and staff. Naturally, smaller ones pose more difficulties. “You can’t be 100% perfect, but clubs in Brazil’s first three divisions are close to that. It’s also rare for a player to be called up for the Under-20 squad and not be in the game.”
What can still be improved in Football Manager?
“Speaking as a fan, Women’s Football is missing. It is the next step, and a very important one. I hope that one day it happens. I would also like to see Brazilian clubs officially in the game. They are interested in making a league to replace the Campeonato Brasileiro and that can help. Another thing that I think the game doesn’t end up being perfect is that the simulation is very focused on English football, so there are situations that we can’t make it 100% realistic in Brazilian football. There is a completely different football culture. There is a completely different football culture there. , coaches who do good work in lower divisions end up moving up to the bigger leagues more easily. Here, coaches from smaller clubs are very tied to their regions. A coach who is successful in the Northeast ends up having to go to giant clubs in the region to be able to have chances at giant clubs in other regions, and the game does not perfectly simulate that, causing unbelievable coach changes.”
How to set the level (0 to 20) of each player’s indicators?
“Some aspects are difficult to evaluate. In general, we have to compare the attributes and use the division that the clubs are based on. For example, in 2021 Botafogo-PB was in Série C and Campinense was in Série D. The squads and players weren’t so different, but because of the standardization of the divisions, I ended up leaving a considerable margin between the clubs. different from reality, so we always have to look for a balance.
Some attributes are very specific and don’t need so much analysis, such as impulsion, which we also have to take into account the height of the player. Others are very subjective, see “bravery” and “important games”, and these need to be given more attention, especially since each researcher can analyze them differently.
But, after watching so many games and analyzing so many players, you end up observing everything more easily: Nowadays, I can clearly see when a player doesn’t have confidence with a bad foot, when he doesn’t have that much vision of the game or the defensive positioning his is bad, things that are part of a deeper analysis.”
