Andreas Schjelderup made his debut for Benfica’s main team in Barreiros in the final minutes of the match against Marítimo, a milestone for the 18-year-old who arrived at Luz in January and who was already gaining experience in the B team. In the end, Roger Schmidt he spoke again about the Norwegian, to define him as «a brilliant talent». The perception of this potential accompanied Schjelderup from a very early age, who before arriving at Luz was already a figure in the Danish League and even before that had entered the orbit of the big European clubs. And who was also the star of Football Manager (FM), the popular football management simulator.
When Benfica announced the signing of Schjelderup, the FM social networks marked the moment with the revelation that he was the most signed player in the current edition.
The most signed player on #FM23 ????
They’ve got a good one ???? https://t.co/E2q5f0JozQ
— Football Manager (@FootballManager)
January 12, 2023
This information is not public, since there is no popularity ranking and only those responsible for the game have access to this data. How do you explain to morefootball one of the two head researchers of Football Manager in Portugal, who are responsible for the database of players playing in our country. «Only Sports Interactive has this data on the most signed players», says Carlos Bessa.
The promise that toured Europe
On FM, Schjelderup is a wonderkid, an under-20 ranked player with high potential. It already was in “real life”. When he was growing up at Bodo-Glimt, his hometown club, the winger quickly attracted the attention of top European clubs. This interest began by taking him on a sort of tour of various academies across Europe.
“I visited Ajax four times, PSV four times, Tottenham, Liverpool, Juventus, Fulham, Atalanta and Bayern Munich,” Schjelderup told Norwegian television TV2. But he opted for what he believed to be a more solid bet for the near future. “It was very tempting to go to clubs in Italy, England or Spain. I’m even a Liverpool fan, but I didn’t want to be one more in the crowd. In these clubs, the path to reach the first team is longer.”
So he chose Denmark and Nordsjaelland. It was a won bet. He arrived in the summer of 2020 and made his debut six months later for the first team. He was 16 years old. From then on he grew, reinforcing his potential and gaining influence on the field. This season, when Benfica signed him in January, he was the top scorer in the Danish league, with 10 goals.
“He took very quick steps,” says his former coach, Flemming Pedersen, current Nordsjaelland technical co-ordinator. ′′ The plan was for him to play and train in the under-19 team in the first year and reach the main team when he turned 17 years old. But after half a year we realized that it was time to move up to the main team and he immediately won the title », said the coach to the NRK channel.
Schjelderup’s path and quality are reflected in FM and obviously contribute to becoming, as the game’s developers say, the most popular player among users of the current edition. «The majority of the FM user base prefer to sign players with more «green attributes» – 16 (out of 20) – or above. Schjelderup has almost all the ideal attributes for a winger who plays on the inside”, David Lind, FM’s researcher in Denmark, told The Athletic.
The quality/price ratio that explains the popularity
But the record popularity that Schjelderup achieved on FM results from a combination of several factors, considers Carlos Bessa, who helps, at the request of the morefootballcontextualizing and explaining the logic of the game to «non-practitioners»: «It’s almost like a department of scouting in practice. As coaches, we want to look for good deals or excellent players at low prices, depending on the level we are at. Being in Denmark, he is in an attractive market. If we want one wonderkid who is playing in the Brasileirão, will have another price.»
“Why did so many people hire Schjelderup? Because he was a player with a lot of potential, especially for the quality/price ratio. He has good attributes, they’re not brilliant but they’re good and he’s really evolved for an 18 year old. The attributes, the fact that he is very young and the fact that he is not very expensive and is a player with a lot of potential, creates the boom», he continues: «He has a lot of potential for growth and was at a relatively cheap price due to the fact that he is in Danish League. It’s a mix of great potential versus age versus price. You could buy at competitive prices.”
An opportunity in the game, as in “real life”
The game imitates life. And that possibility of buying a player with a lot of potential at competitive prices «that’s what happened» in reality, when Benfica seized the opportunity and advanced to signing Schjelderup in January: «Benfica didn’t buy the player too expensive. Nine million for a player with the potential attributed to him is not a fortune. This player in Brazil would certainly be more expensive.”
In the game, there is also a snowball effect. FM does not give us a list of wonderkids, or players with a lot of potential. But there are several websites and forums dedicated to the game that make these listings and word gets out. «The player has a good price, stands out, people keep talking, there are specific FM sites that develop lists with the best young players, or the cheapest young players, preferential lists.»
This is one of the ways players can use to find good deals. The other, explains Carlos Bessa, is to do the work yourself. Put your virtual scouting department to work, or do the research yourself, «looking for cheap players with potential». “Schjelderup fit this profile. So, by any means, it started to become famous» in the gaming community.
This is for those looking for this type of footballers, of course. There are very different logics among FM players. Carlos Bessa, for example, says that he never “hired” Schjelderup. And he explains: «What I play on FM has nothing to do with picking up wonderkids. I like to train in exotic, peripheral Leagues. I like to play in the Malaysia League, in South Africa… In these countries, I have no way of looking for Schjelderup. Some Malaysian team didn’t have the money to pick up Schjelderup. Even Schjelderup didn’t want to go play in Malaysia.”
Promises who aren’t even old enough to join the game yet
FM analysts, spread all over the world, observe players from a very early age. «I usually follow under-19 championship games regularly», exemplifies Carlos Bessa: «That’s why the game often anticipates, in quotes, and identifies potential in players who are not yet very well known. These players have not yet made it to the senior team, but in their formative period they are already showing that they have a lot of potential.”
Often, scouts already have their eyes on players who can’t even enter the game yet. «We can only create players from a specific age, for legal reasons. Only from the age of 16, but it depends on when they turn 16. If a kid has a birthday in December, we can only raise him the following year. For example, in FC Porto there is a player who has a lot of potential, and who happens to have already debuted in the B team, but is not yet in the database. It’s Rodrigo Mora. I’ve known him for maybe two years. But he’s not old yet. He enters the next season. »
It is from this work, done as in the scouting «seriously», which define the attributes and potential of each player. It requires a lot of observation of games and also reflection, notes Carlos Bessa, so that expectations are not pierced. “Few are the players who don’t cheat. And even those who don’t deceive end up deceiving themselves», he smiles: «So this attribution of potential is not done lightly.»
The appreciation that makes Schjelderup «less appetizing»
It is the potential attributed to the player – on a scale of 0 to 200 where 180 is a world-class player – that leads the game to define him or not as a wonderkid. In the case of Portugal, Carlos Bessa does not come up with an exact number of players who have that status, but says that “there aren’t many”.
Schjelderup’s transfer to Benfica changed the assumptions. Now, it is more valued, so it is not such a good opportunity for FM players. «From the moment he was transferred from the Danish League to Benfica, he ceased to be such an attractive player», notes Carlos Bessa: «Someone who wants to sign Schjelderup now will no longer look for him for 10 million. It’s just like in reality. The game transports people to reality, or vice versa.”
Updating a player’s value does not go through the researchers. It is done by the game itself when there is a transfer, explains Carlos Bessa: «From the moment the player changes, the market value of that player is updated. When you buy a good player in Brazil, such as Pepê, from Grêmio, who came to Porto, the value will automatically go up, because there is an appreciation of the player, which is done by the game engine, by artificial intelligence.»
And in Portugal, who are the wonderkids?
But there are still good opportunities in the game. O morefootball challenged Carlos Bessa to give some examples of players from the Portuguese database with high potential. Here are three suggestions for wonderkidsone for each of the so-called «big»:
«At FC Porto there is the Martim Fernandes, from FC Porto B, who is a winger. He is a player of enormous quality and has a tremendous future ahead of him. He’s a player we have a lot of confidence in.”
«In the case of Sporting, there is one that does not deceive either, which is the Rodrigo Ribeiro, spearhead. He is also a player we believe in a lot, even if it is not exactly new, because he already made his debut for the first team. »
«At Benfica we have the João Neves, average. But there he is, he is also a player who has already made his debut for the main team and has even played in the Champions League, it turns out not to be so much new.
«They are not completely unknown choices, but they are kids who are still winning minutes and are some of the great assets we have in Portugal. We have others, but choosing one from each club, I would choose those three.”
