Welcome to the new section on our site, Legends of the Old CM, where we will introduce the stars of Championship Manager, the predecessor to Football Manager.
To kick off this series, we'll start with 6 of the biggest names in the series!
1. Tonton Zola Moukoko
CM edition: CM 99/00
Position: Attacking Midfielder
In the Game: Perhaps the most famous CM player of all time. Tonton Zola Moukoko a Swedish national born in Congo, first appeared in the game (CM 99/00) in the Derby County youth ranks. He had outrageous potential for such a low price (500k).
In Real Life: Tonton Moukoko never lived up to expectations in real life. After his time at Derby County, he went back to Sweden and played in the regional leagues for teams like Carlstad United, Sleipner, IFK Lidingo and finally Kongo United, where he was already player-coach, eventually ending his career in the 2017 season.
Curiosidades: There are several Facebook fan pages dedicated to Tonton Zola Moukoko, and Sports Interactive invited him to a 5-a-side game as a tribute
2. Maxim Tsigalko
CM edition: CM 01/02
Position: Advanced
In the Game: Maxim Tsigalko nasceu a 27 de Maio de 1983, na antiga União Soviética. Many people probably couldn't even pronounce the name, but that didn't matter! Here is the correct transliteration, though: "Maksim Tsyhalka". Maxim was a "poacher" in the box; the Dinamo Minsk kid was known for scoring more than 100 goals a season. Impressive! All for less than 2k!
In Real Life: He retired aged 26, in 2009, because of his tendency to get injured. Maxim might as well have been made of "glass"! In his short career he played for clubs like Dinamo Minsk (Belarus), Naftan (Belarus), Kaysar (Kazakhstan), Banants Yerevan (Armenia) and Savit Mogilev (Belarus). He was capped twice by Belarus, scoring 1 goal.
3. Ibrahima Bakayako
CM edition: CM 97/98
Position: Advanced
In the Game: Ibrahima Bakayoko Sela, born on 31 December 1976, was the star to buy in CM 97/98, whoever we were managing!
In Real Life: Perhaps the most successful of the names mentioned so far.
He started his career at Stade d'Abidjan (Ivory Coast), then moved to Montpellier (France). After that he completed his move to Everton! Everton fans nicknamed him "Baka-joke-o", all because his move to Merseyside cost around 5.1 million and produced just 4 goals! After one season at Everton, his career was anything but stable, taking in no fewer than 10 clubs (Marseille, Osasuna, Istres, Livorno, Messina, Larissa, PAOK, PAS Giannina, Olympiakos Volos and Stade Bordelais)!! He ended his career at the last of them, in the 2013/2014 season. He won 45 caps for Ivory Coast, scoring 30 goals.
4. Serge Makofo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy-j_DfnaFg
CM edition: CM 4
Position: Striker (Mainly)
In the Game: Serge Makofo was born on 22 October 1986 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Every time we started a new game, signing Makofo was a must! He was at the then new franchise club, MK Dons, and played in a different position, but it didn't matter where you put him in the eleven! He stood out anyway! Thanks to his club's financial problems, you could sign him for pocket change!
In Real Life: He was a non-league player, with spells at glamorous clubs like Maidenhead United, Potters Bar Town and Grimsby. He was so bad that the chairman of one of those clubs ended up calling him a "disaster"! He ended his career in the 2016 season at Edinburgh City (Scotland).
5. Cherno Samba
CM edition: CM 01/02
Position: Advanced
In the Game: Cherno Samba was born on 10 November 1985 in Gambia. He was the kind of striker who destroyed whole defences, a powerful "monster" in the box.
In Real Life: Cherno Samba scored 132 goals in 32 youth games, aged 13! With that, the hype seemed fair! Unfortunately, as with many "teenage" African stars without birth certificates, he looked like a man playing against boys! Literally!!! Officially (in 2012/13) he was only 27, but he was "released" by Norway's FK Tonsberg, even though by their reckoning he was already past that age! After that, he seems to have retired for good!
He played for clubs like Millwall (England), Cádiz (Spain), Málaga B (Spain), Plymouth Argyle (England), Wrexham (England), FC Haka (Finland), Panetolikos (Greece) and FK Tonsberg (Norway), and won 2 caps for Gambia.
A short career for such a "young" player, right?
6. Taribo West
CM edition: CM 01/02
Position: Defender
In the Game: Taribo West was born on 26 March 1974 in Nigeria. He started the game without a club and was obviously every manager's first signing at the start of any new game!
In Real Life: Another story involving age! After a career start in which he was fought over by Italy's biggest clubs, Taribo West spent a good part of the years moving around leagues all over the world while competing with Abel Xavier for the award of worst haircut in football! On top of that, the president of Partizan Belgrade, publicly accused him of lying about his age, claiming he wasn't 28 when he signed for the club in 2002, and was actually 40. He eventually retired in 2007/08 at Paykan FC (Iran).
