Many of us are "addicted" to Football Manager, and top athletes don't escape this "curse" either (laughs). In our series "The Stars Play Too" and "Armchair Managers" we have shown several examples. This time, the name is Andy Murray: two time Wimbledon Grand Slam champion and currently no. 126 in the ATP rankings, talked a bit about this addiction to BBC Sport.
The confession
FM draws us so deep into "the club" that "just one more game" regularly ends in whole nights of playing, because we have reached the final stretch of the season and have everything in our hands to go up to the Primeira Liga, or to win the Champions League. It's hard to put the game down in that situation (laughs)!
Andy Murray revealed that, on several occasions, he stayed up until 3am playing FM… when he had training booked for 8am.
As an elite athlete, he quickly realised he had to change these habits:
"I played loads of Football Manager when I was younger. It helped me pass a lot of the downtime between trips, but it also became a problem, because I ended up playing until very late in my day to day life. After a while I realised how much time I was really giving it, and I had to stop playing so many hours," Andy Murray told BBC Sport.
Of course, just like us, Andy Murray didn't only have fun playing alone:
"When I was in Spain, a friend and I controlled two teams each: we stayed up until 3am, when we had to start training at 8."
A die-hard Arsenal fan, Andy Murray admits he might one day pursue a career as a football manager:
"I'm regularly asked what career I would like to follow after finishing as a tennis player, and I have always answered that I feel I can keep contributing something to sport. I have always loved football, so it would be exciting for me to try to build a career in that area."
An inspiration for the future
With all his Football Manager experience, he certainly isn't short of the basics (laughs)! And to keep the hope of a future in football alive, he can take inspiration from Andrej Pavlović: a die-hard FM player who was hired as an analyst by FK Bezanija, of the Serbian second division, after sending in his achievements… in Football Manager. If you want to know more about this true story, click here.
Credits: GiveMeSport // BBC Sport
