In Football Manager they were stars. On the pitch, they never came close to stardom. The game has nailed the future of many stars over the years, but not every prodigy reached the potential he was given. In this series we look back at FM wonderkids (since FM05) who fell short of expectations.
To start, we picked four players who passed through (or are still in) Portugal.
Giorgi Makaridze
FM 08 | Club: Dinamo Tbilisi | Age: 17 | CA: 100 (120 in FM18) | PA: -9 (125 in FM18)
A name well known to the Portuguese: Giorgi Makaridze. In FM 08 he was a 17-year-old wonderkid from a country with little football tradition.
In reality, he had a modest career. He left Dinamo in January 2009 for Le Mans, where he only debuted in Ligue 1 in November, under Paulo Duarte, and was a starter only in 2011/12. In 2013 his contract ended and he was without a club until March 2014, when he signed for Doxa, in Cyprus, which he left without playing.
He then joined Feirense: 18 games in his first season, 36 in the second, promotion and the second division’s best goalkeeper award. He moved on to Moreirense, where he won his first trophy, the League Cup, and in January 2018, after rumors linking him to Benfica and Braga, he signed for Rio Ave. He debuted for his country at 17, against Scotland, played two more games until March 2008 and only started again in 2017.
Lulinha
FM 08 | Club: Corinthians | Age: 17 | CA: 104 (108 in FM18) | PA: -10 (129 in FM18)
Lulinha was one of the wonderkids with the brightest future in FM 08, with the same PA as Toni Kroos, Banega or Giovinco. In reality, he never made it: he had top individual quality but fell short in the team game.
He made his name at the 2007 Under-17 World Cup and came to Europe in 2009, loaned by Corinthians to Estoril (26 games, 2 goals) and then Olhanense (14 games). He went back to Brazil, where he stayed until 2015, and later played in South Korea, the UAE and Cyprus, where he was at Pafos in 2018.
Evandro Roncatto
FM 06 | Club: Guarani | Age: 19 | CA: 115 (95 in FM18) | PA: 182 (125 in FM18)
Talking about Roncatto is already a cliché, but we cannot leave him out. He is best known from CM 03/04, but here we remember him in FM 06.
In 2018 he was back in Portugal, at Casa Pia, coached by Rúben Amorim. Like so many others, he fell far short of his promise. He arrived in Europe in 2007, with Belenenses, where he played 50 games and scored 3 goals in two seasons. He spent half a season at Paços de Ferreira (7 games), went to Cyprus in 2010, had short spells in Bulgaria and Greece, returned to Portugal in 2014 for Oriental (37 games, 5 goals) and then went to Kazakhstan, Brazil, England, Norway and Brazil again, before returning to Portugal.
Rafael Porcellis
FM 06 | Club: Internacional | Age: 18 | CA: 108 (90 in FM18) | PA: 183 (95 in FM18)
Rafael Porcellis is another wonderkid who passed through Portugal. In FM 06 he promised goals by the bucketload, but in reality he never reached those heights. He started at Internacional, went out on loan around Brazil and in 2009 came to Europe, to Helsingborgs, where he won the only title of his career, a Swedish Cup.
In Portugal, he scored 19 goals in 26 games for Fátima and moved on to Santa Clara (37 games, 11 goals). In 2013 he stepped up to Braga, but was immediately loaned to Feirense (28 games, 9 goals). He spent time in Poland, returned to Feirense (23 games, 5 goals) and in 2016 played for União da Madeira and Leixões (40 games, 10 goals). Then came the UAE and São José, in Brazil. In total, five seasons in Portugal, with 154 games and 56 goals.
Which of these four did you buy the most?
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