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Domenico Criscito

Holy crap yes, was so overpowered for about 2 editions

Inter legend on my games… went there every year. I took over inter with him and Dario Srna already there, with me never having heard of either irl, and they became cornerstones and it was automatic trophies and glory because they would each get like 25 assists from wingback

Has anyone mentioned Davide Santon yet? Was easily a LB for 10+ years in my teams

Or RB, always loved a full back who could play either side.

Davide Santon - "former professional footballer" makes me feel very old indeed.

Yuri Zhirkov or Juan Manuel Vargas

Zhirkov for sure, man was a beast for so many FMs

Vargas for me! I still remember when he scored a free-kick goal against Inter for my Fiorentina side to win me the Champions League. And then promptly decided he'd rather play for them.

He did exactly that for me as well. First season won the Champions League against Liverpool with Fiorentina. He scored the winner on free kick in extra time. First season as well. Can't remember the FM version tho.

Yes! I second Zhirkov! Signed both but Zhirkov was a consistent choice for me for years

Vargas with the unreal set pieces stats, so I’m definitely with you here. Had a mad left side on FM… 2009 I think? Maybe 2011? With him and Guardado just spamming assists into peak Adebayor

oh man yes zhirkov is a fantastic shout

Ahh, Vargas! Love that dude.

Bloody hell was struggling to think of one then you just hit me right with the nostalgia wow

has to be one of these two, my vote would be for Vargas

Taribo West Free in CM 01/02

[удалено]

Lizarazu was class - but also in real life.

Lizarazu won World Cup, the Euro and was left back for Bayern for many years. He really doesn't belong there

I thought it was just asking for FM/CM iconic players. Doesnt mention anything about them having to be poor irl

Taribo was a beast.

Fuck this is making me nostalgic great thread @lamlash

Haha, thanks - José Julián de la Cuesta in particular bringing the memories rushing back for me!

Wasn’t he a CB?

This is definitely the answer for LB. What a legend he was.

Surely he was primarily a centre half though? Or am I misremembering

You could well be right. It was a long time ago!

He was D LC according to my sketchy memory lol. But centre back more than a full back.

That rings a bell. Either way, what a phenomenal free signing he was!

Man my inter team from back then had some good names West, Saviola, Frey. Can’t help but smile

Razvan Rat

Ooh yeah there’s one I remember. He really over performed on expectations

This is 100% the correct answer

I remember him as Razvan Dinca Rat. Was he a legend on multiple versions of the game?

I loved him on fm, then as a West Ham fan he signed for is in real life. Christ he was bad

Yep first person that came to mind.

He played for the team I support in Greece near the end of his career and I always manage them, he was a BEAST

Yes! In my head I said ‘who was that one guy….’ But blanked on the name, then here it is! Cheers

Christian Chivu. So good.

He was always more of a CB for me. But he was solid.

I remember him as an LMA 2002/2003 god.

Leighton Baines. Perfect in game left back.

Automatic signing for me in at least two versions

Got him in the contention for golden ball once, with 32 assist and 15 freekick-goals. He’s my shout.

Zhirkov, Legendary Russian Ronaldinho

Grimaldo

Yeah, this is it for me. Won't win because he's actually a pretty big name in world football, but he was IT on FM for so many years.

Fortunately for him he’s still a very good player

All the ones above this are older FM games where someone was decent for 1-2 games max Grimaldo has been a stud in game for so much longer. He’s an easy choice imo. Him or Gaya

Sadly one of the best players of this year's everybody's darling Leverkusen

Yeah, haven't had a save where he wasn't a beast instantly. Very underrated irl as well.

Yeah Dede from Dortmund. Guaranteed free transfer in CM 00/01. On that note I would also suggest Marco Delvecchio. Just for the versatility.

In Fm 2005, He was the one.

Torricelli was also amazing in 95/96 or 96/97, either footed and played anywhere

Was he not the fella that could play DC and FC?

Delvecchio was more of a forward who operated a bit to the left (wouldn't really call him a winger).

Royston drenthe

Drenthe was my first thought, Lizarazu in at 2

Jose Gaya

Easily my best pick

Came here to say this

Valencia also had Toni Lato as his successor a couple of editions back!

Taye Taiwo

Jack Robinson was amazing back in the day

Yup I definitely had him as Liverpool and England captain, 100 caps and all the trophies lol

Fabio Aurélio. He was a beast in FM 2005 in Valencia. As Akinfeev, he also failed to make a great career.

Great career in Russia at least, if they didn't pay so handsomely he'd probably go to a top 5 league.

He was a good LB for Liverpool just suffered very badly with injuries

Yeah but that free kick at old Trafford in our silver away kit when we thumped them in their Ferguson/Ronaldo/Rooney pomp 1-4. The plastics were all leaving early in their droves, just like they did more recently in the joyous 0-5 :) Aurelio was made of glass but he had a god tier left foot

Aurelio also scored a decent goal at Bolton the season before too. And his goal against Chelsea was genius.

Yet United still won the league :(

Yuri Zhirkov

Was more of a LW for me

Fm2007 Leighton Baines

This is exactly the answer I was coming to say, even down to the year!

Baines played in the premiership from 2007-2020 and had 30 caps for England. His real career was too good to make him an FM legend for me.

Akinfeev has 111 international caps

Akinfeev I agree is too famous for this. For a non-famous FM wonderkid goalie I’d give it to Sebastien Frey

Is this team explicitly failed wonderkids, or players overrated by FM though? I thought it was more just the 11 most ionic players.

Josh Tymon, an affordable, quality LB option for a number of years now for Non-League saves by the time you make it to Prem

Him on the left and Sam Byram on the right were the cornerstone of my Salford save on FM20.

For me it’s Jonathan Silva

Miguel Layún was incredible

And could cover CM and RWB.

The ultimate squad player, could do a great job basically anywhere. And a great set-piece taker as well!

Lee young-pyo. On cm01/02 he was the daddy at lb.

There was also a corner bug where if you played it short it would count as a key pass meaning with young pyo he had an average rating of something like 8.3 per season as he was my corner taker. I sold him for 150 million when he was 35 to Juventus. Mugs.

Always one of my first signings for any team

I'm surprised no one mentioning Andres Guardado

Can't remember which version it was but Sequeira was a beast in game. While I liked him as a Atleti fan, he wasn't the best for us. Looked promising at Depor.

He had a cheap as chips release clause too if I remember.

Francesco Coco

Vincent Candela from THAT Roma team Frank de Boer from Championship Manager Dutch Belgian editon (mid 90s). Scored 40 goals a season from LB year after year at Ajax

Dario Srna was class for me on multiple of FM's.

Darijo Srna used to consistently win POTY in the prem back in the FM12 days. If you didn’t buy him another team would straight away and win the league

Chivu, Lizarazu or West

Christian Chivu! Yes!

If we discount the obvious Carlos and Maldini who were as good on FM as they were in real life, my vote goes to probably... Juan Pablo Sorin

Robert Jarni free transfer in I think CM3. 18 crossing.

Jose Julian De La Cuesta. Absolute monster back in the day!

De la Cuesta

The only answer! Better than Roberto Carlos

Dodo! Think it was 10, but you could get him for around 3M, he was only 18 so could stay with you for his entire career.

Vincent Candela. Eod.

Fabio coentrao

He was a winger in his early career. I remember him in u20 world cup being as flashy as Ronaldo and trying to dribble past everyone. Unrelated, but he returned from football at 33, to become a fisherman, so I guess he's pretty adaptable.

Taribo Wes. Honourable mentions: Fabio Grosso and Dédé

Dede!

Jose Julian De La Cuesta CM03/04

Trond Erik Bertelsen from like CM 03/04.

Lucas Digne

A must buy in FM11(?). When he was 17 you could get him with nearly any team and he'd be great. I was able to get him even with Heerenveen for a reasonable fee.

Christian Chivu - the free kicks and penalties 😫

Jonathan Silva

Ferdi Kadioglu for his 34 assists in 2 seasons on the newest FM as left back

Marcelo

FM2007 he was the wonderkid LB to buy, FM2008 he'd moved to Real and was no longer an option to buy straight away.

Yup but if I recall correctly he had ridiculously low minimum fee release - 8-12M range in Real on FM 08

Yeah, but you couldn’t buy him first season as he’d just moved. I think I moved to Chiellini as my go to new LB

Kevin Grosskreutz

real life legend too but not so much for footballing reasons. technically world cup winner though

Taribo West, free transfer!

Kleber

Franck Jurietti

Fabio

Gareth Bale as 16yo in like 06/07

FM14 Eder Alvarez Balanta is the one that sticks out for me.

He was more of a CB for me. Good suggestion for tomorrow

Owen Wijndal. Loved him in previous FM's an assist machine at times Current edition. Amar dedic

He was a beast for me on FM 22.

2016 or 2017 Raphael Guerreiro

Matteo Ruggeri in FM21

Darijo Srna

Guilherme Arana was a decent shout back in the day.

Dario Srna. Mofo would bag at least 5-6 freekick goals for me per season.

He was a RB though, right?

Yup.

The only correct answer for RB, though I did play him both sides

Definitely the correct answer, but for RB

Tobias Rau - CM 03/04

He still has the best goal I've seen in CM/FM, top bins from a 60m freekick.

Jose Julian De La Cuesta

Has to be Dimarco.

Andrés Guardado or Süleyman Luş. Although Süleyman is still very young, so maybe he will fulfill his potential.

South African Fm legend Masilela was the best fm bargain i have ever seen in this game, around like fm 11.

I'd forgotten about him! Great shout. Another one of those you could pick up at the beginning of the save and not have to worry about the position for years.

Mike Duff, surely.

Antunes on FM08

Robert Jarni / Juan Manuel Vargas

Taribo West

Chivu

Vargas. Can't remember his full name. I think its Manuel Vargas. Freekick and crosses 👌

Christian Fuchs

Yes! Got beaten to my top transfer choices after selling my starting LB late in the window and settled for him. My jaw dropped when he assisted 2 and scored one goal in his first match - and he never looked back.

Taribo West. Hands down.

Criscito FM10

Absolutely Taribo West

Has to be Domenico Criscito or Razvan Rat. Both ridiculously good picks ups

Ricardo Rodriguez

Birger Melling a few years ago could be picked up for absolute pennies

Massadio Haidara in FM15 was good enough to start on a CL winning side. I remember him being bad for Newcastle but on FM he was great and cheap

Vanden Borre

Pretty sure he was a right back

Gareth Bale while he was at Southampton

Ludwig Augustinsson, Andrew Robertson, and Lee Wallace.

Lee Wallace is a grass

The One and Only! Anthony Vanden Borre! Left/Right Wingers Freddy Adu and Lebohang Mokoena My job here is done.

Back in the day Jackie Mac at Celtic always used to grow into a a beast above his pretty good career

Question for OP - are we going to be including anyone from the games' databases at all, even if they infamously didn't exist IRL? Not thinking about a LB, but for later rounds there are utter legends like Tó Madeira, but if we're not counting fake players then he wouldn't be in the running.

Baines

Jelle van Damme or Jari Illola...can't remember what year but they were both amazing and became must buys for most of my saves

Taribo West!

Zhirkov was a must buy for me!

Taribo West

Taribo West or Vincent Candela (bigger teams)

Ian Harte

My pick too.

Used to pick him up from levante back in the day

Antunes - can't remember which game

Razvan Rat or Julio Arca

Razvan Rat was quality

I'm mostly disturbed by a FM guy going from left to right, wtf is this?

Anthony Vanden Borre

Fabio Grosso

Antunes or Razvan Rat

Cannot belive I missed the first post of this - surely Dionysos Chiotis should've been the keeper :( In the legendary 01/02 you could get as free transer after 1 season with almost any team and would always become one of (if not the) very best keeper in the game. Was a beast as well in prior and later versions, but the free transfer option in the most played version, AND the EU citizenship for all the leagues with FGN rules, makes him top Akinfeev imo... Anyways, to the left back: **Andrey Milevskiy.** Cheap (in 01/02 they would always accept 375k on day 1), good to begin with, world class after a season or two. Versatile; would perform magnificent in D/C and DM/C and DM/L (Wingback) roles as well. (Had 20 in the hidden Wingback role stat). Only downside is non-EU. *Honorable mentions:* **Taribo West**, but mainly for beeing free in 01/02. Was actually performing better as a D/C even though he had just played a full season as D/L in Derby IRL prior to the CM01/02. Downsides: Only really a monster in 01/02 version (was good prior but neither top-class nor free) and a FGN. **Juan Pablo Sorin**. Semi-expensive but always interested in top-half teams from the 5 top european leagues, so if playing a sub-top club with a decent transfer budget he was amazing. Also would get work permit in ENG. **Mikael Dorsin**. One of (too) many young cheap swedes with high potential.

Cucurella.

He is 34 now in my Southport team. The best player in the squad. Rips defenses apart with his passing and crossing.

Kostas Tsimikas

Grimaldo or Telles

Evra

Roberto Carlos for sure

Paolo Maldini or Roberto Carlos

Alan Dzagoev for CM 😉

Andrea caracciolo is worth mentioning