Passions: Me, my Football Manager addiction and I

I could stop at any time, honest.

It’s hard to overestimate the disruptive, deeply damaging and pernicious influence the video game Football Manager has had over my life.

The game, for those unacquainted, allows you to take control of a football club anywhere in the world and guide them to title-winning glory through effective tactical acumen, man management, and transfer wheeler-dealing. A simple concept, yes, but for those who have not fallen prey to the addiction, the characterisation is somewhat shallow.

I have been playing Football Manager for almost 15 years. I get every new version, pile several hundred hours a year (this is not an exaggeration, my Steam profile can attest), and often lay in bed or stand in the shower dreaming of wonderkids, tactical battles or transfer options.

A player profile page in Football Manager 2023

When the addiction is at its worst, it is all encompassing. Within me appears this urge, this need to return to my squad, tweak my starting XI, or discuss training with my virtual assistant manager. This, unsurprisingly, can get quite stressful.

I’m a sports fan by birth, but I have had stronger emotional reactions to my team on Football Manager losing/scoring/winning (delete as appropriate) as I have watching my other deeply distressing addiction, Manchester United.

But there is a reason why I keep coming back, why the addiction is so hard to kick, and that is because Football Manager is the best ‘create-your-own storyline’ engine ever created. Play the game for a few in-game years and suddenly, the world is completely new, populated with fresh personalities and stories.

There are players I have watched go from 18-year-old starlets to scoring 50 goals a season to drive my home-town club York City to the Champions League (thanks, computer-generated striker, Olivier Weber), defenders being plucked from obscurity to drive Aston Villa to league titles (thanks Lautaro Valenti), and 15-year-old academy products turning into World Cup winners for their adopted country (Luis Tavares, you gem).

I fell in love with one story so much when I managed AZ Alkmaar and the legend that is Calvin Stengs that I paid £100 for a replica jersey with his name on the back.

In reality, he was a 19-year-old wonderkid, in Football Manager he was a one-club legend with 30 goals a season and two Champions League titles for a side that had won a handful of Dutch leagues before I was hired.

They are stories brimming with drama, with twists and turns, setbacks and moments of unbridled joy and glory. Sport, embodied in all of its wonder, all in one game.

Addicted I may be, stop I could. But why would I?