Ambrose – 21 years old – South East London Reds
The next Lampard? In PES5, totally. Ambrose can be found on the South East London Reds’ roster but one wouldn’t be surprised to see a player of his caliber playing for a more popular team such as a Man Red, a London FC or an Isar. This man is a footballing robot built to dominate the pitch as few are able to. Consider that at the ripe age of 21 he has only one attribute under 70, which is naturally his Defense – after all, he’s an AMF, yet one who is also competent as a centre-midfielder, a SMF or a shadow striker. Ambrose combines strength (80 Balance), endurance (82 Stamina), Speed (83 Top Speed and 82 Acceleration), Technique (81 Dribble Accuracy, 83 Dribble Speed and 83 Technique) with more than decent passing stats and, Ambrose’s pièce-de-résistance, his marvelous long-range shooting (74 Shot Accuracy plus 86 Shot Power meets a “Middle Shooting” special skill). Ambrose legitimately turns into a superstar yet frankly, with attributes such as his, everyone saw it coming.
Having made his debut for Ipswich’s first team in 2002, after that lonely match on the 2001/02 campaign – one that would turn out to be utterly despicable for his team as Ipswich is relegated from the Premier League -, Ambrose would seize the opportunity on the 2002/03 season to play an extraordinary 36 games, also scoring ten goals. One doesn’t see many 19-year-old midfielders grabbing such a record…! His club can’t do better than a 7th place finish in the Championship, but due to their financial problems and, especially, the fact that this wonderkid of ours completely took his genie out of the bottle practically overnight, Ipswich was indeed forced to let him go play for bigger sides. Newcastle acquires Ambrose for 1M pounds, joining Bobby Robson’s potent team, one that had just finished fourth in the Premier League. This was naturally a huge step forward for Ambrose; was he ready for such an upgrade?
Ambrose joins Newcastle late on the 2002/03 season, and has to wait a couple of months before he gets to wear his team’s shirt for the first time. His breakout season would be the subsequent one; Ambrose plays a marvelous 37 matches, though almost always as a late sub-in. Newcastle finishes 6th in the Premier League and reaches the semifinals of the UEFA Cup. On the next the Magpies would also put out a very decent continental performance, reaching the quarterfinals of the same competition; however, their Premier League campaign is disastrous (finishing 14th); as for our PES5 prospect, his playing time is severely reduced (18 matches played). That ghastly season prompted a shakeup at Newcastle; Ambrose has to go as he signs for Charlton Athletic for the PES5 season, the 2005/06 campaign. Immediately our wonderkid establishes himself at the club, playing a total of 33 matches, 28 of which on the Premier League. Charlton manages to survive and remain on England’s top division for the 2006/07 season, having finished 13th, a feat they wouldn’t be able to repeat on the following campaign. Ambrose still plays often (30 matches) yet his team is relegated to the Championship (finishing 19th in the League). Back to where it all truly started for Ambrose as our wonderkid sticks around for some Championship action.
That turned out to be a rather wise choice. Though Charlton’s performance is unimpressive, Ambrose grabs a total of 42 appearances and nine goals. Charlton now as a mid-table Championship side, it seemed as if he could do a bit better. Nevertheless, Ambrose chooses to remain there and plays a total of 23 matches on a very complicated 2008/09 season. Why was it complicated? Well, take a look: Ambrose has a debilitating injury early on though he still grabs almost a dozen appearances for Charlton; however the club desperately needs better talent to help them crawl out of the relegation positions and Ambrose ends up loaned out to the very first club he represented in his career, Ipswich, for a period of little less than a couple of months mid-season. There, Ambrose plays nine matches on an acceptable Ipswich campaign (they would later finish 9th in the Championship); he is then back at Charlton to play another dozen matches before the team is relegated to the League One as a consequence of finishing…last. Ambrose’s contract expires, Charlton opts not to renew it and things are looking bleak for our wonderkid.
Fortunately, other Championship clubs believed in him. Crystal Palace offers him a contract and, somehow, perhaps harnessing his PES5 wonderkid energy – if you have read the other articles of this PES5 Wonderkids series you already know that this phenomenon is strangely common…-, Ambrose puts on a world-class show with his potent 53 appearances on the 2009/10 campaign, plus a wonderful 21 goals, fifteen of which in the Championship. Curiously, the top scorer of that specific league campaign was another classic prospect of retro-PES games of the PS2-PES era, Peter Whittingham. Crystal Palace, however, fails to impress as they finish 21th in the league, despite Ambrose’s heroics. Again, this could (should!) have been the campaign that made our wonderkid’s career skyrocket; only, once more, that wasn’t the case. He keeps on playing for Crystal Palace; on the subsequent campaign his team again disappoints (finishing 20th) and our man plays substantially less time (29 matches and seven goals). On the 2011/12 campaign things would improve a bit for him – 42 matches and ten goals – while Crystal Palace remains near the bottom of the league. It was not exactly the big break he surely expected, but anyway Birmingham offers him a contract and acquires Ambrose for the 2012/13 campaign. Birmingham had been fighting for promotion to the Premier League on the previous season, plus had participated on the Europa League group stage as a consequence of having won the Carling Cup in 2010, so Ambrose really had an interesting opportunity here.
But again, fate had other plans. Ambrose misses most of the season due to various injuries and Birmingham can’t do better than a mid-table finish. On the subsequent campaign, he just can’t find his rhythm: Birmingham loans him out to Greece’s Apollon Smyrnis halfway through a 2013/14 campaign which Ambrose had barely been a part of – having played just a couple of matches in England. Apollon gave him an opportunity to showcase his talent; the man plays a total of twelve games and scores six goals; yet despite his very nice record, his team is relegated from the Greek SuperLeague. He just can’t get a break, can he? Well, despite another interesting performance of his, Ambrose is released by Birmingham and is once more back at Ipswich. This time, his influence there is pretty much non-existent. The man plays just eight matches during the season; Ipswich, on the other hand, reaches the Championship playoffs, ultimately missing out on promotion to the Premier League. Championship football was, anyhow, too much for Ambrose at this point. He needed another downgrade; Colchester signs him for his last footballing adventure in 2015. The story here repeats itself: Ambrose rapidly becomes an important member of the squad, playing 26 matches, but Colchester finishes 23th in the League and is relegated to the League Two. At the age of 32, Ambrose decides he had had enough: he retires from professional football and immediately changes his profession as he opens a barbershop, of course, in Ipswich. Thus ends the tale of another failed wonderkid, who despite his disappointing career in real life, will never be forgotten by millions of Pro Evo players around the world. May you keep on shining…virtually!
N’Zogbia – 19 – Tyneside
It is hard to understand what kind of player N’Zogbia is in PES5: one just knows he is impressive alright. His poor attacking IQ (68 Attack) reminds me more of the typical young CMF; his great speed (83 Top Speed and 85 Acceleration) plus his awesome dribbling skills (87 Agility, 84 Dribble Accuracy, 80 Dribble Speed and 84 Technique) could make a decent winger – he’s still able to play as a side-midfielder though – and yes, while he has good passing stats, mainly his impressive 81 Long Pass Accuracy, he is simultaneously a poor shooter of the ball and not exactly a reliable team player (63 Teamwork). On my PES5 experiences I have always used N’Zogbia as a SMF, even if he does improve so much over the virtual years that eventually his flaws are somewhat neutralized. If you put on your thinking, football manager hat and tactically design a way to make N’Zogbia comfortable out there, he will be a vital player for your Master League side.
N’Zogbia will forever be reminded not just as a PES5 wonderkid but also as the last player Bobby Robson ever signs on his managerial career. Even before the age of 20, this wonderkid was already a somewhat regular footballer on a potent Premier League side, even if this 2004/05 campaign would turn out to be a very disappointing one for the Magpies, having finished 14th in the league. N’Zogbia plays a total of 22 games on that debut season of his as a professional footballer; yet that is nothing compared to his subsequent record: PES5 again shows its prescience as our wonderkid plays a staggering 41 games, scoring also six goals, establishing himself as a vital first-teamer on a Newcastle team that improved massively upon their previous record, finishing 7th in the Premier League. Naturally now under more powerful clubs’ radars, N’Zogbia remains with Newcastle anyway, going for an almost equally interesting footballing season on the 2006/07 campaign; at least individually so, as a consequence of his 35 games played, because collectively, it turned out to be a far from memorable campaign considering the Magpies finished 13th. Another season, another prolific period for N’Zogbia – 37 games played – and another mid-table finish for his club.
Don’t let yourself get fooled by the apparent stability of his young, but promising career. All hell would break loose on the 2008/09 season. As usual a vital first-teamer, N’Zogbia publicly announces he wants out because he thinks he deserves a bigger challenge; just days before the end of the January 2009 transfer market, following a loss against Manchester City, Newcastle manager Joe Kinnear mistakenly (…or…mischievously cheekily…?) refers to N’Zogbia as “Insomnia” (???) – coming from the same guy who would call Yohan Cabaye “Yohan Kebab”… – which prompted a quick reaction coming from the player who refuses to play for Newcastle while Kinnear was in charge. Just one day later after the incident, the club solved the problem by selling N’Zogbia to Wigan Athletic for 6M pounds and Ryan Taylor’s contract. What they didn’t solve was their own awful footballing performances, as Newcastle shockingly ends up relegated to the Championship after finishing 18th in the Premier League, which I am sure was definitely cause for insomnia for not just Kinnear but the whole of the club’s management and fans alike. Wigan, on the other hand, with N’Zogbia arriving in time to still be able to play 13 games for the club, enjoyed a comfortable mid-table finish.
On the next season, N’Zogbia leaves little room for any questions about his footballing importance. He plays a total of 39 matches and scores seven goals; if Wigan’s campaign was indeed far from impressive (barely escaping relegation with their 16th place finish) he was named Wigan’s player of the year by both his teammates and the club’s fans. His rise was not over yet as on the subsequent campaign, N’Zogbia plays 36 games and scores ten goals, again his club just few points away from having to play second-division football on the following season. Having impressed many Premier League sides, it was now time for this PES5 prospect to embrace a new adventure: Aston Villa signs him for 9,5M pounds. If once again N’Zogbia immediately seizes an important role on his new team, playing 32 matches on that 2011/12 season, Aston Villa, who had previously enjoyed a mid-table finish, ended this campaign just two points ahead of relegated Bolton Wanderers. On the subsequent campaign, his influence slightly diminished – 28 games played, just 21 on the Premier League – and Villa once more nearly ends up relegated. Things would get worse…for him. N’Zogbia suffers an horrible injury while on holiday before the 2013/14 season starts, ruling him out for the whole campaign. He would only wear Aston Villa’s shirt on the 2014/15 season, heroically regaining his role as an important member of the squad; 31 games played later N’Zogbia once more finds his team somehow making it out alive, three points ahead of relegated Hull City.
I come from a place full of popular wisdom. There is a saying that basically goes like this: “if the pitcher goes too many times to the fountain, one day it will leave its handle there”. Sounds stupid in English, but you get my drift. So many times Aston Villa barely escaped relegation, one day it had to happened, and it finally did on the 2015/16 campaign – fortunately for N’Zogbia, he had little to no influence on that disastrous performance as he played a mere couple of matches during the whole season. Aston Villa finishes last with a horrible record of just 17 points conquered – three wins and 27 losses in 38 games!!! – and, well, that would naturally be the end of N’Zogbia’s story there. He leaves the club as he contract expires at the end of the season; France’s Nantes is almost completing his signing before the move has to be aborted. Unlucky N’Zogbia is diagnosed with a heart problem, forcing him to retire quite early at the age of 30, apparently leaving professional football completely. N’Zogbia is a French international, though he played only a couple of matches with France’s shirt on; he did shine occasionally but his stardom was ephemeral, his career short-lived and his luck…despicable. Still, he will forever be a PES5 wonderkid, if that is any consolation for him.
Schweinsteiger – 21 – Isar
The greatest footballing name in this list, and surely one of the most stellar examples of a successful retro-PES wonderkid, Schweinsteiger is a bit out of place here because his PES5 version doesn’t exactly represent a player with potential to shine later on: he is already a brilliant virtual footballer. He is superb all around; his combination of strength (84 Balance), speed (78 Top Speed, 80 Acceleration) and skill (84 Dribble Accuracy, 83 Dribble Speed and 86 Technique) would already be impressive on their own; yet his amazing attacking IQ (78), plus his solid passing and shooting create a kind of player who will be a vital part of his team from the start, evolving later into one of the best players on your PES5 Master League save.
Alright, enough of failed wonderkids now. Time for a footballing legend to grace the Libero Magazine’s “pages”. Schweinsteiger was destined to greatness and he rose to accept that challenge and embrace his destiny. Early on in his career, this wonderkid divided his footballing attention between Bayern Munich’s first team and its reserve squad; despite his growing influence as a first-teamer early on, Schweinsteiger spent a total of four consecutive seasons since his debut for Bayern Munich II playing for the reserves: yet after a 2002/03 campaign in which he took over that precise team, playing 23 matches, he was clearly too good for that level and Bayern decides to promote him to the first team. Schweinsteiger then goes on to dispute a total of 16 games on his debut season for the main team, in time to conquer the first of eight Bundesliga titles he would win during his career with Bayern (!!!), as well as his first DFB Pokal. On the subsequent campaign, he doubles his playing time grabbing a total of 33 games and four goals, winning a German League Cup in the process. Two seasons later and he had collected another couple of Bundesliga titles and DFB Pokal iterations (2005 and 2006), his playing time only increasing.
At this point, Schweinsteiger was a vital member of this successful Bayern team, one where the promising, young and talented likes of Schweinsteiger and Phillp Lahm joined forces with – ageing – club legends such as Oliver Kahn and Michael Ballack. The former duo oversaw the transition between that rather successful generation of players to a brand-new Bayern, one where the likes of Thomas Muller or Toni Kroos would shine on, helping the club win yet more silverware. But we would have to wait a bit until that vision could be turned into reality – shockingly, by today’s standards, Bayern…didn’t win the Bundesliga…!…for…an incredible three seasons in a row!!!, from 2010 to 2013 -; loads of mistakes happened along the way, until finally they completed their winning machine: of course, with Schweinsteiger at the steering wheel. Ever since his debut in 2002, our special wonderkid plays an incredible 500 matches, scoring also 68 goals. He carries Bayern to a total of eight Bundesliga titles – 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2014 and 2015 -, seven DFB Pokal conquests (2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2014 – yes, Bayern is addicted to winning the double…), two German League Cups in 2004 and 2008 and two German SuperCups in 2010 and 2012. If that weren’t enough already, Schweinsteiger finally wins the Champions League in 2013 – he debuted for the first team just one year after Bayern’s last continental conquest, the legendary 2000/01 edition of the CL.
Such a thing is falling more and more out of fashion as time goes by, but truly the whole football world was completely convinced that Schweinsteiger would bravely go against the current and establish himself as a modern example of a one-man-club. In fact, why wouldn’t he? The man was already a legend after thirteen memorable seasons with the club’s first team – having signed for Bayern back in 1998 -, the club was clearly on their way up enjoying national and, more recently, international success too; they could afford Schweinsteiger, and this wonderkid was playing regularly for one of the greatest football clubs in the world. What more could he ask for? Well, the truth is, man is never happy. He wants more, always. Schweinsteiger accepts the challenge of trying to revive a fallen giant as he signs for Manchester United in 2015. The Red Devils were undergoing a troublesome period following Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013: both managers and players failed to keep up with the success of the Ferguson era’s teams. Following 7th and 4th-place consecutive Premier League finishes, manager Van Gaal brings in the world-class midfielder the team was thought to need in order to compete with the most competent English teams at the time.
Nothing went as planned for United following the departure of their missed leader. Even one of the most steady performers of the new millennium was not able to establish himself there. Schweinsteiger plays just 31 matches on his debut season – an unimpressive record for a player of his legendary caliber -, including a mere 18 appearances on a Premier League campaign that turned out to be even worse than the previous one, as Manchester finishes 5th. However, he helps his team conquer the 2015 FA Cup, perhaps a preview of what was to come on the following season. Van Gaal is out and Mourinho is brought in: and despite the fact that United goes on to have another horrible Premier League campaign, finishing a dreadful 6th, Mourinho leads United to a season filled with silverware as he wins the Community Shield, the Football League Cup and the Europa League. Schweinsteiger himself, however, was not at all an important part of any of those conquests. He shockingly plays a mere four games for United during that 2016/17 campaign; desperate for playing time for the first time in his long footballing career, on March 2017 he signs for MLS’ Chicago Fire. The real Schweinsteiger was back. In three seasons there he plays 92 matches, scoring also eight goals, before retiring from professional football in 2019.
Schweinsteiger is one of the faces that rejuvenated Germany’s national team for the new millennium. Having debuted for his nation in 2004 – mere days before the UEFA Euro 2004 started -, he is a vital part of the German side on every single international competition they participate in until Schweinsteiger decides to retire from international football in 2016, after the Euro 2016. This wonderkid oversaw Germany’s rise to footballing power following that horrible Euro 2004 participation; ever since that winless campaign, Germany has, at the very least, always reached the semifinals on every subsequent competition they have been a part of…except on the very first Schweinsteiger didn’t dispute, as his nation would finish rock bottom on the 2018 World Cup group phase; which is particularly shocking given they were the title holders due to their 2014 World Cup win, naturally with our wonderkid Schweinsteiger as the team’s engine. Twelve years, 121 caps and 24 goals later, this stellar retro-PES prospect leaves the international football scene, but will forever remain a relevant name both in virtual and in real life.
Nuri Sahin – 17 – Westfalen
Rarely will you see potent 17-year-old footballers such as Nuri Sahin in PES5. In many ways his virtual persona is still a project of a player at this point, especially his below-average Stamina (74), low attacking IQ (67) and mediocre mental stats (63 Mentality plus 65 Teamwork). However, since we’re discussing a footballing specialist, his skillset is totally oriented towards the technical part of the game; and on that regard there is little anyone can teach this youngster at this point. Reasonably fast, he is first and foremost a talented dribbler (80 Dribble Accuracy) and a great passer of the ball (80 Short Pass Accuracy and 78 Long Pass Acc.), aided by his 81 Technique and a “Playmaking” special skill. Don’t be surprised if he becomes one of the most technically-gifted players on your Master League even before the age of 21. Now, since he is registered both as an AMF and DMF, shall he become the next Pirlo, a typical AMF playing as a DMF, a “regista” comfortably orchestrating the play from the back…? Or something else entirely? It’s up to you.
Konami often fails spectacularly, but when they do get it right, they do it in style too. Nuri Sahin hadn’t played a single minute in professional football prior to the first PES5 release, which was for the Japanese market on August the 4th in 2005. Given there were no such things as DLCs or instant game updates, the game had to be an all-around finished product when it hit the stores; if developers got something wrong, they would only have the opportunity to fix it on the following version of the game. Fortunately, in this case, they are sublimely prescient considering Nuri Sahin makes his debut for Borussia Dortmund’s first team – and consequently disputes his first pro football match – just…two days after PES5’s original release! He becomes the youngest Bundesliga player in history having debuted before his 17th birthday (which he celebrated a few weeks before the European release of the game); a month later he also becomes the youngest ever to score a goal on Germany’s first division. If there were exciting footballing prospects in 2005, surely Nuri Sahin featured on that list. So much so that he is promptly called up to Turkey’s national team, debuts in 2005 as the youngest player ever to play a match for that nation and…scores on that inaugural match of his, against…Germany, which was not only the country where he was playing in but, coincidentally…his place of birth too! Nuri Sahin’s career, though quite young still, was already the stuff fairy-tales are made of.
Before Nuri Sahin effectively becomes a professional player, he had disputed a couple of Under-17 competitions: the Euro 2005 and the Under-17 World Cup. On the latter, he ends up scoring a shocking four goals in just six matches, leading his team to the semifinals of the competition, ultimately losing 3-4 against Brazil. Sahin was only surpassed by Carlos Vela as the competition’s top scorer, as the latter grabbed five goals. On the former, he wins the Best Player award as a consequence of helping his team conquer the title against the mighty Netherlands.
It is hard to improve on such a fantastic debut season; especially that wonderful 2005 year of his, but our wonderkid actually manages to become a vital first-teamer at Dortmund during that inaugural 2005/06 campaign: he plays a total of 24 matches, almost always as a starting-11 player. On the one that follows, again he plays very often (25 games) but, if Borussia Dortmund had been disappointing on the previous season with a 7th place Bundesliga finish, they did even worse on the subsequent one, finishing 9th. Clearly needing upgrades, our wonderkid is then seen as dispensable for he is loaned out to Feyenoord, where he has no trouble fitting in (34 matches played and six goals scored) on a team which, despite their forgettable Eredivisie campaign, provide Nuri Sahin the first title of his pro football career, the 2008 KNVB Beker. Reinvigorated, he is back at Dortmund and as always, he is a very important player there (28 matches played); this time around, Sahin even wins silverware for his beloved German side with the conquest of the 2008 German SuperCup. Following another superb season for him, with 36 matches played and six goals scored, his most impressive season thus far was the subsequent one (2010/11); Nuri Sahin plays 40 games, scores eight goals and Dortmund wins the Bundesliga!
It seems a lifetime has passed already, doesn’t it? Well, in fact, Nuri Sahin was at this point a mere 22-year-old, still a promising prospect despite having played almost 200 matches as a pro footballer. José Mourinho is impressed and recruits him for the legendary Real Madrid of the 2011/12 season, which would provide another item for our wonderkid’s trophy cabinet, the 2012 La Liga. Regretfully for him, though, Sahin is far from an important piece on that roster, grabbing a disappointing ten games. Desperately needing the playing time he had always gotten before this move, Nuri Sahin is loaned out to Liverpool on the following season; his intermittent performances after 12 games played in England forced Real Madrid to find another solution for this footballer; ultimately, six months after arriving in Liverpool, Sahin is again on the move…this time, he returns to Dortmund and still manages to play 18 games on a fantastic campaign that saw Borussia reaching the Champions League final, ultimately losing to Bayern Munich; plus a 2nd place Bundesliga finish also, well, behind Bayern. They would repeat that national feat on the subsequent campaign, now with Sahin as an indispensable first-teamer – grabbing a staggering 48 games during the 2013/14 campaign -, winning also the German SuperCup.
Things looked as if they were shaping up for our wonderkid, but he was in for a dreadful surprise. Plagued by injuries, Nuri Sahin only plays 21 matches in…three seasons. Dortmund however keeps him around until 2018; almost fifteen years after his debut for the German side, he leaves for good signing for Werder Bremen, where he doesn’t really impress (40 matches in two seasons). The 32-year-old is currently playing for Turkey’s Antalyaspor. Having also played 53 matches for his national team in 12 years, though grabbing just 45 minutes of play on an international competition (on a match against Spain for the Euro 2016), Nuri Sahin looked as if he would be able to carve out his name as a legendary footballer; in the end, though he certainly had some stellar moments and, ultimately, a very decent career, we were all expecting a lot more from him…
Baumjohann – 18 – Ruhr
Even if this man wanted to exist in real life football, he couldn’t. It is not possible. Not after having become one of the most important legends of retro-PES games during the PES PS2 era. Baumjohann first appeared in PES4 as one of the most brilliant 17-year-olds you will ever see; his reputation only increased in PES5. Look at his skillset and you will find out why. Despite clearly not caring about defending – at all: just 27 Defense! – Baumjohann is simultaneously fast (80 Top Speed plus 83 Acceleration) and agile (82 Agility); he is also a good dribbler (80 Dribble Accuracy and 82 Technique). What truly steals the show is his fantastic shooting (77 Shot Accuracy and Technique – absurd levels for an 18-year-old…who’s not even a striker!) and very competent passing (75 Short Pass Accuracy) combo. Throw in his free kick taking skill and you have one of the most exciting wonderkids of the whole PS2 PES era, one that given enough time becomes one of the best players in this game’s Master League. The right-footed, German Messi.
It is generally not a good idea for a football game to recreate a youngster that hasn’t even played a single minute in professional football. Why? Well, as impressive as that particular prospect might be, he has shown himself merely on a youth football setting, which is light-years away from the competitiveness of pro football. In a single sentence I have explained decades of dozens of failed wonderkids on multiple football simulations, including management games such as the Football Manager series. Baumjohann’s PES5 skillset is obviously a result of his youth football adventures, considering that his debut season in real life was exactly the PES5 campaign, 2005/06; yet the man would only play his first-ever professional match almost half a year after we first saw his amazing virtual attributes on this classic football game. He plays a total of four minutes on two matches during that campaign; fortunately for him, he was already a regular on Schalke’s reserve team. Well, it’s okay, he’s still (very) young. On the subsequent campaign, following another mere couple of matches played for Schalke’s first team, and despite being at this point a famous name around the world for his Pro Evo skills, Baumjohann is sold to Borussia Monchengladbach halfway through the 2006/07 season. However, our wonderkid plays just three games and his team is relegated from the Bundesliga, finishing rock bottom (18th).
On the following campaign, Borussia would conquer the 2. Bundesliga, though Baumjohann was not at all part of that memorable chapter of the club’s history, having played absolutely no matches during that campaign. Failed wonderkid? Not so fast. Baumjohann somehow gathers the strength to pull off a wonderful 28 matches played on the 2008/09 season; Borussia Monchengladbach barely escaping relegation (finishing 15th, one point ahead of one of the relegated clubs). Bayern’s caretaker manager Jupp Heynckes is impressed and, after scouting the player, convinces the German giant to sign him. Our wonderkid truly rose from the footballing dead. Could he possibly establish himself in such a potent team? Time eventually told us he couldn’t. He gets a mere four appearances there and six months later…Baumjohann is back at Schalke! But before leaving the Munich side, proving his experience was not a complete failure, Baumjohann takes advantage of this opportunity to add a couple of titles – his first – to his collection, despite his very timid participation on both of those campaigns: the 2010 Bundesliga and the DFB Pokal.
Back at Schalke, Baumjohann reappears on this second stint of his with PES5’s “Ruhr” not as the promising youngster who is not quite ready for professional football yet but as a player able to get minutes here and there. Not exactly the superstardom predicted by PES5, but hey, it’s something. Our wonderkid arrives there halfway through the 2009/10 campaign, plays 13 matches and his team reaches the semifinals of the DFB Pokal and finishes a wonderful 2nd place in a Bundesliga conquered, of course, by Bayern. Surely he could utilize this to propel him for an even better 2010/11 season; however, Baumjohann plays just thirteen games during the whole campaign: a strange one it was, as despite the fact that Schalke couldn’t do better than a shocking 14th Bundesliga finish, the team reaches the Champions League semifinals and conquers the DFB Pokal, led by the likes of Manuel Neuer, Howedes, Rakitic, Raúl González and Huntelaar. On the subsequent campaign, Schalke wins the German SuperCup, reaches the quarterfinals of the Europa League and finishes 3rd in the league; Baumjohann himself still struggling to become an important first-teamer, although ultimately improving on his previous record (17 matches played).
Our legendary retro-PES prospect clearly needed a fresh experience, only he had to get a substantial footballing downgrade in the process. 2. Bundesliga’s Kaiserslautern acquires him in the Summer of 2012 and what an amazing decision that turned out to be, as Baumjohann plays 28 games and scores six goals in a campaign that almost brought about promotion to the first division, but not quite, as Kaiserslautern loses the promotion playoffs. Attracting the attention of bigger clubs, Baumjohann is promptly back for some Bundesliga action, signing for Hertha for the 2013/14 campaign. Just when it seemed things were going to go well for our wonderkid, once more fate shows its unsympathetic face. He plays just eleven matches in two seasons because of a couple of horrible long-term injuries (he plays just one match in the 2014/15 campaign); still, he gathers enough strength to propel him to a fantastic 2015/16 season, getting 27 appearances in Hertha’s interesting campaign, finishing 7th in the league. It is possible that that performance could have gotten him a better footballing contract in his home country but, perhaps because of his Brazilian wife, Baumjohann chooses to sign for Brazil’s Coritiba for the 2017 season. That adventure wouldn’t last long. Baumjohann plays just a couple of games and jumps ship before the team is relegated from Brazil’s first tier, the Brasileirão. Baumjohann joins Bahia’s Vitória, and though he manages to play more (eleven games), again his kiss of death is quite fatal as Vitória is also relegated from the Brasileirão, finishing 19th in the league.
Now, a complete change of pace. This wonderkid is brought to Australia by fellow German Markus Babbel, former footballer, Western Sydney Wanderers’ manager at the time. Twenty games later, Baumjohann joins WS Wanderers’ rivals, Sydney FC. A decade after his last league trophy conquered, Baumjohann and his 28 games played in the 2019/20 season help Sydney FC win the Australian League. He still has a contract with the Australian side lasting until June 2021. A failed wonderkid? Definitely. But it is almost impossible to reproduce in real life what Baumjohann did for millions of Pro Evo fans around the world in their Master League saves.
Anderson – 17 – FC Porto
Seventeen-year-old Anderson was one of the most exciting players to watch in real life back in the day. His PES5 statsheet perfectly demonstrates it. Yes, his attacking IQ (68), Stamina (72) and unimpressive mental stats (mainly his 3 Consistency) will have a problematic effect on his game early on, but otherwise this very young footballer is a legend in the making. Far from fragile, reasonably quick and with few flaws, Anderson shines with his phenomenal dribbling skills (84 Dribble Accuracy and 84 Agility combo; don’t get anywhere near him to try and steal the ball…!), his nice passing (78 Short Pass Accuracy and 79 Long Pass Acc.) and his stupendous Technique (85). Plus, he has a “Dribbling” and “Passing” special skills to complement his skillset. Anderson might be one of the most interesting players in this game because he is simultaneously a project of a player that needs your touch as a manager to be shaped into a superstar; and yet, on the other hand, he is supremely talented and therefore able to put on a show right from the start of your save.
What a bittersweet debut season he had for Brazil’s Grémio. Anderson, a mere 16-year-old, plays seven matches with the first team but the club is relegated to the second division, the Série B. Such a situation doesn’t scare our wonderkid; Anderson grabs an incredible 25 appearances plus eight goals in 2005, helping Grémio conquer the Série B and therefore return to the Brasileirão. He will never forget that amazing year, also because, despite the fact that his team lost the final of that competition, he is considered the Best Player of the 2005 Under-17 World Cup which was ultimately conquered by Carlos Vela and Giovani dos Santos’ México. Always attentive to South American talent, Portuguese giants FC Porto sign Anderson for the 2005/06 campaign for 7M euros, an incredible sum for a 17-year-old footballer at the time. Dividing his footballing attention between the first and reserve teams, Anderson goes on to play just five matches on his inaugural season abroad for a very successful Porto team that conquers the Portuguese League and the Taça de Portugal, the Portuguese Cup. On the subsequent campaign, Anderson establishes himself as a vital first-teamer but his wonderful season would be cut short due to a serious injury that sidelines him for five months. Still, he plays a total of 19 games during that campaign; once more he participates in a Portuguese League win, conquering also the Portuguese SuperCup.
It was clear that at this point Anderson was too good for the Portuguese football scene, even if he didn’t need more than 24 games there to prove it. In 2007, Manchester United signs Anderson for 20M euros. The 19-year-old immediately seizes an important role in the Red Devils‘ squad, although his most prolific season at Manchester was…exactly the inaugural one, grabbing 38 appearances, including a personal record of his of 24 Premier League games played. Manchester United wins the Premier League and the Community Shield, plus Anderson’s only Champions League win in 2008. Our wonderkid’s playing time was severely (and permanently) culled on the following campaign, at least on the Premier League as he plays just 17 matches, though ultimately reaching the 38-games-played record of his previous season. United conquers the world, basically: not just because of their 2008 Club World Cup win, but also because of yet another Premier League trophy, a Football League Cup and a Community Shield. A serious injury prevents Anderson from playing more than 23 games on he 2009/10 campaign, yet once more he wins some silverware, the Carling Cup; another injury cuts short the season that follows, even if Anderson is able to play a bit more often (30 games) and conquer the Premier League and the Community Shield. But yet again, the man just can’t get match fit for long, as another series of injuries affect his 2011/12 campaign, preventing this wonderkid from getting more than 16 appearances – though it was enough for him to win another Community Shield.
Apparently now free of his trademark physical issues, Anderson finally plays another regular campaign, grabbing 26 appearances on the 2012/13 campaign, helping United win another Premier League on Sir Alex Ferguson’s last season as manager. A new footballing chapter was going to be written also on Anderson’s career. New manager David Moyes barely plays him on the 2013/14 season and following just eight appearances, halfway through that campaign Anderson is loaned out to Fiorentina, almost seven years after arriving in Manchester. That experience provides him just eight matches, which was still more than what he would get on the 2014/15 campaign back “home” as he gets just two appearances on a Red Devils‘ shirt, before Anderson decides to sign for Internacional de Porto Alegre; this time, he was truly back home in Brazil. Many were disappointed with this move, believing Anderson still had some fuel in that tank, enough for more European action; yet ultimately, that decision was very wise as our wonderkid plays a wonderful 88 matches in just two seasons with Internacional, before, strangely, he is loaned out to Coritiba in 2017. We can only guess Coritiba’s management wished to field a duo of PES5 wonderkids – coincidentally, both attacking midfielders! -: Baumjohann and Anderson. That experience might have been memorable for millions of Pro Evo fans, but not quite for the club itself as Coritiba is relegated from the Brasileirão after Anderson’s 23 matches played there.
Anderson is then back in Europe to sign for Turkish Second Division side Adana Demirspor, playing fourteen matches on his debut season there and then…just one on the 2019/20 season; Anderson could not have asked for a more forgettable farewell to his footballing career, could he? At just the age of 31, Anderson retires from professional football and, apparently, he is currently Adana Demirspor’s assistant manager.
Even if he wasn’t quite the important player on that particular conquest, Anderson still played a total of 90 minutes in two group stage games on Brasil’s memorable 2007 Copa América win. He would then be a very important member of Brazil’s 2008 Summer Olympic Games squad; his nation reaches the semifinals of the competition but loses 0-3 to Messi’s Argentina. Grabbing a mere eight caps in two years with his national team, Anderson’s international career is far from being as impressive as his club career, which in turn, though such career was still very respectable, led him far from the heights he promised he would achieve early on. Such a brilliant fate is reserved exclusively for a PES5 Master League campaign.
Jol Mantinjo – 19 – Esportiva
Alongside Nani – “Namle” ingame – , the juiciest made-in-Sporting product appearing on the Leões‘ PES5 roster. Though not yet the ever-reliable, energetic midfield engine he would become (not much) later on in his career, this very young (and for some reason, blonde…?) version of Moutinho reveals a fast (80 Top Speed, 80 Acceleration), agile (84 Agility) technically gifted (83 Dribble Accuracy plus 85 Technique) and, as expected, a tremendous passer of the ball – 82 Short Pass Accuracy and 80 Long Pass Acc, plus a “Passing” special skill. Don’t ever try to header a ball with virtual Moutinho, or PES5 will glitch and your PS2 will explode (due to his ghastly 54 Header Accuracy); eerily, given what we know about him today, his very low Mentality (60) and Teamwork (63) recreate a very different Moutinho than expected: a kind of underdeveloped classic number 10, orchestrating the play behind the strikers.
Good-ol’-reliable Moutinho is yet another product of Sporting’s tremendous youth academy, one that became famous for producing dazzling wingers but showed it could also produce steady, solid midfield engines such as João Moutinho. Our wonderkid debuts for Sporting’s first team after his – as always, competent – first and only season playing for the team’s reserves, where he grabbed a total of 27 appearances. Moutinho immediately establishes himself on the first team and plays a total of 26 matches on the 2004/05 campaign; though having participated in just 15 Portuguese League fixtures, his nine matches played were fundamental to help his team reach the UEFA Cup final, which Sporting ultimately lost (at home) against CSKA Moscow, with Moutinho on the team’s starting-11. Our wonderkid impresses even more on the subsequent season, following his PES5 depiction released in 2005, as he plays a wonderful 43 matches and scores five goals. Moutinho’s superb rise continued: he is named Sporting’s captain at just the age of 19, and goes on to enjoy a rather prolific season both individually – 41 games played and seven goals scored – and collectively, for Sporting conquers the 2007 Portuguese Cup. The 2007/08 campaign would turn out to be even more successful; Moutinho begins making a name for himself as a tireless footballing machine grabbing an incredible 56 appearances and seven goals; considering at the time the Portuguese League was comprised of 16 teams, and given Moutinho plays 30 league fixtures, this means he plays…all of the Liga’s matches! Additionally, our wonderkid wins more silverware: the 2008 Portuguese SuperCup and another Taça de Portugal.
At this point naturally an attractive prospect under powerful clubs’ radars, Moutinho instead kept playing for Sporting, admittedly at that point too small a pond for such a big fish. Following another couple of solid seasons – though Sporting fails to conquer any more trophies -, setting Moutinho’s appearance record to 259 plus 32 goals scored wearing the Leões shirt, and considering he had been the protagonist of countless rumors regarding a possible transfer to some of the biggest European clubs at the time, Moutinho shocks the footballing world as it is announced in the Summer of 2010 that the PES5 wonderkid would join…Sporting’s rivals FC Porto. His 11M euros price tag was equally astonishing – though the deal ensured Sporting would get Porto’s Nuno André Coelho as well. This move prompted Sporting’s chairman to announce on a press conference that Moutinho was a “maçã podre” – literally, a rotten apple – for what he considered as the player’s lack of loyalty to the club, strengthening one of his rivals in the process after his incredible transfer. Anyway, the Rotten Apple goes on to enjoy a fantastic stay at Porto. On his debut season, his 53 matches played lead Porto to a legendary campaign: the club conquers the Portuguese League, the Portuguese Cup, the Portuguese SuperCup and the Europa League. Again, Moutinho was linked to the best clubs in Europe but once more such a move never materializes and he keeps on playing for the Dragões, playing another 87 matches in just two seasons, plus scoring ten goals. Moutinho wins two more iterations of both the Portuguese League and the Portuguese SuperCup before embarking on his first overseas adventure, signing for Monaco in 2013.
Many were disappointed with this move, expecting Moutinho to sign for a more potent side. Anyway, as always, Moutinho has little trouble establishing himself as a vital first-teamer (34 games played). On the season that follows, he improves upon his previous record and grabs another impressive 52 matches, his team reaching the Champions League quarterfinals. His 2015/16 season was productive (37 games played) but it pales in comparison with the fantastic 2016/17 campaign, where Moutinho’s 52 games help Monaco conquer the Ligue 1 and heroically reach the Champions League semifinals. Another 44 matches later, having grabbed an incredible 211 games in just five seasons at Monaco, it was time for Moutinho to join the Premier League as he signs for newly-promoted Wolverhampton in 2018; another agent of the growing Portuguese invasion there. Moutinho gladly accepts the challenge and plays 44 matches on his debut season in England, Wolverhampton stealing the show as a consequence of their 7th place finish. They would repeat that feat on the subsequent campaign with our wonderkid setting a personal record after playing 57 matches (!!!) on the 2019/20 campaign. The 34-year-old can’t be stopped, shows no signs of slowing down as he has already played seven games on the current 2020/21 season.
Moutinho is currently the second most capped player in the history of the Portuguese national team, only surpassed by Cristiano Ronaldo. Fifteen years after his debut in 2005, the man is still a very important part of his footballing nation’s squad, having disputed a total of two World Cups (2014 and 2018), three Euro Cups (2008, 2012 and 2016, conquering the latter) plus the 2017 Confederations Cup. He was a vital part on all of those campaigns, reaching his peak in 2016 with the Euro Cup win, thirteen years after (timidly) participating in an Under-17 World Cup win in 2003. João Moutinho has enjoyed a long, prosperous and above all, rock-solid career, the perfect homage to his stellar PES5 virtual self.
Libero Magazine 