Pelé Tribute
RSL in the WSL Part 24
Thank you for your continued reading of Football Manager Projects! This blog is completely user supported. I offer both free and paid subscription options, and greatly appreciate your readership and support.
RSL in the WSL Part 24
Upon learning of the death of Pelé at 82 years old, I thought it would be appropriate to devote an article to examining him in this save.
As you may recall, I’m using the Legends of the Beautiful Game fan modification in my save. This means that there are over 900 legendary players spread among different teams, all young and all with very high potential. Of course, none of them play for my team – that would be just too easy, wouldn’t it?
Pelé
Pelé is there, of course. This wouldn’t be a legendary database without him, would it?
I assume that I can see all of his attributes because of his stellar reputation. He’s 22 years old, and looks already like the greatest player in the world.
Don’t worry about the low ratings for marking and tackling. If he’s on your team, he’s there to score goals, not to double back and give you defensive duty. And remember, he’s still only 22 years old – as scary as it sounds, these statistics can still improve.
Santos
Naturally, Pelé is playing for Santos, the same club that he played for in Brazil in real life. That’s one of the attractions of this database: well-known players have a natural affinity towards the clubs that they actually played for.
Santos are in Serie A, another one of the divisions of Super League 1. They have an absolutely overpowered squad with numerous legendary players – a squad that is probably good enough to compete with the best of our Premier League squads, as you can see here:
This group includes Coutinho – a player that is arguably better than Pelé, but who is is stuck on the bench because of the single striker system that Santos insists on playing.
It also includes a very young Neymar, which honestly seems pretty close to cheating to me:
In other words, Pelé’s got a very good supporting cast around him. Unsurprisingly, Santos has yet to lose this season:
I’m surprised, however, that RSL has constantly had better attendance at home than Santos. It helps that we have a larger stadium – but not all of Santos’ home games have been sellouts.
Form
As you’d expect, Pelé’s form has been absolutely superb so far. 6 goals in 9 appearances in the league isn’t necessarily amazing, but he’s been playing well in every single game, maintaining an average rating above 8 – absolutely amazing for Football Manager.
Pelé has yet to score for Brazil, though he has seen two games in the CONMEBOL World Cup qualifiers. By the way, he’s playing on a Brazil team that is just silly in terms of talent:
We’ll keep an eye on what happens on the international stage as we move on.
Contract
Though I don’t own Pelé, I can see his contract.
£185,000 per week isn’t completely ridiculous, though it’s certainly a lot more than we could ever afford.
I think the modifications I’ve used have brought down player contracts somewhat. The closest large contract I could find was for Miralem Pjanic of Barcelona at £275,000 per week. Normally, Neymar at PSG has the highest contract in the game – but he’s 17 years old in this version, making “only” £30,000 per week.
In contrast, the entire RSL squad makes £45,562 per week combined, thanks in large part to my ridiculous transfer policy.
I’ll keep an eye on the progress of Santos and Pelé as we move along. It will be interesting to see if he winds up moving anywhere else, though he might not in the end. As you can see, he prefers to stay with Santos:
Blog Roundup
Sad Panda reports on the first half of his 6th season with Crystal Palace.
View from the Touchline reports on the “double pivot,” which sounds a bit too complicated for my limited tactical knowledge.
FM Blog reports on Fabio Miretti, another wonderkid.
Channel Watcher
The Cult of FM continues its England DNA project with Burton Albion.
FM Scout reports on the most reliable wonderkids in FM23. I’m assuming that means these guys aren’t plagued by the inconsistency flu.
Bood FM gives us the latest report at Oldham Athletic.
CaptainGoodspeed has big news – a new (virtual) job interview!
Matty89 reports on a new signing with Leeds United.
Shaun Does FM faces the ultimate journeyman question – to stay or to go?
FM GNG gives us more European drama in his University Challenge.
Oisty FM reports on more drama with Tranmere.
Jay Edworthy makes the promotion push with Forest Green Rovers.
Loki Doki reports on a wonderkid signing.
Wroot1 FM takes Salford City to the playoffs.
RDF Tactics, everybody’s favorite tactician, reports a huge 433 tactical breakthrough in FM23.
Omega Luke reports more of the intense drama in his Toulouse Youth to Gold save. I should note here that the quality of Omega Luke’s videos in this series is simply top notch – it feels more like watching a professional highlight film (with the occasional meme) than watching an amateur YouTube creator. This series is a must-watch.
Finally, Lollujo has done it again, signing yet another South American wonderkid.