Every version of Championship Manager always seemed to have that player that you just had to purchase but wasn't that well known and actually may not have been that well known but they proved to be the bedrock of any team that you built on the mighty CM.
One of those such players has now reached the end of his career and retires with a career in football that didn't quite live up to it's ratings and wonderkid status in Champ Manager!
His name is................
Cherno Samba.............
If you don't know who Cherno Samba is then let me introduce you to this football genius right now.
Cherno Samba appeared on Championship Manager in the 2001 / 2002 edition of the game as a 14 year old at Millwall.
This guy was awesome, as a 14 year old in the Millwall Reserves it was tempting just to throw him straight into the first team, because with stats like his you didn't really need to know much more.......
As he matured in the game he world basically always turn into a goal scoring superstar hero.
This screenshot shows him at age 23 but just look at those ratings!
In real life Cherno wasn't such a hit after playing for 8 different clubs and yet only making around 50 appearances in total. Cherno was obviously well sought after as he represented England at Under 16, 17, 18, 19 and Under 20's. Apparently the top clubs were queuing for him.
Cherno went on to represent Gambia in his real life career and made around 4 appearances in total.
Cherno was a CM legend but unfortunately his real life career was one not so immense as he is now 29 years old and was forced to retire after an injury sustained whilst playing for FK Tonsberg in Norway.
When my friend Chris and I played Champ Manager I was Millwall and he was Bristol Rovers (both teams at the time were in the Championship at the time) and we would play for hours on end.
My mate Chris, would take the piss out of me for being Millwall and having Cherno in my squad as a 14 year old. It was obvious from his stats he was going to be awesome!
The only problem was that one fateful night I managed to erase our save game 2 seasons in and before Cherno had flourished into a world beater!
I was devastated and so was Cherno (probably). Maybe my mistake led to Cherno's real life demise as his potential and reality never managed to meet up....sorry Cherno
If Cherno was to retire in the game of Championship Manager i'm sure he would come back as a striking coach or something like that.
As the legend goes. Cherno as a 13-year-old scored 132 goals in 32 games for the St Joseph's Academy, Blackheath !! Yikes!!
It also got me thinking about those players that weren't actually world beaters but were indispensable in the game.
Chris Bart Williams in CM 94 was an instant purchase and I built my Notts Forest team around this marauding Central Midfielder.
Freddy Adu was another wonderkid who didn't live up to his Champ Manager fame outside of the game, what a player!
Ivica Mornar was a machine in Champ Manager. Stick this guy up top and he brought you goals, goals, goals. Couldn't find a ratings screenshot, so I thought a Panini sticker would do...
Collis & Orosco were part of the programming team that brought us the Champ Manager 94 game and they cheekily edited themselves into the game as Cambridge United players who were absolute World Beaters. In real life obviously, they just made one of the greatest versions of the game that there has ever been, so fair play to them!
Who would you have in your ultimate lineup of Champ Manager cult icons?
Nii Lamptey perhaps?
Or maybe a guy who I signed once and he had ALL 20's!!
Did I dream it ?
His name was Aleksei Poddubskiy but I can't find any record of his CM stats......
The only problem was that one fateful night I managed to erase our save game 2 seasons in and before Cherno had flourished into a world beater! charm bracelet canada , charm bracelet australia ,
ReplyDeleteI miss that character.
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