Wayne Rooney used Football Manager to save America’s worst team

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British soccer legend Wayne Rooney is now a coach in the USA and took over the worst team in the Eastern Conference there in the summer of 2022: DC United. He now says he used the Football Manager computer game’s scouting system to sign talented players:

How has the club developed?

  • In 2022, DC finished the season in 14th place, finishing bottom in the Eastern Conference. With 7 wins, 21 losses and 6 draws, they brought up the rear of the league. You just got 27 points. At -35, the goal difference was twice as bad as in the penultimate.
  • In 2023, the team from Washington is in a much better position: With 8 wins, 10 losses and 6 draws, they are in 9th place. The goal difference is -1.
  • Rooney took over as head coach at DC United on July 12, 2022.

    • Football Manager is a complex soccer sim that people play all year round on Steam:

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    Team brings in 25 new players since Rooney took office

    How did he do it? DC United did some heavy shopping ahead of the season. In total, the team signed 25 new players (via transfermarkt). Except for a handful of players, the entire squad has been replaced since Rooney took office.

    Team got access to 11 or 12 Football Manager scouts

    How did a computer game help him? In an interview with The Times, Rooney said Football Manager has helped improve the club’s recruitment methods.

    Rooney says:

    A big part of the market is South America and we made a deal with Football Manager where we did a little bit of promotion and in return we got access to their scouts, 11 or 12 of them: they used scouts in different parts of the world who help them create the game. Joe Mourinho used to do something similar.

    One of the jewels that Rooney has discovered is Iraqi left-back Mohanad Jeahze (25), who played in Sweden. Experts also believe that Rooney used his good contacts in the industry to secure one or the other player.

    The most expensive signing for €5.5m came from English club Crystal Palace.

    The Football Manager is known for finding “prodigies” who are particularly talented and who are promised a great career. They have an enormously high “potential” that they can achieve over the years under ideal conditions.

    In order to correctly assess this potential and the current ability of the players and to ensure that both are reflected in the game, the series that has been so long-lived on Steam uses a network of scouts.

    One can only speculate which jewels the Football Manager scouts wrote in his notebook.

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