Forks in the Road (BAPx3)

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2020/21 Season


​
-LaFleur looks to break out and become one of the worlds biggest stars
-Larsson continues to be frustrated in Germany, angles for a move away
-Manu continues solid play at Porto, tries to get back into National Team after Euro 2020





View attachment 172198View attachment 172197View attachment 172196


​"Of all the unimportant things in life,
football is the most important"
-Arrigo Sacchi



August 2020

​
-FC Porto try to make it through the Champions League playoff rounds
-Larsson impresses
-Manu left out of Portugal squad by new manager Paulo Fonseca
-LaFleur is LaFleur at City




Manu
Porto coast past Feyenoord after a 3-0 in Holland is the 1st leg.
They are drawn against AS Roma in the Playoff Round
View attachment 172193

Manu is overlooked for the Nations League game vs. France, hugely disappointing
View attachment 172183

Porto falters vs. Roma and will spend the season in the Europa League once again
View attachment 172179



Larsson
Larsson, too good for Leipzig? He's asked for a move but they want 75m!
No one is coming in for that money
View attachment 172186View attachment 172189

His performances have cemented his place in the National side.
View attachment 172182


LaFleur

View attachment 172181View attachment 172180
It would be criminal to leave LaFleur off the French team at this point,
he's a world class attacker.




European Draws
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City draws Real Madrid and Benfica, two teams with a rich history in Europe. While Porto has a relatively easy draw in the Europa league, despite the long travel.



Lou review so far

View attachment 172176
LaFleur, playing for France​
Much like our last competition, Lou is way out in front of us at this point. LaFleur is the biggest star in France, he plays for the richest club in the world, he's played in a Champions League final, he's won numerous personal accolades, and he's only used 1 of his 3 transfers.


Mike

View attachment 172175
Larsson, just can't seem to get it going

​
Mike just has bad luck with his player. It seems that no matter where he goes, Larsson has problems with management, or injuries, or playing time. He has only 1 transfer left, his move to RB Leipzig left us scratching our heads and it it now apparent that he needs to leave Germany to have success, but where does he go from here? He makes too much money for a small club to take him on, but will he play regularly for a bigger club? He's talking about a move to a big club in Italy, where he can work his way to the Champions League and hopefully salvage his career, but with 1 transfer remaining he is hoping a team comes in for him first.



Manu

View attachment 172174
"One day I can tell my grandchildren that I got
to play on the same team as you", said Ronaldo.


​
I had some trouble in Southampton, but I think that a move back to Portugal was the best thing for my career. It was too soon to move to the Prem and I struggled for much needed playing time. At Porto I am developing nicely, and I have good coaching. I seem to be out of favour with the new National coach as he has selected younger players ahead of me at my position, but I'm confident that I will be back in the fold soon. All three of us have the potential to be world class, it's just getting started!
 
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September 2020


​
-UEFA Nations League kicks off (France vs. Denmark vs. Portugal)
-Champions League group stage
-LaFleur stars for City/France
-Manu continues the fight for a place in the National Team
-Larsson fights for a move away from RB Leipzig

Nations League

France 2 Portugal 1
Lisbon, PT
View attachment 171919
Big away win for France to kick off the group. No Manu in the Portugal side


France 2 Denmark 0
Paris, FR
View attachment 171916
LaFleur with a big goal to get France going here, it will be tough to catch France now as they’ve beaten both of their opponents in the group. Denmark and Portugal will now battle to avoid relegation.

France 6
Portugal 0
Denamrk 0






​
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Having trouble with screen crashing so, I'm gonna post smaller updates, still have the updates for each player in the month of September 2020
 
Manu
September 2020

After being overlooked by Paulo Fonseca and the National team, I accepted a call up for the U21s. Looks like I'll either have to wait until Fonseca is fired, or play so well that he'll have no choose but to call me up. For now it looks like Bruno Fernandes of Sporting has taken my place in the senior team. This being a World Cup year, I have to have a standout season.

View attachment 171914View attachment 171913

Domestically Porti travelled to Spartak Moscow in the Europa LEague and we came away with a credible 1-1 draw, while Besiktas of Turkey won 2-0 at home to Croatian side Rejika. In the League we have wine 4 out of 5 to sit 3rd behind the Lisbon teams
View attachment 171912View attachment 171911​
 
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Michael Larsson
September 2020

No real news here, Larsson wants out of the team, Mike wants him to be transferred too but doesn't want to waste his last transfer when the player is already angling to get out, so it's wait and see now. Perhaps by January this will be sorted, either the player will be happy and playing well or he will be transferred. In the meantime Jurgen Klinssman has Leipzig flying high winning 10 of a possible 12 points.
View attachment 171910View attachment 171909

Mike now thinks it was a huge mistake to choose Denmark as his nationality. He thinks it would be beneficial to play in his home country but going to the Danish league on his salary would bankrupt a team there. In addition, the possibility of winning a World Cup there is very slim while LaFleur looks almost certain to have international glory at some point in his career.​
 
Louis LaFleur


LaFleur continues to build his resume with Man of the Match awards and Team of the Week places.
View attachment 171908View attachment 171907

In the Champions League, City got an historic win at the Bernabeu!
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LaFleur has been one of the stars of the Premier League but City currently sit outside the Champions League spots
View attachment 171902

In a World Cup year, LaFleur is poised for a huge breakout season, only an injury can stop him​
 
2020/21




UEFA Nations League

October games
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View attachment 171753

November games

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France moves on to the semi finals where they will play Holland, while Italy plays Belgium in the other semi. Portugal will stay in the 'A' league with France, while Denmark is relegated to the 'B' division.

I was not involved in the Portuguese team, while Lou and Mike were both in their National teams.



​
 
Season Review 20/21


Manu
As the season progressed through the fall, I was repeatedly overlooked for the National team while Bruno Fernandes of Sporting played in my position. This was frustrating because I was having the best season of my career at Porto and everything seemed to be going well except for the fact that National coach Fernando Santos has a serious hate-on for me.
View attachment 171749View attachment 171748View attachment 171747

I signed a new 4 year deal with Porto, which shows how much they value me. I'd be happy to stay in Portugal for a few years, but hopefully a move to a bigger league will come. I've tried experiments in the past where I tried to have a World Player of the Year in the Portuguese league (in it's current form and ranking) and it wasn't possible.
View attachment 171746

Porti lost to Celtic in the 1st knockout round of the Europa League which was disappointing but I was shortlisted for the Portuguese Player of the Year!
View attachment 171743


Michael Larsson

I usually take screenshots and notes while the season is going and then organize them into a summary. Well, I literally had one screenshot from Mike's player the entire season, and it was an injury he suffered in October. Besides that, nothing of note took place for Larsson. He played regularly for RB Leipzig, who finished mid-table. He won no awards, attracted no attention and had a good-not-great year.

View attachment 171744



Louis LaFleur

On the other end of the spectrum, Louis LaFleur had a spectacular year.
Here is a list of his achievements for the season:
​

  • [*=center]Named in the English Premier League Team of the Week 8 times
    [*=center]English Premier League Player of the Month for September 2020
    [*=center]English Premier League Young Player of the Month for October 2020
    [*=center]Shortlisted for World Golden Ball 2020
    [*=center]French Player of the Year Runner up (to Paul Pogba)
    [*=center]2021 English Players Team of the Year
    [*=center]English Premier League Footballer of the Year
    [*=center]Champions League Dream Team
    [*=center]2020/2021 Manchester City Supporters Player of the Year
    [*=center]Set team and European Qualifying record with 4 goals in a match for France
Manchester City also lifted the Capital One Cup and capped the season with a 5-1 win over Real Madrid in the Champions League final, a game in which LaFleur scored twice, assisted on another and was named Player of the Match!

View attachment 171742
​LaFleur is in there somewhere, trust me



​
 
Manu, FC Porto
Value: 13m
View attachment 171741View attachment 171740

I feel I'm comfortably in 2nd place here, but Lou is way out in front. I'm gonna need to win a World Cup or two to even have a chance of winning this one.


Michael Larsson, RB Leipzig
Value: 23m
View attachment 171739View attachment 171738
Even though Mikes attributes are better than mine, and his value is higher, he hasn't really done much at all. In the end nobody cares what your value was, it's what you did on the pitch, so that's what puts him in last place here, in my opinion.


Louis LaFleur
Value: 45m
View attachment 171737View attachment 171736
It's hard to believe that we all started with essentially the same player, on the same team. Lou is worth over 30m more than I am, he's one of the best players in the world and I can't even get a call up to Portugal. If France wins a major trophy in Lou's career then this competition will pretty much be over.
​
 
Season 2021/2022: World Cup on the Horizon
View attachment 171525
Manu, FC Porto (Portugal)
Value: 26m
World Rep: 7327
View attachment 171537View attachment 171536​
I had a wonderful season at FC Porto, helping them win the league title on the last day of the season from Sporting CP. I was, again, shortlisted for Portuguese Best National Player, finishing runner up there. I was named in the Primeira Liga Team of the Week 7 times, was Primeira Liga Player of the Month for August 2021 and, for the 2nd year in a row named Portuguese Young Player of the Year.

Internationally, I've been shut out of the team since playing at the European Championships in the summer of 2020 when Andre Villas-Boas left the team, replaced by Paolo Fonseca, who hates me. I did, however, make the preliminary 30 man squad for World Cup 2022, which in the save was moved to Argentina* (see below), I think this was just for show as I was cut from the final squad.

Portugal is paired with Ukraine and Switzerland in the UEFA Nations League in Division A, which is a sweet draw and could be a clear path to the semi finals there.





View attachment 171526
Michael Larsson, Udinese (Italy)
Value: 29m
World Rep: 7572
View attachment 171535View attachment 171534
​
Mike used his final transfer (Liverpool, RB Leipzig, Udinese) to move to Udinese and enjoyed a resurgence while playing there. He stayed out of the headlines, but was ever present for the club which finished a respectable 7th in Serie A, qualifying for the Europa League in 2022/23. Achievements included RB Leipzig Supporters Player of the Year (end of last season), and Serie A Team of the Week twice.

Denmark failed to qualify for the World Cup, finishing 2nd in their qualifying group behind Holland, ahead of Russia, but not finishing high enough in the second placed table to progress any further. They are paired with Serbia and Norway in the UEFA Nations LEague in Group B for the coming season.




View attachment 171527
Louis LaFleur, AS Monaco (France)
Value: 69m
World Rep: 8693
View attachment 171533View attachment 171532
​

Lou was surprisingly sold by Manchester City for 39.5m (could rise as high as 51m) after City's Champions League victory last season. This was a regular in-game transfer so Lou still has two transfers at his disposal). LaFleur showed what a class player he has become by comfortably leading Moncao to the Ligue 1 title, breaking a string of 9 straight titles by PSG. In the process LaFleur racked up a number of achievements including, Confederations Cup Best Player Award where France finished runner-up, an astonishing 11 Team of the Week awards, Ligue 1 Player of the Month Award for August, November and December, 3rd place in World Golden Ball Award, 2022 World Team of the Year, Ligue 1 Star of the Season runner-up, 2022 Ligue 1 Stars Team of the Season, 2021/22 AS Monaco Supporters Player of the Season, and 3rd Place in Best Player in Europe.


(rest my fingers a bit)
​

France beat Holland in the UEFA Nations League semi final before losing to Belgium in the final. For the upcoming season, they are grouped with Spain and Holland! Tough group.

France also qualified for the World Cup, where LaFleur will be the only one of us competing there. France is grouped with Chile, Jamaica and Serbia.

*Has anyone played a save past 2022 where the World Cup was not moved? I've been past 2022 4 or 5 times and it's always moved, mostly to China, once to Canada, this one Argentina
 
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2022 World Cup: Argentina

View attachment 171512
Due to the short notice, they had to recycle their old logo

The only player involved was, of course, Louis LaFleur but that didn't mean that I didn't have any skin in the game. I had to cheer against France because if they won, Lou would be uncatchable in this challenge, as if he wasn't already. Also, I had to cheer against Portugal! The reason being that Manager Paulo Fonseca hates me so he must be fired.

Portugal Group Games

Game 1
View attachment 171510
Nice. Good start for my cause. A terrible 2-0 defeat to the Americans!
Other game: Germany 3 Peru 1

Game 2
View attachment 171509
Okay, a win but in the other game the result went my way as the U.S., beat Germany 2-0. This puts the USA on 6 pts with a match against Peru, while Portugal and Germany play each other with both teams on 3 pts but Germany has the tiebreaker.

Game 3
View attachment 171508
Germany come from 2-0 down on 69 minutes and come roaring back to win! It makes me sad to cheer against Portugal but my career is on the line here, I'm sure lots of players secretly do the same thing.

Result
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Boo-ya!


France Group Games

Game 1
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Whoa! Huge win here, LaFleur with a hat trick of goals. Great start for him.

Game 2
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A stumble here against Jamaica, but still on course.

Game 3
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Another not-so-great result but they got the job done and qualify. They also get a nice draw for the knockout stage, South Africa!
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Knockout round

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Incredible performance! The good news is that Anthony Martial has stolen some of LaFleurs thunder here with a 4 goal game!



Quarter Finals
View attachment 171498
Au Revoir, France! Thank you, England! No World Cup for LaFleur!


How it played out:
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Germany defeated the Czech Republic (Yes, that's correct) to win the World Cup!
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The Aftermath:
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Zidane out as French Manager

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Yes! This is almost as good as me winning the World Cup! Good riddance to bad rubbish, I say! Let's hope we get off to a good start with this Marco Silva character!



​
 
August 2022: Larsson gets his move!
​

It seems as if Mike has wanted a move away from every team he's played for. Well he was satisfied at Udinese but his player, Michael Larsson, was not. He moaned all season and finally, Udinese had had enough.



View attachment 171490
City had minor interest in Larsson all season, will they finally act on it? Mike is pretty excited about it, he seem to think he can follow the same path as LaFleur.

View attachment 171489
A new player enters the game, Mike is thrilled!

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Where will Larsson end up? Will City make a bid?

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Larsson excels in the shop window, two goals and star of the match!


It's official!
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Larsson to PSG where he will battle LaFleur's AS Monaco to regain the Ligue crown!


View attachment 171481
Um, hello everyone? I'm here in Portugal and I'm just as talented, why no interest?


And the beat goes on…..
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2022/23 Season: The Battle for France

"Anyone who thinks sunshine is happiness
has never played football in the rain"
-Anonymous


In the 2012/22 Season Louis LaFleur moved to AS Monaco in France, a team that had played second fiddle to PSG for over a decade. LaFleur changed the landscape in France as Monaco dominated all that was before them. They comfortably won the league and LaFleur took home a truckload of silverware and PSG were also-rans. This made PSG go out and but the most similar player they could, they bought Michael Larsson out from under the nose of LaFleurs old team, Manchester City, who had designs on the player themselves. This set up a battle in France between the two clubs. Excitement across the country was through the roof because, for the first time in years, we went into a Ligue 1 season to knowing who will win the title.


France
View attachment 171371
The season didn't quite go as planned as AS Monaco and Louis LaFleur once again dominated the league. PSG just could not keep pace with the Champions, although they did defeat Monaco in a league match. Larsson fought with his coach all season and only started 15 games for PSG as it's becoming quite clear that he is a baby in a mans body. LaFleur had another world class season and Monaco won the league sometimes in mid-March.

Internationally it was a disaster for France, they were drawn into a tough group in the UEFA Nations League with Spain and Holland. They dropped their last two matches and would up 3rd in the Group, dropping down into the 'B' division!


View attachment 171367
Louis LaFleur, AS Monaco (France)
Value: 75m
World Rep: 8777
View attachment 171370




View attachment 171366
Michael Larsson, PSG (France)
Value: 55m
World Rep: 8561
View attachment 171369
Denmark finished behind Serbia and ahead of Norway in their UEFA group and remained in the 'B' division.

Portugal
View attachment 171364
It was a rough season for Porto, who finished 5th in the league. They finished behind crosstown rivals Boavista for the first time in over 20 years. The fans wanted blood, but one player they didn't blame was Manu. I had another superb year, despite not being called up to the National team by the new coach, Marco Silva. I don't score as many goals as the other two, but I'm an important cog in my team and consistently get rave reviews for my play.

Portugal, as expected, topped their group with Ukraine and Switzerland, but lost 1-0 to Belgium in the semi final. Belgium went on the defend their title and remain UEFA Nations League Champions.



View attachment 171365
Manu, FC Porto (Portugal)
Value: 27m
World Rep: 7331
View attachment 171368

​
 
2023/24

View attachment 171226

Season in Review​
It was an exciting season in France as Louis LaFleurs Monaco battled Michael Larssons PSG right down to the wire, as Monaco clinched the title on the final match day. It wasn't all bad for Larsson as he finally had a breakout season. In Italy, I had a battle of my own with Laurent Blanc. I missed training no less than 4 times in November and December and by January I had still started only 1 cup game and came on a sub in two others. I can't understand why a team would pay 42m Euros for a player and pay that player 115k per week and not use him! In the end I was such a head case that Napoli let me go to Arsenal in January for a cut rate price of 14m. In the end, they paid 9.5m Euros per game for me!

Days after I left Napoli, Laurent Blanc followed me to London, but with Chelsea. I'm sure Napoli is not too pleased with him for that, given how much money he lost in my transfer. I'm probably going to hold this against Laurent Blanc in real life too, that always seems to happen, but I digress….

All three nations qualified for the Euros in Spain, but I did not make the Portuguese squad. Larsson, surprisingly, almost didn't make the Denmark squad. He had been left out of the previous team for some reason.



"When I score, I don't celebrate. It's my job.
Does a postman celebrate when he delivers post?"
-Mario Balotelli



View attachment 171227
Manu, Arsenal (England)
Value: 23m
World Rep: 7259
View attachment 171234View attachment 171233

Napoli was a waste of time, but fortunately it wasn't a lot of time, just half of a season. I only played in 7 league games for Arsenal down the stretch so I'm thinking that this might turn into a problem as well. Unspurisingly I didn't win any honours this season. It's been 21 years since Arsenal won the Prem, so it would be quite an achievement to lead them to a title.



View attachment 171228
Michael Larsson, PSG (France)
Value: 59m
World Rep: 8548
View attachment 171232View attachment 171231

Larsson had, by far, the best season of his career. His club battled for the title all season and Larsson won lots of honours. Finally there is hope that LaFleur won't run away with this competition.​

  • [*=center]6 times Player of the Week for Ligue 1 (all in the second half)
    [*=center]Ligue 1 Player of the Month for April and May
    [*=center]2024 Ligue 1 Stars Team of the Season



View attachment 171229
Louis LaFleur, AS Monaco (France)
Value: 80m
World Rep: 8866
View attachment 171230

LaFleur came back to Earth somewhat, but still had a terrific season. He starred for France as well, but it was the first time that he was challenged as Larsson had a slightly worse season than LaFleur.
​

  • [*=center]Ligue 1 Player of the Week 3 times
    [*=center]Shortlisted for 2023 World Player of the Year
    [*=center]2023 French Player of the Year (3rd year in a row)
    [*=center]Ligue 1 Star of the Season runner-up
    [*=center]Ligue 1 Stars Team of the Season
    [*=center]2023/24 Monaco Supporters Player of the Year
    [*=center]Best Player in Europe runner-up
 
View attachment 170833
(Sorry, screenshots unavailable)

Once again, all three of our nations qualified, but I was the only player not selected. Marco Silva, the Portuguese Manager hates me and he must be fired, so I'll be cheering against Portugal once again. Now that Larsson has found his game and is becoming one of the World's stars, it's getting quite embarrassing that I can't seem to buy a game.



Group Games

In Group B, Denmark finished 3rd, behind group winners Ukraine and Ireland. Larsson played well in the group games but was held off the scoresheet. In Group D, France walked the group, winning all 3 games including an impressive 4-0 win over Holland in which Louis LaFleur scored a hat trick. He scored 4 in the group games altogether. Portugal also qualified, finishing 2nd in Group E

Knockout Rounds

In a hugely anticipated match Mike's Denmark side took on Lou's France and Denmark came out on top 2-0. Portugal beat England in the 2nd round as well. In the quarters, Portugal went out to eventual tournament winners…..wait for it….Ukraine (yeah, that's right), while Denmark went out 3-1 to Italy. Overall, LaFleur had a better tournament than Larsson, even though Denmark went 1 round further. LaFleur is the unquestioned leader and star of France and cemented his reputation with 4 of France's 10 goals in the 4 games


​
 
2024/25 Season :Unglued

This whole season can be summed up in two screenshots. To set the scene, it's late February 2025, I haven't played any games at Arsenal, I've missed practice a bunch of times and been fined several times. Finally, my manager is fired as Arsenal sit 11th in the table. I'm super excited because it's a chance for a fresh start for me. Keep in mind these two emails are 1 day apart. I'll say it again, they are one day apart.

View attachment 170671View attachment 170670

How is this even possible? I'm guessing that while the chairman was introducing the new manager to the team, I shoved my way to the front and screamed at him to play me in the next match.

View attachment 170677
The Arsenal fans love me, obviously. I've never loved them so it's all good.



View attachment 170673
Louis LaFleur, AS Monaco (France)
Value: 80m
World Rep: 8979
View attachment 170676View attachment 170675
View attachment 170674

LaFleur broke his own record for average rating in Ligue 1, he's one of the
most well known players on the planet and earns 375k per week! He also participated in the Olympic Games for France. How did that go? Well, France won and LaFleur was named to the Olympic Games Dream Team.

Achievements:
​

  • [*=center]Broke the France highest average rating record with an 8.70
    [*=center]European Championship Best Player
    [*=center]European Championship Dream Team
    [*=center]Olympic Games Gold Medal
    [*=center]Ligue 1 Team of the week 12 times
    [*=center]Ligue 1 Player of the Month for October 2024
    [*=center]Broke France record with 10 assists in one year
    [*=center]Shortlisted for World Golden Ball
    [*=center]World Player of the Year, 3rd place
    [*=center]2025 Team of the Year
    [*=center]Broke the AS Monaco record for highest rating with 8.06 in 33 games
    [*=center]Ligue 1 Star of the Season 3rd place
    [*=center]2025 Ligue 1 Stars Team of the Season
    [*=center]Winners of the French Cup (AS Monaco)
    [*=center]2024/25 AS Monaco Supporters Players of the Year
    [*=center]Named as AS Monaco Captain


The baby just woke up, I'll recap the other two players in the next post, sorry!

​
 
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