All-Challenge XI 2016

[vikeologist]

A few days late, but I've only just thought of it. In the Ultimate Challenge, some of us have started compiling a challenge XI, the eleven players who have been the most important to each of us in the challenge.

So let's have an XI from all the challenges. May I make 4 requests?

1. Each person can only nominate / select 1 player. (this is a bit stronger than a request actually, but frankly how would I be able to stop you selecting more?) Not 1 per challenge.

2. It should be someone who helped you out in 2016, (not 2015 for those who've been slogging it out in San Marino etc or the first week of this year).

3. Let's have lots of information about your nominees. Not just, he scored 50 goals for me. I'd like stories. Really go to town on this. Think about all the blood and sweat that those bites of data shed for you last year. This is your chance to really show your appreciation.

4. Let's say that you must have posted 10 times about the challenge in question during 2016.

 

Copy and paste in your own guy from the previous post. I don't know what will happen if more than 11 people select somebody. I guess we can have subs. I don't know if that will happen. You can't kick other people's players out; First come, first selected. I suppose that if all the places are filled, you could tell us all about your players, and maybe somebody will give up their seat on the all-challenge bus. Or we could have a lot of subs/

I'm not dictating the positions, as we all play with different formations. Just fill in one of the ? spaces. I'm afraid I want to nab the goalie spot for my guy.

GK- Spiderman (Jeonbuk / S Korea). Vikeologist / Ultimate Challenge

As you may guess, this was a nickname. His real name was Kim Dong-Won. When I inherited the Jeonbuk side my best goalkeeper was a 36 year-old I nicknamed Granddad. Spiderman was a 17-year old snapping at his heels, and I went with the future. By the time I left Jeonbuk 3 years later , with a league title, cup win and champions league in my pocket, he was World Class and still improving.

That was enough to get him entry into this XI, but what kept him there was his part in mine and S Korea’s Asian Cup win. In the final he saved a crucial penalty when we were 1-0 ahead. He actually saved a 2^nd penalty at the end of 90 minutes, only for the Japanese player to poke home the rebound. The full story of that tournament here

In my save he's now 26 years old, and already has 92 caps. He was like the Pope of my challenge; on this Peter Parker I built my church of Vikeology for that brief time (in challenge terms) that we had together.

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GK-sub

S2

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[Sankalan]

GK-sub:Burim Abazi-Sankalan/Big Fat GK

Basically, it was a one man challenge. I and Burim moved from Belgium to Portugal to Brazil, and in more than 20 years that we were together, he scored more than 300 goals. Yeah, SCORED. Had a full career with Belgium, was made national captain(I was the manager) and what not. At the end he retired to see his son play back in Belgium. For more details, consult the Big Fat GK thread.

[Lenzar]

AMR: Darko Cena (Dorchester Town)/dafuge challenge

After getting promoted into the Premier League, my scouts spotted this young Serbian. I signed him, along with another right winger, expecting them to fight it out for the position.

What I wasn't expecting was for this player to dominate the EPL's assists chart. He was constantly troubling the opposition with his crosses, and he'd often cut inside, more often than not scoring or at least forcing a save from the keeper.

Of course, I imagined the in-game fans would call him 'Donny' and even made a little chant up for him.

[numero uno gunner]

So many suggestions I could make for this from my Ultimate Challenge team, and honourable mentions go to Guillerhme Arana at left-back, Fabricio Oya in central midfield (just have a read of the Ultimate Challenge thread to see my love of this guy) or Gian Fillippo Felicioli (possibly the greatest story of any of my players) but in the end I could only go for one player:

AML – Juaquin Cuellar (Colombia and Real Madrid) With 6 medals (2 titles, 2 cups, Copa America and WC!) and 25 goals in a season from midfield, he surely has to be in this team? He's probably my favourite ever player from my Ultimate Challenge save, and considering some of the talent I managed, that's a huge statement. Utter class. He regularly pulled goals and assists out of nothing, and was instrumental in my run with Colombia to win the World Cup. I guess for me, it was the fact that when he was on the pitch I never felt like I was beaten. Whether he was racing down the wing to whip in a cross to win a vital knockout game, or consistently turning defenders inside out in La Liga, he's possibly my all-time favourite FM player. So, have I done enough to get him a spot in the XI?