Firmino was discovered thanks to Football Manager
Friends of Football Manager Guru, today we would like to tell you another of the incredible stories of FM. Did you know that Firmino was discovered thanks to Football Manager ? Did you know that Liverpool’s Brazilian star owes part of his great career to Football Manager? Now we’ll tell you everything!
The Story of Roberto Firmino
The story of Roberto Firmino is a curious one. In fact, the current star of Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool has worked his way up through the ranks all over the world.
He left Brazil to play in Germany, first in the German lower division with Hoffenheim and then the jump to the Bundesliga with the same club.
After arriving in Germany it took him some time to express his true style of play, making the management think about the 4 million investment they had just made to bring him to Hoffenheim.
But as always, time is a gentleman and Roberto Firmino exploded in the 2013-14 season, scoring plenty of goals. With 16 goals he shook off all the criticism that had rained down on him, proving to be a great striker and turning the heads of some of Europe’s biggest clubs, Liverpool in particular.
And so in 2015 Jurgen Klopp brought him to the centre of the Reds’ attack with a very important investment: 42 million euros.
With Klopp he found his size as a top forward, with compatriot Coutinho playing behind him and providing him with assist after assist.
The rest, as you know, is history, but to be precise and detailed, here are Firmino’s statistics from his time at Liverpool:
Firmino was discovered thanks to Football Manager
Having briefly told you the European story of Bobby Firmino, as Reds fans around the world call him, we now want to tell you how the Brazilian came to Germany.
Firmino was discovered through Football Manager, in the true sense of the word, as admitted by Lutz Pfannenstiel, Hoffenheim’s scout at the time.
Here are his words:
“We found this out thanks to Football Manager. If you’re buying a kid from the Brazilian second league, about 18 years old, people think he should already be playing in the first team. Everyone told us that we paid 4 million euros for a player who hadn’t even made his debut yet. In the end we sold him for 42, it was good scouting.”.
Conclusions
Hoping you enjoyed this curious story, we invite you to write to us to tell me more anecdotes such as: Firmino was discovered thanks to Football Manager.
Until next time
