Ibrahima Bakayoko a Football Manager Legend
Friends of Football Manager Guru welcome back with news about our favorite manager game. Today we talk to you about Ibrahima Bakayoko one of the many Football Manager legend players. In fact, the African-born player became a true star of past editions of Football Manager and Championship Manager thanks to his fantastic performances earned a place in the hearts of many fans.
Let’s find out more details about Ibrahima Bakayoko and what he is currently doing after hanging up his boots.
Ibrahima Bakayoko a Football Manager Legend
Ibrahima Bakayoko for those of you who do not remember him, was a prolific striker with excellent technical and tactical attributes in past editions of Championship Manager.
A national of the Ivory Coast, the striker had some outstanding years in our beloved football manager game, so much so that he became a true idol.
The outstanding year for Bakayoko was back in 1997/98 when Bakayok0 was making the joys of “Football Managers” all over the world 🙂
To think that his nickname during his terrible experience at Everton was: Ibrahima “Baka-joke-o”
This ironic/despictive nickname was a consequence of his black period at Liverpool’s second club when he scored only 4 goals in 23 appearances. Very strange thinking that the Ivory Coast striker was able to score 30 goals out of 45 appearances with his national team and hundreds within Championship Manager careers!
let’s go find out more details about this FM legend player
Ibrahima Bakayoko in Championship Manager
Absolute jewel of Championship Manager 97/98. Skilled, prolific, great talent and over-the-top play; all characteristics he was able to demonstrate few times in reality.
At the age of 20, Bakayoko was the classic young Championship Manager talent, with excellent values in the:
- shooting
- pace
- dribbling
- speed
- charisma
With these high values, Ibrahima Bakayoko immediately became one of the players to be picked up and brought into one’s own team to conquer ambitious goals. His only flaw was his other susceptibility to injuries, sometimes very long ones when not carefully managed…
His market value was also quite high for a young talent. In fact, the average value was about 5 million pounds, but the financial outlay always paid off as he became a true marvel over time and his economic value grew year after year.
Bakayoko’s Real Career
We look back at the career of Championship Manager legend Ibrahima Bakayoko. After leaving Ivory Coast club Stade de Abidjan, Bakayoko joined Montpellier.
His roster as a goal scorer read:
- 12 goals in 64 games for Stade
- 25 in 75 for the French team
nothing so outstanding apparently…
But the turning point in his career came when he signed with Everton. At the time there were rumors that Carlo Ancelotti’s current club, was using the Championship Manager database as part of their scouting plan in order to identify promising players.
And of course Bakayoko was at the top of that list since in CM he was a true marvel starting with his physical and athletic gifts. But in reality that was not really the case, quite the contrary….
Most likely any rudimentary scouting trip would have highlighted the difference between what the database values said and the reality. Unless Everton’s scouts picked the African striker one day when he scored a couple of goals.
Whatever happened at Goodison Park, the club bought him in a £4.5 million deal. Twelve months later he was back in France with Marseille with a queue of Blues fans waiting to accompany him to the airport.
He wandered a lot playing in many leagues especially in Europe. From his debuts in Ligue 1, to the Premier League, to Italy via Greece before ending up with Stade Bordelais, a French fifth-tier team.
You can see all his career by the Transfermarket
His star shone and faded too quickly in soccer, but he will always be a legend of Championship Manager.
Conclusions
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