Get the FREE Mirror Football newsletter by email with the day's key headlines and transfer news Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

So come on then, how many of you have given in?

The twin factors of complete lockdown and a lack of live football has made it incredibly tempting for many fans to return to a former love, and to fire up an old Football Manager game to indulge in a world away from this one.

Whether you're leading Wrexham up the divisions and into the Champions League or turning Accrington Stanley into a continental force, the game has always offered you a real chance to escape from the stresses and strains of the real world and throw yourself into that League One playoff push that has become your everything.

But which version of the game are you going to play?

(Image: PA)

While the modern game is, of course, packed with incredible features, sometimes it can better to return to an old version and try your luck there.

Which brings us to Football Manager 2005.

Here we take a look at that game's best youngsters, and catch up on just what they've been up to in the real world in the past 15 years.

Sign them up!

Philipp Lahm - Bayern Munich

(Image: AFP)

Back from two seasons on loan at Stuttgart and having already picked up his first Germany caps, in 2005 the 21-year-old was starting out a storied career in which he'd win almost everything.

Lahm scored the first goal of the 2006 World Cup and lifted the trophy eight years later.

Vincent Kompany - Anderlecht

(Image: AFP/Getty Images)

Still in his teens in 2005, it would be another year before Kompany moved on from Anderlecht and to the Bundelsiga with Hamburg.

Iconic status at Manchester City would eventually follow.

Fernando Torres - Atletico Madrid

(Image: Reuters)

The great hope of Atletico Madrid, Torres had taken the captain's armband at the club when he was still a teenager, and he'd also begun to establish himself in the Spain team.

Liverpool awaited in 2007, and for a couple of years there he was arguably the best striker in the world.

Carlos Tevez - Boca Juniors

(Image: AFP/Getty Images)

Already on the radar of several top European clubs at the end of 2004, Tevez would eventually head to Brazil with Corinthians for the start of the following season.

Then his English adventure began a year later at West Ham.

Obafemi Martins - Inter

(Image: AFP)

The quicksilver forward was playing for Inter's first-team in his teens, and he was soon to embark on a career that would take him all around the world and back - via Newcastle and Birmingham City.

Now 35, he's set to rejoin former club Shanghai Shenhua once football can resume.

Javier Mascherano - River Plate

(Image: Reuters)

Incredibly, Mascherano's senior international debut for Argentina came before he'd even played a first-team game for River Plate, and he was then whisked off to Corinthians along with Tevez in 2005.

Much more would follow in a rich and storied career, and he's now back in Argentina with an Estudiantes outfit whose chairman is one Juan Sebastian Veron.

Freddy Adu - DC United

(Image: AFP)

One of the stars of these games - and probably one of the reasons you're here, too - the 15-year-old signed with DC United in 2004 and then embarked on the type of career he wasn't exactly supposed to have.

Adu drifted through several clubs in the US, Portugal, France, Greece, Turkey, Brazil, Serbia and Finland, before last being seen at the Las Vegas Lights in the USL Championship in 2018.

He'll be 31 in June.

Fernando Cavenaghi - Spartak Moscow

(Image: AFP/Getty Images)

A young goalscoring star at River Plate, Cavenaghi could never quite cut it at international level and had spells in Europe at Bordeaux, Mallorca and Villarreal in between three stints at his first club.

He enjoyed success at APOEL in Cyprus though, and retired in 2016 having just won the award for the Cypriot Division's top scorer.

Anthony Vanden Borre - Anderlecht

(Image: Getty Images)

Destined for type of career Kompany had as he emerged alongside him at Anderlecht, instead things went in a different direction for another Belgian defender.

He still managed 28 caps for his country, but injury and discipline problems ensured that the former Portsmouth man didn't quite kick on the way many expected, and he ended his career at Congolese club TP Mazembe in 2017.

Cesc Fabregas - Arsenal

(Image: Action Images)

The midfielder had already broken into the Arsenal team when the game came out, and he'd go on to captain the Gunners before leaving to rejoin Barcelona in 2011.

Chelsea later followed for one of the finest midfielders of his generation.

Gael Clichy - Arsenal

(Image: Press Association)

Like Fabregas, Clichy was also in and around the Arsenal team as a youngster.

He'd have to move to Manchester City in order to find sustained trophy success though, and he's now in Turkey with Istanbul Basaksehir at the age of 34.

Fredy Guarin - Envigado

(Image: AFP/Getty Images)

The highly-rated South American midfielder stayed in his native Colombia until he was 21, before later moves to Saint-Etienne, Porto, Inter Milan and then the Chinese Super League.

He's now at Vasco Da Gama in Brazil.

Libis Andres Arenas - Envigado

(Image: VBarCaracol)

Goalkeeper Arenas was tipped for huge things when he came through as Guarin's teammate, and he earned a move to Lazio in 2006 as he picked up three Colombia caps. Then nothing happened.

Arenas faded from view as he joined several South American clubs to little fanfare.

Bastian Schweinsteiger - Bayern Munich

(Image: Daily Mirror)

The midfielder had already established himself in the Bayern team around this time, and he would soon go on to be seen as one of the best around in his position.

The World Cup was picked up in 2014, before his career was seen out at Manchester United and Chicago Fire.

Alesandr Kerzhakov - Zenit St Petersburg

(Image: AFP/Getty Images)

Forward Kerzhakov enjoyed 12 years at Zenit across two spells, in between playing for Sevilla and Dynamo Moscow.

The former Russia mainstay is now in charge of his country's under-18 side.

Igor Akinfeev - CSKA Moscow

(Image: AFP)

A one-club man, Akinfeev is still in the CSKA goal having first made an appearance there in 2002.

He picked up 111 Russia caps before retiring from international football shortly after the 2018 World Cup.

Kostadin Hazurov - CSKA Sofia

(Image: medioclubID)

Forward Hazurov never really hit the heights after earning his move from local club Pirin Blagoevgrad to big Bulgarian players CSKA Sofia in 2004.

He scored a few goals there but then started bouncing around a few clubs, rejoining CSKA in 2015 before even more moves.

Alexsandr Chernov - Arsenal Tula

Yeah we'll be honest, we had no clue. Until reader Owen Coker wrote in.

Thanks to Owen, we know that Chernov spent his whole career in the Tula region, and he was named as the best player there back in 2017.

Johan Vonlanthen - PSV Eindhoven

(Image: Reuters)

Still the youngest goalscorer in European Championships history, Swiss forward Vonlanthen followed up netting against France at Euro 2004 with loan spells at Brescia and NAC Breda.

Several more moves followed throughout a varied career, which ended at second tier side Wil in 2018.

Ciprian Marica - Shakhtar Donetsk

(Image: AFP/Getty Images)

A useful forward for the likes of Stuttgart, Schalke and Getafe over the years, Marica was a staple in the Romanian national team for 11 years and 71 caps.

He ended his career back home at Steaua Bucharest in 2016.

Jonathan Legear - Anderlecht

(Image: Dean Mouhtaropoulos)

Another player emerging from the Anderlecht talent factory of the early to mid 2000s, winger Legear stayed for a lot longer than some of his contemporaries.

He ended up leaving in 2011 and embarked on a nomadic career which included two fateful months at Blackpool, while he was last seen at Adana Demirspor in Turkey last year.

Valeri Bojinov - Lecce

(Image: Getty Images)

Goals at Lecce took the Bulgarian to Fiorentina and then Juventus and then Manchester City, but injury issues had now begun to dog him, and so began a career of several moves across Europe.

Age 34 he's still making them, and in February this year he was sent off for Serie B club Pescara before he'd even made his debut for them, as he was dismissed when an unused substitute at Crotone.

Jeremy Mathieu - Sochaux

(Image: Reuters)

The defender made progress at Sochaux and then Toulouse before a 2009 move to Valencia, and then a 2014 switch to Barcelona.

After three seasons there he's now with Sporting Lisbon, and strangely has only ever won five France caps.

Nelson Haedo Valdez - Werder Bremen

(Image: YURI CORTEZ)

Combustible forward Valdez made the move to Europe with Werder Bremen when he was a teenager, and he ended up in Germany for almost 10 years as he also enjoyed a few years with Borussia Dortmund.

Further spells at the likes of Rubin Kazan, Valencia and Olympiakos followed, and now he's back in Paraguay at Cerro Porteno via a brief stop-off at Seattle Sounders.

Steven Taylor - Newcastle

(Image: Action Images)

A local lad made good, Taylor was a regular presence in the Newcastle defence for over a decade.

After leaving the Magpies in 2016 he's since pitched up at Portland Timbers, Ipswich, Peterborough United and current club Wellington Phoenix.

Kostantyn Yaroshenko - Shakhtar Donetsk

Yep, there's not a lot around about the Ukrainian midfielder, other than the fact that he was loaned out by Shakhtar several times.

Now 33, he's believed to have recently joined Ukrainian second tier tide Alians Lypova Dolyna.

Fred - Cruzeiro

(Image: Getty Images)

Fred got his move to Europe with Lyon in 2005, and he'd eventually stay in France for four years before returning to his native Brazil.

Now remembered for his hapless displays at the 2014 World Cup, he returned to Cruzeiro in 2018.

John Jairo Mosquera - River Plate

(Image: @fcunion_es)

Colombian forward Mosquera seemed set for big things when he joined Werder Bremen from River Plate as an 18-year-old, but things never really panned out as he made several moves throughout Germany's lower leagues.

He was last seen in Bolivia with Royal Pari after previous spells in Chile and India.

Nilmar - Lyon

(Image: AFP/Getty Images)

Seen as the next great Brazilian talent, forward Nilmar ended up flattering to deceive as he swiftly left Lyon before returning to South America, only to return to Europe with Villarreal in 2009.

The La Liga club saw the best of him as his game improved, but when he left in 2012 he ended up drifting around clubs in the Middle East before a short-lived return to Brazil with Santos in 2017.

Hatem Ben Arfa - Lyon

(Image: Getty Images)

At once stage it appeared as though Ben Arfa seemed set to be the next great French star, but after leaving Lyon for Marseille he never quite kicked on, before another move to Newcastle where injuries halted his progress.

He joined Hull at one stage, and after a brief resurrection at PSG and Rennes he's now in Spain with Valladolid.

Vagner Love - CSKA Moscow

(Image: Reuters)

Love had scored seven goals in the UEFA Cup on the way to CSKA lifting it in 2005, and he ended up staying with the club over the years that followed.

Switches to South America, China and back to Europe followed, and he's now back in Brazil with Corinthians.

Nicolae Mitea - Ajax

(Image: Reuters)

Winger Mitea had left Romanian football behind when he moved to Ajax in 2003, but his five years in Amsterdam were littered with injury issues.

He tried his luck back at home for a few years afterwards, but his career ended up petering out.

John Heitinga - Ajax

(Image: PA)

Defender Heitinga made the breakthrough into the Dutch giants' first team as a youngster, before going onto play for Atletico Madrid, Everton, Fulham, Hertha Berlin and then Ajax again.

He also picked up 87 caps for the Netherlands and was sent off in the 2010 World Cup final.

Lukas Podolski - Cologne

(Image: AFP/Getty Images)

The German forward's quality had already been on show in the Bundesliga, but after Cologne's relegation he managed an impressive 29 goals in 32 games in the second tier in 2004/05.

A mainstay of the national team, he picked up 130 caps as he also went on to represent Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Inter Milan and Galatasaray, while he's now at Antalyaspor in Turkey having left Japanese club Vissel Kobe.

Andre Bahia - Flamengo

(Image: REUTERS)

The Brazilian defender got his big move midway through the 2004/05 season when he swapped Flamengo for Feyenoord in the Eredivisie, and he went on to be a mainstay of their defence for the next six-and-a-half years.

After that, he had brief stints in Turkey and Brazil before a four year spell in Japan with Shonan Bellmare which ended last year.

Billy Jones - Crewe

(Image: Action Images)

Tipped for the top as he broke through at Crewe, defender Jones was earmarked as a future England international as he earned caps up to under-20 level.

Ultimately though he's spent a career flitting between the Premier League and the Championship as he joined Preston, West Brom and Sunderland, while he was relegated to League One with Rotherham last season.

Cesar Augusto Fawcett - Atletico Junior

(Image: HablaDeportes - Twitter)

Bar three loan spells, the Colombian left-back has spent his entire career at Barranquilla-based club Atletico Junior bar three loan spells.

Now 36, he's never earned a senior international cap.

Edixon Perea - Atletico Nacional

(Image: Reuters)

Goals in Colombia took Perea to Europe with Bordeaux and later Las Palmas, but he had always been something of a streaky striker and was never able to consistently find the net in those spells or further stints back in South America and in China.

He did win 28 caps for Colombia though, the last of which coming in 2008.

Wesley Sneijder - Ajax

(Image: Reuters)

Already established at Ajax and in the Dutch national team, Sneijder would go on to star at Real Madrid and Inter Milan as he picked up a remarkable 134 international caps.

The attacking midfielder was a remarkable player and one of the very best in the world at around the turn of the last decade, starring in the 2010 World Cup.

Alessio Cerci - Roma

(Image: Getty Images)

Plenty of clubs - and his country 14 times - have been willing to take a chance on Cerci across his career, but he's never quite consistently delivered for most of them.

Atalanta, Fiorentina, Torino, Atletico Madrid, AC Milan and more have all had him on their books, while these days he's at Salernitana in Serie B.

Rafael van der Vaart - Ajax

(Image: Reuters)

Like Sneijder above, Van der Vaart was one of the standard-bearers for a talented Dutch generation who would have been worthy winners of an international tournament.

The 109-times capped attacking midfielder had two years at each of Real Madrid and Tottenham, while he saw out his career in the Danish league with Midtylland and Esbjerg, where he retired two years ago.

Robinho - Santos

(Image: Reuters)

Everything seemed set for Robinho to become the next great Brazilian player when he joined Real Madrid from Santos, but he was to last just three years before a much-vaunted move to Manchester City.

That didn't quite herald great things though, and after five years at AC Milan he's since drifted through China, Brazil and now Turkey, where he's still at Istanbul Basaksehir.

Wayne Rooney - Manchester United

(Image: Reuters)

Already a household name by 2005, Rooney was a year into his Manchester United career and on the way to becoming their all-time top goalscorer, as well as England's.

He's at Derby County these days, via a spell back at Everton and in the MLS.

Diego - Porto

(Image: AFP)

The stylish midfielder joined Porto just after they'd won the Champions League, but he stayed on the move as he later joined Werder Bremen, Juventus, Wolfsburg, Atletico Madrid and Fenerbahce.

Now back in Brazil with Flamengo, he certainly left his mark in Europe.

Cristiano Ronaldo - Manchester United

(Image: Getty Images)

Well on the way to world superstardom in 2005, Ronaldo was gaining an increasing importance at Manchester United and with his country by this time.

His 2009 move to Real Madrid would prove to be a gamechanger, as the Portuguese star took his place in the annals of world football history.

Alan Kardec - Vasco da Gama

(Image: Friedemann Vogel)

The 6ft 2ins forward tried his luck in Europe with Benfica in 2009, but he always seemed more suited to football back in his native Brazil.

He was a useful forward there before a 2016 move Chinese Super League side Chongqing Lifan, where he's been a mainstay for four years.

Anthony Le Tallec - Liverpool

(Image: Mark Thompson/Getty)

Tipped for big things when he arrived at Anfield, Le Tallec played in fits and starts under Gerard Houllier and was then remarkably recalled from a loan spell at Saint-Etienne to start a Champions League quarter-final against Juventus under Rafael Benitez.

After spells back in France he's also been seen at Atromitos in Greece and Romania's Astra Giurgiu, before returning to his homeland with Orleans for a year.

He's spent this season with amateur side Annecy in eastern France.

Lebohang Mokoena - Orlando Pirates

(Image: REUTERS)

A lively winger on the game, Mokoena's real-life skills were never really seen outside of South African domestic football.

He did win eight caps for his country, but missed out on the hosts' squad for the 2010 World Cup.

Daniel Fredheim Holm - Valerenga

(Image: Angel Martinez)

The attacking midfielder would win just three caps for Norway despite being tipped for the cap, and he ended up rejoining Valerenga for a second spell in 2013 after playing for Aalborg and Rosenborg.

Can these days be found at KFUM in the Norwegian second tier.

Tom Huddlestone - Derby County

(Image: PA)

Huddlestone's displays at Derby would attract the attention of Tottenham, and he managed over 200 games for Spurs over eight seasons despite some injury issues.

After a few years at Hull, the four-times capped midfielder has been back at Derby for the past three seasons.

Evandro Roncatto - Guarani

(Image: Twitter - @RafaelReis14)

The Brazilian forward was a key signing for many a Football Manager player, but his real-life career never quite lived up to his digital heroics.

No doubt he enjoyed his spells in Portugal, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Greece, Kazakhstan, back in Brazil and also Norway, but he was never able to add to his Brazil under-17 caps by playing at higher age groups.

Ederson Honorato Campos - Juventude

(Image: Getty Images)

Only capped once for Brazil, the defensive midfielder proved a hit in spells with Nice and Lyon in France and then Lazio in Italy.

He was last seen back in South America at Flamengo.

Benedict Vilakazi - Orlando Pirates

(Image: Twitter - @KickOffMagazine)

Midfielder Vilakazi's only spell outside of Africa came at Danish club Aalborg, while he picked up 31 South Africa caps during five years with the national team.

His last club is said to have been the excellently-named Botswana Meat Commission in... Botswana.

Jan Kristiansen - Esbjerg

(Image: Twitter - @exclubberer)

The utility man played 11 times for Denmark and enjoyed a spell at FC Nurnberg in his only spell outside of his home country.

His big moment there came in the 2007 German Cup final, when he scored the winner in extra-time against Stuttgart.

Eddie Gaven - MetroStars

(Image: Sunday Mail)

The midfielder played eight games for the US senior team, as well as spending his entire career in the MLS.

His big moment there came in 2008 when he picked up the MLS Cup with Columbus Crew.

Junior Khanye - Kaizer Chiefs

He don't know much about Khanye, but he did seemingly play once for the South African national side and he was last seen in the Swaziland league with Malanti Chiefs.

Hossein Kaebi - Al-Sadd

(Image: Leicester City FC)

Capped 84 times for his country, Kaebi's club career came solely in his native Iran bar a fleeting, and pretty strange spell at Leicester in 2007.

Unable to gain the trust of managers Martin Allen and Ian Holloway, Kaebi would make only three appearances before an immediate return to his former club Persepolis.

Alejandro Sanchez Fernandez - Atletico Madrid

Thanks to Owen again, we've discovered that 'Alex Fernandez' moved onto Perugia after amassing a fine scoring record for Atletico's youth sides, but it didn't quite work out for him in Italy.

He ended up returning to Spain and playing for several sides in the lower reaches of Spanish football, eventually taking up a coaching role at Madrid-based amateur side Aluche.

Carlos Vela - Guadalajara

(Image: Getty Images)

Arsenal won the race for Vela's signature in 2005 after he impressed for Mexico's youth sides, but he seemed to spend his whole Emirates Stadium career trying to prove himself.

He had better luck at Real Sociedad, and after five years there he's one of the leading MLS lights at the recently formed Los Angeles FC.