This 1986's game was a stroke of genius in exploiting the narcisistic fantasies of little kids dreaming to become a professional footballer - that is, almost all of them.
Contrarily to the common football game, it is in fact structured to follow the career of a single player, an attacker of which you can choose the name, in his attempt to become the best player of the league, beginning from the lower divisions. The only few moments of football you actually play are a couple of chances to score a goal, that you can obtain buying the mysterious "goal cards".
I didn't know that footbal worked like this.
Anyway, the game can be dangerously addictive, and makes you waste hours with a gameplay that is rather silly:
buying "goal cards" to have a chance to shoot, as Marco Van Basten undoubtedly used to do, facing smart goalkeepers that always jump aside while you're shooting centrally, checking the position of your team - which often INSISTS to be first in spite of a dozen lost matches -, trying spasmodically to understand what's happening while an "incident" is occurring, and giggling stupidly when, most coherently, the alarming beep resolves in a "sorry, no incident this time" message.
Ultimately, the only real fun of the game are its clumsy features I listed above - aside that, it remains a mesmerizing, numbing trap.
Review by sirclive1 on 06 Jul 2009 (Rating: 5)
As many young lads do, I dream't of becoming a footballer, playing for a professional team, winning the FA Cup, playing for England and enjoying the fabulous lifestyle that comes with the territory, but alas it didn’t happen, except when I was playing Footballer of the year, a little gem that was produced by Gremlin Graphics, a sort of amalgamation of management and arcade game designed around the life of a football player.
The main objective of the game was to score goals for the team and lead them to victory in all the major competitions, the league, European, league and FA cups were all there for the taking if you and your team were good enough.
You could start of with any team you fancied , It could be as big a gulf in class as Barcelona and Wrexham , but the higher the status of the club , the higher priced the goal cards became , these were essentially the crux of playing or not playing , so If you started at a 4th Division club goal cards were £50 a card , at Juventus they would be £300 , you had to use these every week to play and then score , earn more , win leagues and generally improve your footballing status.
Random elements were also thrown in for good measure, they didn’t affect the gameplay, they did however affect your bank balance , for instance you might suffer a broken leg , cost to fix £9000 , or you might open a supermarket , fee paid to you could be £1000 , it was a touch frustrating sometimes though , as random transfers could occur whisking you from your beloved team to a completely new team dangling precariously above the relegation zone , I suppose that was before the Bosman ruling !
The actual arcade section was fun if a bit basic , you played the ball , in a slight 3d angle being chased down by 2 defenders , hit space to shoot and angle the ball into the net , penalties came about frequently and were a bit of a let down as you could only really score down the middle , this was even worse when you final got an international call up , the only way to score was via a penalty !
After a few seasons of doing well you finally got a nomination for the footballer of the year trophy along side such greats as Chris Waddle , Bryan Robson , Gary Lineker etc , the next step would be to win the trophy itself , a major achievement.
The game looks quite simple now and played recently it can throw up some weird results , imagination plays a big part when playing it , you really need to let yourself get immersed in the game , it also seems a touch to random and the arcade section is average at best , but back in the 80’s it was enthralling , entertaining and I still have great affection for it.
Review by YOR on 25 Jan 2019 (Rating: 4)
Another one I can't believe I haven't reviewed yet. This is a really fun game that's simple to get into and pretty addicting to keep going back to. The incident cards add to the gameplay but I couldn't help but feel a bit upset when I was forced into a transfer when we were sitting pretty at the top of Division 4 and in the 4th round of the FA Cup. I also found myself short on money too easily, which I guess is realistic.
Review by ste72 on 12 Feb 2019 (Rating: 4)
Greetings!
When my parents got me a Spectrum 128K in 1987 they also bought three games with it, this, Metro Cross and Dead or Alive.
This was the game I loaded onto my Spectrum first because it was football and I remember I was not too keen on this game at first because it wasn't the standard football game I hoped for and you control the ball rather than a player, but the idea of being the goal-hungry star player enthralled me the more I played it. The incident cards were a right laugh sometimes too.
It still holds up as a playable game today in fact as long as you put up with its limitations.
