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Interview to tHeMAdSCienTiSt Fm

Today we have the pleasure of interviewing TheMadScientistFM, known to Football Manager audiences for creating retro databases. Before we delve into the subject of Football Manager can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

My name is Delucas, I'm 43 years old and from Denmark. Since i went to a summer training camp in Parma in 1994, I've been a Parma supporter. I played one season myself in the Serie D for Riccione back in 1999. I later got a knee injury which cut my football career short.

How did you get to know Football Manager? Your first chapter?

I have always played football management games, even before there where any Championship Manager around. On my Amiga 500 i played games like 'Player/Manager', 'The Manager' and 'On The Ball'. But when i played the first version of Championship Manager back in 1992, i got seriously hooked and have played every version of the game since.

Going back to your FM content, what prompted you to create the retro database?

I'm a nostalgic by heart, a football romantic who glorifies football in the 80s and 90s. So I've always made retro databases for me and my friends. Even when i was a teenager i wanted to go further back in history to experience football heroes of the past, and bring them to Championship Manager. Since 2015 I've released my retro databases for Football Manager online. Making databases has become an obsession and addiction to me. It usually takes me around 6 months of working full time on the project, to get a fully playable database ready for release.

What is the biggest difficulty you encountered in creating nostalgic databases?

Its really difficult to manipulate the modern Football Manager game to think that its acutally in the early 2000s, 90s or earlier. If its player wages or values, missing player positions like the sweeper position. The official pre-game editor, which I'm using to make databases, have had its problems over the years, there's always something that you will have to workaround.

Do you have any advice for people using your databases? Especially thinking about young people today who probably don't know many players from those glorious years.

I've always been curious about the past myself, and i love to learn something new about football history. I always tell younger people to try a retro database and manage their favorite team. That way they will get a possibility to learn more about their own clubs history, and to get an idea of what type of players where representing the club. My databases can both be used to start a save and have fun on FM. But they can also be used as a reference work, where you can browse through the different players, teams, leagues from a specific season.

You have a Twitch channel. Can you describe the content of your channel?

I love to share the passion for football history and FM with other people, and that is mainly what we're doing on my Twitch channel. I usually do retro database saves on my channel, where people in the chat can get involved by using channel points. I've had a Palermo save on the 2007/08 database for FM24 this year, where i won the Scudetto on penalties after both Lazio and us finished on 94 points in the league. I've also had a 98/99 db save this year with the best Parma team in history. Besides my Football Manager saves, i also do editing live streams where i work on my retro databases using  the pre-game editor.

In March, FM25 should come out. What do you expect from this chapter? Have you already thought of any projects to bring?

I have played this game franchise since it was text based, and we got flashing text when goals where scored in a match. I've always been good at using my imagination alongside the animations that the game brings. So i don't need much more of an upgrade of the game if that makes any sense. Personnaly i don't need Fifa levels of graphics to being able to enjoy FM. Obviously i do understand that Sports Interactive would like the fanbase of the game to grow, and reach out to a new and bigger audience. I am working on a save idea for FM25 where I'll try to redo my own football career, which didn't last very long. By adding myself as a player to Riccione in the Italian Serie D, where i played in 1999. And try to build both the club and hopefully my football career, like I dreamt of it to become.

Contrasting your nostalgic work and modern football, what do you miss most about football from the past?

I am struggling to enjoy modern day football, because of several reasons. In my opinion the level of wages and transfers has gotten way out of hand, money and finances now solely dictates which teams will get the best chance for success. As i said earlier in the interview i am a football romantic which i am complete aware of is very naiv in a modern world. I also struggle to watch actual games mainly because of VAR. When players, fans and managers can't celebrate a goal anymore, i would actually prefer having referees making a wrong decision now and again. Football and sport to me is about emotions and feelings. Excuse my rant lol
My golden era is the 90s, and i miss some of the characters we had in world football back then. Like Faustino Asprilla, Rene Higuita, Eric Cantona and Diego Maradona etc. That all stood out for being themselves both on and of the pitch. I also really miss classic strikers who's main target was to score goals for there teams, strikers like Batistuta, Signori, Van Basten, Romario etc.

Besides Football Manager, do you have any other passions?

I am so lucky that making content for Football Manager has become my job. I spend as much time as possible every single day to make retro databases. As its both my passion and my job, i don't allow myself to much spare time doing other things. But i do watch other sports like basketball and mma.

Which team do you support? Your football idol?

I have watched the Italian Serie A on television since the early 90s, as football in my own country wasn't being showed on tv. I was a fan of many of the players in the league back then, but one stood out to me and became my absolute idol, and that is Faustino Asprilla. I bought my first Parma shirt in 1994 and my love for the club has been the same both in good and bad times. Although as i was a goalkeeper myself one of my all time favorite moments as a Parma supporter, was in 1995 when i was about to watch a game between Parma and Milan. Before the game kicked off the commentator said that Parma's normal number 1 Luca Bucci was out injured, and so was the backup goalkeeper. So up steps a 17 year old goalkeeper by the name of Gianluigi Buffon. He made some fantastic saves against legends like Roberto Baggio and George Weah in that game, and the rest is history. Buffon's performance in that game inspired me to dream big as a footballer.

Interview conducted by @SELLECK87.
Thanks to tHeMAdSCienTiSt Fm for the interview granted. It is possible to ask more questions to the interviewee in this topic