Student Gets a Football Manager Job Based on Football Manager Prowess

If I was in a pitch meeting with this story as a screenplay, I’d say it was The Last Starfighter meets Moneyball with a little bit of Cool Runnings. Vugar Huseynzade, 21, of Sweden, got a job as a supporting manager despite having no experience managing a football team, other than in Sega and Sports Interactive’s Football Manager series.

Never mind that Azerbaijan’s professional leagues are not among the 52 nations represented in Football Manager, this guy’s evidently got an eye for acquiring, moving and manipulating talent. Though as the equivalent of a reserve manager, I’m not sure how much he’ll be involved in that, nor what kind of a transfer budget he’ll be given, nor what he’ll be able to bring to Azerbaijan.

It’s possible Huseynzade, an Azerbaijan-born Swede, is simply being groomed for another position or got the job for good PR. But Eurosport reported that he got the job by “beating off big names including France legend Jean-Pierre Papin.” (snicker)

This isn’t the first time someone’s video game resume has been parlayed into real world opportunities in football. Eurosport notes that in years past, people have applied for jobs at UK clubs based on their FM resumés, and this year, one of the Scottish Premier League’s bottom-feeders was swamped with applications from Football Manager and FIFA whizzes.

Student lands job running football team thanks to Football Manager on the computer [Eurosport via Yahoo! Sports]