I became a Parma fan, and, later, a Blackburn Rovers fan, through the incredibly popular and addicting computer game, Championship Manager. I bought the 99-00 version, which is ancient by now, and Parma just seemed like a good team to be. They had Buffon, Thuram, Cannavaro, Dino Baggio, Diego Fuser, Crespo, Ariel Ortega and even Bennarivo was still around. I remembered Bennarivo and Baggio from the 94 World Cup, and Thuram and Cannavaro from the more recent World Cup and Euro championships (I bought the game in 2000).

I had barely got into club football at the time, besides a juvenile support of Manchester United, but through the game I got an intimate knowledge of players and clubs throughout Europe, as my brain has a tendency to store useless facts like player careers and stats. Of course, my brain now has a confused jumble of reality and fantasy, as playing so much Championship Manager leaves you under the impression that people like Johnnier Montano or Saliou Lassissi are world-class, while at the same time real-life stars like Luca Toni or Fabio Liverani never get out of the lower divisions. Sometimes, however, things happen in eerily similar fashions...

Anyway, the point is that I managed Parma to great success, under the name Wolfman Jack, and ruled Europe for almost a decade before winning the World Cup with Italy. It is hard work to sustain dominence with new players, and hard to let some of the old favourites go, and with a little imagination you become quite attached to your teams. Of course, it was the 3-5-2 that brought me great success. Here are lineups from the early years and the heydey of my team:

While others like Kallon, Luccin, Cambiasso and Cassano have also made their mark for my Parma. As you can see by the quality here, it was no surprising success, and I always had plenty of money for it, so it was always more for fun than the challenge of it. I would even re-play games when I lost in upsetting fashion--cheating, yes. I wish now that I'd tried to do it without replaying games, but I've learned that sometimes the game just tries to get you, and every time I eventually break down after the losing streak gets to bad and the red cards and injuries pile up too high. After all, it's just for entertainment!

I played a few other games as Parma after editing the database to better represent reality (not cheating!), but never sustained these follow-ups as long. I even started one that was complete fantasy, resetting the major transfers of 1999 so that my team still had Chiesa, Fiore and Veron instead of Amoroso and Ortega. That was fun, but all too easy!