-Season 16-
THE CANDIDATES
Mâ Âlâmëómë
Nickname: lôs Vhêrdês (the Green ones)
Derogatory nickname(s): Too many to count
Manager:Âlárî Wí Tírâ
Ground: Rülândéá Çölíséá (35000), located in Lìbêrêtê, Rülândéá
Major rivals: Dí Maozöxê (local), La Nueva Avenida (sporting)
Major honors: 4 S-FPL titles, 14 Farf Freitball Ligá titles, 4 Atlantian Oceania Champions' League titles, 1 Challenger's Cup, 3 Rulandese state league titles
Infrastructure: Ground ★★★ / Training facilities ★★★★ / Youth system ★★★★ / Youth recruitment ★★★★★
Fans' expectations: Destroy all competition
Starting Lineup: aGKaRogerio Defigueroa aLBa
Nacuémiró Buené aCBa
Climo Coss aRBa
Sigurd Nikolaisen aCMa
Fulzhohu We Xi aLWa
Asztrik Biró aSTa
Jônn Wérséô
Bench: aGKaSylvestre Hodin aGKa
Friderik Rojko aLBa
Iraúj Loskalojí aCBa
Background: The one Farf club that any football fan worth their salt should be able to recognize. Mâ Âlâmëómë have had some of the best squads in the history of club football. Among the players that have worn green and black are: Mêndêlöíndçêl, Einarsson, Kâí, Etezadi, Aurora, Wínrôuge, Amokachi, Coss, Rainsford, Gosforth, Campbell, Zubiri, Shrike, Tzâín, Röènôùjýâ, Na'Kale, Söh, Townsend, Tijgers Landhuis, Wçêíl, Killanen, Soria Luna, Fejzuli, Çídh, Basilisk, Axelrod-Conway, Çí Xôrí, dí Völará... you get the idea. As a Rulandese club, they are utterly despised outside of Ruland. As the best Rulandese club, they are utterly despised inside of Ruland as well. Their fans, numerous and very violent, wouldn't give this up for the world. They were originally founded as a loosely cultish collection of followers of one of the many Farf pagan faiths, one which venerated “Mother Earth”, better known as "Mâ Âlâmëómë" in the local language. True to their roots, they don't like the prevalence of uranium mining in Ruland. Unsurprisingly, they have many ties with past and present Rulandese revolutionary movements. However, to you and me, dear international reader, they're just that Farf behemoth nobody can spell or pronounce correctly, which most everybody, except their fans, is tired of seeing win the league.
Overview: They have the best team in the league. There's really no beating around the bush here. They are the bookies' favorites for a reason. Even with a manager they literally picked up off the street because he sounded like he knew what he was talking about, this Mâ Âlâmëómë squad oozes talent in a way that makes anything but a league title a fireable offense. They've also got fantastic young talent coming through the ranks, to boot, so things are starting to look really bleak for the league as a whole, especially with Banijan clubs lagging behind, and Herzegovina City being the only club that seemingly can take them on lately.
Key players:
#10 —Êsêkïl dí Völará — aCMa — Age 33 —
Farves will probably never stop wondering what could've been of the national team the last few years if they'd had dí Völará at their disposal. Rulandese by birth, a world-class player, exactly the type of player the national team has been missing for years... alas, it was not meant to be. A ball-hogger, in the good way: good fucking luck dispossessing him. He will dribble his way out of danger every single time and pick out the perfect pass to start a good flow for attacking build-up, or indeed a lethal counterattack. He's at the root of this extremely successful Mâ Âlâmëómë team, and is by now a club legend on his own right. He has never been reliant on his athleticism, so even at thirty-three he's every bit as menacing as he was when he first signed for the team, only more mature.
#7 —Asztrik Biró — aLWa — Age 30 —
Another club legend, though perhaps not of the caliber of dí Völará. Having come through the team's youth ranks, the Pasargan winger has been a mainstay for the starting eleven since his teenage years, and he has very rarely failed to deliver. Consistently outputting 7/10 and 8/10 performances is invaluable, and he does just that. Fast, technical and with a great eye for late runs into the box, Asztrik is arguably the trickiest winger in the league to deal with. If he's not, he's at least in the conversation.
#6 —Climo Coss — aCBa — Age ?? —
A legend of the game, with more experience than... literally anyone else in the league. World Cup winner for two nations. Rock-solid at the back. Tactically wise, even beyond his years (if that even makes sense). A born winner with nothing to prove, but who still wants to prove things while chilling out at a place like, uh, Lìbêrêtê, Rülândéá. Climo Coss is a Mâ Âlâmëómë legend, but he is also a legend of the game at large.
Ones to watch:
#11 —Fulzhohu We Xi — aOMa — Age 20 —
Fulzhohu We Xi is a real baller. Fearless going forward, but multifacetious in that his playmaking is arguably better than his goalscoring ability. He never shies away from dribbling past two or three players to break the opposing defense, even if it means getting hacked down again and again. It seems to even fire him up. He's very nimble, seemingly gliding through the pitch. A strong frame, lots of football IQ... there's little doubt he's getting called up for the World Cup squad at this point. For now, though, he'll have to content himself with being a key piece for this Mâ Âlâmëómë team while, yes, also being one to watch, cause he's technically still twenty.
#21 —Edmün Léloj — aSTa — Age 19 —
Exquisitely technical finisher. Not quite fast, but his agility and burst of acceleration can be extremely deceiving. Very often, he'll just need one or two touches of the ball before the ball's inside the net and your team needs to back to the drawing board. Excellent at squeezing space from opposing defenses, even low-blocks, given he can operate with little space so naturally. Outside the penalty box, he's not quite as lethal, but it's been a long while since Mâ Âlâmëómë produced a striker as promising, and curiously Léloj has been named after him. In short: let him receive the ball inside the box at your own peril. He rarely, if ever, forgives mistakes, and the ice in his veins is extraoridinary for someone his age.
#8 —Sigurd Nikolaisen — aRBa — Age 20 —
Signed after representing the Vanorian U-21 NT, Sigurd fits in nicely at right-back, a position the team really needed to fill at the time of signing him. He's more of a center-back by trade, but this is not bad: between him and Buené, Mâ Âlâmëómë's back five (which is often a back three, obviously) is the most secure defense in the league. Sigurd is imposing, fast and gracious with the ball on his feet. A bit too gracious when it comes to less football-related matters: he can sometimes be a bit too naïve in a league which punishes that, but he's young and can improve on that. There are very few better places to learn how to be a dick than Farfadillis.
Prediction: Champions. There are two teams that are ahead of the pack in this league, and they are ahead of the second team.
Herzegovina City FC
Nickname: Trumpeteers
Derogatory nickname(s): Choir Boys
Manager:
Ground: Star Field (62600), located in Herzegovina City, Moravica,
Major rivals: Herzegovina Phoenix (local), Istria City FC (competitive)
Major honors: 3 S-FPL titles, 5 Banijan Soccer League titles, 1 Atlantian Oceania Champions League title, 1 S-FPL Cup, 1 RBSA Cup, 3 Kabaka's Cups
Infrastructure: Ground ★★★★ / Training facilities ★★★★★ / Youth system ★★★★ / Youth recruitment ★★★★
Fans' expectations: Be crowned champions, once and for all
Starting Lineup: aGKaGiovanni Berrhalter aCBa
Kaia Larriet-Cortes aCMa
Bench: aGKaAneirin Woodbridge aGKa
Mohammed Bota aCBa
Alexon Sirujano aRBa
Alberto Godwine aOMa
Background: Banija's biggest club bar none, having been the most dominant Banijan club in both the BSL era and the S-FPL era. Located in one of Banija's biggest cities (yes, it's Herzegovina City) and at the heart of Banija's dominant religion, Puritan Mormonism, the club is commercially extremely successful at a grassroots level already. A classic recipe for success. Due to their location, they are a club and a fanbase that is generally considered both right-wing and fairly religious, as shown by their crest. Their fans are known for their general arrogance, which has truly blossomed with their recent success. Of course, people from the Moravica region are generally known for their superiority complex, so this is a general feature of the Moravican sides in this league. Fans usually resort to accusations of heresy in order to thrash other teams' stadiums. This tends to leave Farves perplexed as far as the reasoning goes, but they can respect it. Obviously, they dish it out far more than they can take it, but respect where respect is due.
Overview: The second best team in the league, but they know they can't just settle for that. The best team in the country doesn't quite cut it, either, not for them. Maybe other, less ambitious Banijan clubs would be content to sit behind this monstrosity of a Mâ Âlâmëómë squad, especially after last season. But no, not them. Once again, this should be a two-horse race, and if a third team enters the fray, that means the Trumpeteers have fucked up, unless they win the league outright.
Key players:
#3 —Opio Ssambwa — aLBa — Age 29 —
Fullbacks are vital in today's game, and Opio epitomizes this. One of the best players Banija has to offer, he's as complete as they come. He could've been a winger in a fancier life, but has instead taken up the mantle of the less glamorous but arguably more important role of wingback, fully exploiting his potential as a defensive stalwart with astonishing endurance. Perhaps the biggest physical menace in the league, especially in terms of speed and sheer endurance.
#28 —Kaia Larriet-Cortes — aCMa — Age 31 —
Kaia was La Nueva Avenida's best player for the longest time. A serene midfielder that knows when and where to place every pass, doesn't let big occasions get to her and knows when and how to put a foot in, too. Her game is all-around very complete, like that of most Chromatiks, but her ability to clamly and wisely dictate play despite superficially playing the role of a box-to-box midfielder makes her stand out among, arguably, all midfielders.
#8 —
Perhaps the league's most important player ever. Not the best to have graced the league, but also not far off it, nobody has has Vasiliy's success or longevity at club level in this league. He's a bit old now, which has seen him retreat into more of a playmaker role, allowing his teammates to do more of the running and letting him start and finish plays more at his leisure, but anyone who lets down their guard as a result is in for a world of tremendous pain.
Ones to watch:
#2 —
It's probably not a coincidence that both the most stacked teams in the league have a stand-out left-back and a youthful stand-out right-back. Kristina is diamond, not in the rough. Very similar to her fellow countryman Opio in overall profile, though more elegant on the ball and a bit more prone to lapses of concentration off the ball. Also not quite the physical machine her teammate is, but one can hardly fault her for that. Without much luck, she could become one of the Multiverse's best right-backs within a few seasons.
#24 —Alexon Sirujano — aCBa — Age 17 —
Bought straight from Ausharmuj Marusi after five league appearances for what is rumored to have been an exorbitant fee for an unheralded seventeen-year-old center-back, Alexon is... well, unheralded. We've seen very little of him. What little we have seen of him has looked quite unremarkable, albeit... it does seem as if that may not be a coincidence. Some say the mark of a truly great defender is not having to look flashy making last-ditch tackles and generally putting out fires. If he surgically, organically stops attacks before they even materialize... well, it's a reach, but it could justify the rumored exorbitant price tag. Could Farfadillis suddenly be producing good center-backs regularly for the first time in its history? Only time will tell.
#35 —
Not fast, Tè has to rely on his rather static dribbling skills, seemingly omniscient vision and awe-inducing ability to go for and pull off passes nobody expects. He will slow down the team when he's on the pitch, but he can make things happen in a pinch, and very few players can claim that. So long as he's not forced off the game physically, Herzegovina City can rely on him to feed the frontline. One for the future and the present, as he's pretty much guaranteed to get minutes off the bench, much like Alexon.
Prediction: Runners-up. There's some distance between them and first place, but also between them and third place. But distances can be overcome... both ways.
Lu Lanying 
Fatime Desiree 
Anton Sapere
Gienesviano Calì 
Alvin Apor — 
Trinidad Munet — 
Gienesviano Calì — 
Nemanja Joksimović
Darshana Bachchan 
Juraj Bosković — 
Miomir Spasić — 
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