Welcome to the ‘Built in their image’ draft, or the ‘We all dream of a team of ….s’ as I’m sure it’ll informally grow to be known as.
Pick a player, any player who you'd like to be the inspiration for your team in this draft. Once you've all picked your moulds, I will reveal the categories for the rest of the draft, but they will not be in your XIs.
The draft will then follow standard rules, whereby you can pick any player in the world who has not been picked previously in the draft, including those in the first round (i.e. you can't pick somebody else's inspiration, which also means any inspirations picked are ruled out of contention for being picked to play in the draft). By the end of the draft you must have picked your XI with players who fill the categories, with only one category crossed off per player (please say which category they fulfill and post evidence where necessary).
Draft Order:
Samie (Team Johan Cruyff): Johan Neeskens (Teammate) , Arie Haan (Cup Final) , Kylian Mbappe (Height) , Emlyn Hughes (Birth Year) , Raphael Varane (Birthday) , Wim Suurbier (Academy) , Rinus Israel (First INT) , Jean-Marie Pfaff (Last INT) , Willem van Hanegem (Opponents) , Sjaak Swart (Debut Season) , Faas Wilkes (Hero)
VivaBobbyGraham (Team Xabi Alonso): Cristiano Ronaldo (Teammate), Johnny Rep (Birthday) , Antonine Greizmann (Academy) , Thiago Silva (Height) , Michael Essien (Opponents) , Fernando Hierro (Hero) , Luka Modric (Cup Final) , Jordi Alba (Final INT) , Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Birth Year) , Alberto Lopez (Debut Season) , Gabri (First INT)
Draex (Team Ronaldo): Zico (Hero), Cafu (Teammate) , Gianluigi Buffon (Opponents) , Neymar (Final INT) , Falcao (Height) , Francesco Totti (Birth Year) , Sol Campbell (Birthday) , Hristo Stoichkov (Cup Final) , Didi (Academy) , Branco (First INT) , Luizinho (Debut Season)
Betty (Team Paolo Maldini): Pavel Nedved (Opposition) , Frank Rijkaard (Teammate) , Marcel Desailly (Birth Year) , Christian Vieri (Final INT) , Dejan Savićević (First INT) , Mauro Tassotti (Debut Season) , Jurgen Kohler (Height) , Demetrio Albertini (Academy) , Luis Arconada (Birthday) , Ruud Gullit (Cup Final) , Giacinto Facchetti (Hero)
Drinks Sangria (Team Diego Maradona): Toninho Cerezo (Opponents) , Gabriel Batistuta (Final INT) , Marco Verratti (Height) , Ciro Ferrera (Teammate) , Fernando Redondo (Academy) , Bernd Schuster (Cup Final) , Silvio Marzolini (Hero) , Ossie Ardiles (First INT) , Glenn Hysen (Birthday) , Walter Zenga (Birth Year), Humberto Minutti (Debut Season)
Mikey (Team Roberto Baggio): Franco Baresi (Teammate) , Marco van Basten (First INT) , Claude Makelele (Birthday) , Marcelo (Height) , Alessandro Costacurta (Opponents) , Raúl (Final INT) , Gianni Rivera (Hero) , Didier Deschamps (Cup Final) , Andreas Möller (Birth Year) , Christian Maggio (Academy) , Raffaele Di Fusco (Debut Season)
Red1977 (Team Nicolas Anelka): Andreas Pirlo (Birth Year) , Lillian Thuram (First INT) , Samuel Eto’o (Cup Final) , Denis Bergkamp (Teammate) , Laurent Blanc (Hero) , Rafael Marquez (Final INT) , Casemiro (Height) , Paul Scholes (Opponent) , Kingsley Coman (Academy) , Bernard Lama (Debut Season) , Cliff Bastin (Birthday)
Robbie (Team Clarence Seedorf): Roberto Carlos (cup final) , Ronald Koeman (Hero) , Alessandro Nesta (Birth Year) , Javier Zanetti (Opponent) , Edgar Davids (academy) , Kaka (Teammate) , Joshua Kimmich (Height) , Frank de Boer (First INT) , Ferenc Puskas (Birthday) , Robin van Persie (Final INT) , Edwin can der Sar (Debut Season)
Tubby (Team Robbie Keane): Thierry Henry (Opponent) , Dunga (Height) , Liam Brady (Hero) , Steven Gerrard (Birth Year) , Billy Wright (Academy) , Son Hueng-Min (Birthday) , Ivan Cordoba (Cup Final) , Ledley King (Teammate) , Damien Duff (First INT) , Hans Segers (Debut Season) , Mohsin Al-Khaldi (Final INT)
Nick (Team John Barnes): Ian Rush (Teammate) , Phil Neal (First INT) , Kevin De Bruyne (Height) , Gusieppe Bergomi (Birth Year) , Rio Ferdinand (Birthday) , Stuart Pearce (Cup Final) , Steve McManaman (Final INT) , Kevin Keegan (Hero) , Paul Ince (Opponents) , Ashley Young (Academy) , Steve Sherwood (Debut Season)
Max_Powers (Team Frank Beckenbauer): Gerd Müller (Debut Season) , Michel Platini (Final INT) , Mathias Sammer (Height) , Paul Breitner (Teammate) , Pele (Cup Final) , Dejan Stankovic (Birthday) , Tommy Smith (Birth Year) , Berti Vogts (Opponents) , Karl-Heinz Schnellinger (First INT) , Toni Turek (Hero) , Mats Hummels (Academy)
Wullie (Team Zinedine Zidane): Patrick Vieira (Birthday) , Rivaldo (Birth Year) , Fabio Cannavaro (Opponents) , Sebastian Frey (Academy) , Alessandro Del Piero (Final INT) , Bixente Lizarazu (First INT) , Emmanuel Petit (Height) , Ivan Helguera (Teammate) , Michel Salgado (Cup Final) , Alain Giresse (Hero) , Zlatko Vujovic (Debut Season)
Nicholls (Team Ronaldinho): Lionel Messi (Teammate) , Lothar Mattheus (Birthday) , Xavi (Birth Year) , Romario (Hero) , Andres Iniesta (Cup Final) , Sergio Ramos (Opponents) , Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (Height) , Ze Roberto (First INT) , Maicon (Academy) , Danrlei (Debut Season) , Réver (Final INT)
First Round: Pick your inspiration for the rest of your team. This pick will decide what the categories of the future rounds mean for you, so choose carefully. They won't be in your team, and they won't be able to be in any other team as well.
Right so the categories are, (examples using Robbie Savage in brackets):
1. Someone of the same height as your inspiration pick (If you'd picked Robbie Savage you'd have to pick a player who was 1.85m)
2. Someone born in the same year as your inspiration pick (If you'd picked Robbie Savage you'd have to pick a player born in 1974)
3. Someone who shares their birthday with your inspiration pick, only the date not the year - wikipedia is a helpful tool for this (If you'd picked Robbie Savage you'd have to pick a player born on the 18th October e.g. finding footballers listed on this page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_18#1901%E2%80%93present_2)
4. One of the top 25 teammates who your inspiration pick played most with, all this data can be found on transfermarkt.co.uk (
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/robbie-savage/gemeinsameSpiele/spieler/3797)
5. One of the top 25 opponents who your inspiration pick played most against, all this data can be found on transfermarkt.co.uk
(
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/robbie-savage/spieleGegeneinander/spieler/3797)
6. Someone who came through the same academy as your player. I'll accept any academy they played in up until their professional debut. (Robbie Savage's academies would include Brickfield Rangers, Lex XI, Manchester United and Crewe Alexandra)
7. Someone your inspiration pick played with in their professional debut season (For Robbie Savage this would include anyone in Crewe Alexandra's 1994-95 squad)
8. Anyone who played for your inspiration pick's national side when they were between the ages of 0 and 10. This is supposed to find someone your player was inspired by as a kid. (For Robbie Savage this would be anyone who played for the Welsh National Team between 1974 and 1984).
9. Anyone who played in your inspiration pick's International Debut (For Robbie Savage this would be anyone who played in the game between Wales and Albania on the 15th November 1995)
10. Anyone who played during your inspiration pick's final International cap (For Robbie Savage this would be anyone who played in the game between Wales and Poland on the 13th October 2004)
11. Anyone who played in a club cup final with your player, so major domestic cup finals and european finals, they don't have to have won the final (For Robbie Savage this would mean picking any member of the Leicester City side's who played in either the 1999 or 2000 cup final).
You can pick from any category in any round, but you must have crossed off all the categories by your last pick, or your teams will be void and the rest of your spaces will be filled up with Robbie Savages.
Please make sure to say what category you are picking for with each selection!
Hope that all makes sense. Any questions, let me know in here, or drop me a PM.
The selections will be in snake order, so Samie with the first pick in this round, then Nicholls with the first pick in the next.
Best of luck! Please message the person after you when you've made your pick!
We’ll do four hours per pick first and second rounds, two hours thereafter and maybe reducing it to one hour for the rest if it’s taking too long.
