Shampoo, Hairdressing, And A Love Affair
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Shampoo, Hairdressing, And A Love Affair is the start of a new Football Manager 2023 series.
I’ve mulled over who to play as on Football Manager 23 for quite some time now. I did plan on playing in Denmark with Amager Boldklub Tårnby and even completed the first season with them. But it just didn’t feel right, I wasn’t enjoying it at all. As many of you will know, it’s not often I actually play in Europe on Football Manager as I find it boring.
It likely didn’t help that on Football Manager 22 I had one of the most enjoyable saves I have ever had. I spent the best part of 20 seasons in Iceland playing as Þór Akureyri and taking them to multiple Champions League victories. The Danish save felt a bit similar to this I think that’s why I wasn’t really getting into the save. So I began looking for something else.
Now a lot of you will have likely heard about this club because they earned the tagline Pior Time do Mundo, which translates to Worst Team in The World due to going 55 games without a win. The not-so-impressive record was earned during a period of 3 years and 11 months between July 1980 and June 1984.
Their embarrassing record stood at;
- 55 games without a win
- 48 losses
- 7 draws
- 231 goals conceded
- 25 goals scored
This wasn’t the reason for choosing to manage Íbis Sport Club though and I could have easily chosen someone else. One of the other options was Atlético Mogi who also boasts another spectacular record for not winning. More recently in fact, June 2017 to June 2022 they had a record of;
- 5 years without a win
- 56 games without a win
- 53 losses
- 3 draws
- 221 goals conceded
- 24 goals scored
There were also other teams I considered too but I narrowed it down to these two. Now I already knew about these teams beforehand but and have for many years. Or so I thought. The more I began researching the two teams and going over their history the more and more Íbis Sport Club began to stand out.
The club embraced the fact they were rubbish and celebrate it like it was a major honour. They also have a really strong social media presence and like to take the piss out of themselves. They’ve become somewhat successful marketing-wise and have turned the bad fortunes of the club into an international brand.
One of the deciding factors for choosing Íbis Sport Club though was the characters associated with the club and especially one particular icon. Left-footed, cool hair, and a number 10! What is there not to love?!
Mauro Teixeira Thorpe better known as Mauro Shampoo is widely celebrated and became the face of the club during the run mentioned above despite only ever scoring 1 goal.
He’s become a bit of a star in his own right and turned the misfortunes into a huge success. There’s even a short film about him;
Mauro Shampoo also inspired a song, soundtrack of the Cinefoot-winning film: “An Incredible História de Mauro Shampoo”, by Oswaldo Montenegro.
“This is the true story / Brazilian urban legend / Viva Mauro Shampoo! / The glorious centre-forward of defeat / That we chase away sadness / Like the vulture chases away / It is in the goal against which joy is tested / Goal of plate is fantasy / Because baião is not blues…”
It gets even better though. One of his children also became a footballer and played for Íbis Sport Club but never became as famous. Honved Thorpe his son, arguably has the better nickname though, the Shampuzinho!!
Mauro Shampoo is too much of a character for me to ignore and seems like the ideal man manager to use for playing as Íbis Sport Club on Football Manager 2023.
