It’s vintage Massimo Ferrin: a right-sided defender smashes a long diagonal pass to the left wing, the winger controls the ball with a swift touch, cuts to his right, beats his man, shoots…goal!
The replay plays on the screen, tiny images of soccer players bouncing in celebration, having just perfectly executed their coach’s vision. Only this time, the coach, and not the goalscorer, is Massimo Ferrin.
On the pitch, Ferrin continues to cement himself as an elite attacking threat in the Canadian Premier League. Off the pitch, he’s a Football Manager™.
“I started playing a couple of years ago,” Ferrin says when asked about his affinity for Football Manager, a sports management video game that, among many other things, puts the player in charge of tasks like scouting, tactics and training session planning.
“I’ve always enjoyed the tactical side of sports in general, and the game does a good job of being pretty detailed with everything. So I feel like without being a coach yourself at a high level, virtually, it’s the closest way to be able to do it.”
For Ferrin, the laundry list of demands thrust upon the fictional manager in a virtual football game pairs perfectly with the many road trips a Halifax Wanderer takes over the course of the season.
“The times where I play Football Manager most is when we are on the road or even on the plane during the flight,” Ferrin said. “Like when we are going as far as Vancouver from Halifax, and I have a couple hours on the plane, it’s my go-to.”
Released annually, the Football Manager series is known to make time fly for its players. The sheer size of the game creates unlimited options for someone to play however they would like. You can start straight away at Manchester City with billions of dollars at your disposal, or spend the next several months of your life taking Rushall Olympic from the English 6th tier to the Champions League final.
It’s a game that continues to rise in popularity. The 2024 edition set a record for the franchise with over 7 million active players, including real-world footballers like Antoine Griezmann, Ousmane Dembele, and the aforementioned Massimo Ferrin.
C’est reparti pour une nouvelle saison de FM avec @AntoGriezmann et @Dembouz !
#FiersdetreBleus pic.twitter.com/WoBVoWqJ0t
— Equipe de France
(@equipedefrance) June 7, 2021
And like his French counterparts in Griezmann and Dembele, Ferrin could, in theory, scout and sign himself if he so wished. The Canadian Premier League is a licenced league in the Football Manager series, meaning anyone could take the helm of a CPL team and lead them to the North Star Cup.
“I did make one save file with Halifax just for fun to see (myself), and it’s cool… like we’re all there,” Ferrin said about seeing himself and his teammates in a video game for the first time.
As a player, Ferrin is known for creating moments of brilliance on the wing for the Wanderers and thriving under the guidance of his real-life football manager, Patrice Gheisar. The former League1 Ontario MVP led Halifax in scoring with nine goals and three assists in 2023.
Funny enough, when asked for a breakdown of his tactical approach to the virtual world, Ferrin can’t help but notice that he takes some of his learnings as a professional back with him onto the computer screen.
“I play my team in a possession-oriented, high-tempo style with dynamic wingers that are good one-on-one. I think it’s half inspired by Pat and some of the similarities we have on seeing the game, and half is some of my own thoughts and things I’ll try out… so I guess a bit of a hybrid system.”
More to come from Massimo Ferrin in 2024
The CPL’s Player of the Week caps off lovely passes by Giorgio Probo and Clement Bayiha for his first of two goals on Saturday
@onesoccer#TogetherFromAways #COYW pic.twitter.com/NUJCoEiyP4
— Halifax Wanderers FC (@HFXWanderersFC) June 18, 2024
The stories told by the millions of people who play Football Manager may not ever end up in the biographical section of a local bookstore, but many play out like the memoirs of a sports legend. If you know someone who plays Football Manager, they will surely fill you in on the numerous seasons of wins, losses and fictional accomplishments of footballers from around the world.
Ferrin, too, has some stories that stand out for him.
“When I start a new game, I always start unemployed, so I don’t start on a team I have to find a team that will hire me,” he said. “I worked my way up from the lower tiers in Italy, somehow got the job at my favourite club, AC Milan and won the Champions League.”
“I haven’t even played that save too long I’m like seven or eight years in, which, for someone who doesn’t know the game, that might sound like a long time, but in the game, that’s not too long.”
And from stories like Ferrin’s come the legendary characters that make up the teams. Though their careers often play out differently in real life compared to the fictional universe known only to the individual clicking a mouse.
“In my game, a guy may be 25/26 years old and playing at Barcelona, but in real life, they’re still like 17, and nobody’s heard about them yet,” Ferrin said. “I’ve seen a couple of players like that, where I know them from playing Football Manager and in the real world they are linked with a move to a big club.”
“One example is Endrick (former Palmeiras teammate of Wanderers forward Tiago Coimbra), who everyone knows now for moving to Real Madrid, Endrick just won World Player of the Year in my current game.”
Ferrin and the Wanderers begin a stretch of three away matches in seven days when they face Cavalry FC on Saturday. And with the many kilometres that separate Calgary, Hamilton (vs. Forge Aug. 14) and Winnipeg (vs. Valour Aug. 17), there will be some time to kill on the plane.
“It’s fun. I enjoy it. And yeah, I like to throw my my own little spins on things and see how it works out in the games.”