Football News: Champ Man Legends Part 6: Jonas Lunden

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Jonas Lunden Championship Manager 01/02 Edition

In the days when Champ Man was the most addictive spreadsheet ever made, when marriages foundered on the rocks of flashing text in place of animated matches, the scouting left a bit to be desired but the game itself was all the better for those little nuggets you could unearth. It must be said that the improved scouting of the modern game, added to all the little 'improvements' they have made, has made it lose its charm and become less of a game.

Back when 01/02 was released, none of that mattered. All you had were numbers on a screen until you got to the match with its flashing text. The game had just added Scandinavian leagues to its database and clearly the scouting was not being done properly. Either that or Sweden, in particular, had a whole 'golden generation' that got lost on the way, as you could easily build a team for peanuts from Swedish youngsters that would sweep all before it.

One of those players was Jonas Lunden, a forward in the game, who would develop into a world class performer and guarantee you goals. The reality was completely different. In real life Lunden was born in Borlange, Sweden in 1980 and began his career as a forward at IK Brage before a move to IFK Gothenburg, where he was playing when this version was released.

Lunden was not quite the golden prospect that he seemed to be in the game, though he was highly rated enough to win one Sweden cap in 2001, the highlight of his career, where Zlatan also made his national debut. A move to Elfsborg followed, where he was converted to play on the wing or at full-back.

After five seasons with Elfsborg he made a move to GAIS, where he played out his career until his retirement from playing five years later in 2011. Lunden returned to GAIS as Sporting Director a year later, until the club relegated him to a part-time role in 2015 due to financial troubles besetting the club.

An altogether unremarkable career for a man that will forever be better remembered for an unreal life on a video game. There at least his career was usually memorable, as he could be guaranteed to be cheap, or even free, and be a building block of a trophy winning team.

For the previous Champ Man Legends article on Julius Aghahowa click HERE

Written by Tris Burke June 26 2019 04:55:01