Every year we do a check up to see if any players from CM9798 are still around in the latest Football Manager. Last year we found there were 27 players still playing and I don’t expect that number has increased much. With the retirement of Robbie Keane last week another one has bitten the dust, even if he is technically still on the game until the next update is released. How many are left?

Gianluigi Buffon

Buffon is probably the highest profile of our remaining heroes, Buffon was yet to even become Parma’s first choice back in 1997. His stats are still rather good though!

Fast forward on 21 years and Buffon is now at PSG – filthy rich PSG – and showed he had plenty of fire left in his belly after going ballistic at Michael Oliver in the Champions League semi finals last year. Whether Buffon can win the Champions League with PSG remains to be seen, though he has the option for another year on his contract. He’s 41 in January, however.

Aaron Hughes

112 caps later and Aaron Hughes is still playing in the Premier League. Granted, it’s the Scottish Premier League (for Hearts) but even after recently turning 39 he’s still a regular in the match day squad. He hasn’t even retired from International football yet, he’ll probably still be playing come FM30.

As we found out in the recent Newcastle short story, if Hughes is given the necessary game time he can go on to be a very useful centre half.

Roy Carroll

Remember when Roy Carroll was Man Utd’s number one? Incredible. From being at Wigan in CM9798, Carroll went on to have quite the varied career and can be found in FM19 at Linfield in Northern Ireland.

Anyone who goes from Olympiacos to Notts County can play for as long as they want in my eyes.

Stephen Bywater

The pattern here is that most of the remaining players are goalkeepers. Bywater is just 16 in CM9798, one of the youngest players in the database so it is perhaps no surprise that he is still playing.

Now aged 37, Bywater is at Burton Albion in League One and still competing for the number one jersey.

Kenny Miller

That’s Kenneth to you. Miller is supposed to be at Hibs in 1997/98 but is found on a free transfer in the database as a rather creative right winger.

We nearly lost Miller after he decided to manage Livingston for a brief spell this season. He soon got bored of that though and signed for Dundee as a player. No doubt he’ll be heading back for a fourth spell at Rangers soon enough. Dundee are bottom of the Scottish Premier League but I’m sure it’s not Kenny’s fault.

Lee Hendrie

Hendrie hasn’t had a club for 4 years so quite why he’s included in FM19, I have no idea. But he is and he’s available for free, so enjoy him whilst you can because sooner or later somebody will realise he shouldn’t be there.

Let us try and forget that Hendrie got an England cap in 1998 and does commentary for Sky these days.

Kevin Pilkington

It’s quite rare somebody comes back to the list but Kevin Pilkington, who features heavily in the CM97/98 book a handsome man wrote, had to sit on the bench for Cambridge United earlier this season. That heralds his return to the FM series as a player, which is great news for us all.

In 97/98 Pilkington is part of the Man Utd squad and part of the class of 92, but a long wa behind Peter Schmeichel in the pecking order.

Gabor Kiraly

The pyjama wearing hero! Old tracky bottoms Kiraly is still playing for Haladas in his native Hungary. He’s in FM19 but I can’t confirm or deny if he wears tracksuit trousers in the 3d match engine.

Mark Tyler

Mark Tyler says he will play in an emergency for Peterborough. I should add he’s the goalkeeper coach and it’s not some sort of weird protest.

Tyler is a CM01/02 legend and originally left Peterborough in 2009 to move to Luton, where he played for 7 years. He’s now back at Peterborough and in FM19 as a player.

Kevin Street

Street had a relatively unremarkable career and left league football in 2005. He played non-league for a number of years and his inclusion in FM19 is quite odd.

It turns out he returned to amateur football and is available after leading Kidgsrove.

Darren Ward

Ward is a centre half of reasonable potential for Watford in CM9798. He must be pretty durable as he’s still playing aged 40.

This season Ward signed for Hemel Hempstead in the National League South, hence his inclusion in FM19.

Gareth Ainsworth

Hanging on by a thread, Ainsworth is still registered as a player for Wycombe. He’s 45 and has been their manager for 6 years, so maybe he’s just forgotten.

He’s still got a player profile in FM19 but he never picks himself, unsurprisingly.

Alex Russell

Another “no idea” moment. Russell announced his retirement from playing in March 2013 yet remains on FM19 as a player on a freebie.

Here he is…he rejected signing for me as a player and scouting him wasn’t happening. He’s 45 so I imagine he is a VERY deep lying playmaker.

Kevin Nicholson

The annual “his date of birth is a month wrong” conversation will doubtless take place but Nicholson is still in FM19, despite last being seen as player manager of Torquay in 2017.

Danny Coyne

Another goalkeeper, Coyne’s still registered as a player for Shrewsbury. That’s all well and good but he’s also the caretaker manager as of this writing.

I assume his playing registration has been retained but who really knows.

Kazuyoshi Miura

This is technically a cheat as FM doesn’t have the J League license. He’s still playing though, and if he was 30 in CM9798 you can imagine how spritely he is now.

Hopefully one day FM can get the J League license. No hurry, I imagine he’ll play for years yet.

That’s all I can find. 16 players from CM9798 remain in FM19 unless you can tell me otherwise. Admittedly, I don’t have a laptop capable of playing FM19 (yet) so my research was done using the demo. Suggestions welcome!