Few football managers get to enjoy the feeling of winning just one trophy, let alone multiple titles, during their careers.
However even the success of the likes of Pep Guardiola and Sir Alex Ferguson looks puny compared to the trophy haul of Football Manager fan Michał Leniec who now has the record for the Longest single game of Football Manager and a place in Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2019.
Playing his beloved 2016 edition of the game since it was released in November 2015, the Lech Poznań fan from Poland has played for 221 in-game years - and his character is now at the age of 258.
In reality Michał is 38 years old and a Lech Poznan season ticket-holder with his Football Manager alter ego amassing an incredible 680 trophies, including:
- Polish Ekstraklasa (top division of Polish football) – 207
- Polish Cup – 161
- Polish Super Cup – 184
- Champions League – 45
- European Super Cup – 34
- World Club Championship – 42
- FIFA World Cup – 1 (with Holland)
- UEFA European Championship – 2 (with Holland)
- FIFA Confederations Cup – 1 (with Holland)
- UEFA Nations League – 2 (1 with Spain and 1 with England)
- Africa Cup of Nations – 1 (with Ghana)
Throughout the game Michał has managed his beloved Lech Poznan - where he had a photoshoot to celebrate his success - but has also taken 35 different international roles, always held simultaneously to his domestic career.
He has played 14,381 matches, winning 10,997 of them and losing just 1,720 – a win percentage of 76.
"I had my best results with, of course, Lech Poznan and Holland. With the Oranje [Dutch national team] I become a world champion, European champion two times and also got the Confederations Cup. So I won almost all with them, the same as with Lech. But not all national teams were so pleased to have me as their manager. I was sacked almost immediately from the Polish national team. But this was at the very beginning of my career."
It's safe to say he's bounced back since that setback.
"I treat this as a prize for my family, I always had Football Manager running in the background so it was a challenge for my family too."
But despite his incredible success, Michał says his biggest achievement doesn't involve silverware.
"My goal is to train young players and introduce them to first team, almost the same as the real Lech Poznan," he said.
"Definitely [my biggest moment was] when my pupils - current or ex-players, but all from Lech Poznan Academy - were the starting eleven of (World) Team of the Year. It's a pretty big achievement!"
As of Saturday 2 December, Michał was competing in the 2237-2238 season.
You can find plenty more football and sport videogame records in Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2019.
Michał's achievement shows how far the record has come in just over a year.
Up until 2016, UK football fan Darren Bland held the record with 154 seasons in charge of Italian Serie A side, Fiorentina, before his record was broken by Oxford United fan Seb Keenan who had played a total of 170 in-game years as of 6 September 2017, managing teams such as Barcelona, QPR and Bristol City, as well as Oxford United.
All photos by Marcin Rajczak.
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