Piet Bolje - Suriname

The time has come to do my first ever FM story. It is a daunting task to create an engaging narrative purely out of a set of 1s and 0s on a computer screen, so it's probably better to make this as easy as possible.

Eh, who gives a crap about all of that.

Meet Piet Bolje, a 20-year-old Surinamese football manager. Yes, he is from Suriname. Yes, he is 20.

I picked Suriname from a random country generator and used claassen's megapack to bring this league to life on my game. Whether the computer was being serious or had no clue of my ulterior purpose, I did not stop to consider.

I'm hoping this proves to be some fun, but Piet could very easily quit after the first two months and go get a college degree or something.

While I was setting up this game, it came to my attention that I have no idea what kind of football is played in Suriname, and to be honest, you probably wouldn't either. So I delved into the deepest recesses of the internet, known colloquially as Wikipedia, to do some research. 

Right. Well, that's helpful then. Thanks a lot. 

Oh well, hopefully Miles Jacobson took a few holidays there or something. 

The country is renowned for being the smallest independent nation in South America. Located alongside the Atlantic Ocean, it borders French Guiana and Guyana on either side, with Brazil just a step away as well. Most of the citizens live in the capital city of Paramaribo along the northern coast. It is most well known for its abundance of natural resources, which was a key factor behind the Dutch colonisation of it in the 18th century. (Remember this point, it will become most relevant later on)

Football-wise, their history is not very distinguished either. Although they were in the running for an Olympic place 50 years ago, their greatest glory since then has been slapping around the other Caribbean teams to win 3 ABCS Tournaments. Seemingly nothing of note has happened football wise in this country for a very long time. 

And that's where you are wrong. 

 We all know these people. Clarence Seedorf, Patrick Kluivert and Edgar Davids. Three legends of the great Dutch team of the 90s. But what do they all share? That they all won the Champions League with Ajax in 94/95? That they all played in an El Clasico? 

Maybe it's the fact that all of them are of Surinamese descent. 

And that's not all. In current football, even players like Michel Vorm, Ryan Babel and Georginio Wijnaldum hail from the country, while great players such as Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard, Winston Bogarde and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink all are of Surinamese descent. The Dutch didn't just take the spices and precious resources from the Surinamese. They take the footballing talent to this day as well. 

I'm not promising we're gonna change that, but I'd like to try. 

Now that some context has been set, on to the job search. 

The beauty of being in such a small league is that a) all teams don't have a manager and b) they have no qualms about taking on an inexperienced 20-year-old to manage their team. Happy days. 

So this is who it's gonna be. SV Inter Moengotapoe, based in between the border with French Guiana and the capital city, will be my new team. Let's hope this one goes well.