Ivica Strok is Celtic’s all-time record goalscorer, a six-time winner of the European Golden Shoe, and the highest ever scorer in international football with Croatia. He’s also fictional.
Strok is a Football Manager regen (one of the players created by the computer game’s engine), but he has his own Twitter account, has conducted interviews with real publications, and most recently also had his own Wikipedia page, for a brief period at least.
The extension of the Ivica Strok story is the work of Jonny Sharples, who signed the Croatian for his Celtic team on Football Manager in 2020.
“I wanted to make Ivica Strok as much like a real life footballer as possible, to blur the boundaries between fiction and reality as much as I possibly could,” Sharples told JOE.
“Footballers have their own Twitter accounts and they’re always giving interviews but they also have their own Wikipedia pages so it seemed to be the next (il)logical step in bringing him to life a bit more.”
The lengthy Wikipedia entry (see below), which Sharples never expected to last too long on-site, blends Strok’s in-game achievements with a back-story stemming largely from his manager’s imagination.
Pleased to announce my candidacy for the FIFA Presidency. Football has given me a lot in my life, I want to give back pic.twitter.com/6O4AqHtrh1
— Ivica Strok (@IvicaStrok10) May 27, 2015
Off-field elements, like a CBE in 2046 and a run for the FIFA presidency in 2048, are often a case of WWID (What Would Ivica Do?)
“The story of the 2022 Champions League final is pretty close to what happened – Strok and José Ribeiro did counter attack together and Ribeiro did shoot (and score) instead of playing the simple pass to Strok,” Sharples explains.
“That annoyed me and I think I projected that into Ivica Strok, from then his personality built up and he became this very arrogant but very good player.”
Scoring for Rest of the World at Soccer Aid 2042. pic.twitter.com/0cOgaNnYmy
— Ivica Strok (@IvicaStrok10) March 31, 2015
Celtic have become a European superpower on what we like to term the “Strok save”, but they haven’t quite reached the heights of another football fan’s 1,000-year simulation, which saw the Bhoys play in front of crowds exceeding half a million.
“We don’t quite get crowds of half a million at the moment, but we do have the biggest stadium in Britain with the 99,237 capacity Sharples Park (complete with a statue of Ivica Strok outside) named after yours truly.
“While I’m humbled to have a stadium named after me, there’s that slight nagging feeling it wasn’t named after Ivica Strok.”
So, will anyone come close to the achievements of Croatia’s finest?
“I have a striker called Mathias Mesnil who, whisper it, is probably better than Ivica Strok ever was.
“Ivica Strok tutored him when he was a young player so he must have passed on all his knowledge.”
To read Ivica Strok’s full Wikipedia entry, double-click to enlarge the image below.
