Football Player at a glance
- To start
- A trial. Clubs judge football and athletics
- The league
- 20 clubs · 3 of them elite
- Your pay follows
- Your second-best attribute
- Contracts
- 1–6 years, negotiated
Getting signed
A trial costs one time point. Clubs look at your football and athletics, and every club that rates you at least as highly as it rates itself makes you an offer, up to three. The weaker clubs will take a chance on players the top three won't look at.
The season
You have six attributes (ball control, speed, agility, positioning, defence and showmanship) and four positions: striker, winger, central midfielder and defender. Your rating is your second-best attribute, not your best one, and it's what sets your pay, so a player who's only good at one thing gets paid like it. Training costs a time point. The keepy-uppy drill is free and only costs you patience.
Once a season, after the league has been played, you play the matchday yourself. It's three scenes with three moves each, where you pass, dribble or shoot, and you have one to three seconds to decide depending on how good you are in that position. You can also simulate it and just read the score.
Contracts and money
You never see your market value. You work it out from what clubs offer you. In negotiations you ask for a wage and a contract length, and the club only has so much patience. Ask for far more than it can pay and it walks away. Deals run from one to six years, and clubs offer shorter ones once you're past 29, and shorter again past 33.
Breaking a contract costs you part of the wages left on it. Moving to a club with better training can be worth a pay cut, because the training decides how long you stay good.
How it goes wrong
Every attribute drops a little every year. The higher it is, the faster it drops, and it drops faster still if it's above what your club's facilities can support. Free agents don't get paid. The bottom four clubs play for survival, and the ones that lose get relegated. Your athletics starts falling at 30, and faster from 40.
Questions
Can I become a professional footballer in OpenLifeSim?
Yes, from age 16, by turning up to a trial. Your football and athletics decide which of the 20 clubs make you an offer.
How is a footballer paid?
By a contract you negotiate with the club. Your wage follows your market value, which the game never shows you, and your market value follows your second-best attribute.
Do I play the matches?
Yes, one matchday a season. It's a short pitch game of passes, dribbles and shots, and the rest of the season is simulated around it.
The other special careers
Each one has its own screen and its own money, and you can try more than one in a single life.
Start a life
It's free and it runs in your browser. You'll be born, grow up, and find out whether this life ever gets the chance.