We spoke to man given job at club he managed on Football Manager

Back in 2019, Andrej Pavlović made headlines after using his Football Manager achievements to get a job at a football club.

Pavlović was offered a job as a data analyst at FK Bežanija in the Serbian second division after he sent them a list of his accolades on the hugely popular computer game.

Over the course of 16 virtual seasons, Pavlović led FK Bežanija to 11 league titles and guided them to the Champions League semi-final.

So, convinced that Pavlović could help, FK Bežanija decided to bring him on board.

Pavlović, 22 when he joined, took to Reddit weeks after his arrival to share an update on his progress – and he was working miracles.

FK Bežanija won five out of their next six matches and went from 13th to sixth in the table.

So, what happened after that? 

We decided to catch up with Pavlović to find out.

Pavlović left FK Bežanija in 2020 but he speaks fondly about his time at the club, where his role quickly expanded from just data analysis to handling merchandise and PR activities as well.

“At the beginning my job was simple – analyse the play of our team and sketch out a report that we will read together as a backroom staff and see which area needs improving,” Pavlović says. 

“I would analyse the play of our wings for example, trying to figure out through the numbers which side was more efficient with their chances, and also from where did most of our clear cut chances come.   

“I also analysed the defensive success of the system, sometimes isolating the problem through the numbers again which wasn’t really visible with the naked eye.

“Sometimes we were surprised how good or bad one of our full backs, for example, is doing based only on numbers.”

Pavlović continues: “Later down the line I took many more