I have always loved football. For as long as I can remember, it has been, along with video games, my greatest and most enduring passion. I enjoy playing it, watching my favorite team playing on TV or at the Stadium, and playing it on my gaming consoles.

My relationship with digital football began in '93, when at just over 10 years old, my parents gifted me what was, at the time, the very first edition of the FIFA video game. Every year, without fail, I found a way to have a copy available. First as a gift, then purchased with my first savings, and later for free because I started hanging around online communities.

And it was thanks to these online communities that I became, for a time, the Community Manager for Italy for the game. I flew to Vancouver a couple of times to see the game's development up close, participate in community days at Chelsea's stadium in London, and make many interesting connections.

A relationship that lasted for over 30 years. Always there to defend even the indefensible. Always there even when PES/Winning Eleven showed the world how it was truly possible to create a simulative game and not just an entertaining one.

In 2023, tired of the direction the game had taken (I don't think I need to mention the Ultimate mode and the money needed to win there), I decided to try eFootball. The current evolution of Pro Evolution Soccer by Konami. It was the end of the year, and the shock was strong and decisive.

The Japanese game has meanwhile undergone a significant downsizing during the past 5 years. It's now free to play and has only one interesting mode. That is, the one where you can build your dream team and compete online with other players to reach the top of the world rankings. That's it. The game is bare-bones, and the most common complaint is precisely the total absence of modes when compared to EA FC or UFL.

But there's a big but. The gameplay is tremendously beautiful. Or perhaps it's the best version of digital football available today (when compared to the two major competitors). It's difficult, but at the same time fun. You can advance in the world ranking even without having to buy new cards every week, and it really has a very challenging, but rewarding learning curve.

I had promised myself to give it a try. To see if I could go far (I've never competed professionally, but in 2003 I ranked third in Italy with FIFA), to understand if I could hold up at 40-something years old.

A year and three seasons later, I can say I've done it. I've consumed hundreds of hours of gameplay, not yet mastering it 100%, but managing to achieve the feat of reaching the top 1000 in the world. It took a lot of sweat and training, but it's a small personal goal that I had set for myself at the beginning of the year.

Everyone has their own, I think, and hence the wordplay with the title of this post.
What games do you play?

Tell me here.