A man who took National League side Wrexham to the Premier League on Football Manager was offered a job after he decided to list all of his achievements on the popular game in a one-of-a-kind application.
Andy Cotter-Roberts, 29, from Cardiff, expressed his interest in the role based in Alpe d'Heuz, France, ahead of the popular British Universities Snowsports Championship (BUCS) event.
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To cover some of the bigger events in its opening week the organisation needed extra bar staff, so a keen Andy decided to apply with the plan of working a few shifts to get a free two-week skiing holiday.
In terms of specifications for the role, it was mentioned that applicants should 'stand out' from the crowd and, in a moment of utter genius, he decided to show off his record on FM to impress those in charge.
"I thought the application was a bit of a shot in the dark because while I had worked on a bar before I had never done anything like this." Andy tells SPORTbible. "But the application said to stand out, so I thought fuck it why not have a bit of fun with it?
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"Let's face it. Writing job applications has to be one of the most boring, demoralising tasks going, especially for a bar job, like what are you actually supposed to say? I really enjoy my burning feet every night so please hire me?
"I had been on a little bit of an Football Manager streak recently so just thought fuck it, at least it'll be funny."
Andy mentioned in the application that he had previously worked in the hospitality sector, just to make sure, but everything else in terms of experience was Football Manager related.
So what did he include in the application?
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"My best performances had been a Europa League win with Cardiff City, taking Wrexham from the National League to the Premiership, and more recently taking the mighty Barry Town into the Europa League group stages." he told us.
"There was also a World Cup win with Wales on Football Manager 2005, where I won 5-1 against Germany, but I can't claim too much because I took them over one game into the tournament when I saw they were in it."
Andy also mentioned that he was good with money because he'd been managing wage budgets since Championship Manager 03/04 - and never once had a team in financial difficulty.
He also claimed to have a good work ethic after spending hours trawling for the best coaches and backroom staff to hire while working out training programmes and delegating specific roles.
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Oh, and he made sure to mention that he doesn't sign any central midfielder with less than 12 work rate because he "lives for work ethic."
The 29-year-old, who was doing his PhD at the time, eventually got offered the job but things failed to materialise.
"I didn't hear anything back for quite a while before I had a call and they offered me the job, but I was doing my PhD at the time and something had come up meaning that I could no longer go.
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"They sounded a little bit desperate on the phone, which with the time thing makes me think I wasn't first choice and they had reached the stage where they just needed people regardless of the state of the application."
Andy's story will certainly inspire those who have lifted the Champions League with a Non-League minnow. In fact, someone who has flourished from his achievements on Football Manager is Andrej Pavlović.
Pavlović, a 22-year-old from Belgrade, Serbia, took Serbian second division side FK Bežanija to a Champions League semi-final in the space of 16 years, beating the likes of Manchester City and Bayern Munich along the way.
He also lifted an unprecedented 10 consecutive league titles and six Serbian cups with Bežanija, who are based in Novi Beograd.
"I'm not going to brag but I am somewhat of a legend in my Football Manager universe," Pavlović told SPORTbible in an exclusive interview.
Despite his remarkable achievements in game, the club, who are managed by Goran Dragoljić, are struggling in real life after being relegated because of financial issues.
Pavlović, who has a bachelor degree in medical sciences, therefore decided to offer his services last year and to his surprise, the club handed him a role as a Data Analyst.
"I reached out to them with my achievements on FM and suggested I could help them. I didn't expect they would call me." he admitted.
"We just had a friendly chat and the club director asked me if I can could come on Saturday for the first game to see how things go. I suggested I could help them out but I didn't expect they would call me.
"I really couldn't believe it. I was shocked but when we talked they asked me if I could volunteer for them as they are in a rough spot financially."
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