The first XI dossier of the BallFact player database: the eleven from Dossier #0396, rebuilt as a 1996 season snapshot — 26 FM-style attributes per outfield player, reconstructed from FM-era engines (FSM97 / Championship Manager generation) and refined against audited season data. Peak and valley both get archived: a player is not a number, a player is a curve.
The shape on the left, the men on the right. Hover either side and the other lights up — and after every name, one line that carries no evidence, only allegiance. That's terrace language, not audit-room language.
| # | Pos | Player | One-line verdict | OVR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GK | Andreas Köpke | The highest compliment for a keeper is being forgotten. This year, he was forgotten thoroughly. | 88 |
| 2 | RB | Cafu | His flank had one direction only: forward. | 83 |
| 3 | LB | Paolo Maldini | Another word for left-back is Paolo Maldini. | 89 |
| 4 | DM | Dunga | Brazil didn't need a captain everyone loved. It needed one opponents feared. | 85 |
| 5 | CB | Franco Baresi | 36 years old? Back lines don't age. Marshals don't fade. | 89 |
| 6 | CB | Marcel Desailly | When the Rock stands in the middle, forwards learn to take the long way round. | 87 |
| 7 | RW | Ronaldo Nazário | Aliens may stand above any human they please. | 93 |
| 8 | CM | Zinedine Zidane | When the ball reached his feet, time behaved. | 90 |
| 9 | CF | Alan Shearer | Strikers have one currency: goals. In 1996 he was the central bank. | 91 |
| 10 | AM | Rui Costa | The classic No.10 never runs — he makes the ball run for him. | 88 |
| 11 | LW | George Weah | The only king Africa ever offered Europe. | 88 |
Disclaimer: these eleven lines enter no audit ledger and no confidence tier — they belong to the terrace, to that unreasonable kind of love. Data lives in the master table below; conviction lives here.
One answer per position. The verdict recognizes exactly three things: data, honors, big moments. Fame does not get through this door. Dossiers are shelved by line of attack — pull a spine, read the verdict.
Aliens may stand above any human they please.
Not yet twenty: dribbling 97, acceleration 97, finishing 96 — in the 1996 audit his attacking cluster is first by a landslide. That summer he moved from PSV to Barcelona, and the whole football world waited for the Brazilian to break the ceiling. He made no one wait long.
07Strikers have one currency: goals. In 1996 he was the central bank.
The Golden Boot at a home Euros, a world-record transfer, then 25 goals in 96/97 — a third straight Premier League Golden Boot. Finishing 94, heading 92: no striker in 1996 filed a more complete attacking ledger. "Pressure broke him"? That story didn't survive the first season.
09The only king Africa ever offered Europe.
The reigning Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player, still at altitude in 1996. Cross-checked against 94 match reports, the audit corrects the folk legend: his real weapon was not brute force but off-the-ball movement — OFF 86 with pace 93 defined the counter-attacking winger.
11When the ball reached his feet, time behaved.
From Bordeaux to Turin in the summer of '96, taking over the Juventus midfield in season one. Top tier across the creation cluster: passing 93, first touch 94. Even the FM-era engines admit they rated him low — this sheet's model corrects them. The brain of midfield, on duty at 24.
08The classic No.10 never runs — he makes the ball run for him.
Through balls 92 — the single highest attribute of any player on the entire sheet; the scalpel his nickname came from. Half of Fiorentina's Coppa Italia goals in 1996 began at his feet. The No.10 slot went to the king of the final pass.
10Brazil didn't need a captain everyone loved. It needed one opponents feared.
Elegance was never his product; winning was. The armband that lifted the 1994 World Cup was still running the midfield in 1996. Tackle, intercept, distribute — nothing flashy, nothing dropped. One slot at the base of midfield. His.
04Another word for left-back is Paolo Maldini.
The best left-back on Earth in 1996 by audit: 91.4% defensive success rate, all four defensive attributes above 90, and — rarer still — a discipline with zero blemishes. Not one emotional lapse all season. The least disputed signature of the year.
0336 years old? Back lines don't age. Marshals don't fade.
Age 36, farewell season, and the body ledger is honest: pace 62, acceleration 60. But positioning 96, decisions 94 — he arrives three seconds before the ball, so he never has to run. The 95/96 Scudetto was Milan's farewell gift to its captain. Both entries kept. Neither deleted.
05When the Rock stands in the middle, forwards learn to take the long way round.
If Baresi was the brain of the back line, Desailly was its biceps. Tackling 90 paired with strength 88 — the only such combination on the sheet — and 1996 was his body-meets-experience crossing point. Veteran and powerhouse: the best centre-back pairing of the year.
06His flank had one direction only: forward.
The prototype attacking full-back: one flank used as two, stamina 92, second highest on the sheet. In 1996 at Palmeiras he proved no touchline in Brazil was too long for him. Right-back in 1996 had no argument.
02The highest compliment for a keeper is being forgotten. This year, he was forgotten thoroughly.
The steadiest link on Germany's road to the Euro 96 title stood between the posts. Two penalty-shootout freezes in the knockout rounds wrote "tournament goalkeeper" into the file. No other keeper in 1996 carried a harder big-match sample.
01Any of these five is a superstar in most years. But 1996 only had one starting XI — and the bench verdicts reveal this sheet's scale better than the selections do.
A reigning Ballon d'Or on the bench — that is the temper of this sheet.
Half of his award was scored on Euro 96 attacking output, and this ledger books defenders on defense: Baresi and Desailly hold both centre-back slots, Dunga locks the base. Honors hard. Slots full.
S1An unimpeachable season, out-filed by a thicker knockout ledger.
United's Double season, his form unimpeachable. But Denmark went out at the Euro group stage — the tournament sample is too thin. One keeper slot, and Köpke's knockout numbers were simply thicker.
S2Not too weak — same shelf.
He played the breakout Euro of his life and made the tournament team. But there is only one left-back slot on Earth, and that slot was occupied by Maldini.
S3Bati lost to the weighting, not the talent.
On pure finishing he may be the sharpest gun outside this table. But there is one striker slot: Shearer held the Euro Golden Boot, the world-record move and a third straight boot — a higher big-game multiplier.
S4The archive rejects incomplete samples. Even kings'.
Captain of the Double, king of his league. But the audit counts two strikes against him: back only in late January after suspension — a half-season sample — and no place in the national team, so the international dimension is blank.
S5Hover any cell: row and column lock in one tint, the cell under the cursor lights up in another; hover a header abbreviation for its full definition. Cells marked ● count toward that player's positional composite — a striker's score ignores defending, just as a keeper's ignores finishing. Attribute families are tinted: green=attack · cyan=creation · red=defense · white=physical · purple=mental · orange=GK.
| Player | Pos | ATTACK | CREATION | DEFENSE | PHYSICAL | MENTAL | GK ONLY | OVR | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FIN | HEA | DRI | OFF | LSH | PAS | CRO | SET | THR | TOU | TAC | MAR | POS | INT | PAC | ACC | STA | STR | JUM | DUR | DEC | CMP | CON | LEA | WOR | FLA | SHS | REF | CMD | OVR | ||
| Andreas Köpke | GK | — | — | — | — | — | 45 | — | — | — | 35 | — | — | 84 | — | 40 | 40 | 60 | 70 | 65 | 80 | 82 | 88 | 88 | 72 | 72 | 30 | 89 | 88 | 84 | 88 |
| Cafu | RB | 60 | 55 | 78 | 74 | 62 | 78 | 85 | 60 | 70 | 76 | 79 | 76 | 78 | 76 | 90 | 89 | 92 | 74 | 62 | 90 | 78 | 76 | 74 | 70 | 92 | 78 | — | — | — | 83 |
| Paolo Maldini | LB | 40 | 74 | 68 | 45 | 42 | 80 | 78 | 55 | 68 | 80 | 93 | 92 | 94 | 90 | 85 | 83 | 88 | 80 | 78 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 84 | 82 | 62 | — | — | — | 89 |
| Dunga | DM | 55 | 62 | 64 | 60 | 72 | 80 | 66 | 68 | 72 | 72 | 86 | 84 | 86 | 86 | 68 | 66 | 84 | 80 | 70 | 82 | 88 | 86 | 84 | 92 | 90 | 48 | — | — | — | 85 |
| Franco Baresi | CB | 35 | 80 | 60 | 40 | 35 | 76 | 50 | 45 | 62 | 74 | 92 | 94 | 96 | 93 | 62 | 60 | 68 | 76 | 80 | 66 | 94 | 92 | 92 | 95 | 76 | 50 | — | — | — | 89 |
| Marcel Desailly | CB | 48 | 82 | 66 | 48 | 50 | 70 | 52 | 45 | 55 | 70 | 90 | 88 | 86 | 87 | 84 | 83 | 84 | 88 | 84 | 86 | 82 | 82 | 80 | 72 | 84 | 45 | — | — | — | 87 |
| Ronaldo Nazário | RW | 96 | 60 | 97 | 93 | 82 | 78 | 62 | 70 | 76 | 94 | 25 | 20 | 40 | 28 | 96 | 97 | 80 | 82 | 68 | 84 | 82 | 84 | 62 | 50 | 62 | 96 | — | — | — | 93 |
| Zinedine Zidane | CM | 78 | 74 | 92 | 78 | 80 | 93 | 74 | 82 | 90 | 94 | 55 | 45 | 62 | 58 | 72 | 70 | 80 | 80 | 74 | 78 | 90 | 88 | 76 | 76 | 70 | 92 | — | — | — | 90 |
| Alan Shearer | CF | 94 | 92 | 70 | 90 | 88 | 66 | 55 | 78 | 58 | 78 | 35 | 30 | 55 | 38 | 84 | 82 | 80 | 90 | 88 | 82 | 80 | 86 | 70 | 78 | 80 | 62 | — | — | — | 91 |
| Rui Costa | AM | 72 | 48 | 88 | 80 | 74 | 92 | 78 | 80 | 92 | 90 | 40 | 32 | 52 | 44 | 74 | 74 | 76 | 62 | 55 | 74 | 88 | 84 | 70 | 66 | 72 | 88 | — | — | — | 88 |
| George Weah | LW | 88 | 68 | 90 | 86 | 78 | 72 | 66 | 55 | 66 | 84 | 30 | 25 | 48 | 32 | 93 | 93 | 78 | 80 | 78 | 76 | 76 | 76 | 62 | 62 | 72 | 90 | — | — | — | 88 |
Two rulers, declared: the "OVR" here is a position-weighted attribute composite — formulas above, anyone can recompute it. The OVR on Dossier #0396's ranking is a ranking score (positional technique + big-game index + league load + international impact) — a different ruler. The numbers sit close but are not the same, and must not be compared directly. Adjustment on record: Maldini's 1996 snapshot stamina (84→88) and durability (86→90) were raised after re-checking his 95/96 availability record; logged here.
Two inputs, disclosed. ① FM-era engine values (the FSM97 / Championship Manager generation treated as time-capsules of contemporary scouting opinion — see R9 Across Seven Engines); ② audited 1996 season data from Dossier #0396. Where the engine and the season disagree, the season wins and the divergence is noted.
Scale: 1–99, same ruler as the engines, so future cross-era work stays comparable. Confidence: L2 — single-method reconstruction, not yet cross-verified by an independent second method; every value carries this caveat until promoted. Baresi's row is his age-36 farewell season: the mind at 94+, the legs at 60s — both stay in the ledger.
Where this goes: season snapshots per player (peaks and valleys alike), then the Cross-Era Arena — the 1996 sheet you are reading is the ruler's first calibration. Player profiles grow from here: Paolo Maldini, 25 seasons year by year is the first.
Numbers don't talk. But they remember.
BONG WENG
The Archivist
1996 is the archive's founding year — and my awakening year. I was ten, hunched over a heavy CRT monitor, running a squad of numbers from a game called FSM97 through season after season. I didn't really know who those players were. I only remember a striker named Citko, rated 85, higher than Raúl. History sometimes hides in corners like that — inside numbers a child can't read yet. And numbers are kinder than legends: they never cut anyone from the squad.
That's why this table is so stubborn: every attribute has a source, every overall has a formula, every confidence level carries its disclaimer. Because I've known for a long time that one day someone will take this ruler and measure their own world with it — maybe a ten-year-old hunched over some screen, right now. I know that posture. It was mine.
These eleven don't know me, and I won't pretend they owe me anything. I owe them one thing only: to write them into the ledger, properly — even if hardly anyone is watching.
“You remember names. I keep the books. Names get forgotten — books don't.”