Originally Posted by
Daltone
I'd ignore FIFA entirely. I recently bought FIFA 2006 (mainly because Pro Evo wasn't out) and have been less than impressed. Yes, it has the official player names. Yes, it has a few passable representations of players, but over all it just doesn't play as well as some other games and the graphic frills are looking less and less impressive each year as Konami's flagship game improves in leaps and bounds. The manager mode is disappointingly easy and rather confusingly laid out.
Pro Evolution Soccer is the way to go. Pro Evo 5 should be out soon, and as such Pro Evo 4 is dirt cheap and still crazyily good.
If you want to try your hand at football management I'd go for Football Manager 2006. It's made by Sports Interactive, the guys behind the Championship Managers of old. Whilst CM got a new development team and a total overhaul, it also became very, very bad. You find yourself winning by huge amounts. Football Manager isn't a great departure from SIs previous games, but it is nicely refined and just, well, downright works. I dread to think how long I've spent playing it.