Mads Timm may have a name that suggests he belongs in a mental asylum, but it was his goalscoring feats on the Championship Manager games that sent opposition players crazy.
Sadly though, Timm’s career never really hit the heights of his fictional self…
Big things were expected of the Danish youngster Mads Timm when Sir Alex Ferguson dipped into the transfer market and brought him to Manchester United.
Though he was still only a teenager, Timm had obvious potential and was tipped as a future star.
He made his United bow in a Champions League tie with Maccabi Haifa, and many thought he would go on to an illustrious career.
Mads Timm celebrates a rare goal in a career that had promised so much more. Photo by Reuters
But injuries prevented him developing as he had hoped, and he was loaned to Norweigan side Viking, making history as he scored the first ever goal in their brand new Viking Stadion.
Timm also had a similar spell with English side Walsall, scoring once in nine appearances.
But it was his off-field antics that caused most headlines. In 2005 he was sentenced to 12 months in a young offenders institute for dangerous driving. Timm and his young Manchester United team-mate Calum Flanagan had been racing on a public road, and Flanagan’s car hit another vehicle.
Flanagan was sacked by United, but Timm was given a stay of execution. But that only delayed the inevitable, and with his career looking less promising by the day, United released their man.
His boyhood club Odense gave him another chance, but he scored only eight goals in 56 games over two years, and eventually ended up at Danish side Lyngby.
His time there was littered with injury problems and Timm was released after a year having made only one appearance.
Days later Mads Timm announced his retirement from professional football, citing injuries and a lack of motivation as reasons.
Another example of how a bagful of talent can go entirely to waste.
