June, 2026
33 years old, and just one year left to live
The Elimination Challenge is nearly over and there remains just one year left in the competition before it finally ends. The players have both fought fiercely, but it seems like it might not be such a close finish after all with Shantanu Rooney pulling ahead and leaving Ollie behind, making victory just about impossible for the Holdenator. The 2026 World Cup hasn't been played yet but qualifying is well and truly over and the groups have been drawn.
Taking a look at the 2026 World Cup Qualifying, and Ghana and Nigeria were the two main exceptions from the event, with Tunisia and Mali qualifying ahead of them in their respective groups. South Africa, Egypt and Ivory Coast all qualified with relative ease in a fairly straightforward qualifying campaign.
The Asian qualifying was fairly routine as well, with Japan, South Korea, Australia, Saudi Arabia and Iran all qualifying. Saudi Arabia were the most impressive team, taking 21 points from 8 matches to finish comfortably top of their group ahead of Australia while in Group A it was Japan and South Korea qualifying. The United Arab Emirates took on Iran in the playoff and despite being 3-1 down after the away leg, it was Iran who pulled out a 4-1 victory to qualify for the final playoff against New Zealand. The Kiwis never stood a chance however, going down 7-1 on aggregate and failing to qualify. China also came through out of the Asian teams, although that was by default as they are hosting the tournament.
In North America, it was the US, Mexico, Canada and Honduras who all qualified, with Honduras defeating Ecuador in the playoff between the two Americas. USA topped the group, losing just two out of ten matches with Mexico a close second. Jamaica were by far the worst team, earning only a single point in the group thanks to a fortuous 3-3 draw with Canada. In South America the group finished as expected as well, though Uruguay and Paraguay may be a bit disappointed they failed to qualify. Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Colombia were the four teams to go through; though just three points separated the 8th placed Paraugay from the 4th placed Chile in a fairly tight qualifying group. Even Bolivia didn't disgrace themselves, finishing last despite earning 14 points from 18 matches.
Finally over to Europe where one of the most straightforward qualifying campaigns ever took place, with no real big nations missing out. The highest profile countries that missed out from the qualifying would arguably be Turkey, Russia and Greece - however, all the big nations got through. Germany, France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and England all topped their groups comfortably to earn qualification while Serbia, Denmark, Sweden and Ukraine went through despite finishing second. The Czech Republic and Croatia both won their relatively easy groups and will also be heading to the World Cup in China.
The groups have been drawn and Group D remains the hardest group by a mile - easily the group of death, with no other group near in contention. It features Spain, Ivory Coast, Argentina and Mexico and should feature some highly entertaining matches. Group B is also a relatively tough one, with Australia, Ukraine, the USA and Croatia taking place in what should be a very competitive group and Group E will also be very tough for Japan and Colombia as they face European giants Portugal and France.
Here's all of the groups:
Group A: England, Denmark, Mali, Iran
Group B: U.S.A., Ukraine, Australia, Croatia
Group C: Italy, South Africa, Sweden, Canada
Group D: Spain, Argentina, Mexico, Ivory Coast
Group E: Portugal, France, Japan, Colombia
Group F: Germany, Chile, Honduras, China
Group G: Holland, Serbia, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia
Group H: Brazil, South Korea, Czech Republic, Egypt
It should be an interesting World Cup, which I will cover briefly in the final update.
To the players now and as I mentioned earlier it looks like it won't be a tight finish, with
Shantanu Rooney comfortably extending his lead in the triple points period thanks to some handy international appearances giving him a handy boost. Despite being 33 years old, Shantanu Rooney kept his spot for many of the matches and he still remains very fit, although his pace and acceleration is now well down from what it once was in his heyday. He is still valued at $12,250,000 and if England have a good World Cup campaign he may just end up breaking the 100 caps mark, which would be a huge achievement. This year for Real Madrid, he ended up playing 41 matches which is a fantastic effort for a striker of his age, though five of them were as a sub. He scored 28 goals and still managed to average 7.46 for the year. Although it is down on his previous tallies, for someone of his age it is a great effort and when you are still playing at the highest level at that age it is always going to be very hard for anybody to catch him on the leaderboard. It was yet another relatively injury-free season for Shantanu, with his only injury a stubbed toe keeping him out for a week. In fact, Shantanu hasn't been out injured for longer than a month for over twelve years - the last incident was in 2014 when he tore his calf in a match.
Ollie Holden hasn't been quite as lucky, with an injury list over his career stretching far longer than Shantanu's. This season wasn't terrible for him, however he sprained his ankle on the 5th of April which ended up keeping him out for the rest of the season and hurting his chance to gain some points on Shantanu. Overall it was quite a reasonable year for the veteran midfielder who made 38 starts for Villarreal and averaged a respectable 7.42. However, Shantanu made just a few more international appearances than him and earned a few more Man of the Match awards, which proves to be the only thing that has set these two players apart over the year in terms of points. Ollie will have to be fairly happy with his year, and he is still one of the key players at Villarreal, but he needs more than a miracle now to catch Shantanu Rooney, and it appears highly unlikely that anything will come together in just one year. Still, if Shantanu picks up a serious injury that ends up keeping him out for a number of months it is still possible for Ollie to overtake Shantanu, although Ollie will need to have a great, injury free year to maximise his earnings on the triple point bonus.
Blue: Back to back wins
Roll of Honour:
Barclays Premier League: Manchester City
Serie A TIM: Juventus
Liga BBVA: R. Madrid
1. Bundesliga: FC Bayern
Ligue 1 Orange: Olympique Lyonnais
Eredivisie: PSV
Liga Sagres: Benfica
Turkcell Sper Lig: Galatasaray
Jupiler Pro League: Club Brugge
Russian Federation Premier Liga: Krylja Sovetov
Bank of Scotland Premier League: Celtic
FIFA Club World Cup: Juventus 4-0 New York
UEFA Champions League: Man City 2-1 Genoa
Europa League: OM 2-1 Sporting CP
UEFA Super Cup: Zaragoza 2-0 Juventus
Ollie H (MC, England)
Club: Villarreal
League: Liga BBVA
Player Profile
Points: 5888.08
Shantanu Rooney (ST, England)
Club: Real Madrid
League: Liga BBVA
Player Profile
Points: 7065.46
Leaderboard:
Code:
Player Team Value (AUD) Points
[IMG]http://leadpaging.com/ars/equal.gif[/IMG] Shantanu Rooney Real Madrid $12.25M 7065.46
[IMG]http://leadpaging.com/ars/equal.gif[/IMG] Ollie H Villarreal $8.75M 5888.08
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[IMG]http://www.careercalculus.com/images/cross_button.gif[/IMG] Hedger Eliminated 2022/23
[IMG]http://www.careercalculus.com/images/cross_button.gif[/IMG] Mattfb Eliminated 2019/20
[IMG]http://www.careercalculus.com/images/cross_button.gif[/IMG] Nakul Eliminated 2017/18
[IMG]http://www.careercalculus.com/images/cross_button.gif[/IMG] Maney2k9 Eliminated 2015/16
[IMG]http://www.careercalculus.com/images/cross_button.gif[/IMG] MaD Eliminated 2014/15
[IMG]http://www.careercalculus.com/images/cross_button.gif[/IMG] Giggity Giggity Eliminated 2013/14
[IMG]http://www.careercalculus.com/images/cross_button.gif[/IMG] User2010 Eliminated 2012/13
[IMG]http://www.careercalculus.com/images/cross_button.gif[/IMG] The Spin Eliminated 2011/12
[IMG]http://www.careercalculus.com/images/cross_button.gif[/IMG] Covvy Eliminated 2010/11
[IMG]http://www.careercalculus.com/images/cross_button.gif[/IMG] Treva Eliminated 2009/10
Value Changes:
Code:
Player Change
[IMG]http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/04/__down_arrow.jpg[/IMG] Ollie H $14.75M
[IMG]http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/04/__down_arrow.jpg[/IMG] Shantanu Rooney $20.25M
Wages:
Code:
Player Team Wage (per year)
[IMG]http://leadpaging.com/ars/equal.gif[/IMG] Shantanu Rooney Real Madrid $23,000,000
[IMG]http://leadpaging.com/ars/equal.gif[/IMG] Ollie H Villarreal $19,250,000
International Caps:
Code:
Player Caps Goals Country
[IMG]http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/04/__up_arrow.jpg[/IMG] Ollie H 93 13 England
[IMG]http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/04/__up_arrow.jpg[/IMG] Shantanu Rooney 91 77 England
and I havent won the award. Thats really sad. 
