Kevin Toms

Created the first major football management simulation videogame.
Founded Addictive Games, an influential UK game publisher during the 1980s.
Football Manager sold hundreds of thousands — possibly millions — of copies across many computer platforms.
Helped popularize sports management simulation games decades before modern franchises such as: Football Manager, Championship Manager
Successfully revived his classic design philosophy for mobile and PC platforms in the 2010s and 2020s.

Kevin Toms is considered one of the founding figures of the football management genre. His original Football Manager introduced mechanics that became standard in later sports-management games, including: Team selection, Transfers, Injuries, Tactical management, League simulations, Match highlights, Long-term club progression.
The success of his work directly influenced later management franchises and demonstrated that sports strategy simulations could become commercially successful videogames.
Many retro gaming historians describe his 1982 release as the “DNA” of all modern football management games.

Kevin Toms originally developed Football Manager while working full-time as a programmer.
Early copies were duplicated and mailed manually from his apartment.
He lived and worked in several countries including: United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada, Netherlands
His games were released on many classic systems including:
ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS, BBC Micro, ZX81
He remains highly respected within retro gaming communities.