Just past halfway in my ninth season of the ML in Pro Evo 5; it's 2013 and Minanda will retire at the end of the season at the age of 42. He has just short of 70 goals and 40 assists, from about 220 appearances, a ratio some of my strikers would die for. He used to be my penalty taker so I would estimate that at least 20 of those will be spot kicks, but he has also scored a dozen or so free kicks over the years, and his shot accuracy is the best it's ever been, enabling him to score a handful from the edge of the D and closer each year. I hope to give him as good a swansong as I can.
He might have to be content without a league title in his last season though; I started well but things soon got iffy, and have lost 3 times now as well as a number of draws (I only lost 4 league games in the previous two years combined), and I am down in 3rd. I go from a good performance to two or three mediocre ones, which can result in frustrating draws or deserved defeats. The computer has scored some nice goals against me, but I've also been a bit careless.
There are some high points though- I bought Ostwaut over the summer, one of the old guard from the PES 3 days. I never really appreciated how effective he can be back in 2003, but he has middle shooting and passing as special abilities (plus outside), and the former makes up for his lack of shooting power, so that at age 25 he is rather good at shooting from just outside the box. He has been sporadically used, as I am still using Minanda as my starting AMF and there are plenty of others on the bench who covet that role, but Ostwaut has 6 in all competitions so far. I've also had some big wins, mainly in the cup. Inconsistency has been the name of my game this season! In four legs of the D1 cup I've scored 16 goals! Things are looking quite good in both cups at the moment, I see myself getting to the knockout stages of the CL and probably the final of the D1 cup.
I also had a nice league game against Sparta Prague just before the Christmas break; scored an early goal with Barota, but on 13 minutes their striker was played through and I was chasing back with my RB, Ziliotto. I decided to take him out before he shot, and viciously slid into the back of his legs. Red card! Fair cop, I suppose, though I was at home and had hoped for some bias from the referee. They scored from the free kick.
I was incensed, however, when five minutes later I was in their box with my back to goal and a defender crudely hacked my legs away. The ball didn't even move!!! No card...and no penalty either! Not a foul according to Mr Magoo

. And this was at home remember! Thankfully, I played well and managed to get two more goals, winning 3-1 despite having ten men for most of the game, so I didn't get into a huff

. Oh, and to support the contention of others in this thread who have puzzled over the way the game rates player performance, Ziliotto got 6.0 and Barota, goal scorer and all round good performer, received 5.5. Maybe I should have got him sent off asap to boost his rating?!?!? I must say I feel aggrieved with the refs a lot in this game; I did 3 fouls in the match and got a red, Sparta did 11 and got nothing! Ok ok, my sending off was fully justified, being a deliberate and vicious foul as the last man, but still...that penalty decision rankled. Also, the computer will often sub a booked player, I've noticed, reducing my chance of getting them sent off. Spoilsports!
I don't know whether to finish the current playthrough at the end of the season, or wait until Barcao retires, or even keep going until Barota hangs up his boots. I want to see how many my primary goal-getters are amassing in all competitions. What I should do at the start of each new ML is get a notepad and keep a tally of all cup goals. Another small frustration is that when players without a club retire, such as ones I've let go, it's not announced in the news at the end of the season, so you don't see their stats (though they wouldn't have been much to shout about for Ximilez in this playthrough, I'm afraid).
EDIT: Having moaned about adverse treatment by referees, I got a very rare boon at home to PSG soon after posting- I was fouled in the penalty area by Mendy twice, scoring both times. The second time though he was given a straight red! This was still early in the game and left them without a right back. The match ended 7-0, very fun. I am through to the final of the D1 cup and into the CL semis (against Milan, who I beat last season in the final), but I am on really bad form and the title is pretty much out of reach now. Of the last five league games, I won one, drew two and lost two. One of the draws was against Rangers, the leading side, which I followed with another defeat. It's barely mathematically possible to win the title now and I've fallen to fourth, so I will try and muster myself for the cup games and not worry too much about doing badly in the league.