Is the fictional footballer on the rise again?

Jamie Johnson, Noah Murphy, Maggie O’Connell, Charlie Stubbs, Shakes, The Blok, El Matador. Are we seeing the emergence of a crop of fictional footballers worthy of standing on the shoulders of giants like Roy Race, Blackie Gray, Tommy Barnes, Billy Dane, Hamish Balfour, Johnny Dexter and Glipton Grasshoppers’ star man Ross Nelson?

Jamie Johnson, a spin-off of the Dan Freedman book series, screened last month on CBBC, featuring cameos by Gary Lineker, Ruud Gullit and Roy Carroll, with a second series already commissioned. A small boy who dreams of becoming the best footballer in the world, Jamie moves to a new school, deals with bullies, searches for his dad and most crucially, makes the school football team.

The animated Supa Strikers have been on Disney XD for a while, but got another push on Sky during the Euros.