Seeking 'architecture' advice for a team of soccer playing ragdolls

Depending on how far in shape and size the soccer players are going to be you will go between 1 to 3 skeletons, IMO. The less models you have to rig, the better. you need to have one or more objects that just contain the stats that affect * Animation speed/time * movement speed * Health * Aggression * Power * etc. For some reason your project reminded me of a game I used to play long ago that I cherish NES Longplay [417] Nintendo World Cup