I simmed forward 5.5 years with the following leagues active: Czechia, Denmark, and Austria, and used a database with all African players active. Only a handful of players based in Africa were bought by clubs outside the continent, even though I had specifically set up the database to maximise the potential of this happening, by having a disproportionate number of African players and specifically setting as active leagues the leagues containing Nordsjaelland, Vyskov, and RB Salzburg, all of which are known IRL as clubs that sign a notable number of players directly from African leagues.
Nordsjaelland signed two players based in Africa in total in 5.5 years: one from Algeria and one from Libya. Importantly, they signed no players at all from the Right To Dream academy in Ghana, which they are affiliated to and sign notable numbers of players from IRL.
RB Salzburg signed 0 players based in Africa in 5.5 years. For reference, they're not turning up at Liefering either. Liefering don't sign anybody – they just sell players.
Vyskov signed one player based in Africa in 5.5 years – Ousmane Diop on a free transfer (and he previously played in Europe).
I tried something similar in an earlier build ("Zambia AR - Unemployed Indonesia Uruguay Austria plus 5 year.fm"), but this time with Austria, Indonesia and Uruguay as playable leagues (again with all African players added) – and got more or less the same result. The only teams that seem interested in signing players based in Africa are a few from Saudi/the Gulf, and even there the interest is limited (which is fair enough - it seems to have been toned down from earlier builds, which I'm glad about). Also the occasional very high potential and ability player will attract interest from PSG, for whatever reason.
The net effect of this transfer behaviour is that the highest potential African players remain in Africa, and are not able to reach their full potential by moving to leagues in Europe. Their pathway to elite football is cut off. This is unrealistic. African players such as Patson Daka and Enoch Mwepu among a host of players at RB Salzburg – many via Liefering https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/red-bull-salzburg/alletransfers/verein/409, Simon Adingra amongst others at Nordsjaelland, and many many players from Africa in the case of Vyskov https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/mfk-vyskov/alletransfers/verein/13753 got their start in European football at these clubs.
It does not appear to me that the quality and/or price are an issue. For example, see the attached Malian player, generated on the earlier build. He is free and plays for Yeelen, a club that RB Leipzig have IRL bought players from and have some knowledge of. Okay, yes he's a winger and Leipzig are famous for playing wingless, but he has great physicals, good CA (113) and PA (139), and a good personality.
I have made a suggestion on the suggestions forum for what could be done about this, but I don't know quite how the game is coded, so maybe there's other options. But this seems to be a significant problem - if these clubs aren't even buying players from Africa when everything's set up to encourage it, what happens when it's not?
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