[FM20] [FM19] The Great San Marino Challenge

[FoxGe1994]

Wow - you got some good players there - would be nice if you could convince them to play for you.

Finger crossed that you win the play-offs in Nations League - then maybe some of them may be interested in changing because of the European Championsship. 

I just won NL Serie C - so know im waiting for next play-offs and hopefully i will win it and convince some of the players to change.

But the best 3 players will already bo locked at that time... 

Hopefully some other nice prospects will show up in the meantime. 

[duesouth]

3 hours ago, FoxGe1994 said:

Hopefully some other nice prospects will show up in the meantime. 

We live in hope every single season!!

[Lewis89]

5 hours ago, duesouth said:

2034/2035 Season (FM19) - Part 1

San Marino Calcio

It's been smooth sailing for San Marino Calcio.  We're a top side now and it's been easy so far.  Giving youth a chance is going to be a slow process - as too much and we'll drop points, players will be unhappy they aren't playing and if I get it really wrong, perhaps I'll get fired.  Right now not many are ready for the first team - perhaps one left back.  He's a dual national - so I'm not sure whether to hold him back a little so he doesn't get picked for Italy's senior team, or just play him to make sure he develops.  I would have sent him out on loan, but he rejected 2 moves.  Not quite sure what to do with the dual nationals it has to be said...  I'm certainly going to let some current senior squad players go when their contracts are up and hopefully we can have a good youth class this year, so I can start to replace them.

San Giovanni

We almost cracked the Champions League group stage again - but fell at the last hurdle to RB Salzburg (who we beat last year).  We again drew Anderlecht earlier in the CL qualifiers - and we beat them pretty easily 1-0 - I say easy as they had very few chances and we out shot them in both games.  Last year RB Salzburg played a narrow 4-2-2-2 formation against us - and it was easy to play against, particularly as our right winger is one of our best players and he had acres of space.  This year, they played a normal 4-2-3-1 and we got nowhere close to beating them.

That put us into the Europa League group stage - and for the first time at this stage, we had a bit of luck with the draw - Shakhtar, Partizan and Dundalk. In truth, I thought we had lost the chance to qualify when we failed to beat Dundalk at home (we were lucky to draw the game in truth) and then Partizan thumped us to leave us with 2 points from 3 games.  But then we managed to beat Partizan at home and then Shakhtar.  That left us needing a win away to Dundalk to qualify - or Shakhtar drawing or losing away to Partizan.  We were 1-1 with Dundalk with 15 minutes to go, and as a draw was of no use I went for it - but got done on the counter.  Thankfully, Partizan did us a favour and held on to win 3-2 and we qualified for the knockout stages for the first time!  We've drawn Sporting - probably no chance, but nice to a) get some points in the group (we'd managed 2 in 12 games previously) and b) to qualify.

We're undefeated so far domestically - I'm wanting to keep that going, but we tend to ease off when we've qualified for the Champions Playoffs, so I'll have to try to keep the boys motivated!

National Team

Despite Mirko Palazzi having some decent results in his time as manager, I took over with us still in Nations League Division D.  That needed to change... and it did.  Now, I know as San Marino you can be on the end of some thumpings - especially early in saves.  So, did I have sympathy for Liechtenstein as we beat them 10-0 or Azerbaijan with a 7-0 win?  No !  In the Liechtenstein game, both strikers had hat-tricks by half time!!  Anyway, we got promoted, dropping 2 points away to Belarus in a game we really should have won - but in all, it's a good start.

In European Championship qualifying, we've drawn Norway, Switzerland, Northern Ireland and Armenia.  I'm not expecting to qualify, but I hope we can beat Armenia twice and perhaps give Northern Ireland (ranked 71st in the world) a run for their money.  Anything against Norway and Switzerland with this team will be a bonus.

Certainly the team is better than when I was in charge the first time.  While San Marino Calcio are kings of Serie A and Europe - the National Team is going to take a while.  I have a lot of young players from the Calcio U20 side who I've kept around longer than I might normally.  They won't be Serie A players, but if I release them, they might end up retiring or be without a club.  So, far from a mighty oak at the moment, but there are lots of new shoots growing!

Great progress mate. With dual nationals i have found unless they are of serious quality, at around 21/22 they will change preference and pick San Marino. I have only lost 1 player to Italy so far and he is a potential Balon D'or winner so we never stood a realistic chance of calling him up. I even held him back for a couple of seasons to force it but that didnt work. 

[duesouth]

4 hours ago, Lewis89 said:

Great progress mate. With dual nationals i have found unless they are of serious quality, at around 21/22 they will change preference and pick San Marino. I have only lost 1 player to Italy so far and he is a potential Balon D'or winner so we never stood a realistic chance of calling him up. I even held him back for a couple of seasons to force it but that didnt work. 

Cheers mate - that's good to know, particularly at this stage of the save - never thought I'd play enough to get this far tbh!!

[Jack Jemison]

Season 2029 - World Ranking 125th 
 What a year! We qualified for the World Cup against all odds. Spain topped our group unsurprisingly, but we went undefeated against Albania, Romania and Belarus.  Finishing 4th in the second place table meant we will be travelling to Italy for the 2030 World Cup. Our World Cup draw was extremely harsh with Ivory Coast and Uruguay. I don't expect to get anywhere close to them but with a single lucky win, you never know. 

Our team is largely unchanged from the previous year, so I won't be featuring anyone. CC San Marino apparently have a striker in the pipeline for youth prospects which would be a treat. 

 

Achievements - @duesouth

Qualify for the World Cup

Top 150 in the World

 

[FoxGe1994]

Time for some update.

Im now in year 2072 - took me some time to gather a squad good enough to qualify for anything.

We did fine in the European Championsship Qualifying round - we were secound in our group:

But it was not enough to qualify... 

But we won the NL Serie C some years ago - so we had to play play-offs for the last spots at European Ch.

And won both matches!!!! 

So this is the squad for this championship - you will notice that we have some players with dual nationalities who really look good. They were terrible when they came though - but i captied them and they suddenly developed nice. 

Starting eleven:

When you look at the squad you will also notice that i have some nice young prospects who i will captie - they wanted to play for us because they wanted to play at the EC.

I still have some older players who im trying to convince - but they dont want to talk with us about it....

But its a young squad - so we should really develope as country from now on. 

 

 

Edited May 17, 2020 by FoxGe1994

[FoxGe1994]

New Achievement:

Promotion to NL A 

We are now ranked as 62. th nation.

We also just had intake - and La Fiorita really hammered it this time!

Look at these two:

Only Sanmarinese - will be in the NT.

This beautiful player is dual nationality with italian/sanmarinese - but convinced him to play for us! 

We already have some good players for the wings and attack - but really needed someone good for the midfield - so this is perfect!

[Lewis89]

San Marino 2038

Nations League Table    Results

Easily our most disappointing year for some time, we just couldn't get going in the Nations League. We have a half decent team now and have a few youngsters in the clubs youth sides who will improve us further in the next few years. We ended the year ranked 97th.

[Lewis89]

San Marino Calcio 2038/39

Competitions

Serie A - We won our 6th title in a row, but it was a close run battle with Fiorentina and we only sealed the title on the last day. With not signing anyone for the last 2 seasons, I expect us to fall away a little bit soon enough. But having won everything needed with the club side, the focus has fully shifted to developing the national team players. 

TIM Cup - We lost in the QF to Inter

Champions League - We lost in the QF to Manchester United.

Reserves

A solid season saw them finish the season in 9th which is the highest in 5 seasons.

Youth Production

Intake

Another season with no stand out player and we really need some stars to come through or we will flat line soon enough. That being said I have changed my HOYD this summer as we are producing decent players but not enough good players. I know these stars are not set in stone and I also know that even  a 2.5 star player can be very effective in the right role. I mentioned a CM in my last club post who I said looked massively underrated and as it stands, I was correct.  Marani 38b was rated as 3* PA and still is but I rate him higher and think he could be a very good player in the future.

Finances

We have £362m in the bank and are 10 years away from being able to build a new stadium.

Other Stuff

We have had our first club icon retire, he is not HG or Sammarinese, but what a player he has been for us. Sosa joined us 13 years ago and has played a key part in the clubs development. He didnt want to stay in football so we havent been able to offer him a staff role sadly. Also I have reached 1000 games in management.

[duesouth]

2034/2035 Season (FM19) - Part 2

San Marino Calcio

In another year, we probably wouldn't have won Serie A.  We dropped points fairly regularly after AC Milan beat us 1-0 in a real smash and grab job in the first leg of the Italian Cup semi-final.  We also lost the second leg, so didn't win that trophy.  However, everyone else dropped points too - Inter fell away, Juve made a charge and then fell away - so in the end we won with a game to spare - but it wasn't convincing.  The last game of the year, away to Roma, was 3 days before the CL final and we played 10 youth players - 9 of which were Sammarinese - we lost 1-0, but did OK.

The Champions League seemed easier than Serie A - perhaps as teams didn't park the bus against us.  Having said that, Bayern in the final were defensive, and that was harder work.  It was 0-0 with 2 minutes to go - the ball was with an 18 year old Sammarinese right winger, Massimo Cimmino (on as a sub) and he crossed for our Swedish superstar Jonas Moberg to head home - a nice FM moment made cooler by the fact a young Sammarinese talent set it up.

Youth Intake

I ended up signing all the Sammarinese players - although another fairly weak crop...

San Giovanni

In Europe, we drew Sporting of Portugal in the first knockout round of the Europa League.  I wasn't expecting much at all, so imagine my surprise and delight when we were 3-0 up at half time of the first leg (at home)!  They pulled one back, but we got another - but they got a late one to make it a 4-2 lead, but those 2 away goals loomed large.  Having been on the end of mostly slow passing/defensive formations this season in the league, I decided to try doing the same to Sporting.  It worked a treat!  They struggled to create anything - but did get a goal on 83 minutes.  Those last minutes could have been nervous, but we kept cool and held on for a 4-3 win!  The next round saw us draw Lazio, again with the home leg first.  We kept it tight and held on for a 0-0 draw!  I was thinking we'd get heavily beaten in the 2nd leg, but amazingly we took the lead on 7 minutes!  However, their class was too much for us and they scored on 36 and 71 minutes - adding another late on as we chased the game.  Still, our best showing in Europe and we did push Lazio!

Domestically, we didn't finish top of Group 1 for the first time in years - with lots of draws against parked buses (plus Europe taking it out of us).  However, we didn't lose a game domestically, so I finally got that achievement!!  We won both Cup finals fairly easily, with our shot count miles higher than the oppo.

Youth Intake

Better than last year with 3 who look to have potential to help the first team in time.

National Team

The green shoots of growth are very much in evidence with the National Team - and I have to say it's a joy to play their games for the first time in this save.  We started out our European Championship qualifying campaign with the 2 top seeds - and were able to get a point against Switzerland, and indeed had the best chance of the game - but the man, Andrea Bugli, fluffed his lines with a good early chance.  Norway on their patch were too good for us though - we lost 3-1, with our goal a late one.

To finish the 2034/35 season we had Northern Ireland at home and then away to Armenia.  I figure Norway will come top and Switzerland second - but as you never know, I figured to stand any chance we had to beat Northern Ireland at home (and maybe away also).  So, I went positive - and was rewarded with an early goal - but they equalised with a slightly lucky goal.  We kept going though and took the lead on 58 minutes through Calcio's star midfielder Thomas Broccoli.  We held on pretty easily to get a big win.  Armenia were poor and went with a narrow 4-2-2-2 - so it was easy to get space wide and put crosses in.  San Giovanni's Matteo Montanari got a hat-trick for an easy win.  That leaves us 2nd in the group - but we've played one game more than everyone else.

[Jack Jemison]

Season 11 - 29/30

Overview - 103pts - Champions - +70 Goal Difference

Back to Back Serie A Champions. Something to be proud of but we struggled in all other competitions. Being knocked out by Inter at home in the Coppa Italia Quarter Final was disappointing as this is a competition that we can definitely win at this point. We were beaten in the Super Cup by Juventus which adds to the overall disappointment. In the Champions League, we drew Liverpool which was always going to be difficult and we came up short in the Quarter Final. It seems that the Italian League is much weaker at this point in the game compared to other leagues. We and the other top Italian teams (Inter, Juventus, Roma) are routinely humbled by Spanish and English teams and it may take a few seasons to cross the gap. 

The league as a whole was excellent. We broke the record for a points tally in a season at 103pts. Ivan Restrepo once again won player of the year and it would seem my Deep Lying Playmakers in midfield are the picks for top awards. For the past couple of seasons we have struggled to find a striker who will score 25+ goals which is why the squad has 10+ goals spread over several players. Though, I may have solved that with a Brazilian acquisition in January who scored 11 goals in 15 starts in the league. I am starting 3 youth prospects in the starting 11. Matteo De Biagi (LW), Fillipo Casali (CB) and Marco Casali (CB) and hopefully we can produce a midfielder and striker soon. 

Next season, the goal is to continue winning titles but bring home another trophy. 

Transfers (Major Only) - Budget $25m

In (118m)

Jaja (24m) - Our Brazilian boywonder. My hope is that he can develop into a 30+ goal a season player and take our team to glory.

Alex Tremble (Free) - A great free transfer. Towards the end of the season, he was easily our best left back and is now getting bids from Tottenham, Arsenal and Liverpool for 60m+. 100m and I'll let him go.

Bo Sorensen (79m) - I broke the bank on this one. Mainly because he fits my system perfectly. 7.28 average rating, 7 assists and 3 goals. Not a bad return but I am looking for him to kick on and become a mainstay in our team. 

Out (88m)

Petar Paraskov (7.25m) - Made a little profit off this man. Was starting to become a bit part player and Salzberg came in with a decent offer and away he went. 

Esteban Girard (21.5m) - A little sad. Our 2 time player of the year also went off to Salzberg. But, he was pushed out of the team by Ivan Restrepo and we cashed in for a handy profit.

Arnau Tenas (7.75m) - Our long time 1st choice goalkeeper left to Real Madrid (odd) and he was replaced by a much better keeper last season.

Ruben (45.5m) - Brought in for 2.8m and sold for a huge profit to Hertha Berlin.

Gianni Berni (15.5m) - After two great seasons when we first came into Serie A but has been on a downward slide both Mentally and statistically. Cashed in and sold to KK Gent.

Youth

Frustratingly bad. Upgrades to training facilities and keep bringing in success and hopefully we will have some decent intakes in the next few seasons.

Other Notes -  

U20s won back to back titles as well. 

I am going to start investing equal amounts of cash into the Sammarese league. I am affiliates with Cosmos but that has amounted to little. Therefore, I am going to start buying youth players for 500k and see if that injection of cash can spur the league into producing decent players over time.

Achievements 

None to speak of.  

 

 

Edited May 24, 2020 by Jack Jemison

[Harryseaess]

I'm looking to start this challenge.

Couple of questions:

Do I manage both the club and the country?
Can I sign and play foreign players for the club?

[duesouth]

9 hours ago, Jack Jemison said:

In the Champions League, we drew Liverpool which was always going to be difficult and we came up short in the Quarter Final. It seems that the Italian League is much weaker at this point in the game compared to other leagues.

I found that in my save as well.  I was trying to be clever tactically and got run over by some teams (Man U in the Europa League Semi beat us 5-1 on aggregate)  - so in the end went for broke - high press in place and attacking - and we started to win those games.  Weird!  Now I find CL games easier - as most Serie A teams park the bus and I get "FM'd" at times...

Feel the pain with the youth intakes - I'd love a real game changer of a group, but still waiting!  I've been wondering if my HOYD not having any knowledge of San Marino isn't helping - but all the Sammarinese HOYD's are garbage!

[duesouth]

6 minutes ago, Harryseaess said:

I'm looking to start this challenge.

Couple of questions:

Do I manage both the club and the country?
Can I sign and play foreign players for the club?

It's up to you if you start the save as manager of club and country, or just club.  At the start of the save managing the San Marino National Team you will get thumped fairly frequently.  However, the Nations League is a pretty cool thing and it does afford you control in who you call up and when you play them, which can help in Serie C and D club wise.  I recall the Serie C playoffs clashed with a National Team friendly, so I left out a couple of big names as I needed them for club!

With the signings, you can sign whoever you want for the club.  One way to go about it for sure is to be aggressive with recruitment to get you up the leagues and into Serie A ASAP!  Once there, the TV money makes it far easier to invest in facilities and hopefully better youth intakes.  At some point in the save you have to change to being far more aggressive with developing your Sammarinese young players - but for me that's really only just starting to happen and I'm in December 2035!  Earlier in the save I got relegated twice (C to D and B to C) which slowed me - I should have been less loyal to players who got me promoted!  Thinking about my save, I should have started that earlier - but my intakes were complete garbage!  Now, I'm trying to get the maximum out of every single Sammarinese player - even if they are only a Serie C/D talent.

Good luck - and have fun!

[Lewis89]

52 minutes ago, duesouth said:

I found that in my save as well.  I was trying to be clever tactically and got run over by some teams (Man U in the Europa League Semi beat us 5-1 on aggregate)  - so in the end went for broke - high press in place and attacking - and we started to win those games.  Weird!  Now I find CL games easier - as most Serie A teams park the bus and I get "FM'd" at times...

Feel the pain with the youth intakes - I'd love a real game changer of a group, but still waiting!  I've been wondering if my HOYD not having any knowledge of San Marino isn't helping - but all the Sammarinese HOYD's are garbage!

That is quite an interesting point regarding the HOYD's knowledge of san marino. Can you send a HOYD out on a scouting assignment? Im gonna have a look into this myself.

[duesouth]

26 minutes ago, Lewis89 said:

That is quite an interesting point regarding the HOYD's knowledge of san marino. Can you send a HOYD out on a scouting assignment? Im gonna have a look into this myself.

I just tried in my FM19 save and I couldn't.

It's interesting because I've got the 2 club thing going on in my save - both of my HOYD's are relatively fresh appointments.  My Calcio guy was 1.5 years ago - and my San Giovanni guy only at the start my current season (currently in December).  Both are Italian and had zero knowledge of San Marino.  My San Giovanni guy though has already started to get some knowledge of San Marino - but not my Calcio guy, in post longer, who still has Italian knowledge only.  Perhaps it's hard coded to the country of the league, not the country of your club?  Clearly a very specific and rare circumstance with San Marino Calcio.  I think with one other, Croatia Berlin, that's hard coded for them to produce mainly Croatian youth intakes, but not sure if that was ever done with San Marino Calcio (which is the same club as in FM19, but made un-extinct in the editor).  I do know the original Cattolica SM club in FM20 was hard coded to produce Italian intakes and we couldn't change it in the editor.

I guess I'll just keep checking to see if any staff new gens pop up with better attributes I guess - perhaps as San Giovanni and the San Marino League continues to evolve...

[Lewis89]

Yeah maybe the best route to do this would be to use san giovanni as a feeder team. Train the san marino knowledge up there and then let him move over to Calcio maybe. Only issue is he may lose the knowledge over time.

[duesouth]

2035/2036 Season (FM19) - Part 1

National Team

This part of the update features the last 4 European Championship qualifying games - plus we also had a friendly against Scotland.

We started out away to Switzerland - and I thought we were going to "FM" them, as going into injury time it was 0-0.  Unfortunately, they scored in the 91st minute to get a deserved win - after all they had 30 shots and we had... 1!!  After that, we rotated against Scotland in a friendly and lost 2-0 - we played pretty well though and just conceded 2 back-to-back right before the half.

At home against Norway, we played really well.  We were 1-0 down - but managed to equalise through San Marino Calcio's Alessandro Zonzini on the hour.  We were out shot 26-8 - but hung on for a valuable point.  3 days later, we were away to Northern Ireland.  Still in with a vague chance of qualifying, I decided to go for it and went "Positive".  That was rewarded with an early goal - just 4 minutes on the clock when San Marino Calcio's 18 year-old right winger Nicola Ceccoli struck.  The game was open - with both sides looking dangerous - but it was Northern Ireland who got the next goal on 24 minutes.  The game remained end-to-end, but on 64 minutes a long punt from San Giovanni left back Davide Zonzini put through THE man Andrea Bugli (now valued at £44.5 million!!) - his first shot was saved, but he made no mistake with the rebound and we had the lead again!  We managed to hold on for a big win!

That left us with 1 game to play - but Switzerland had 2 - home to Northern Ireland and away to Armenia.  If they won both, they were 2nd.  We took care of business in our final game, beating Armenia 3-1.  Switzerland meanwhile crumbled under the pressure and lost 2-1 to Northern Ireland!  That meant we were 2nd - and unexpectedly had me waiting for the last games to be played in other groups.  We actually managed to qualify without going through the playoffs!  It's probably going to be another "careful what you wish for" moment, but still I was very surprised we finished above Switzerland!  A "thank you" card went to the Northern Ireland squad!

My first choice XI features 7 San Marino Calcio players, 2 from San Giovanni, our keeper is at Pennarossa and our left back La Fiorita (although he's had just 3 starts for them this year, so his place has to be under threat).  6 of the rest of the squad are from San Giovanni and 5 from San Marino Calcio - with just a Cailungo keeper rounding out the squad.  So, pretty clear to see the rest of the San Marino League isn't helping much!

I'm desparate to get left back Davide Mancini to declare for San Marino.  He's 21 now and was in Italy's U23 squad for a recent friendly.  For Calcio, I couldn't hold him back any longer and he's now our first choice left back with a 7.61 average ranking in 17 games.  I fear we might lose him.  Central defender Federico Capicchioni, who we sold to Napoli for £10 million, is now 20 years of age and is in the full Italian squad, although still uncapped - they have 2 upcoming friendlies, so could still switch even if he plays in those - although it looks like we might lose him also.  I hope Italy leave both out of their European Championship squad - but hopefully it will be timed before our squad is decided so I might have a chance...

San Marino Calcio

Calcio have moved into a new 19,571 capacity stadium (the National Team is still in the old San Marino stadium - although San Marino U21's get to play in the new stadium!) - the crowds witnessing another strong season.  We won the European Super Cup with a strong team as we lost last year and I thought I'd give it more of a go this season.  In the league, we're undefeated - after a little run where we had some draws where we couldn't break down a parked bus, we've picked up and have won 12 straight in all competitions.  After an easy Club World Championship win last year, I left the first XI at home.  My second XI won the semi 5-1 and I then played my U20 team in the final.  A team featuring 6 Sammarinese players and 1 dual managed to win - although it did take penalties!

I have the big 2 - Bugli and midfielder Broccoli in my first choice XI, plus dual left back Mancini - and have been working in 2 or 3 U20's in most games - more in those against teams near the bottom.  It's a shame there's not a league cup equivalent to help - the Italian Cup we were straight into the first round and Fiorentina and then a Q-F against Roma, so no lower league fodder!  Anyway, a central defender, Righi, has started 6 games and 3 sub appearances with a 7.33 average rating - he's rated as 1.5 stars CA with another black star on top for PA.  Another central defender, Guerra, with the same CA, but slightly higher PA (2 gold + 1 black), has 6 starts and a sub appearance with a 7.43 average rating.

One success story has been Alessandro Zonzini.  Out on loan last year with Monza in Serie C, he scored just 3 goals in 30 appearances for them.  Now 26, he's not going to get much, if any, better.  However, with 7 starts and 9 off the bench, he's bagged 7 goals for us, which included a hat-trick in the Club World Championship semi-final.  So, more goals with us already this year than last year on loan at a lower level!  It's crucial to carefully pick the games he starts, as against the top sides he'll probably struggle - but I can hide him to a degree if I start him with our strongest team.

In the U18 team - there's just one 5 star PA player - dual keeper Bronzetti, who is 17.  He's in the Italian U20 squad atm.  Hopefully, this youth intake will feature something better - all facilities etc. are now "state of the art", so I am hoping!!

 

San Giovanni

Our first two CL qualifiers were easy - 5-1 and 4-1 first leg wins meant the ties were effectively over.  However, CSKA Sofia were too good for us in the next round.  We lost 3-2 on aggregate - but were out played in both games and never looked like beating them in either game.  CSKA were a 3* rep team - and I was expecting another tough game against 3* rep Maribor in the Europa League qualifier.  That didn't happen, as we smashed them 7-0 in the first leg!  We played a very young team in the second leg and got stuffed 4-0, so perhaps not the best idea!!  That gave us another year in the Europa League group stage - but a tougher group.  We lost both games to a French team and could only draw with Celtic at home, a game we needed to win, and lost to them at Celtic Park.  We drew with Austria Vienna away, in a game we perhaps should have won, and beat them 1-0 at home - but finished 3rd and are out.

Smooth sailing in the league and Cup - undefeated, so that's 1.5 years domestically without a loss.  I'm playing 2 separate teams to help with development - I was playing my strongest team 2 games and the weaker 1 on a rotation - but now switch game-to-game.  Our backup keeper has really benefited from this and he might push our #1 keeper who is now 23 and unlikely to develop a huge amount more.

One thing I like to do is scan the San Marino National Team Pool and check if any players are without a club.  Two were in the summer - a left winger released by Calcio and former San Marino Calcio legend, central defender Riccardo Gatti (now 33 with 121 caps!).  We had an import left winger and 2 promising backups, so I ignored the winger - but I was able to sign Gatti pretty easily.  I didn't want him retiring - and I had a slot, so pounced!  He's an excellent mentor - and that will help with some low determination players in the first team squad.  As we approached the transfer window, we received a bid out of the blue for our Italian left winger - £500,000 from Saudi club Al-Ettifaq.  With the player wanting to go, I accepted the bid - and then quickly signed the released Calcio left winger, Luca Zanotti, who has 11 appearances for us with a 7.64 average rating!  He's got 15 pace and 15 decisions - but got lost in a log jam at the position with Calcio.

 

[deadfncat]

Giving this a go. Will see how we go. 

First season in Serie D was pretty easy. Unbeaten for the first 22. dropped 3 later in the season, but still took the title easily

 

 

Wow this just happened too after not winning in 90+?

 

 

 

 

Edited May 25, 2020 by deadfncat

[duesouth]

2035/2036 Season (FM19) - Part 2

National Team

It was pretty much as expected in the European Championships.  Drawn against hosts Portugal, Germany and Russia - I figured we were still some distance from competing.  However, after going 2-0 up against Russia in the opener, it was disappointing to only draw.  Even more disappointing was the fact it was another injury time goal conceded - the team just can't stop the tide when the oppo goes "Attacking".  We got stuffed by Portugal - but did better against Germany.  They scored through an own goal by our keeper (palmed a corner into his own net!) and then a late penalty as we chased an unlikely draw.

Dual National Update

There are now 5 dual players who would walk into the National Team - and I couldn't get any of them to join us for the Euros.  The best is left back Davide Mancini who played 22 games for the Calcio first team with an average rating of 7.48.  I fully expect to lose him to Italy - and even San Marino Calcio as big clubs are taking strong interest.  The other 3 are involved with Italy U21's - and there's one new one who was in the most recent youth intake.  A striker, he listened to me trying to talk him into playing for us, but opted to wait for Italy.  Obviously, I can have another go before the Nation's League.

Interestingly, the central defender Capicchioni played 36 games for Napoli.  You may remember this is the 5'10"/9 jumping reach central defender who I sold for £10 million at 16.  When Calcio played Napoli in the Italian Cup Final, I put THE man Andrea Bugli on him.  Bugli scored with a header and Capicchioni was so stressed, 5 minutes later he put one into his own net - so his first goal for San Marino Calcio!!  I'm not too worried about him as we are short enough as a team anyway and he would add to the problem - although I could play him at right back (where I was initially training him).

San Marino Calcio

We had a 15 point lead in the table as Napoli fell away.  So, it was a good time to play young players.  That resulted in poor form - lots of draws and then some losses.  In the end we won 3 games in a row in May (one of which was the Italian Cup Final) and that was enough for the title - but only just as Lazio were on a roll.  The last 2 games, we went very young and lost both - Inter thumping us 5-0.  In the CL, we lost to Liverpool 1-0 on aggregate in the semi - we hit the post 3 times and had 2 ruled out for offisde - such is life.

Due to injuries to both of my normal starting central defenders (an Italian and Slovenian), 18 year old Michele Giacobbi got thrown in at the deep end.  He was a 1* CA/2* PA guy - but he's Sammarinese, and I had few other options in a bit of an injury crisis at the position.  He played 6 games for us with a 6.92 average rating and is now a 1.5 CA player - his form got him a call up to the National Team.

My dual striker is now 3* CA at 19, but struggled for goals - just 2 in 8 appearances - 1 a direct free kick and the other a tap in I would have scored!  Outside of that, no massive development.  A lot of 1.5* CA players played a lot - 3 of them had 17 or more appearances with average ratings above 7 (right winger Cimmino was 7.2 with 6 goals), but development was limited.

A number of players were out on loan.  I tracked their CA/PA before and after the season and only 1 player developed - so that's not really working.  It might be best to keep them with Calcio as my training facilities are state of the art and most of the training categories are 4*+ with senior, U20 and U18 teams.  However, it does give the Sammarinese guys some Serie C/D visibility and might prevent them retiring if I have an injury crisis with the National Team.

Youth Intake

This was a better group - although the best prospect is... Italian.  The striker Muccioli is 6'7" so would lend some height defending corners..., if I can get him to play for us.  He's not been called up to Italy U19's yet, so hopefully I can get him onboard for the Nation's League campaign.

San Giovanni

Not quite normal service, as we lost to Tre Fiori in the Cup semi.  The 3-1 loss after a 1-1 first leg was our first Cup loss in a long, long time.  However, after a slow start in the Champions Playoffs, we walked the semi and beat our closest rival (and the only other team to get through one round in European qualifiers - but just one!) Pennarossa 3-0 in the final courtesy of a hat-trick from veteran Matteo Montanari (leading league scorer with 16).

Youth Intake

As with Calcio, this was much better.

[Feliks]

Decided to go down the @duesouth route and take over the Phoenix club! Should be a bit of a slow processing grind getting through the seasons, good thing I have about 10 seasons worth of The Simpsons I've been meaning to re-watch!

[duesouth]

12 minutes ago, Feliks said:

Decided to go down the @duesouth route and take over the Phoenix club! Should be a bit of a slow processing grind getting through the seasons, good thing I have about 10 seasons worth of The Simpsons I've been meaning to re-watch!

Great to have you onboard - good luck!

[deadfncat]

Going into my third season now. Blasted through Serie D and Serie C was mid table most of the season until late and we won playoffs. now struggling big time in Serie B

Even garbage youth players coming through are decent in the national team though which is a nice help. had a few wins and gone up the national rankings a bit.

[TacticalGenius]

Been MIA for a while but I'm back!

 

[duesouth]

2036/2037 Season (FM19) - Part 1

National Team

After walking our Division D group last time out in the Nation's League, I was hoping to be more competitive than we turned out to be in Division C.  We stayed up by 1 point - which was a 1-1 draw at home to Poland.  We managed to beat Bosnia at home - the rest of the games we lost.  In our World Cup qualifying group, we have drawn Italy, Norway, Rep Ireland, Kosovo (who like us qualified for the last Euros, so harder than it looks) and Liechtenstein (who we beat 10-0 2 years ago!).

On the dual front, left back Davide Mancini is now a full Italian international .  It wasn't a surprise, as at 22 years of age, he's a 4.5* CA guy in a very good club side - but still...  No movement on the others - I badly need a keeper, but I suspect Michael Bronzetti will go the same way.  He's 18 and already a 2.5* CA and developing without me really trying.  Striker Fabrizio Muccioli is now playing in the San Marino Calcio first team (10 appearances - 5 goals at 7.05 avg rating) and is 3.5* CA with a lot of arrows pointing up.  He's 19 and in the Italian U21 team.  By the time he's too old for U21 football, I suspect he's going to be pretty good - but I just couldn't hold him back any longer - perhaps I need to...

I did give this guy a call up as he wanted to play for San Marino, but as you can see, he's not amazing (3rd or 4th choice centre midfielder - but with some potential).  Those arrows are the wrong way around too - perhaps as I had been using him off the bench a little for the first team.  I'll leave him in the U18's for the next couple of months so he can get the more intensive training and hope to see some up arrows soon!!

San Marino Calcio

It's all getting pretty routine.  So much so, I've done instant result in some games for the first time.  I was using a rotated team quite often (full of Sammarinese players), but after getting thumped 4-2 at Fenerbache in the CL, I made changes.  I now use 2 teams, rotating them every game - each team has 5 first team players and 5 backups (most of which are Sammarinese).  That's worked a treat results wise - but development of some of the lesser players isn't great.  Oddly, our top scorer is a 1.5* CA guy who I play simply because he's the best option for the National Team and I don't want him retiring!  A bit odd with many of these 1.5* guys that their average ratings in Serie A are good (I've got a left winger at 7.2, central defender at 7.02, right winger at 7.1 and Zonzini at 7.09), but development is poor (most are late teens/early 20's - Zonzini is older so I'm not expecting him to develop more).

San Giovanni

Our first two European qualifiers were easy, as has become the norm.  Last year CSKA Sofia knocked us out of CL quals - and we were far from their level.  So, I wasn't happy when we got them again (happens too often across all the various draws).  However, there must have been development with this group as we won both games 1-0 to go through.  That left us with Polish side Legia in the final hurdle.  We drew at home 0-0 and I thought we had lost the chance.  We went 1-0 down in the 3rd minute of the 2nd leg, so nothing changed my mind!  However, we kept it tight and then I subbed both strikers on 67 minutes - and 2 minutes later, backup DLF Berti scored.  We held on fairly easily to make it to the CL group stage for the 2nd time.  Our reward?  Real Madrid, Man City and Atalanta.  Needless to say, we got stuffed out of sight in all 6 games.

Fairly normal domestically, although we lost the San Marino Super Cup game for the first time in the save!  Oddly Pennarossa, who beat us, haven't started the Group 1 campaign well, dropping 2 games - but we are only 3 games in.  We'll see if someone else overtakes them as our nearest rival.  I did see Faetano signed a few San Marino Calcio rejects, who are good for this level, so maybe them...

I have been thinking about where to go with San Giovanni.  I could be aggressive and sign imports to do better in Europe and take the next step, but it has little value to the National Team (and there's no financial need for Europe as the last upgrade to facilities is paid for, so we're "state of the art" for everything).  So, the imports I have will stay unless there's someone behind them who might be better with playing time, but I'm not going to sign further imports.  Our young keeper might end up starting for the National Team soon - his development has been good - but I wouldn't say development is great in this league.  It's a better league than at the start of the save, but still far from Serie A.  Europe does help development - but getting thumped by the likes of Real and Man City probably doesn't!

HOYD Experiment

I'm interested in the impact the nationality of a club's HOYD has on nationality of the youth intake class.  As there are zero even half decent Sammarinese HOYD for the Serie A level, Calcio has an Italian HOYD with no San Marino knowledge (2.5 years in and still zero knowledge).  Anyone half decent in recent intakes is, at best, dual.  So, I added a 3rd manager to the save of newly promoted to Serie D side FYA Riccione (just to the East of San Marino).  They didn't have a HOYD, so I gave the job to a Sammarinese guy.  I'll see how many, if any, Sammarinese players come through in the intake - just out of interest.  They won't be any good as it's a Serie D club with poor facilities, so won't impact the integrity of the save - but I just wanted to experiment!  Actually, I've played out quite a few games and am finding something new is more interesting than being in easy/Hulk smash mode with both San Marino Calcio and San Giovanni.  Tipped to get relegated with a poor squad, we currently sit 4th.

[Lewis89]

4 hours ago, duesouth said:

2036/2037 Season (FM19) - Part 1

National Team

After walking our Division D group last time out in the Nation's League, I was hoping to be more competitive than we turned out to be in Division C.  We stayed up by 1 point - which was a 1-1 draw at home to Poland.  We managed to beat Bosnia at home - the rest of the games we lost.  In our World Cup qualifying group, we have drawn Italy, Norway, Rep Ireland, Kosovo (who like us qualified for the last Euros, so harder than it looks) and Liechtenstein (who we beat 10-0 2 years ago!).

On the dual front, left back Davide Mancini is now a full Italian international .  It wasn't a surprise, as at 22 years of age, he's a 4.5* CA guy in a very good club side - but still...  No movement on the others - I badly need a keeper, but I suspect Michael Bronzetti will go the same way.  He's 18 and already a 2.5* CA and developing without me really trying.  Striker Fabrizio Muccioli is now playing in the San Marino Calcio first team (10 appearances - 5 goals at 7.05 avg rating) and is 3.5* CA with a lot of arrows pointing up.  He's 19 and in the Italian U21 team.  By the time he's too old for U21 football, I suspect he's going to be pretty good - but I just couldn't hold him back any longer - perhaps I need to...

I did give this guy a call up as he wanted to play for San Marino, but as you can see, he's not amazing (3rd or 4th choice centre midfielder - but with some potential).  Those arrows are the wrong way around too - perhaps as I had been using him off the bench a little for the first team.  I'll leave him in the U18's for the next couple of months so he can get the more intensive training and hope to see some up arrows soon!!

San Marino Calcio

It's all getting pretty routine.  So much so, I've done instant result in some games for the first time.  I was using a rotated team quite often (full of Sammarinese players), but after getting thumped 4-2 at Fenerbache in the CL, I made changes.  I now use 2 teams, rotating them every game - each team has 5 first team players and 5 backups (most of which are Sammarinese).  That's worked a treat results wise - but development of some of the lesser players isn't great.  Oddly, our top scorer is a 1.5* CA guy who I play simply because he's the best option for the National Team and I don't want him retiring!  A bit odd with many of these 1.5* guys that their average ratings in Serie A are good (I've got a left winger at 7.2, central defender at 7.02, right winger at 7.1 and Zonzini at 7.09), but development is poor (most are late teens/early 20's - Zonzini is older so I'm not expecting him to develop more).

San Giovanni

Our first two European qualifiers were easy, as has become the norm.  Last year CSKA Sofia knocked us out of CL quals - and we were far from their level.  So, I wasn't happy when we got them again (happens too often across all the various draws).  However, there must have been development with this group as we won both games 1-0 to go through.  That left us with Polish side Legia in the final hurdle.  We drew at home 0-0 and I thought we had lost the chance.  We went 1-0 down in the 3rd minute of the 2nd leg, so nothing changed my mind!  However, we kept it tight and then I subbed both strikers on 67 minutes - and 2 minutes later, backup DLF Berti scored.  We held on fairly easily to make it to the CL group stage for the 2nd time.  Our reward?  Real Madrid, Man City and Atalanta.  Needless to say, we got stuffed out of sight in all 6 games.

Fairly normal domestically, although we lost the San Marino Super Cup game for the first time in the save!  Oddly Pennarossa, who beat us, haven't started the Group 1 campaign well, dropping 2 games - but we are only 3 games in.  We'll see if someone else overtakes them as our nearest rival.  I did see Faetano signed a few San Marino Calcio rejects, who are good for this level, so maybe them...

I have been thinking about where to go with San Giovanni.  I could be aggressive and sign imports to do better in Europe and take the next step, but it has little value to the National Team (and there's no financial need for Europe as the last upgrade to facilities is paid for, so we're "state of the art" for everything).  So, the imports I have will stay unless there's someone behind them who might be better with playing time, but I'm not going to sign further imports.  Our young keeper might end up starting for the National Team soon - his development has been good - but I wouldn't say development is great in this league.  It's a better league than at the start of the save, but still far from Serie A.  Europe does help development - but getting thumped by the likes of Real and Man City probably doesn't!

HOYD Experiment

I'm interested in the impact the nationality of a club's HOYD has on nationality of the youth intake class.  As there are zero even half decent Sammarinese HOYD for the Serie A level, Calcio has an Italian HOYD with no San Marino knowledge (2.5 years in and still zero knowledge).  Anyone half decent in recent intakes is, at best, dual.  So, I added a 3rd manager to the save of newly promoted to Serie D side FYA Riccione (just to the East of San Marino).  They didn't have a HOYD, so I gave the job to a Sammarinese guy.  I'll see how many, if any, Sammarinese players come through in the intake - just out of interest.  They won't be any good as it's a Serie D club with poor facilities, so won't impact the integrity of the save - but I just wanted to experiment!  Actually, I've played out quite a few games and am finding something new is more interesting than being in easy/Hulk smash mode with both San Marino Calcio and San Giovanni.  Tipped to get relegated with a poor squad, we currently sit 4th.

Have you had many HG players move on from San Giovanni onto any decent clubs/leagues? Might be the next step in some of the players development. 

[duesouth]

1 hour ago, Lewis89 said:

Have you had many HG players move on from San Giovanni onto any decent clubs/leagues? Might be the next step in some of the players development. 

At the moment, none - I've got a decent young right back with a release clause of like £140,000 for foreign clubs, but zero interest in even our best players who are in the National Team.  Indeed, I've just had one import go to a Saudi club after 2 seasons with us.

[Lewis89]

49 minutes ago, duesouth said:

At the moment, none - I've got a decent young right back with a release clause of like £140,000 for foreign clubs, but zero interest in even our best players who are in the National Team.  Indeed, I've just had one import go to a Saudi club after 2 seasons with us.

Yeah i had the same thing when i did this the dual way. Think i had one player move to Serie B but he failed to make the cut and was back in San Marino within a couple of seasons. 

[The Regista]

Wotcher guys - had a few months off this save in FM. Was thinking of restarting it in FM21 but I'm getting the bug to do it again. Dyou guys think there's enough time between now and FM21 to do it now?

[duesouth]

12 hours ago, The Regista said:

Wotcher guys - had a few months off this save in FM. Was thinking of restarting it in FM21 but I'm getting the bug to do it again. Dyou guys think there's enough time between now and FM21 to do it now?

Depends how quickly you get through a season - but we've got 5 months until FM21, so I would think you can make some real progress in that time.

[as7025]

Just picked up FM20 on the cheap and started this one. I wanted to do the San Marino Calcio phoenix save but couldn't get the DB working so I started with the file where San Marino Calcio were promoted to Serie C. Off to a good start...

 

[duesouth]

1 hour ago, as7025 said:

Just picked up FM20 on the cheap and started this one. I wanted to do the San Marino Calcio phoenix save but couldn't get the DB working so I started with the file where San Marino Calcio were promoted to Serie C. Off to a good start...

 

I think San Marino Calcio database was for the previous build - I did try to get it working, but I'm rubbish with the editor and failed!!  Anyway, welcome and enjoy!

[Lewis89]

San Marino 2039

Nation    League Table    Results    Squad

Is this the year the landscape finally changes for little old San Marino. I have been saying for a while we were on the verge of something great and 2039 has been that year. We have finally managed to qualify for our first ever European Championships and we have done it the hard way. The group was by no means easy with France, Sweden and Greece all nations ranked higher than our 97th when the qualifiers started. It was a campaign of 2 halves with us winning our first 4 games including a excellent 3-2 win over Sweden which really had me dreaming, and even though we lost 3 of our remaining 4 games we managed to seal 2nd place and with it, a first ever major finals. 

We are not going to rip up any trees, drawn in a group with Sweden, Austria and Portugal, i'm expecting to finish bottom but if we can recreate our Sweden heroics then who knows. We have also managed to qualify for the 2040 U19s EUROS this same summer so will have a very busy off season.

[The Regista]

So I've managed to find my previous save where I had only completed the first season in Serie D, winning the Serie D title.

Currently halfway through season two and our campaign is this so far

Before I get cracking I'm going to have a look around the save and see what's what because its been a few months since I played it, but it seemed silly to restart for the sake of a year and a half!!

Edited June 6, 2020 by The Regista

[duesouth]

2036/2037 Season (FM19) - Part 2

National Team

Right after a low point in the save (see San Marino Calcio youth intake), we kicked off our World Cup qualifying campaign.  We were away to Kosovo first - a team who qualified for the European Championships last time out.  We went 1-0 up, but they equalised almost right away.  However, 10 minutes later we went 2-1 up and scored again after the break for 3-1 and then walked it 5-1.  We had Norway at home next - a team we had drawn at home with in the Euro qual campaign.  They rarely threatened our goal and in a game of few highlights, star midfielder Thomas Broccoli scored on 53 minutes and we held on with very few scares to take our first win against a top 50 ranked team in the world.

Right after the domestic season we had an easy win away to Liechenstein - but then a tougher game at home to Ireland.  We went 1-0 down - but they then had a man sent off.  I then went "Attacking" and was rewarded with a goal in first half injury time.  We then scored 2 more in the second half.  They didn't go quietly, pulling one back on 89 minutes - but we killed the game and held on to remain 100%.

So, after 4 games we are top - but the fixtures get tougher - both games vs Italy and away to Norway and Ireland - plus home to Kosovo and Liechenstein - but we have a chance.

Dual National Update

We have now lost 3 dual nationals.  Left back Davide Mancini was gone in my last update - but Napoli central defender Capicchioni now has 2 caps - and also San Marino Calcio DLF Fabrizio Muccioli (suddenly valued at £44.5 million after 16 Serie A appearances this season with 6 goals and a 6.89 avg rating - so valued more than his performances deserve for me).  Muccioli scored against Kosovo for his first international goal.  To rub salt into the wound, FM asks me if I want to congratulate him on his first Italian cap and then goal.  Not really!

Goalkeeper Bronzetti is starting in the Italian U20 World Cup squad.  I held him back only playing him twice and will continue to do so next year.  His coach report tells me he's operating at a Serie A level at 19 years of age, so I'll probably end up losing him down the road.

The other guy is another Muccioli - Michele (and I have another one in the Calcio U18 squad - greater variety of new gen names please SI!!) who is a lower ranked player - current Serie C talent and only a 1.5-2.5* PA - but he's still waiting on Italy - not even an U19 call up to date.  I might get him - he's 6'7" and would back up Andrea Bugli in the DLF role should he see the light and take the San Marino route!

San Marino Calcio

We walked the league again - but got upset in the first round of the cup.  However, we did better in the CL, ending up winning it comfortably beating PSG in a stroll 2-0 in the final.

Youth Intake

I have to say this was a low point in the save.  I nearly quit as this was complete garbage with state of the art facilities and a very good HOYD.  Most of these wouldn't even be of use to San Giovanni!

San Giovanni

We won both Champions Playoffs and Cup.  The Champions Playoff final was tight against Pennarossa.  They beat us in the league 3-0 as well as in the Super Cup, so I was more careful with my tactics.  We beat them on penalties (I actually remembered to add them to training before the game, not sure if it helped!) 5-3.  The Cup win was easy.

I mentioned Faetano being better in my last update.  They signed former San Giovanni and Calcio striker Marcello Volpinari in the winter window - he didn't have a club (originally with San Gio, I released him as I had too many strikers - thought someone would sign him, they didn't so I signed him with Calcio.  I couldn't get him a loan move, so played him in Serie A where he scored a couple of goals - the next season he was on loan in Serie C and scored 11 goals.  I released him as I felt sure someone would sign him, but it took until the winter window for it to happen!)  Anyway - he led the league in goals with half a season's work (14 in 16 games) and earned a National Team call up.  We beat Faetano easily in the playoff semi - but they won the 3rd/4th playoff and seem to be on the rise.  I hope they can be the team to win a European game or two to help out the status of the league.  Pennarossa have failed in this despite being our closest rival in recent years.

Youth Intake

A decent group, although not super deep.  We do seem to have quite a few young MC's coming through.

Riccione HOYD Test

With my Sammarinese HOYD at Serie D club Riccione, the test was to see what impact the nationality of the HOYD had on intake nationality.  With zero even dual Sammarinese, I think we can say zero...  For what its worth, I kept playing and we won in the Serie D playoff final, but didn't go up and I retired the manager.

[FoxGe1994]

Have some missing achievement - so here they are. 

Achievements

Have a player beat Andy Selva's 8 goals scored record:

Have a new gen reach 100 caps:

 

Get San Marino into the top 50 in the world:

 

Qualify for the World Cup Finals:

 

[duesouth]

@FoxGe1994 - good going.  How close do you feel you are to having a genuine shot at winning the World Cup?

[TacticalGenius]

October 2036

[TacticalGenius]

Newgen over 100 caps/50 goals.

Edited June 11, 2020 by TacticalGenius

[TacticalGenius]

Hat-trick

[FoxGe1994]

On 11/06/2020 at 10:07, duesouth said:

@FoxGe1994 - good going.  How close do you feel you are to having a genuine shot at winning the World Cup?

Difficult to say - we already made it to the final of NL - but lost to Italy. 

There are some nice prospects running around - so hopefully we can continue to improve. 

[FoxGe1994]

Just qualified for the semi finals of NL A for the secound time in a row! 

 

The team for the qualification:

 

 

And here the tactic - selfmade 

[duesouth]

2037/2038 Season (FM19) - Part 1

National Team

The headline: something at times in this save I never thought I'd see - winning our World Cup qualifying group... ahead of Italy!  We're off to the 2038 World Cup in South Africa!  We've been drawn against Costa Rica and Ivory Coast in our group - not sure how that will go as they are both in the top 20 in the world...

We kicked off in September with an easy win against Kosovo.  Then came 3 very tough games.  Somehow we got a point against Italy.  I've been working on trying to limit the damage with cautious tactics with San Giovanni in Europe and used such a one to score a priceless point.  We had 1 shot on goal in the entire game - and scored with it courtesy of Andrea Bugli.  The next 2 games were away to Norway and Rep Ireland.  Despite being a good side, Norway's AI tactics were awful - a slow/cautious passing game and although they had a lot of shots, very few were on target.  Certainly I wasn't watching on extended and waiting for the goal to come as they had few highlights.  We scored just before half time and won comfortably, I'm not even going to call it holding on.

The Rep Ireland game was not easy at the start.  Indeed, they scored after 5 minutes and looked like they were going to stuff us.  However, after the goal they changed tactics (sometimes the AI is just stupid) and we got into the game.  We equalised on 27 minutes after a period where we started to dominate possession.  I thought they might put it back up a gear, but they didn't and the game was comfortable.  I was happy with a point, but then in injury time we won a corner.  Now, I hate short corners - they never work - but 1 out of 6 of my corner routines is a short corner, just for variety.  I wasn't confident when I saw that was the routine - but a cross into the box was flicked on by centre half Righi and right winger Massimo Cimmino knocked it home from 2 yards!  This Calcio 1.5* CA/Serie C talent guy set up the winner in our first Champions League final win and now scored the single most important goal in National Team history in the save!  And now I love short corners!

As Italy had lost to Norway at home, that meant we needed to beat the might of Liechtenstein to qualify for the World Cup.  The last time we played them at the old San Marino Stadium (the National Team still plays there and not Calcio's new San Marino Stadium) we beat them 10-0 - and we repeated the scoreline with the 10th goal a first international goal from Michele Muccioli - a dual national guy who only just agreed to play for us (he's not the best prospect, but he's 6'7" and does a job).  That left a dead game against Italy at home - and we drew 0-0, this time it was us having the better chances and only my club keeper De Luca kept us from a shock win.

Dual National News

Goalkeeper Michael Bronzetti is the one I really, really, really wanted - particularly after a couple of clangers by incumbent Negri of Pennarossa.  Before each set of internationals for 2+ years, I've been asking Bronzetti - but he's not been interested.  I had 2 conversations with him where he let me try to talk him into it, but he stuck with Italy.  After we qualified for the World Cup, I thought I would try again... and he's said he'll switch to San Marino!  I now have to keep my fingers crossed he doesn't flip back to Italy before a competitive game can be played - that will be June in the World Cup.

So, to date I've lost 3 - with only the left back Mancini being the one I really, really, really wanted as we're very weak at the position.  Annoyingly, he's not always in the Italian squad and only has 6 caps for them.

National Team Achievements

THE man, Andrea Bugli, class of 2026 now has 50 international goals after bagging a double hat-trick against Liechtenstein (the second time in his career he's done that!).

And we cracked the top 100 in the world.

San Marino Calcio

We're 3 points clear in Serie A with 2 games in hand.  We won the European Super Cup and Club World Championship (with our reserve XI and U20 XI again) and this year are still in the Italian Cup.  We finished 2nd in our CL group and will face Monaco in the first knockout round.  The hardest thing has been rotating in the San Marino guys and keeping some of the big stars happy - currently 3 are unhappy about playing time.  I'm not holding my breath for the youth intake, but if it's not better than last year's disaster, my PC will be in danger of being thrown out of the window!!!

I've ditched 2 affiliate clubs as they were too good and my Serie C level guys weren't good enough to play for them - and got a new one Santarcangelo.  I've got 5 players there - 4 have average rankings above 7.00, so that's encouraging.  Left back Pietro Vannucci has lots of green up arrows on his profile - and right back Francesco Broccoli has all but 5 of his attributes as improved.  Vannucci is now in the National Team (3 caps) mainly because we have nothing at the position, so any improvement with him will be very well received!  Striker Muccioli is there and has bagged 7 goals from 14 starts - not prolific, but solid enough.

San Giovanni

We missed out on the CL group stage, falling at the last hurdle to Celtic.  I thought the draw in the Europa League group stage was OK - but we threw away a 2-0 lead in our first home game and then stank.  It has to be said, I'm disappointed at the performances.  On a brighter note, the other San Marino League teams in Europe did better this year.  Pennarossa and Domagnano won their first round qual games (Domagnano beating AEK Athens, which I thought was a nice win), but then lost.  Faetano had 2 easy draws in their games - and won easily - but then lost to Club Brugge - but a much brighter story this year.  The league is ranked 70th - up from 81st, where it had been for a couple of years.

Domestically, we got the San Marino Super Cup back - and it's been easy.  The hardest part is keeping my U19 training at a decent level as my coaches keep getting poached!  I really miss the filter in FM20 that lets you select coaches suitable for U19 role!

[TacticalGenius]

YEAH!!!!!

[TacticalGenius]

We made the Semi-Final! We lost 2-0 to Spain, but WOW!

We finished third after beating hosts South Africa on penalties in the playoff.

And we're up to 21st in the world rankings.

The bad news is Andrea Reggini retired from international duty at the young age of 29, as top scorer and most caps of any San Marino player ever.

[TacticalGenius]

I feel it’s time for a new club challenge and I’m seriously considering leaving Cattolica Calcio. I’ve won everything possible there and turned them into the world’s biggest club with the world’s best academy.

I’m thinking of retiring my current manager as a club manager and having him focus only on the NT, and having a new manager take over at a club in San Marino. I feel that the club is big enough to continue producing players without my guidance and that having another club on the up and eventually producing players can only benefit the NT and also breathe new life into the career where I’m finding it a drag to manage just to get through for NT games and youth intakes...

[duesouth]

1 hour ago, TacticalGenius said:

I feel it’s time for a new club challenge and I’m seriously considering leaving Cattolica Calcio. I’ve won everything possible there and turned them into the world’s biggest club with the world’s best academy.

I’m thinking of retiring my current manager as a club manager and having him focus only on the NT, and having a new manager take over at a club in San Marino. I feel that the club is big enough to continue producing players without my guidance and that having another club on the up and eventually producing players can only benefit the NT and also breathe new life into the career where I’m finding it a drag to manage just to get through for NT games and youth intakes...

So close with the World Cup - a pain you have to wait 4 more years now!

I'm finding the same with San Marino Calcio.  I was expecting other teams to push me in Serie A, but every season it's close in December, but we then pull away.  The only teams we struggle against are the odd 4-1-4-1 team and we get "FM'd".  It does get old and too easy.

[duesouth]

2037/2038 Season (FM19) - Part 2

National Team

I wasn't quite sure how to approach Costa Rica and Ivory Coast in our group.  So, in a friendly against Trinidad & Tobago, I tried a slightly different tactic - positive, but not too gung-ho - and after winning 5-2 went with it.  Both group games were quite drab and tight games - we drew the first 0-0 and the second looked like it was going to end 1-1, but Andrea Bugli popped up with a minute to go to score the winner!  That meant we topped the group and drew Paraguay.  I knew they were going to be better, but still went fairly positive.  The game was very open - the score went 0-1, 1-1, 1-2, 2-2, 2-3, 3-3 and we finally nudged in front with a penalty from Bugli... all before half-time!  My heart couldn't stand any more of that, so I changed to a cautious tactic and we held on pretty easily to progress.

We drew France in the 3rd round - and were doing OK, trailing to a very offside looking goal - we went for it in the last 15, but they broke away to finish us in injury time.  Still, not too bad.

There's no question we're much, much better - ranked 75th in the world.  We now have a good keeper (already a Serie A talent and I was holding him back until recently), Bugli up front is still 28, so should be around for the next World Cup, midfielder Broccoli isn't quite as good, but still a good Serie A player and is only 24 (and loves big matches!) with 2 promising strikers who in 4 years time should be of Serie A quality as long as I don't mess up their development!  The rest of the team is Serie C standard - and it would really help for us to get 2 strong central defenders so I can play a higher line/press with far more confidence - if I do that now, we struggle.  We also need 2 better wide options and full backs.  My left back Vannucci was on loan at Santarcangelo and has shown improvement (not always the case with loans unfortunately), so hopefully I can get him up to Serie B level player at least.  In a perfect world, we can move beyond the days of trying to develop Serie C level talent as much as possible, but that's likely still a few good intakes away.

San Marino Calcio

We won 5 out of 6 possible trophies - falling in the semi-final of the Italian Cup to a 10 man Venezia after being 3-2 up on aggregate.  All pretty easy and as Tactical Genius noted above, a little dull...

Youth Intake

My PC was saved by - stop the press - a better intake!!  After keeper Bronzetti switched to San Marino (and played in the World Cup, so he can't switch now), I didn't really need a keeper, but I got a good one all the same.  The 2 strikers are dual - Fabbri played in the World Cup, I just couldn't lose him, and he actually become the youngest player in World Cup history, plus the youngest scorer after he scored against Ivory Coast.  The other striker Valentini has said he'll play for San Marino - I'll call him up for the Nations League.  The rest of it wasn't great, but I signed 4 more.

San Giovanni

Given that the San Marino League is a playoff system - it had to happen - and this season it did.  We got "FM'd" by Faetano and lost on penalties in the Champions Playoff final - spoiling an otherwise undefeated domestic season.  We did win the San Marino Cup.  I did sell 3 of my players to Faetano to boost them as I thought they were improving, so I helped in their rise!!  I have been disappointed in Pennarossa as our closest rival, as they haven't kicked on at all - but perhaps the AI will do better with Faetano.

I'm moving a few on this year - a couple of Italian players aren't getting contract renewals despite them being good players.  We'll see how Europe goes without them...

Youth Intake

This is the 2nd better intake after a couple of bad ones.  The result of the bad spell was the U19's didn't win the U19 league for the first time in forever.  Faetano won it, which again suggests they are on the rise.

[Lewis89]

February 2040

So been super slacking in terms of time spent playing FM. However I think the bug is back. We are in FEB 2041 so a quick update where we are.

San Marino Calcio 2039/40

Serie A - Winners

Champions League - Lost to R Madrid in 1st KO Round.

TIM Cup - Winners

SuperCoppa - Winners

Another season of domination domestically, but our no signings policy for the past 4 seasons is taking its toll on our performances in Europe. We won it 3 times in a row between 2035-2037 but have failed the past 3 seasons. Last season Sassuolo won the Champions League and finished as runners up in the league. Shevchenko has been in charge for 7 years and they have improved year on year and look like they could be our rivals for a while. 

Youth Production

Due to the no signings policy this area is really coming on strong and we have a number of Sammarinese youngsters in almost every position who have the potential to do a job in Serie A at the least. We still dont have a "Superstar" youth prospect, but its the depth of our 3* potential players that is impressive at the moment, and I fancy a few to progress beyond that level. I will do a squad depth run down in the summer.

San Marino 2040

EURO 2040 Group Stages   Nations League     Results    Nation

We done really well to get out of a difficult group, only to get pumped 8-0 by Germany. The less said the better. The Nations League was much better and we stormed to promotion from C to B for the first time in this save. We are at a save high of 80th in the rankings and I really think we can push for the top 50 over the next few years. We have been handed a World Cup 2042 qualification group of death featuring Holland, Ireland, Sweden, Lithuania and Gibraltar. I fancy us to beat Lithuania and Gibraltar but the other 3 sides are gonna be very tough games.

The U19S qualified for EURO 2040 also and performed brilliantly to seal a place at the 2041 U20's World Cup. This is the second time we have qualified and although its highly unlikely we will get to the latter stages, its a fun adventure along the way.

[mcleera]

San Marino Challenge History (2018-2020)

Competition wins

Serie A: 2027, 2028, 2030

Italian Super Cup: 2028, 2029

Serie C: 2022

Serie D: 2019

League History

Serie D: Promoted in first season (2018-19)

Serie C: Promoted after 3 seasons (2021-22)

Serie B: Promoted after 1 season (2022-23)

 

Hey guys! I have been working on this challenge on and off for about 15 months now. I had been on the FM19 board for the challenge, but things seem a bit livelier here, so shouts to @duesouth for keeping it going. For anybody interested, I have year by year updates over there. This is just a quick rundown of the highlights of the save in the first dozen years. I got to Serie A in 5 years, never really flirting with relegation on my way up the divisions. We did get lucky to get promoted out of Serie B, winning the playoff from 8^th place. We are the only team in the 12 years of my reign to win promotion to Serie A from lower than 5^th. Halfway through the Serie B season, we were taken over by an American tycoon, a lucky development which has accelerated growth and augmented the SMNT.

In Serie A, we had a surprising 5^th place finish our first season, scoring 100 goals and conceding 77. This followed with a couple mid-table finishes. After this, we won 3 Serie A crowns in 4 seasons, and we are well established as a contending side year on year. The Champions League revenue from these high finishes have also allowed us to ramp up infrastructure, greatly improving the SMNT.

Completed goals: Win promotion from Serie D, win the Serie D title, win promotion from Serie C, win the Serie C title, win the Serie C cup, win the Serie C Super Cup, win promotion from Serie B, avoid relegation in the first season in Serie A, qualify for Europe, win manager of the year in Serie A, win Serie A.

 

San Marino National Team

I didn’t take over the SMNT until June of 2024. Prior to this, their results had not been awful, winning one competitive match in each of 2021, 2022, and 2023, along with a few draws. Immediately after this, however, results improved. In 2026, we easily achieved promotion from Nations League Division D. We parlayed this success into victory in the Euro playoffs in 2028, qualifying for Euro 2028. At Euro 2028, we got a point and we maintained out position in Nations League Division C later that year. Finally, we had by far our best World Cup qualifying campaign, getting 13 points to finish third.

Completed goals: Win a game, win a competitive game, have a player beat Andy Selva’s 8 goal record, have a player score a hat trick, beat a team ranked in the top 50 in the world, get San Marino into the top 150 in the world, get promotion from Nations League Division D, qualify for the European Championship finals.