[FM20] Realistic Transfer Preferences 2.0 - A Collab by Daveincid and majesticeternity

[majesticeternity]

Complete real life transfer data applied to top 35 nations, and more realistic transfer preferences for all 228 nations.

 

Intro: 

The real life transfer market is extremely complex, and every nation has their own tendencies. These tendencies vary greatly.

For example, Northern Ireland may get their players mostly from within their own nation, or from Ireland, and never from South America. 

Whereas Scotland may get more players from England than their own nation, and randomly in small numbers from all over the European continent.

This "transfer flow" for each nation is poorly represented in FM. 

In the default database, there are 3 sections regarding transfers, yet England has nation preferences set for only 2 out of 228 nations, and the continent and region sections are completely empty.

This file changes that.

We have compiled huge amounts of research/data/charts/etc and combined our work, to create the largest and most realistic set of transfer preferences ever created for FM.

 

Features: 

Increased number of transfers within the same nation, for all 228 nations
Reduced overall number of transfers
Reduced China's strength in buying too many good players
Removed every nation's ability to scout everywhere at any time
Applied data for incoming transfers and loans for past 2 decades(if possible) to top 35 nations
Top 35 Nations have individual transfer preferences applied for 65-70 nations
Top 35 Nations have individual transfer preferences applied for all 21 regions
Top 35 Nations have individual transfer preferences applied for all continents
Added age restrictions for a few nations (USA, China, Japan, Turkey, Ireland, Serbia, Switzerland)
Minor increase in Scotland/Ireland to encourage English transfers to those countries
Affiliations increased within the same nation
Affiliation tendencies applied to top 20 nations

 

Guides for a Realistic Setup:

Any nations not loaded as playable are hardly used for transfers. This means your save setup could be unrealistic.

For example, you want to manage in Portugal, and load England, Spain, Italy, and France also. This means Brazil is left out, the nation that Portugal most often gets players.

So, here is a list of basic guides by nation, to help you set up a decent save.

The most important nations are listed first, then gradually less important, followed by optional ones.

 

England: France, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal. Optional - Belgium, Norway, Greece, Ireland, Argentina, Denmark

Spain: England, Italy, Portugal, France, Argentina. Optional - Germany, Netherlands, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, Russia

Germany: England, France, Switzerland, Netherlands, Spain, Austria, Italy. Optional - Poland, Belgium, Turkey, Greece, Norway

Italy: Spain, England, France, Argentina. Optional - Germany, Brazil, Portugal, Nigeria, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Senegal

France: England, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Senegal, Cameroon, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland. Optional - Argentina, Netherlands, Mali, Ivory Coast, Algeria

Portugal: Brazil, Spain, France, Italy, England. Optional - Argentina, Romania, Greece, Russia, Belgium, Nigeria, Senegal

Argentina: Uruguay, Mexico, Chile, Colombia. Optional - Italy, Spain, Brazil, USA, Portugal, Ecuador

Australia: England, New Zealand. Optional - Netherlands, Germany, Japan, China, Scotland, South Korea

Austria: Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Poland, Czech. Optional - Belgium, France, Norway, Greece, Turkey, Russia

Belgium: France, Netherlands, England, Italy, Portugal. Optional - Germany, Spain, Norway, Senegal, Turkey, Greece, Serbia, Croatia

Brazil: Portugal, Mexico, Argentina, Japan, Spain, Italy. Optional - Uruguay, Germany, Ukraine, France, Turkey, Russia, Colombia

Chile: Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico, Venezuela, Peru. Optional - USA, Colombia, Brazil

China - Brazil, South Korea, Portugal, England, Australia, Serbia, Germany. Optional - Spain, Argentina, Colombia, Bulgaria

Colombia - Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Venezuela, Uruguay. Optional -  Chile, USA, Brazil, Ecuador

Croatia - Bosnia, Italy, Slovenia, Belgium, Austria. Optional - Germany, Portugal, Turkey, Poland, Ukraine, Greece

Czech - Slovakia, Russia, Germany, Turkey, Italy. Optional - Poland, Belgium, Austria, Greece, Hungary, Slovenia, Serbia

Denmark - Norway, Sweden, Germany, England, Netherlands. Optional -  Belgium, France, Italy

Greece - Spain, France, Argentina, Italy, Portugal, Germany, England, Cyprus. Optional - Serbia, Poland

Hong Kong - China, Spain, South Korea. Optional - Serbia, Bosnia, Australia, Indonesia, Japan

Ireland: England, Scotland, Northern Ireland. Optional - USA

Japan: Brazil, South Korea. Optional - Germany, Portugal, Thailand, Australia, China

Mexico: Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil. Optional - USA, Spain, Peru, Ecuador

Netherlands: England, Belgium, Germany. Optional - France, Italy, Denmark, Spain, Sweden, Japan

Northern Ireland: Ireland, England, Scotland

Norway: Denmark, England, Sweden. Optional - Iceland, Germany, USA, Belgium, Netherlands, Austria

Poland - Germany, Slovakia, Portugal, Greece, Russia, Czech. Optional - Serbia, Netherlands

Russia - Georgia, Belarus. Optional - Portugal, Germany, Czech, France, Italy, Romania, Poland, Brazil, Belgium

Scotland - England. Optional - Netherlands, France, Lithuania, Italy

Serbia - Bosnia, Greece, Montenegro. Optional - Russia, Hungary, Portugal, North Macedonia, Romania, Spain, Cyprus, Kazakhstan, Slovenia

South Africa - Ghana, Israel. Optional - Netherlands, Nigeria, Belgium, Germany

Sweden - Norway, Denmark, England, Finland, Netherlands. Optional - Iceland, Turkey, Belgium, Brazil, USA

Switzerland - Germany, France, Italy. Optional - Spain, Austria, England, Netherlands

Turkey - Germany, France, England, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Italy. Optional - Netherlands, Brazil, Russia

Ukraine - Russia, Belarus, Brazil, Georgia. Optional - Romania, Poland, Serbia, Croatia, Belgium, Italy

Uruguay - Argentina, Mexico. Optional - Chile, Peru, Italy, Spain, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil

USA - Mexico, England, Colombia, Argentina, Costa Rica. Optional - Spain, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Norway, Switzerland, France, Netherlands

Wales - England, Scotland. Optional - New Zealand

 

DOWNLOAD: DB - Realistic Transfer Preferences by Daveincid and majesticeternity.fmf

Place in Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2020\editor data folder. Start a new save. When selecting the database(before Advanced Setup), be sure to select the checkbox to enable this file.
 

Testing:

Overall: This has been thoroughly tested by both of us, but considering there are so many nations and aspect to this, as well as variation in each save, there can be issues remaining. Any feedback you have would be great!

African nations: There is less data to help determine destinations of players born in African nations, and it is very tedious to compile. Data has been compiled for Nigeria, Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, Algeria, Cameroon, Morocco, and South Africa. This data has then been applied to Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Norway, France, England, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, USA, Turkey. As there are very few default playable African leagues, testers that load custom African leagues would be needed to ensure this information represents real life data accurately. 

Affiliations: It's hard to find the data and research to determine affiliation tendencies for nations, and is also hard to know the mechanics FM uses. A few outside-of-nation tendencies have been applied, but more information could be used.

Ages: Age data is a huge task, and difficult to acquire, as well FM does not really apply the rules, but varies as it wishes. But any additional information is helpful.

 

If you like this creation, and want to support our weeks of work, please donate:

 

Edited February 14, 2020 by majesticeternity

[Wolf_pd]

Now there is a file I need to study for the Iron Curtain.

[majesticeternity]

2 minutes ago, Wolf_pd said:

Now there is a file I need to study for the Iron Curtain.

If you need any help, just let me know! I have a good chunk of the data and charts that could assist you.

[eltarian]

17 hours ago, majesticeternity said:

Removed every nation's ability to scout everywhere at any time

First question - how does it work?

Possibility "sent scout for $$ to nation N" will get lost?

Quote

Russia - Georgia, Belarus. Optional - Portugal, Germany, Czech, France, Italy, Romania, Poland, Brazil, Belgium

Second question - Russian clubs use to sign players from ex-USSR countries, West Slavic countries and they definitely have scouting tours through Africa to find cheap talents too.

Is it realized?

Edited January 16, 2020 by eltarian

[Sopel]

Italy should have Poland at the "optional countries" rate as Poland as of late has become a well traversed market by Serie A teams in search of new prospects. This is a fairly new trend but is very noticeable. Same situation is starting to occure with MLS teams sending offers left and right. Turkey is also a direction players take on whenever are better than average and want better salaries.

As for Poland itself - the biggest trend as of now is signing players from 3rd level of spanish league. Balkan countries are also a big market for Poland (Serbia and Croatia especially)

As for numbers - currently in the top polish division the most common nationalities are: Slovakia (23 players), Spain (21), Serbia (15), Croatia (13) and Portugal (10)

Also, worth mentioning - Russia and Greece are nowhere near being important markets for polish clubs.

[Wolf_pd]

14 hours ago, majesticeternity said:

If you need any help, just let me know! I have a good chunk of the data and charts that could assist you.

Thanks, appreciated! Will let you know.

[majesticeternity]

15 hours ago, eltarian said:

First question - how does it work?

Possibility "sent scout for $$ to nation N" will get lost?

Second question - Russian clubs use to sign players from ex-USSR countries, West Slavic countries and they definitely have scouting tours through Africa to find cheap talents too.

Is it realized?

1st Question:

Haha, that would be funny, but no. It's just for AI. Meaning that before they would scout anywhere that wasn't set as None/Limited in the Editor. Now, they are "assigned" nations, and primarily stick to those. Of course, clubs will also have their own identities.

2nd Question:

You would have to provide some data on that...I found out of 2,600 transfers, only 7 were from Moldova. So..not really.

But, keep in mind that these transfers are not what Nationality the player is, but what nations' league they come from. So looking at Moldova's current national squad, a good portion of them are playing in the Romanian leagues. And then, we check our data, and find that yes, Romania is #5 of the top nations for Russia.

If you would like to discuss more, PM me!

 

[majesticeternity]

13 hours ago, Sopel said:

Italy should have Poland at the "optional countries" rate as Poland as of late has become a well traversed market by Serie A teams in search of new prospects. This is a fairly new trend but is very noticeable. Same situation is starting to occure with MLS teams sending offers left and right. Turkey is also a direction players take on whenever are better than average and want better salaries.

As for Poland itself - the biggest trend as of now is signing players from 3rd level of spanish league. Balkan countries are also a big market for Poland (Serbia and Croatia especially)

As for numbers - currently in the top polish division the most common nationalities are: Slovakia (23 players), Spain (21), Serbia (15), Croatia (13) and Portugal (10)

Also, worth mentioning - Russia and Greece are nowhere near being important markets for polish clubs.

Hey, thanks alot for the information!

As far as Italy and Poland: yes, you seem right that it is a new trend. Transfermarkt shows 15 transfers from Poland to Serie A in the last 4 seasons. I do have them signing players from there, in a small amount. You'd have to test and let me know what you think about the amount of transfers.

Could you be more specific about the MLS teams? They are transferring Polish players to their league?

Poland vs Spain: Unfortunately, FM does not distinguish between leagues, so if I increase Spain, it will increase transfers for all of Spain, not just the 3rd level. Of course, many La Liga top Spanish players will not want to move to Poland...but it would still create some unrealistic moves. Also scouting levels work that the top/popular players are known first, rather then 3rd. If you really want to, you can open the file in the Editor, find Poland > Nation Transfer Prefs > Spain, and maybe select Fairly High Profile and Full Scouting ability(so they get 3rd division), then Region Prefs > and increase Central Europe to 2 or 3. Then run a test save, and you can let me know what you find!

And nationalities don't really matter, it's leagues they came from. Either way, I have Slovakia as a high target for Poland, along with some Portugal. So that looks good. I will increase Serbia and Croatia for Poland.

For Russia and Greece to Poland, there have been 4 Greek transfers this season already, and 5 last season. So Greece will stay the same. But you are right, Russia is not important at all. I will fix that.

Again, thank you so much for the info! We appreciate it!

[Sopel]

17 hours ago, majesticeternity said:

Could you be more specific about the MLS teams? They are transferring Polish players to their league?

This is a current trend, started with the past transfer window - there seems to be a boom for MLS team to pick up the standouts from polish league, It started with Frankowski move to Chicaco Fire and Przybyłko to Philadelphia, this window the only moves so far are Buksa to Revolution and Niezgoda to Timbers, but what you can miss is that nearly every better than average player of the polish has been linked at some point with MLS teams. It's a pretty new thing, there's not saying that this trend will last but the link is there.

18 hours ago, majesticeternity said:

Poland vs Spain: Unfortunately, FM does not distinguish between leagues, so if I increase Spain, it will increase transfers for all of Spain, not just the 3rd level. Of course, many La Liga top Spanish players will not want to move to Poland...but it would still create some unrealistic moves. Also scouting levels work that the top/popular players are known first, rather then 3rd. If you really want to, you can open the file in the Editor, find Poland > Nation Transfer Prefs > Spain, and maybe select Fairly High Profile and Full Scouting ability(so they get 3rd division), then Region Prefs > and increase Central Europe to 2 or 3. Then run a test save, and you can let me know what you find!

Well, it's not like polish clubs have set a rule to pick only from the 3rd division, it's just the level at which players they can afford are playing, there have been a few moves from 2nd devision (or, in theory from La Liga - see Chuca from Villareal to Wisła Kraków) so the preference should be set. Fun fact - the link goes both ways. Polish top devision pick ups spanish players because when in Spain they may not make a breakthrough their technique and vision is the missing component in polish teams that are focused on physicality of play. At the other hand, spanish lowers team like to pick up polish goalkeepers as there is a lot of talent that cannot make the break but their physicality and ability is usually at greater level than of their spanish counterparts.

18 hours ago, majesticeternity said:

For Russia and Greece to Poland, there have been 4 Greek transfers this season already,

You're right, I got a bit too focused on the nationalities. Greece is usually the place that average foreign players come from or go to, on their globetrotting journey Thank you for tweaking Russia - I admit that the lack of transfer relations between countries from that region (i.e. Russia, Belarus, Ukraine) is a bit surprising, but if anything, players from polish league tend to go to those league, but not the other way around.

[matsk89]

Will it also work when you load the countries suggested, but set them to view only?

[majesticeternity]

4 hours ago, matsk89 said:

Will it also work when you load the countries suggested, but set them to view only?

As long as you also load the players for those nations, it should. Otherwise, just view only won't really have any players to transfer.

[Zecevic]

Good idea, but these are not realistic. For example Poland should have Spain(!), Croatia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Romania, France, Slovenia.

[majesticeternity]

2 hours ago, Zecevic said:

Good idea, but these are not realistic. For example Poland should have Spain(!), Croatia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Romania, France, Slovenia.

If you look at the comments before yours, that we had on that exact thing, this is already applied, but will be increased in an update. 

[yipster1986]

Ooh interesting, thanks for this!

[anitamui]

works with 20.3?

[beck7ham]

Thank you for the interesting work! 

I have one question though, could you elaborate this please?

On 2020. 1. 16. at 오전 10시 4분, majesticeternity said:

Added age restrictions for a few nations (USA, China, Japan, Turkey, Ireland, Serbia, Switzerland)

 

[majesticeternity]

11 hours ago, beck7ham said:

Thank you for the interesting work! 

I have one question though, could you elaborate this please?

 

Nations will automatically pull all ages from each nation, unless you specify different. 

So for example, if USA you have them pull from Italy, there will often be 18, 20yr olds moving over. That’s not realistic. So I set the age limit to mid-20s and later. Now the youth may still join USA but rarely. 

[anitamui]

Can you add the rest of the other nations in the guide?

[Wolf_pd]

On 16/01/2020 at 02:04, majesticeternity said:

 

Netherlands: England, Belgium, Germany. Optional - France, Italy, Denmark, Spain, Sweden, Japan

Was looking through the files and specifically checking the Dutch. I am surprised at the English here. The Belgian and German are OK, although mostly restricted to the border teams in reallife than the game now simulates.

I would expect Norwegian as well as AZ and Heerenveen import a lot of Scandinavians.

[l.loricchio]

Hi! I tested it playing in Superliga Argentina and I noticed that teams with big budget usually buy brazilian players. In real life, there should be no more than 10 Brazilians who played in Argentina in the last 20 years.

¿Is there any way it can be fixed?

[joaquin87]

Great work really

Edited February 26, 2020 by joaquin87

[Maikol]

maybe a bit off topic but is there anyway to increase the number of transfers using the editor? cool file otherwise

[burnum]

This is actually a great way to make the transfer market more realistic. This thread deserves more attention!

@majesticeternity: Did you ever think about sharing your data with SI so they can implement a more realistic transfer model into future games?

[Gee_Simpson]

10 hours ago, burnum said:

This is actually a great way to make the transfer market more realistic. This thread deserves more attention!

@majesticeternity: Did you ever think about sharing your data with SI so they can implement a more realistic transfer model into future games?

Have you used this yourself? Would you recommend it? 

[Matto97]

Does this work correctly with 20.4 or should I wait for an update?

[majesticeternity]

3 hours ago, Matto97 said:

Does this work correctly with 20.4 or should I wait for an update?

It should work fine, it’s only database changes, but you can always do a quick test save.

[DDA]

В 16.01.2020 в 05:04, majesticeternity сказал:

Ukraine - Russia

after 2014 - full unrealistic

[nkunku]

On 16/01/2020 at 02:04, majesticeternity said:

 

 

When i look at Dutch divisions, they only seem to get dutch players.

This is not realistic and does not match with you data update.

How is it still possible? And how can i change this?

I do not use any othe data files.

 

[Wolf_pd]

On 16/01/2020 at 04:42, majesticeternity said:

If you need any help, just let me know! I have a good chunk of the data and charts that could assist you.

Do you have any suggestions in your data for Hungary?

I have now build it in Iron Curtain style with

• Nation most players from Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia
• Nation limited from Poland and Soviet Union
• Continents Africa, Asia and South America at rating -2
• Continents North America and Oceania at rating -1
• Regions Central Europe, Scandinavia, South Europe at rating -2
• Regions UK & Ireland, Middle East at rating -1

[MelvinMat]

When come the next update ?

[Bigpole]

29 minutes ago, MelvinMat said:

When come the next update ?

what do you think needs to be updated?

[MelvinMat]

In my last game, the transfer preferences doesn't work very well. I've playing the PSV and the others clubs buy only Holland based players not others

[Archonnnnn]

too many transfers ... all teams are changing ... so much transfers ... its not realistic i think .. 

 

for example .. real life transfers : 50 million euro+ transfers in per year 16 maximum ,, but this update 32 - 35 transfers 50m+ euro transfers per year... 

[spiroxes2032]

in my save right now i'm managing udinese in serie a and i just realize there aren't a lot of transfer happens in january some clubs just signing one player and the others even didn't make a transfer activity whether it sold or signing a player. i think this is a bit unrealistic because in real life many clubs do some transfer in winter transfer window.

 

p.s sorry my english is bad

[Rightmousebutton88]

i was wondering if I could get some advice on a custom database I'm looking at. It involves basically only teams in a nation been able to sign players from that nation/ region in the UK's case. I see you have set up national transfer preferences but I'm struggling to get it sorted with just changing a few rules. Any advice would be great and much appreciated. 

 

Edited June 29, 2020 by Rightmousebutton88

[sballors8787]

Any new version for this?

[Chagas]

Maybe im late on the Topic, but i Just wanna say that: Eredivisie is a mess.

Ajax buying players from Psv, clubs Just buying dutch players and not buying cheap Young players from scandinavia for example.

 

I really like most os the features on this mod, but my sabe in the Eredivisie Just Lost all immersion, Hope that It gets a fix in the future.

Edited March 21, 2021 by Chagas

[majesticeternity]

8 hours ago, Chagas said:

Maybe im late on the Topic, but i Just wanna say that: Eredivisie is a mess.

Ajax buying players from Psv, clubs Just buying dutch players and not buying cheap Young players from scandinavia for example.

 

I really like most os the features on this mod, but my sabe in the Eredivisie Just Lost all immersion, Hope that It gets a fix in the future.

Completely agree!!

unfortunately, it’s something more hard coded that we can’t change, a bug only SI can fix.

[Jorgen]

Hi @Daveincid and @majesticeternity First of all, thank you both for this editor file. It looks great and could give a lot of extra depth to this game.

I am still playing FM18 at the moment (long term save that is not quite finished yet) but I am already looking for a perfect setup for my FM20 savegame.

When reading your last comment, would you say to not use this file anymore, or is it still good enough?

[majesticeternity]

1 hour ago, Jorgen said:

Hi @Daveincid and @majesticeternity First of all, thank you both for this editor file. It looks great and could give a lot of extra depth to this game.

I am still playing FM18 at the moment (long term save that is not quite finished yet) but I am already looking for a perfect setup for my FM20 savegame.

When reading your last comment, would you say to not use this file anymore, or is it still good enough?

The previous comment only is for the Dutch leagues. Every other nation I believe works just fine. 

[Jorgen]

 

On 07/04/2021 at 04:01, majesticeternity said:

The previous comment only is for the Dutch leagues. Every other nation I believe works just fine. 

Sorry for the late reply. I haven't been on these forums in between.

As I am Dutch, I am almost always loading the Dutch leagues, or at least scout in them.

Could I use your file but have the Dutch setup like standard? Or do some editing myself to get it right?

[majesticeternity]

19 hours ago, Jorgen said:

 

Sorry for the late reply. I haven't been on these forums in between.

As I am Dutch, I am almost always loading the Dutch leagues, or at least scout in them.

Could I use your file but have the Dutch setup like standard? Or do some editing myself to get it right?

You can do whichever you wish! Probably you should go in an edit it. But just keep in mind the changes many not have a major effect.