The FM23 Youth Academy Challenge

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

1 hour ago, XaW said:

I raise you 2047... Are they still as dominant in your save as in mine. They've won 17 out of 24 titles in this save?

We still have an awful record all-time against them and it took us 26 matches before recording our first win (went 22 losses and 3 draws)

Edited August 22, 2023 by The_Gato_In_Goal

[XaW]

3 hours ago, The_Gato_In_Goal said:

I raise you 2047... Are they still as dominant in your save as in mine. They've won 17 out of 24 titles in this save?

We still have an awful record all-time against them and it took us 26 matches before recording our first win (went 22 losses and 3 draws)

Yeah, they are dominant...

That said, I don't think they will win this season. Part spoiler for my season in progress:

Spoiler

This was my first ever win against them, and here are my previous results:

I've found it rough facing them, to say the least. That's why the win this season was so surprising!

[Ronaldo Beckham]

My payers are starting to dominate the NXGN Top 50 list with us having 4 of our players in the top 50.

Andrea Zanella(S7YP1)

Zanella is a goal machine for us with 25 goals already and there is still 8 games left for the season. I finally got a 25-30 goals a season striker but he probably wont stay here much longer. He is also number 1 in the top 50 list.

Ivan Morales(S7YP4)

Morales broke into the first team last season and has had a better season this season with 11 goals so far and a good average rating of 7.08. He is number 3 in the NXGN top 50 list.

Amine Naciri(S7YP3)

Amine who broke into the first team this season has had a good season so far but he is a working progress and I think in a year or two he will be even better. He is number 29 on the top 50 list.

Guy Bell(S6YP4)

Bell has been on the top 50 list for a few seasons now and has been a first team regular for 3-4 seasons now. 

Always dependable and our first Internatial capped player with 5 appearances for Cameroon now.

He was 35 on the top 50 list.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Salamanca Season 10 Youth Intake

Another great youth intake with 7 x Elite Talents and 4 x Top Talents.

Some different nationalties this time with a Croatian, Angolan and Danish prospects to go alongside our usual Spanish talents.

No superstar in this one like last season but still a good intake.

[WhiteCat33]

Barbados YAC: Road View FC

Season 5 – BFA Digicel Premier League

Start Post | Season 1 |Season 2 | Season 3 | Season 4 |

 

New Formation:

With our recent intake giving us 2 great AMC's and 2 STC I switched to a 3-4-3 Narrow formation as my primary formation. I kept two secondary 3-4-3 Wide formations in the other slots but didn't use them all season. I plan to build a defensive 3-4-3 Narrow for next season because...

Spoiler

League Performance: CHAMPIONS!!!

 We did it!! Honestly, it wasn't really that hard. Our new attacking trio were absolutely lethal against the bottom teams in the league. Only Paradise (BRB) , Weymouth Wales and BDFSP gave us any trouble this season. Paradise did some smart transfers this year maxing out their Foreign Slots (6) with Jamaican players who brought a mid-table team into title contention. BDFSP brought in all the Barbadian internationals playing in the US NCAA / NISA teams, but really struggled to perform this year.

Spoiler

Cup Performance:

 I rotated the 2nd lineup for the cup and got punished by Paradise and knocked out right away:

Reserve & U18s:

 U18 has barely any players yet, and we did poorly. Reserves won their league though.

Spoiler

Squad:

 Looking good. Players aren't really developing yet, but that's to be expected. Need to go Professional.

Spoiler

Transfers:

 

Spoiler

Best XI:

 

Spoiler

Overall

Season

Awards / Records:

New Highest Scoring match record, man it was exciting. Down 3-1 at half and come back to win 5-4

Spoiler

Record Attendance. Getting closer to selling out our 1k Venue

First 4 Goal Performance:

Highest Average Rating in the League, Young Plyaer of the year & Player of the Year for our Rookie Striker Randolph Morris. He missed top scorer by 1 goal, which I blame on him getting an injury thus missing the last 3 games.

Spoiler

4 players in the Team of the Year:

Spoiler

Head Coach:

 Club is worried I'll run away so won't let me go for any new badges. Slowly building up my ability. Won Manager of the year again.

Spoiler

 

 

Club Improvements:

 We got a new owner, and it was a Consortium buyout! They decided to splurge on the club investing....15k   I didn't make any bumps to JR Coach / Youth Recruitment as I want to see where our finances balance out to.

Youth Academy:

HOYD:

 

Youth Intake Preview: As expected looking less exciting as our average ability comes up to match the top flight average.

Youth Intake:

We had nothing to worry about as Liam Weekes delivers another stellar intake for the club. 3* now is considered "Premier League Standard", so 5 players already at the league's ability is fantastic. Also first player born in England, but generated in Barbados.

2.5 & 3* Current Ability Players:

• Ramon Croney: AMR Fast Winger with nothing else. Problematic for a 5-2-3 Narrow

 

• Riviere Williams: DL Good physicals and decision for this FB, will see him become the starting WB-L.

 

• Dennis Harris DR Tiny and slow is not a combination I like for any position. Add to that he's Unambitious, this is probably a dud.

 

• Jason Highland STC I like this Poacher. Great Finishing, then 11's for Penalty, Off the Ball, Composure and Acceleration. To boot he's either footed! Going to be some hard decisions with strikers next year as we have 5 AF/Poacher players now of al good Ability/Performance.

 

• Ramar Vaugn First CB with decent heading skill He will be put right into our backline.

 

Excel Tables:

Very happy to see that the CA this year is a repeat of last year. If we can get 2-3 more years of this level that will be perfect to build a core of the squad and I don't feel pressure to up the JR Coaching / Youth Recruitment and strain finances.

For the Personalities I'm too lazy to recode the Match() formula so added .1. At 4 players there is a 4 way tie  (Fairly Determined ; Fairly Sporting ; Low Determination ; Professional). I'm ecstatic with the 24% Professional personalities. Already I have enough mentors and players in the squad to monthly raise professionalism of 3-5 players.

Barbados Internationals:

It's happened, we have our first CAP'd International! We had 2 other players called up to the 3 International windows this term, but they were unused substitutes. Darico Harris played as our IWB-L this season, but I'm training him as a BPD now to strengthen our backline as he actually can jump high even being "short" at 5'11".

Spoiler

Lot more Youth Internationals now. I probably should automate this part in my stats export. Maybe for next season....

Barbados & Caribbean Rankings / Performance:

Another small boost for the BFA Premier League. We get a chance next year to enter the Continental Competition to hopefully bump it up even more.

Something I'm going to start doing is tracking how many Barbadian players are generating outside of Barbados and see if any will actually convert over and join our national team. Right now there are just 3 players from the English Academies. 

Curtis Broome at Arsenal is worth upwards of 47 Million so he'll probably be an English international someday. Jonathan Hill has English U18 experience and has left Chelsea for a recently relegated Cardiff where he is a starter. From the look of him he's too good to ever play for Barbados.

Spoiler

That leaves us with Harry Parr, a young DM who came through the Southampton Academy. And what do you know, he's declared for Barbados! He has a lot of development to do and probably will find himself well down the English pyramid once his contract ends with Southampton. 

Spoiler

Statistics Manager:

Eh we are killing teams so everyone will look great. Probably won't update this part until we are comparing ourselves against MLS & Liga MX sides.

Summary

 

Edited August 22, 2023 by WhiteCat33

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Jorge Bustos(S9YP4) who come through our youth intake last season and was valued at £15m straight away before he even played a game has been getting first team football this season and has become a brilliant player for us.

[aldojags]

@Ronaldo Beckhamwhat a save you're having, proper conveyor belt of studs!

[Ronaldo Beckham]

41 minutes ago, aldojags said:

@Ronaldo Beckhamwhat a save you're having, proper conveyor belt of studs!

Cheers mate. Yeah it has helped that the board has let me upgrade the facilities, coaching to max them out. 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Salamanca Season 10 Review

Competitions

A great season again for us with a 5th place finish. We still have a lot of work to do to get anywhere near Barcelona and Real Madrid. 

We also won a trophy this season. Our first for the club with us winning the UEFA Europa Conference League. We beat VFB Stuttgart 1-0 in the final.

Best Players

Ivan Varela(S5YP7)

One half of our version of Yorke & Cole or Kane & Son is Varela who got 32 goals and 16 assists for the season. He was also our top performer for the season with an average rating of 7.47.

Andrea Zanella(S7YP1)

Zanella is the other part of our dynamic duo who matched Varella for goals with 32 goal for the season and 12 assists for the season. He also got a 7.48 average rating.

Jorge Bustos(S9YP4)

Bustos is the crown jewell and I think he will end up becoming a World Class player. At 16 years old he is already valued at £42-£72m. 

21 goals in 20 games and an average rating of 7.49. 

I just hope I get to keep him for a long time.

Squad Overview

Transfers

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Broke the fee received record again.

[jrobertgordon13]

@WhiteCat33 , since you probably know a thing or two about the Caribbean, what nation(s) is/are the best to choose? Im thinking Antigua, but idk (Also congrats on winning the league)

Edited August 22, 2023 by jrobertgordon13

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Alejandro(S5YP5) who was my previous biggest fee received has just moved to Leeds for £30.5m. I cashed out his clause ages ago for £5m which was the right thing to do as I would of only got £3m if I left it.

Still good to see my players going onto to play for bigger teams. 

Has a value of £63-£102m now. He will probably go on to become a World Class player.

 

[WhiteCat33]

Soo I just realized I messed up when building the save. I didn’t add V50 ‘s NACL database file.

This means the Caribbean Club Championship is a shadow of the glorious competition he created. It also means the NACL has fixed entrants. THANKFULLY Barbados is one of those teams, so I don’t have to abandon the save!

Downside is I don’t get the excitement of the CCC, which was a tournament I fully enjoyed last year with St Vincent and helped span the 5 month continue-mash between seasons. V50 adds a qualification portion to the Cup which gives every nation a shot at making it in. The game really just uses Jamaica, Trinidad, Haiti & Dominican Republic teams. Shame.

Long term this will make the save probably easier as I get a guaranteed spot in the NACL if I win my league. If his structure is the same as last year I would need to be in the top 8 of the Caribbean Cup to get into the NACL. So its an easier version of the Lichtenstein set-up where you have to win a lesser competition to  get access to the top competition. In the setup I have loaded in my save I have to play in a Caribbean Playoff group where I have to be best of 5 teams to advance.

 

[WhiteCat33]

5 hours ago, jrobertgordon13 said:

@WhiteCat33 , since you probably know a thing or two about the Caribbean, what nation(s) is/are the best to choose? Im thinking Antigua, but idk (Also congrats on winning the league)

Thanks for the vote of confidence! I just enjoy giving CONCACAF some love on the forum and its thanks to @V50 that we have the database for it. I struggle to be concise so apologize in advance for the novel that follows. Hopefully this can help not only you but anyone else interested in using a really great megapack and playing in a region that is often ignored in FM.

TL;DR:

Decide how big of a power delta you want between yourself and the MLS and Liga Mx Clubs. If you are okay with having significantly inferior players, Antigua is a totally fine nation. If you want it to be somewhat fairer but still hard choose a nation like I did in Barbados or Martinique. If you want a nation that has the potential to produce actually good talent regularly choose one of the 3 big nations: Jamaica Trinidad & Haiti.

Caribbean "Guide":

In all but those 3 strong Caribbean countries it is pretty easy to climb up and win the domestic league in 5 or so seasons. The teams are all pretty rubbish, and the schedules tend to be very condensed and you can easily manage your player fitness better than the AI. The Caribbean Cup is a small challenge, but should come in about 10 seasons if you hold on to your players and develop facilities properly. It is at the NACL level where things are hard. MLS clubs are on average like mid-table English Championship clubs, and I'd consider the Liga Mx Clubs to be like yo-yo clubs between the Championship and Premier league. Middle & Lower Caribbean nations will not produce players of that caliber through youth intakes alone. You mentioned wanting to do Antigua and Barbuda. I expect it to be similar to my St Vincent experience where after 20+ seasons you will plateau being able to regularly beat the MLS sides but still require real luck to beat enough Liga Mx teams to win the NACL. I got close but couldn't topple the best clubs in Mexico. But hey, this challenge isn't about completing it for many of us. 

Caribbean Megapack:

First point is to use V50's entire megapack and make sure to use the NACL file I mentioned above. Even if you do not plan to play in a nation, load their league mod file. If i wasn't 100% behind the intakes I've been getting in Barbados I'd be restarting right now to play his revamped Caribbean Cup because I was sloppy when I set up my game and missed a file. If you want to play in a smaller nation the NACL adjustment file is required as you will never be entered into the Caribbean Cup and the North American Champions League without it.

If you want more of a challenge in the NACL I would also recommend getting a database for Costa Rica and activating their topflight. There are a few files floating around, you really only need one that activates the top league. They are the best Central American country and will be a regular opponent for you in the endgame. If you want a second, I'd recommend Honduras. I've never really had a challenge from the rest.

I like having the USA fully structured and having both the MLS and the USL Championship set as playable. The file I use for this is Gum's, which is the closest to a real-life one that I know of. Warning: this will slow down your game as it adds a full Amateur NCAA and NISA levels with hundreds of clubs. This will help feed better players back into the Caribbean as they will get generated and developed in the better facility college and lower league US clubs. It isn't a lot of players, but in the endgame the other clubs will be desperate for non-foreign players of quality as you won't give them enough scraps to be competitive and this can make the difference. 

Should go without saying I'd have the Mexican 1st Division & MLS set as playable in your save. These are the giants of North America, and while Mexico will still fill up their teams pretty well not being activated I've seen the MLS be almost vacant without being activated or having players selected in advanced database settings. With them set as playable I'm seeing at least 5 Wonderkids in the top 50 list every year from Mexico. They produce good players!

Next Advanced Database Settings:

If you play in the Caribbean you either have to load a lot of leagues (so have a reasonable computer) or make sure to really add players in the custom database settings when you build your save. If a country doesn't have their league as playable it is highly likely the teams will all have grey players with a default game setup. All of the teams in the Caribbean are low reputation, so the quality of the grey players will be laughable and hardly a contest for you even just a few years into the save.

If at any point you decide to switch a country from playable to just view only expect the vast majority of players to be deleted by the game. Pretty sure this happens because it doesn't consider the "Caribbean Cup" a continental competition, so only if the team is regularly playing in the "North American Champions League" will it have players.

I would highly recommend having at the very least this in your custom database:

However, even with this I get a lot of greys for the minor nations. It might be worth going into the direct per-country/league selection and hard activating players for each of the topflight leagues you want to actually compete against you. For a reference this is the current setup I have in my save:

Minimum Loaded Leagues:

The minimum top flights I'd make sure to have loaded as playable are: Jamaica, Haiti & Trinidad and Tobago. These are the strong countries and are the dominant players in the Caribbean who have multiple Professional teams at the top of their leagues at the start of the game. As your save goes on T&T and Haiti will eclipse Jamaica as those two nations have better finances, which fund long term development of the clubs. They also will be more active in grabbing players from other Caribbean countries & abroad [especially if you activate V50's "Transfer" file].

For this challenge a lot of the nations' aren't eligible but, of course you don't have to play the challenge. For this challenge you really only can play the 3-Tier nations. The only exception might be Haiti as I believe it has relegation from the 2nd tier (but you'll want to check that). If you play in any of these three nations expect to have a reasonably similar experience to playing a minnow country in Europe. 

Middle Leagues:

The next wrung down is what I consider middle nations like Barbados, Martinique or Cuba [which is only 1 tier] where there is at least one fully professional club in the league at the start of the game. These countries have (hypothetically) enough funding in the league that if you become dominant winning the league and the cup in a few years you will be able to go professional and not go completely bankrupt. I'm in year 6 now of my save and I'm just beginning that point where I can begin building up funds and reputation to go professional in 3-5 seasons. Even more important (for national development) it should be possible for the 2nd place team to remain Professional and not sputter out. 

Lower Leagues:

This is where I put Antigua and Barbuda, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia, Curacao & Guadaloupe. All of these countries have the potential to go professional - I did it in St Vincent last year. You will do it with the prize money from the Caribbean Cup. Be prepared there is a lot less money in the Caribbean Cup than you're used to in Europe. It will take multiple years and cups to generate the reputation to get sponsors, attendance and enough prize money to go professional. The big issue in these countries is it will be much more difficult to get any other teams in your nation up to professional status. For me it took Hope International getting a Tycoon takeover to go professional and as soon as the funding dried up they went bankrupt and back to Semi-Pro. 

Fully Amateur:

These are the tiny territory nations that have literally no money at all in the leagues. I'm not sure if any qualify for the challenge, but playing here youth only would be pretty brutal. I would only go here if you want to do a regular save with transfers and are prepared for a domestic league where there is no challenge, but are fighting against relative "giants" in the NACL.

 

Hope this is helpful tiering of some of the major nations available to you in the Caribbean cup.

Edited August 23, 2023 by WhiteCat33

[jrobertgordon13]

25 minutes ago, WhiteCat33 said:

Thanks for the vote of confidence! I just enjoy giving CONCACAF some love on the forum and its thanks to @V50 that we have the database for it. I struggle to be concise so apologize in advance for the novel that follows. Hopefully this can help not only you but anyone else interested in using a really great megapack and playing in a region that is often ignored in FM.

TL;DR:

Decide how big of a power delta you want between yourself and the MLS and Liga Mx Clubs. If you are okay with having significantly inferior players, Antigua is a totally fine nation. If you want it to be somewhat fairer but still hard choose a nation like I did in Barbados or Martinique. If you want a nation that has the potential to produce actually good talent regularly choose one of the 3 big nations: Jamaica Trinidad & Haiti.

Caribbean "Guide":

In all but those 3 strong Caribbean countries it is pretty easy to climb up and win the domestic league in 5 or so seasons. The teams are all pretty rubbish, and the schedules tend to be very condensed and you can easily manage your player fitness better than the AI. The Caribbean Cup is a small challenge, but should come in about 10 seasons if you hold on to your players and develop facilities properly. It is at the NACL level where things are hard. MLS clubs are on average like mid-table English Championship clubs, and I'd consider the Liga Mx Clubs to be like yo-yo clubs between the Championship and Premier league. Middle & Lower Caribbean nations will not produce players of that caliber through youth intakes alone. You mentioned wanting to do Antigua and Barbuda. I expect it to be similar to my St Vincent experience where after 20+ seasons you will plateau being able to regularly beat the MLS sides but still require real luck to beat enough Liga Mx teams to win the NACL. I got close but couldn't topple the best clubs in Mexico. But hey, this challenge isn't about completing it for many of us. 

Caribbean Megapack:

First point is to use V50's entire megapack and make sure to use the NACL file I mentioned above. Even if you do not plan to play in a nation, load their league mod file. If i wasn't 100% behind the intakes I've been getting in Barbados I'd be restarting right now to play his revamped Caribbean Cup because I was sloppy when I set up my game and missed a file. If you want to play in a smaller nation the NACL adjustment file is required as you will never be entered into the Caribbean Cup and the North American Champions League without it.

If you want more of a challenge in the NACL I would also recommend getting a database for Costa Rica and activating their topflight. There are a few files floating around, you really only need one that activates the top league. They are the best Central American country and will be a regular opponent for you in the endgame. If you want a second, I'd recommend Honduras. I've never really had a challenge from the rest.

I like having the USA fully structured and having both the MLS and the USL Championship set as playable. The file I use for this is Gum's, which is the closest to a real-life one that I know of. Warning: this will slow down your game as it adds a full Amateur NCAA and NISA levels with hundreds of clubs. This will help feed better players back into the Caribbean as they will get generated and developed in the better facility college and lower league US clubs. It isn't a lot of players, but in the endgame the other clubs will be desperate for non-foreign players of quality as you won't give them enough scraps to be competitive and this can make the difference. 

Should go without saying I'd have the Mexican 1st Division & MLS set as playable in your save. These are the giants of North America, and while Mexico will still fill up their teams pretty well not being activated I've seen the MLS be almost vacant without being activated or having players selected in advanced database settings. With them set as playable I'm seeing at least 5 Wonderkids in the top 50 list every year from Mexico. They produce good players!

Next Advanced Database Settings:

If you play in the Caribbean you either have to load a lot of leagues (so have a reasonable computer) or make sure to really add players in the custom database settings when you build your save. If a country doesn't have their league as playable it is highly likely the teams will all have grey players with a default game setup. All of the teams in the Caribbean are low reputation, so the quality of the grey players will be laughable and hardly a contest for you even just a few years into the save.

If at any point you decide to switch a country from playable to just view only expect the vast majority of players to be deleted by the game. Pretty sure this happens because it doesn't consider the "Caribbean Cup" a continental competition, so only if the team is regularly playing in the "North American Champions League" will it have players.

I would highly recommend having at the very least this in your custom database:

However, even with this I get a lot of greys for the minor nations. It might be worth going into the direct per-country/league selection and hard activating players for each of the topflight leagues you want to actually compete against you. For a reference this is the current setup I have in my save:

Minimum Loaded Leagues:

The minimum top flights I'd make sure to have loaded as playable are: Jamaica, Haiti & Trinidad and Tobago. These are the strong countries and are the dominant players in the Caribbean who have multiple Professional teams at the top of their leagues at the start of the game. As your save goes on T&T and Haiti will eclipse Jamaica as those two nations have better finances, which fund long term development of the clubs. They also will be more active in grabbing players from other Caribbean countries & abroad [especially if you activate V50's "Transfer" file].

For this challenge a lot of the nations' aren't eligible but, of course you don't have to play the challenge. For this challenge you really only can play the 3-Tier nations. The only exception might be Haiti as I believe it has relegation from the 2nd tier (but you'll want to check that). If you play in any of these three nations expect to have a reasonably similar experience to playing a minnow country in Europe. 

Middle Leagues:

The next wrung down is what I consider middle nations like Barbados, Martinique or Cuba [which is only 1 tier] where there is at least one fully professional club in the league at the start of the game. These countries have (hypothetically) enough funding in the league that if you become dominant winning the league and the cup in a few years you will be able to go professional and not go completely bankrupt. I'm in year 6 now of my save and I'm just beginning that point where I can begin building up funds and reputation to go professional in 3-5 seasons. Even more important (for national development) it should be possible for the 2nd place team to remain Professional and not sputter out. 

Lower Leagues:

This is where I put Antigua and Barbuda, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia, Curacao & Guadaloupe. All of these countries have the potential to go professional - I did it in St Vincent last year. You will do it with the prize money from the Caribbean Cup. Be prepared there is a lot less money in the Caribbean Cup than you're used to in Europe. It will take multiple years and cups to generate the reputation to get sponsors, attendance and enough prize money to go professional. The big issue in these countries is it will be much more difficult to get any other teams in your nation up to professional status. For me it took Hope International getting a Tycoon takeover to go professional and as soon as the funding dried up they went bankrupt and back to Semi-Pro. 

Fully Amateur:

These are the tiny territory nations that have literally no money at all in the leagues. I'm not sure if any qualify for the challenge, but playing here youth only would be pretty brutal. I would only go here if you want to do a regular save with transfers and are prepared for a domestic league where there is no challenge, but are fighting against relative "giants" in the NACL.

 

Hope this is helpful tiering of some of the major nations available to you in the Caribbean cup.

I think I'm still going to do Antigua and Barbuda considering the save you did in Saint Vincent was pretty cool even though it never really got to winning the NACL.

Edited August 23, 2023 by jrobertgordon13

[HanziZoloman]

@Ronaldo Beckham great save mate! Congrats and not too many Ivans 

[HanziZoloman]

"We aim for a strong finish." Earl of Grey

Let's go Ricay! We're making some progress and are close behind the spots. We beat Dover, Eastbourne, Havant & Waterloo and Chippenham, we draw Margate and Dorking and lost only to Welling and Tonbridge. All other Matches are against teams well below us except the Maidenhead match which is next.

Spoiler

and beat Maidenhead as well with a dominant performance. "Go Ricay!"

Spoiler

 

 

Edited August 23, 2023 by HanziZoloman

[Gum]

3 hours ago, WhiteCat33 said:

Thanks for the vote of confidence! I just enjoy giving CONCACAF some love on the forum and its thanks to @V50 that we have the database for it. I struggle to be concise so apologize in advance for the novel that follows. Hopefully this can help not only you but anyone else interested in using a really great megapack and playing in a region that is often ignored in FM.

I agree. I appreciate folks like V50 and Aljarov who year after year have helped contribute to one of the main reasons I still play this game year after year. I hope Uncle Sam can return and bring his USA Expansion back, which is miles better than any realistic US database, including mine, that has come out since his last file in FM20. His inclusion of much lower leagues like USL League Two and NPSL/UPSL in his file fed CONCACAF with even more main and dual-national talent that would help boost both domestic and national teams across the region.

Thanks for showing love to CONCACAF, but especially the Caribbean. I had a regular non-youth save with V50's file towards the very end of the FM22 cycle with an amateur Turks & Caicos team. I won the Caribbean Cup and put up a great fight against teams in the Champions Cup despite never winning. It's something I highly recommend to anyone willing to try it out, with this challenge or simply just standalone.

[Johnny Ace]

5 games to go there @HanziZoloman, think you've got a chance of playoffs?

[HanziZoloman]

vor 3 Minuten schrieb Johnny Ace:

5 games to go there @HanziZoloman, think you've got a chance of playoffs?

Tonbridge won their game too think it’s a minimal chance but of course very minimal. But at last we are in a competition for it or close to ten years after the best finish (8th). I am all excited 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

3 hours ago, HanziZoloman said:

@Ronaldo Beckham great save mate! Congrats and not too many Ivans 

Cheers mate. Yeah getting less Ivan's now I think but still enough to keep the joke going lol.

[Virtual Male]

Some really interesting saves going on this year!

I haven't attempted one of these since FM17 playing as a Hungarian team until my pc decided it didn't like living anymore which put an abrupt end to it. After stumbling across @Cultured Left Foot's save on Youtube the fire was lit. After a little think about where I wanted to manage I settled on Austria, mainly because I like the national badge, and set about reloading until there was a club name I fancied.

Initially I wanted to find a club that was located out in the sticks because I've always liked having stadiums larger than the towns population but when Wiener Sports Club came up I couldn't resist the slightly silly name even if they're based in the capital.

I wanted to play a few seasons to make sure the save was going to stick before starting proper updates but I've made sure to keep screenshots of everything so I can write up a proper recap of what's happened so far.

 

[WhiteCat33]

12 hours ago, jrobertgordon13 said:

I think I'm still going to do Antigua and Barbuda considering the save you did in Saint Vincent was pretty cool even though it never really got to winning the NACL.

After sleeping on it last night I decided to set up a clean Barbados save to get the Caribbean Cup fully modified by V50. To do this I deleted all my old databases and did a clean setup of all V50 Megapack + Gum's USA. After simulating a couple seasons ive noticed that North American League Reputations are Static. This is a bug I noticed last year when I played with V50's megapack. It's possible I had another mod activated when I set up my game that enabled dynamic league ratings, but more likely there is something V50 touches in the NACL that locks the league reputations as static. 

Just want to make sure you're aware of this. It will make turning your club professional harder and will hinder the development of your domestic league as it will keep down club reputations. In the long run it probably does hurt your intakes, but I don't know how much league reputation / nation reputation effects the youth generation.

With this bug I'll continue with the regular NACL save I have been playing this past week rather than start a new one as I like the dynamic league reputation and will accept not getting any chance at the Caribbean Cup.

Edited August 23, 2023 by WhiteCat33

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

@WhiteCat33 Very nice write up, makes me want to go back to the Caribbean

[libbyshuss]

Aachen FC - Germany

2062/63

Bundesliga Champions - 2051, 2055, 2061

DFB-Pokal Winners - 2061, 2062

Champions League Winners - 2063

!!!!!!!!CHALLENGE COMPLETE!!!!!!!

Season Summary

We did it!!!! but how did we do it? well....

Champions League League Stage

Some really good results in the league stage meant we were never in any doubt of getting through, particularly after that 5-2 beating of PSG. A disappointing draw in the final game meant we had to go into the knockout play off round though.

Champions League Knockout Play Off Round

Lazio looked like a proper test so I wasn't that happy with the draw. We got a good 1-1 in Rome but nothing prepared me for how well we did at home. We blew them away!

Champions League Round of 32

Porto! A nice draw I thought as I fancied our chances against them. First leg went well but going away with only a two goal advantage is never particularly easy. And so it proved, as they scored 4 in portugal, although our attacking approach meant we scored three to go through by one goal

Champions League Quarter Final

Espanyol are good in this save so it wasn't as easy a draw as it looks. They battered us a few seasons ago at the same stage so I was wary coming into it. After a terrible leaguerun, with three bad performances in a row before heading into the first leg, I was downright pessimistic. To say i was surprised by the first leg result would be an understatement - you could have knocked me down with the weather! to then win in Barcelona was just the icing on the cake. Lovely stuff!

Champions League Semi-Final

Stade Rennais awaited us! They're another team who have been immense in this save. They've won Ligue 1 18 times since 2037! So I expected our run to be over to be honest. But a 1-1 draw in France got me a little excited. The return leg was close - it went to a penalty shootout after another 1-1! We scored all 5 of ours and they missed one!

Champions League Final

Our first ever final! Against Spurs! Current Premier League holders! 2060 Champions League winners! A team we'd only beaten once in six previous attempts!

It was a close game - they took the lead and looked like holding on. But 2 minutes into stoppage time Pascal Meier got free down the left hand channel and drilled a low ball across the box for Toure to stick home. Extra time brought no further goals so penalties it was....

Another perfect set of penalties and we'd done it!!!!!!

 

Players

So here are the players that did it! It was the new batch of wonderkids that did it in the end. They were fantastic. For Meier to captain the side and be playing at 35 is testemant to what a legend he is. Look at those all time appearances and goals! 987 club goals!

Breyer and Gorupex were the key players. They dominated midfield between them and allowed our fron three the freedom to go grab goals

Todorovski, Weiss and Toure all made their debuts for the German national team in the same match, which was exciting!

 

Wonderkids

Here's a list of all the wonderkids I've had throughout the save. Meier clearly the best, Gorupec and Breyer probably the next best.

 

So now what?

I'm going to keep the save goin until Pascal Meier has scored his 1000th club goal! We can then both retire happy!

edit: @darren1983  sorry, another one to add to the hall of fame 

Edited August 24, 2023 by libbyshuss

[Birdstream]

Really fun reading through this thread for the last few days. I’ve been looking for a new challenge to undergo as most of the FM saves I’ve tried feel a bit too easy after a few seasons. Will update with my selected team after I complete the first season.

And congrats to @libbyshuss on the completion!

[WhiteCat33]

19 minutes ago, libbyshuss said:

'm going to keep the save goin until Pascal Meier has scored his 1000th club goal! We can then both retire happy!

Congrats on another fantastic completion of the Challenge! Joining the 1000 goal club will be an impressive feat especially in the Bundesliga. If he's still in the national team hope he can make it an even 100 Germany goals and 1000 Achen Goals. True Legend

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

Congrats @libbyshuss!!

[Johnny Ace]

Let's go!!!! (for like the tenth time) 

 

 

[aldojags]

Amazing @libbyshuss

 

Get us a few screenshots of some your best current players!

[jrobertgordon13]

3 hours ago, WhiteCat33 said:

After sleeping on it last night I decided to set up a clean Barbados save to get the Caribbean Cup fully modified by V50. To do this I deleted all my old databases and did a clean setup of all V50 Megapack + Gum's USA. After simulating a couple seasons ive noticed that North American League Reputations are Static. This is a bug I noticed last year when I played with V50's megapack. It's possible I had another mod activated when I set up my game that enabled dynamic league ratings, but more likely there is something V50 touches in the NACL that locks the league reputations as static. 

Just want to make sure you're aware of this. It will make turning your club professional harder and will hinder the development of your domestic league as it will keep down club reputations. In the long run it probably does hurt your intakes, but I don't know how much league reputation / nation reputation effects the youth generation.

With this bug I'll continue with the regular NACL save I have been playing this past week rather than start a new one as I like the dynamic league reputation and will accept not getting any chance at the Caribbean Cup.

And I had just gotten the save started...  Welp, I should probably consider beginning a new save, but for now I'll continue.

[jrobertgordon13]

INTRODUCTION

BETHESDA SC (ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA)

 

And here we go!

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Another year where Salamanca have the best young player in the world but this season it is a different player. 

Jorge Bustos(S9YP4) was voted number one and he has been insane this season so far with 30 goals and 10 assists and it is only March.

The other player to get in the NXGN top 50 was Amine Naciri(S7YP3) who has also had a great season for us so far with 10 goals and 6 assists so far for the season. He also got his first cap for Morocco.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Salamanca UDS Season 11 Youth Intake

]

A decent intake. Not as good as usual but still decent with 4 x Elite Talents and 5 x Top Talents.

All of them but one were Spanish with a Cameroon rounding up the intake.

[Lepicto]

Congrats @libbyshuss. Really enjoyed your updates on the save! 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Salamanca UDS Season 11 Review

Competitions

We finally done it!!!!

We won the title by just 3 points but I am buzzing we managed to do this as I thought it would of took us a few more seasons to get near Real Madrid and Barcelona.

We also won some more silverware with us winning the UEFA Europa League.

We beat Arsenal 1-0 in the final.

The winning goal coming from a player who hadn't played much and only come through the youth academy last season but what a great story for him.

Best Players

Ivan Varela(S5YP7)

Another great season for one of our star players Varela who managed to get 43 goals & 12 assists. 

Jorge Bustos(S9YP4)

Bustos was neck and neck with Varela for top goalscorer. He smashed in 39 goals for the season and got 12 assists as well. He also got our best average rating which was 7.55

Andrea Zanella(S7YP1)

Zanella overshadowed by the other two but he also had a great season for us with 22 goals and 15 assists for the season.

Squad Overview

Transfers

Some decent money made from transfers with us getting £28m for a player which I think is the highest we have ever received for a player.

What Is Left?

Champions glory and then I can call it a night.

Hopefully I can achieve that in the next few seasons.

 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

I just managed to get the GOAT in as a coach.

[WhiteCat33]

Barbados YAC: Road View FC

Season 6 – BFA Digicel Premier League

Start Post | Season 1 |Season 2 | Season 3 | Season 4 | Season 5 | 

 

League Performance: CHAMPIONS!

 BDSP came back with a vengeance this year and were ahead of us in the table the vast majority of the season. In head-to-head they took both games against us, but somehow dropped enough points that going into the final matchday they were on top by just a single point. Then in their final game against a team already relegated they conceded a 71' equalizer to draw the game gifting us the title after our 4-1 dismantling of the Uni. West Indies. 

Spoiler

 

Cup Performance:

It turns out the cup is actually the more important competition as this determines who goes to the NACL. Of course here was our 3rd defeat to BDSP when we lost away 2-0 in our first semi-final.

 

Reserve & U18s:

 Both our youth teams won their leagues even with just sporadic reject players in their sides. 

Spoiler

    

Squad:

Spoiler

Excel Tables:

I did some upgrades to my Current Ability Excel worksheet while I watched Messi carrying Miami to extra time. And just as I type this Cincinati found their 114' equalizer!! MLS is sure getting the performances out of their big investment. And now we are onto penalties. Here are some Current Abilities of my Squad:

Anyways, back to the spreadsheet: I added Career Appearances & Goals [both total and league] as well as created dynamic Top - 10 lists for Current Ability Score [With Weak Foot Bonus ], Total Career Appearances & Total Career Goals. Still early days just 6 years in but maybe I too can get a 1000 Goal Club Legend.

Spoiler

     

 Transfers:

 Starting to let a couple dreggs go. Next year I'm worried about the no-contract dance with how good my top CAM is.

Spoiler

Best XI:

Spoiler

Head Coach:

 Finished my next License:

Spoiler

Club Improvements:

 No changes to the club finances aren't strong enough right now with our ever increasing Youth Setup Costs.

Youth Academy: [Will add in edit]

HOYD:

 

Youth Intake Preview:

Youth Intake:

TIME TO BUY A LOTERY TICKET I GOT MY 2ND MODEL CITIZEN!!! I cannot believe how good of luck I've had with personalities here. It's never been this good for me in any save that I can remember. That island mentality is just perfection.

Spoiler

Top 3 Players:

Jason Lashley: Can't ask for a better low-league CB, I'm excited! The rest of the abilities will come, but man 20 Bravery is just fantastic. and being tall enough with good physicals and a narly 15 tackling.

Spoiler

Akeem Skeete - We have a quick dead-ball specialist in this guy who I probably will play as an attacking wingback.

Spoiler

Elsid Downey: 3 for 3 here with our top players we get what was sorely needed in the squad - A Goalkeeper! Handling, Reflexes and height with a good base of the 3 GK command stats with 12 decisions he's better than I hoped for.

Spoiler

Excel Tables:

 Absolutely fantastic top 3 Players who took up the vast majority of the intakes current ability, but that's totally fine by me. The rest with good personalities can build out our reserve teams and I can begin to purge lots of extra players. 

Barbados Internationals:

Here is the second addition I made to my Current Ability Spreadsheet I automated my tracking of International Players in our current squad. 

Road View Players:

We have added another full Barbadian international with our Striker who had a fantastic campaign this year.

 

Riccardo Burke - This guy is a 'light' Model Citizen with Light-Hearted + Evasive & Unflapable. He is actually developing really well and is an absolute star CAM for our league.

Spoiler

Randolph Morris - Our new breakout Advanced Forward. He's stacked all his ability right into the skills we require of him. Even though he's unambitious he's getting mentored well and developed "Unflappable". Proof that Unambitious isn't always a death sentence.

Spoiler

Darico Harris - A utility sub on our bench he covers 3 positions for u and I could train him in a 4th with WB-R if I really wanted to. Very useful to have.

Spoiler

Omani Steele - Our Segundo Volante for a couple seasons now and team captain he is the heart of our midfield and is developing well enough to keep his spot in our side.

Spoiler

And we are up to 12 Youth Internationals in the squad [This total subtracts any players displayed in the table who have a Main team Cap. Its way easier than checking between the two UID lists for repeats.

English Academy Players:

No new players generated since the last check.

Spoiler

Evil England have stollen Parr by giving him a charity U19 callup before he could make his 5th Barbados CAP. He still can switch back to Barbados, but I have my doubts he ever will. Real shame.

Spoiler

   

American Academy Players:

Only one I can find from the sounders Academy, who was dropped into the NCAA. He is currently wanted by BDSP, so probably will come to Barbados next year.

Spoiler

Other Caribbean Developed Barbadians:

Surprisingly there are 33 Barbadians generated in Jamaica. I never took Jamaica for producing 2nd nationality players. I think this is due to a few of the Barbadian clubs being affiliates of Jamaican teams.

Spoiler

Caribbean International Performance:

Last year Barbados squeaked by with promotion on goal differential in the Nations League:

This year I have to wait till the October window for the World Cup Qualifiers. Next year there will be a big update on the National Team performance:

Spoiler

Barbados League:

Slowly creeping up the rankings.

Player Awards:

Burke sets a new Avg Rating record, from our Striker who set it last year as well as takes the Player of the Year & Young Player Awards. Fantastic debut for him!

Spoiler

Summary

We are well on our way here in Barbados and with this recent intake we solve all of the remaining problems in the first XI. The real struggle will be to earn enough money to go professional before professional clubs (probably in Trinidad) steal these star players. Priority has to be to win the cup next year and get our shot at the NACL to earn more money. Winning the cup itself is about a 100k payday. 

One step closer to building a dominant Barbados!

Edited August 24, 2023 by WhiteCat33

[JAwtunes]

Congrats @libbyshuss 

[jrobertgordon13]

Congrats to @libbyshuss!

[HanziZoloman]

"I know we can." Earl of Grey

Season 14 - 37/38

We have our invincibles. The Under 18s performed a strong season with no loss and won their 11th title in the youth league. We can't be that bad. 

The senior team also played an incredible season with an amazing finish. At the beginning we played good football but again missed the finish and were punished several times with a late equalizer or even loss. In January the team took up momentum and found a strong run of form beating almost every team in front of them and took even a hint of chance for promotion play offs. Finally the opponents didn't show any weakness which is why we stayed in 9th place which was exactly our target, to finish 9th to 7th. The squad is still huge relegation candidate, predicted to finish 22nd. 

Spoiler

 

Talking about players there are some positives after such a year. We have another candidate for a team legend, Inih Sole 27YB delivered 19 goals and 10 assists as an IF(S), Rhys Platt however still a good goalscorer with 11 goals in 33 apps is declining now, a legend on it's way to the finishing line. It's not a Pascal Meier @libbyshuss but he is sitting with 499 apps and 270 goals. He will still be important though as the vice captain. Harry Lee 34YCw (the w is indicating him as the worst of the signed players of 34 youth intake) contributed as an DLF(A) 8 goals in 9 starts (19 subs). IW(S) Ghouma (7 goals/ 11 assists) and Maxwell (2 goals/ 8 assists) contributed as well, though not as well as in the past years. Ghouma is a strong player but his passing stays at 6 and won't improve, Maxwell however is talented but a lazy worker (6) and unambitious. John Flannery our jumper from the backline (18) contributed 7 goals and 2 assists from set pieces but he will have to fight for his place. He is a lazy worker as well and there are some good Centre Backs coming through. Our AMC(A) Abi Ibeh and Adam Griggs can improve a lot with goals and assists but they are still young. Our 4 WB(S) right and left disappointed with the number of assists (3) they delivered but Rhys Platt missed a lot of sitters the problem might be elsewhere. 

Some good players need to leave due to high salary demands and the necessity to reduce the debts of about 300k which is a huge mountain to climb. New players will come through the excellent academy and only key players like Sole, Platt, Domingos and Ghouma shall stay. 

Spoiler

The Earl is well and satisfied, "we took another step to become true legends here in Ricay. We will not rest and we will not doubt to get this ship sailing into the sky."

 

Oh! We have our first candidate for player of the year: John Flannery the lazy jumper from the back 

Edited August 24, 2023 by HanziZoloman

[HanziZoloman]

vor 13 Stunden schrieb Johnny Ace:

Let's go!!!! (for like the tenth time) 

Come on!! 

@libbyshuss 

Edited August 24, 2023 by HanziZoloman

[libbyshuss]

11 hours ago, aldojags said:

Amazing @libbyshuss

 

Get us a few screenshots of some your best current players!

Here we go - the best players from our Champions League winning side!

Saso Todorovski - GK

One of the hardest things I find in these saves is getting a real top quality keeper. this lad was sop good I gave him his debut at 16 and he kept his place from then on. Scary to think just how good he can be in a few seasons time

Carston Weiss

Another youngster who was already incredible when he popped into the youth intake. it was only a matter of time before he became a superstar. He went straight into the team at 17 and just gets better and better

Marcel Breyer

Wow, what a player! Most important player for both us and the German national team

Adrian Gorupec

My little Croatian superstar! So good Croatia gave him his first cap at 16 when he was still in my U19 squad. Just gone from strength to strength from there

 

Seko Toure

The spiritual successor to Meier. Looked so good at 18 he forced me to change from a 4231 to a 433 to fit him into the side. Was the most important attacker this season and scored 35 goals, becoming top scorer. That pace and acceleration.....

Pascal Meier

What can I say? winner of 12 successive Balon d'Ors, scorer of 988 club goals, winner of everything! But at his age, and those physical stats, his days are numbered and I fear he win't make 100 Germany goals, which would be a travesty

 

Youth Facility Update

Soon as I complete the challenge what does the board do? let me finally max out the youth facilities! Unbelievable!

 

 

Edited August 24, 2023 by libbyshuss

[darren1983]

19 hours ago, libbyshuss said:

Aachen FC - Germany

2062/63

Bundesliga Champions - 2051, 2055, 2061

DFB-Pokal Winners - 2061, 2062

Champions League Winners - 2063

!!!!!!!!CHALLENGE COMPLETE!!!!!!!

Season Summary

We did it!!!! but how did we do it? well....

Champions League League Stage

Some really good results in the league stage meant we were never in any doubt of getting through, particularly after that 5-2 beating of PSG. A disappointing draw in the final game meant we had to go into the knockout play off round though.

Champions League Knockout Play Off Round

Lazio looked like a proper test so I wasn't that happy with the draw. We got a good 1-1 in Rome but nothing prepared me for how well we did at home. We blew them away!

Champions League Round of 32

Porto! A nice draw I thought as I fancied our chances against them. First leg went well but going away with only a two goal advantage is never particularly easy. And so it proved, as they scored 4 in portugal, although our attacking approach meant we scored three to go through by one goal

Champions League Quarter Final

Espanyol are good in this save so it wasn't as easy a draw as it looks. They battered us a few seasons ago at the same stage so I was wary coming into it. After a terrible leaguerun, with three bad performances in a row before heading into the first leg, I was downright pessimistic. To say i was surprised by the first leg result would be an understatement - you could have knocked me down with the weather! to then win in Barcelona was just the icing on the cake. Lovely stuff!

Champions League Semi-Final

Stade Rennais awaited us! They're another team who have been immense in this save. They've won Ligue 1 18 times since 2037! So I expected our run to be over to be honest. But a 1-1 draw in France got me a little excited. The return leg was close - it went to a penalty shootout after another 1-1! We scored all 5 of ours and they missed one!

Champions League Final

Our first ever final! Against Spurs! Current Premier League holders! 2060 Champions League winners! A team we'd only beaten once in six previous attempts!

It was a close game - they took the lead and looked like holding on. But 2 minutes into stoppage time Pascal Meier got free down the left hand channel and drilled a low ball across the box for Toure to stick home. Extra time brought no further goals so penalties it was....

Another perfect set of penalties and we'd done it!!!!!!

 

Players

So here are the players that did it! It was the new batch of wonderkids that did it in the end. They were fantastic. For Meier to captain the side and be playing at 35 is testemant to what a legend he is. Look at those all time appearances and goals! 987 club goals!

Breyer and Gorupex were the key players. They dominated midfield between them and allowed our fron three the freedom to go grab goals

Todorovski, Weiss and Toure all made their debuts for the German national team in the same match, which was exciting!

 

Wonderkids

Here's a list of all the wonderkids I've had throughout the save. Meier clearly the best, Gorupec and Breyer probably the next best.

 

So now what?

I'm going to keep the save goin until Pascal Meier has scored his 1000th club goal! We can then both retire happy!

edit: @darren1983  sorry, another one to add to the hall of fame 

Congrats mate - been as joy following both yours and Meier's attempt's, please to see you managed to win it with him in the side.

Edit: Have added you to the HoF too

Edited August 24, 2023 by darren1983

[WhiteCat33]

Does anyone have a spreadsheet with the updated values for Personalities & Media Handling hidden attributes? Considering adding it to my Current Ability calculator for a like 'best mentor' tool.

[Novafluff]

Season Review 2026

Table | Transfers | Finance | Facilities | Youth Intake

A step back this season even though it looks closer to relegation then it was we were safe quite early but never good enough to go upwards. Forgot to take picture of the intake but an okay one where we got a new number 10, still missing central defenders and strikers thou! But Björn Cederqvist seems like to turn into a really nice right back as he constantly develops a lot!

Top Scorer: Jesper Lundborg 9 Goals | 20(5) Games

Most Assists: (03-K)Johan Hansson| 10 Assists | 26(0) Games

Best Average: Daniel Bennassar Nilsson | 6.97 Average | 25(0) Games

Top Prospect: (02-A)Björn Cederqvist | 1 Goals | 3 Assists | 24(0) Games | 6.85 Average

Best Intake Prospect: (04-A)David Rosen

[Novafluff]

Season Review 2027

Table | Transfers | Finance | Facilities | Youth Intake

At first this season seemed to be a middle of the table season, but after an amazing finish to the season winning 7 in a row we managed to claim the 2nd place on the last matchday as Berga lost their last game. This meant promotion groupstage playing 2 games, one each against two teams where we lost the first one 2-3. This i thought was it as we would need Räppe to beat Lidköping and not to big and then we would need to beat Räppe bigger or the same then they beat Lidköping. Räppe won 2-0 which meant we needed to beat Räppe with 2 goals. Amazingly enough we won 3-1! But it is not done here, now we play a tie against Karlskrona from the division above. The stars seemed aligned for us, but Karlskrona brought us back to earth as they beat os 2-0 in both legs which means we stay in Div 2. But we are progressing and got a new left winger in the intake. Next year might be our year.

Top Scorer: Jesper Lundborg 20 Goals | 25(2) Games

Most Assists: (03-K)Johan Hansson| 10 Assists | 28(0) Games

Best Average: (02-A)Björn Cederqvist | 7.30 Average | 26(0) Games

Top Prospect: (02-A)Björn Cederqvist | 5 Goals | 3 Assists | 28(0) Games | 7.30 Average

Best Intake Prospect: (04-A)David Rosen

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Varela beating club legend Salazars record for most goals for the club.

[Virtual Male]

Massive achievement @libbyshuss well done!! Surely got to at least got for the CWC too before calling it a day.

[Levitatee]

@darren1983 @XaW Looking to do a Japan one starting from the J2 League on a custom database, would that be eligible or not? What tier should the start of the save be in custom databases? DB goes down to 5th tier.

Edited August 25, 2023 by Levitatee