The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge

[mpm2342]

7 hours ago, Neo_Geo said:

I mean look at the Northern Ireland attempts, 90% of them are for Crewe United because it’s usually them or Belfast celtic that get promoted in the first season

Not much choice in Northern Ireland. I reload at least 40 times to try and get someone different with no luck. It was 70-80% Belfast Celtic, so I took Crewe because their facilities were worse and in the middle of cows and sheep.

[WhiteCat33]

Etincelle Macouba – Martinique Youth Academy Challenge

2025 Season 1 – Martinique Trophee Claude Chade R3

 

Past Updates:

Spoiler

FM24 YAC Thread:

Intro Post |

League Performance: CHAMPION!

Our striker didn't disappoint us! Julian Mace led the line with 13 goals in 19 games. I was worried when in the second game of the season my BWM broke his ankle and missed all but the final game of the season. Luckily his was the only serious injury and the rest of the team was mostly fit and stayed out of the referee's books so were available for selection. In Martinique after 2 Yellows the player is suspended. Then each additional yellow is another game suspension. No playing dirty here.

Domestic Cup Performance:

 We did so bad last season we weren't entered into the cup. Actually happy about it as it meant we played just 1 game a week all season, which was perfect for my very thin squad.

Squad:

CA & RA Excel Player List:

Not a shock but the team is dreadful. Lots of these players were inferior to grey players they were so poor. Luckily, we had just enough "talent" to put together a competent first XI, and they played every game.

Spoiler

Excel Analytics:

Honestly not even worth it because I threw out all but 8 of these players over the summer. The less they are remembered the better.

CA & RA Team Tables:

If you want your eyes to burn with the CA ratings in the single digits go ahead.

Spoiler

What is interesting is how the floor for RA ratings seems to be 30. With the way CA calculations go that makes sense.

The way I do my CA calculations is with forecast tables of flat-attribute value players I manually entered into a CA calculator. I don't have the editor so I can't say if its exact [if someone wants to try it for me I'll happily take updated information]. 

It takes till a flat value of over 6 for players to even enter the CA analysis. For all positions a player will hit 200 with 17 flat values. 

Player Highlights:

Negative:

The season long injury totally wrecked my hope for future captain and mentor BWM. He will still be able to mentor, but he will quickly be eclipsed by players compared to if he had been able to develop for a whole season. Shame as he's a perfect mentor. Hidden Abilities in spoiler:

Spoiler

Positive:

I focused on a defensive-first approach and was rewarded with a great developing back line. LB and Vice-Captain Cedric Mougin led the team expertly in Gibert's absence and with his Professional personality developed into a half-competent (albeit slow) LB.

You always need a good CB and Malick Tarrieu was our towering presence on defense and corner target on offense at his beefy 205 lbs and 6'6" frame. With 17 Jumping, 11 tackling and 13 strength he actually has good values which is unheard of at this level. Also having big Matches helped him show up when it counted to make up for his shameful 5 decisions.

Transfer Activity: https://imgur.com/a/8jOuV5h

With the end of season contract trick I was able to hold onto all my starters for the entire season. I played the summer transfer window after as well and was able to ratchet all 8 I kept another year, so we're golden for survival next year.

Best XI:

Best seems ill-fitting:

Spoiler

Aside: My Concatenate formulas are real ugly with the French special characters getting thrown through the exports. I probably will have to manually clean this in the future even though that's annoying. I like automation, can't you tell?

Head Coach: 

Mr Manager got his National C license and can kind of teach Technical training now. 

Club Improvements:

The board were shocked at our success and basically gave me whatever I asked for. 3 Youth Recruitments and 2 Junior Coaching bumps and we ended at:

Club also went Semi-Pro with the promotion, which is a good start. Still only non-contracts available though so will be the tedium of yearly end of season contracts to try and keep the team together.

Supporters, Next Year Sponsorship & Season Ticket Pricing

Youth Academy:

Academy Summary:

Youth Intake Preview:

Spoiler

Youth Intake:

First intake is always good with a squad this bad, but this was a pleasant surprise and I'm very happy with what we got.

Spoiler

YI Best Candidates:

All Images and comments on IMGUR. Plenty of talent across multiple positions with an overweighting of wingers, which is fine because we need them all.

Excel

I'll do a more limited amount of graphs right now, as you need more than Y0 & Y1 to really gain anything in longitudinal analysis.

Spoiler

Youth Nationality:

Again, the special characters are playing murder with the birth-place export. Eventually my plan is to get the full list of Martinique locations in the game and start a percentage coverage tracking.

Martinique National Team

Martinique actually did really well getting to the Quarter Finals of the Nations League A Championship. Gold Cup wasn't as good losing in the group phase.

Spreadsheet Manager:

Personality & Media Handling

This season was completely stress free, so it was easy to 'multi-task' with working on the spreadsheet the entire time I played the save. One big aspect of the Calculator that I feel was lacking was the Hidden Ability analysis. This was both due to it not being the initial focus of the sheet (Current Ability), as well as sloppily coded implementation. I still have a long way to go to make an accurate Hidden Ability Translator.

My initial sheet was just copied from this google doc. However, instead of the legitimate calculations with the multitude of Determination based cases I just used the rough ranges set by the base Personality x Media Handling combinations.

In my web searching I found this great Steam Community Post that included a lot more information and some valuable insights that I hadn't considered before but brings my struggles in Barbados into clearer light.

Discussion of Hidden Abilities in Spoiler:

Spoiler

In Barbados what I continued having happen was players coming through that had awful Big Matches ratings as well as struggling to handle the pressure. This combined with an overly ambitious squad made managing them difficult as they always wanted to leave for a better squad and then didn't show up and score in the games that mattered. 

To this end: I’ve changed my target 3 hidden attributes to Professionalism, Pressure & Important Matches. 

How does my initial HOYD stack up? He is Light Hearted + Evasive & Short Tempered

Temperament is contradictory here. Since he is Short Tempered that should mean he has a 1-2 temperament as a hard rule. This would overwrite the range for Light-Hearted which is 10 – 20. Obviously, this is the downside of the rough-calculations I've been doing. I take the max minimum value and the min maximum value to create a limited range. This is probably a situation covered by one of the special cases that eventually I'll have implemented.

Anyways, locking one of the hidden attributes at the worst possible value is never a good thing. He isn't all bad with good Professionalism  & Pressure with acceptable mid-range Big Matches. Throwing in high Sportsmanship is a nice win as well.

However, what is available in the staff search?

From the highlight you can see I decided to change to Marvin Jean:

This was instead of choosing Gerald Jean, the Fairly Professional HOYD who would have been my natural choice in previous saves:

Here is where the Evasive Media Handling is so important even though "Outspoken & Reserved" isn't bad:

But Controversy is the one variable that is inverse to the rest. Minimum is best, so here is another example where a specific case is at work. I am guessing adding Outspoken overrides Reserved thus creating max Controversey player. Otherwise, why bother with adding in outspoken? This is why it is broken in the screenshot above as I don't have this situation implemented properly.

Evasive gives the same top Professionalism, but also provides top-tier Pressure, which Reserved is lacking. Another bonus is the minimum for Big Matches is higher for Evasive making it more likely players generated will have a neutral 10 rating. I sacrifice Temperament and open up the range for Loyalty, but that is completely acceptable for me. However, considering my last HOYD had the worst possible Temperament this is still an upgrade.

 

I'm new to FM24 [yes, I know I'm late to the party, its the only way I could try and finish off Barbados]. I take it the "Tendencies" replace the "Gegenpressing" / "Counter-Attack" etc. If anyone has a good guide on this don't hesitate to send it on. In my uneducated mind both of these tendencies work for me. Pressing should increase Aggression & Work-rate. Playing out I would assume would lean towards passing/vision over speed/off the ball, but what do i know.

Summary:

Perfect first season and great foundational intake. Martinique has a split-second tier each with 12 teams with top spot promotion and bottom relegated. Short and sweet 22 game season again works for small squads like ours. Only a couple of the players are over 18, so regular fixtures should hopefully keep them from sliding off in ability.

Intake was good enough that early pre-season we aren't considered the worst team! I'm sure this will change during the transfer window, but it gives me hope of a solid campaign. Again it will all come down to our striker showing up again like he did last season. I'm assuming the defenses we will be facing won't be significantly superior so hopefully he does okay. 

If he struggles I did get a new striker in Ryan Conan. Slow, but Good composure & Finishing might work okay. Otherwise, I have fast wingers I can move up-top and just laugh as they fling shots every-which-way.

YAC BINGO:

Just the simple top-left for the first season. I tried to balance out the squares for the Caribbean with the unique flavor of eligibility for the French Cup. 

Edited August 20 by WhiteCat33

[DazRTaylor]

15 hours ago, Matsusipida said:

I play all competitive games. I leave freandlies to AsMan

Ditto

[HanziZoloman]

Hi all, had a massive break from playing as it turned out too frustrating. Stepped back in yesterday and got a 5:0 thrashing but okay I’m back for good. 
does anybody have these nice bingo cards for England for a download? Thanks 

@fries impressive work congrats!

@Padders still following your road you‘ll do it you‘re my hero still 

[scarp]

13 hours ago, Daddy said:

@scarp what @Neo_Geo is saying! I got lucky and got a tycoon early, so I'm looking forward to seeing your story play out!

@Daddy Thank you! Fingers crossed you get it done, how far you are from winning CL you reckon? Finances are indeed quite challenging, and even though the facilities were OK to start with, they're already losing their status.

[scarp]

Ústí nad Labem 2025/26

What a season! I was quite worried coming into the next season as we did not have an attacker suited to play my favourite tactic and we had a quickly aging core of Kucera and Richter. Youth players were nowhere near ready and my expectations were to fight around 10th place in the table. Fortunately, I decided to tweak our tactics and make changes to the roles of the players that were struggling even though they were supposed to be our star players. I started using Ismael Dao as an inverted winger & let Petr Rybicka to play a role of advanced forwarded - these changes were instrumental to our success, as both of them became our best players this season. Rybicka scored 25 goals and Dao seven, to which he added 10 assists.

We played surprisingly great football through out the season and eventually managed to climb the play-off spot, to everybody's surprise. I knew it's too early for promotion, but would take it anyway just for the finances (and hope to not get fired as we get relegated next season), where we are really struggling even though I keep the budget very much in check. In the play-offs we faced Brno, who showed us the difference between 1st and 2nd division as they comfortably controlled both games and we remain in 2nd Division.

As far as our team goes, Kucera is starting to show the older age and so is Richter. We still do not have a proper right winger as Hycka retires at the end of the season and Cohla is our only other (sub-par) option. Defense is also looking weak, although we have some great prospects there, Lukas Rezac from last year youth in-take quickly became our defense leader and in April we welcomed Jakub Vrabec who's already our best LB while being 16 years old.

Key players: Petr Rybicka, Ismael Dao & Lukas Rezac

Youth watch: Hynek Zizka, Petr Plachy, Lumir Cicovsky

 

[scarp]

And this is what I get for the 3rd place  

[XaW]

Ok, I've restarted a lot lately, but I don't really feel the saves anymore, sorry about that. But rather than continue in England, I think I'll have another try in Wales, as I really want fewer league games. The 46 match season in England is a bit much really.

So here we go.

[Daddy]

4 hours ago, scarp said:

@Daddy Thank you! Fingers crossed you get it done, how far you are from winning CL you reckon? Finances are indeed quite challenging, and even though the facilities were OK to start with, they're already losing their status.

Very close. Hopefully today close!

[Neo_Geo]

I hear you @XaW England is a mammoth undertaking, so many games, so many tiers.

Seeing @WhiteCat33 with 22 games in a truly unique setting looks very appealing.

Hopefully you can get one of these saves to stick to lead you through to FM25

[scarp]

1 hour ago, Daddy said:

Very close. Hopefully today close!

Good luck! I must admit that in the end the sense of uniqueness for my challenge was too much handle. I will start a new one and see if I can stick with that one for a moment.

[mschafer13]

What's your personal record for most seasons spent in the lowest league possible? 

Will be 7 seasons at the end of this one. Hard to be semi-pro and ever get into the playoff hunt, it seems.

Maybe we'll get a few good kids this year at least.

[mschafer13]

So, we don't have any money to go pro, and the board keeps denying my requests to move on from being semi-pro..BUT...they want to build a $6 million stadium?

Will this help me with anything? Or just more debt so we can't go pro anytime soon?

[CJ'43]

Kavala Football Club / Αθλητικός Όμιλος Καβάλα

Season 35 - 2058/59

Schedule / Squad / Transfers / Finances / Manager

Season summary: For the 9th time in our history, we are the champions of Greece! After a solid regular season, where we finished 2nd, we displayed remarkable consistency in the championship group, remaining unbeaten and finishing 4 points ahead of Asteras Tripolis.

In the Greek Cup, we started strong by easily defeating Panachaiki from the 2nd division. However, in the quarter-finals, we faced a setback, losing 5-2 to Aigaleo in the first leg. Despite this, we mounted an incredible comeback, winning 6-5 on aggregate. We then defeated Asteras Tripolis, our main rival in Greece at the moment, in the semi-finals, and went on to beat PAOK in the national stadium to lift our 4th Greek Cup.

Unlike last year, we had a comfortable run in the Champions League group stage, winning 4 matches and competing for a top-8 spot until the end. The only unexpected result was a loss to Lyon in France. We finished 13th, which led us to face Milan in the knockout stage—a team we had defeated in the league phase months earlier. After a draw in Italy, we had a thrilling match in Kavala, where we secured a 2-1 victory, with the winning goal coming just a minute after conceding an equalizer in the 94th minute. In the Round of 16, we faced another familiar opponent from the group stage: Manchester City. After losing 1-0 in England previously, this time we managed a 2-1 victory at home and held on for a 2-2 draw away, earning us a historic first-ever quarter-final appearance. There, we faced Manchester United, whom we beat comfortably 4-1 at home, advancing to the semi-finals with a 4-2 aggregate. In the semis, Liverpool awaited us. We played two strong matches, but after a 1-0 loss in the UK, we couldn’t progress past a 1-1 draw at home. It was our best campaign in the competition so far, though for the 5th time, Liverpool knocked us out. Liverpool ended up winning the competition.

I receive the Manager of the Year award for the 13th season. Several of our players were included in the Super League Best XI: Prokopis Varsamidis (56c), Erkan Abazaj (51b), Thodoros Bedrelis (47d), Giorgos Lyberakis (46a), and Christos Kygais (56a). Bedrelis was also named Greek Player of the Year, with Kygais finishing 3rd. Our 18-year-old right-winger was ranked the second most promising youth player in the world by NXGN, with Varsamidis (56c) in 43rd place. Ilias Giannikoglou (47), despite missing two months due to injury, was once again our top goalscorer with 19 goals. Meanwhile, our Brazilian wonderkid, Pierre (54e), won the European Golden Boy award.

 

Youth intake: some promising talents like Panagiotis Tsanaktsoglou and Andreas Stamatopoulos. It was another glorious year for our U19s, who comfortably won their 26th consecutive Greek title and their 7th UEFA Youth League.

 

Team history:

 

Manager history:

[WhiteCat33]

2 hours ago, Neo_Geo said:

I hear you @XaW England is a mammoth undertaking, so many games, so many tiers.

Seeing @WhiteCat33 with 22 games in a truly unique setting looks very appealing.

Hopefully you can get one of these saves to stick to lead you through to FM25

The water's warm in the Caribbean!

[XaW]

1 hour ago, mschafer13 said:

So, we don't have any money to go pro, and the board keeps denying my requests to move on from being semi-pro..BUT...they want to build a $6 million stadium?

Will this help me with anything? Or just more debt so we can't go pro anytime soon?

Usually the board are willing to go professional when you have around a million pounds in the bank. The stadium might be of necessity though, if your old one is too small and/or old and the maintenance costs are too high.

[naterr]

1 hour ago, CJ'43 said:

Kavala Football Club / Αθλητικός Όμιλος Καβάλα

Season 35 - 2058/59

Schedule / Squad / Transfers / Finances / Manager

Season summary: For the 9th time in our history, we are the champions of Greece! After a solid regular season, where we finished 2nd, we displayed remarkable consistency in the championship group, remaining unbeaten and finishing 4 points ahead of Asteras Tripolis.

In the Greek Cup, we started strong by easily defeating Panachaiki from the 2nd division. However, in the quarter-finals, we faced a setback, losing 5-2 to Aigaleo in the first leg. Despite this, we mounted an incredible comeback, winning 6-5 on aggregate. We then defeated Asteras Tripolis, our main rival in Greece at the moment, in the semi-finals, and went on to beat PAOK in the national stadium to lift our 4th Greek Cup.

Unlike last year, we had a comfortable run in the Champions League group stage, winning 4 matches and competing for a top-8 spot until the end. The only unexpected result was a loss to Lyon in France. We finished 13th, which led us to face Milan in the knockout stage—a team we had defeated in the league phase months earlier. After a draw in Italy, we had a thrilling match in Kavala, where we secured a 2-1 victory, with the winning goal coming just a minute after conceding an equalizer in the 94th minute. In the Round of 16, we faced another familiar opponent from the group stage: Manchester City. After losing 1-0 in England previously, this time we managed a 2-1 victory at home and held on for a 2-2 draw away, earning us a historic first-ever quarter-final appearance. There, we faced Manchester United, whom we beat comfortably 4-1 at home, advancing to the semi-finals with a 4-2 aggregate. In the semis, Liverpool awaited us. We played two strong matches, but after a 1-0 loss in the UK, we couldn’t progress past a 1-1 draw at home. It was our best campaign in the competition so far, though for the 5th time, Liverpool knocked us out. Liverpool ended up winning the competition.

I receive the Manager of the Year award for the 13th season. Several of our players were included in the Super League Best XI: Prokopis Varsamidis (56c), Erkan Abazaj (51b), Thodoros Bedrelis (47d), Giorgos Lyberakis (46a), and Christos Kygais (56a). Bedrelis was also named Greek Player of the Year, with Kygais finishing 3rd. Our 18-year-old right-winger was ranked the second most promising youth player in the world by NXGN, with Varsamidis (56c) in 43rd place. Ilias Giannikoglou (47), despite missing two months due to injury, was once again our top goalscorer with 19 goals. Meanwhile, our Brazilian wonderkid, Pierre (54e), won the European Golden Boy award.

 

Youth intake: some promising talents like Panagiotis Tsanaktsoglou and Andreas Stamatopoulos. It was another glorious year for our U19s, who comfortably won their 26th consecutive Greek title and their 7th UEFA Youth League.

 

Team history:

 

Manager history:

Such a shame about the semi final loss. Do you think you are getting close now? 

The scores suggest you are!

[darren1983]

8 hours ago, XaW said:

Ok, I've restarted a lot lately, but I don't really feel the saves anymore, sorry about that. But rather than continue in England, I think I'll have another try in Wales, as I really want fewer league games. The 46 match season in England is a bit much really.

I feel ya, I was enjoying my time at Dulwich but then had to take a few days off and I just can't get back into it and the thought of starting a new save fills me dread so I've just stopped playing all together. Hopefully I'll find the buzz again in time for FM25  

[XaW]

2 minutes ago, darren1983 said:

I feel ya, I was enjoying my time at Dulwich but then had to take a few days off and I just can't get back into it and the thought of starting a new save fills me dread so I've just stopped playing all together. Hopefully I'll find the buzz again in time for FM25  

Yeah, was a bit much right now, so a shorter season in Wales should be a good change.

Though this hurts a bit when I have 13 players in my squad...

So I think I'll finally have to concede and actually play greys this time.

[Sdp9511]

End-of-Season Review

Season 20456/47

Le Puy

Season Summary- This season felt rather stagnant, with us ending up in rather the same position as last year. One point behind the European places, what makes it worse is that we had the chance to make it if we won or even drew our final game against Lille. But instead, we were battered 4-1. Our stagnation might have occurred due to the loss of our second-best player, who was sold because he was unwilling to sign a new contract. In the cup, we were knocked out in the eleventh round by Lille.

The good news that the board brought at the end of this season, is that they want to be the best youth academy in France. Something which would help in this challenge.

Transfers- We had one major transfer in the January transfer window, Elouan Lefranc (our second-best player) left us to join Juventus for a fee of 50 million euros. This sale was done so that he wouldn't leave for free at the end of the season. This was inevitable after he had been unwilling to sign a new contract for the last 3 to 4 years.

Youth Candidates- With a new HOYD I was hopeful for a much better youth intake. It did seem promising at first with their being 3 A's in the preview. But it ended up not being as spectacular as first predicted. With only 1 elite talent in the end, on the positive side, most of the players have good personalities. The best of the lot is the RB who will hopefully fill the shoes of Lefranc.

   

Key Players

POTS/Top scorer- Botamba was our top scorer, which shows how poor our strikers were performing last season. 

 

Assists- Diaw had another good season, he did spend most of the season at RB due to the loss of Lefranc

YPOTS- Julien was our YPOTY, a squad player who sporadically starts. Due to the weakness of our other offensive players, he saw much more game time than previous years.

 

Career Record

After Season   Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Win Percentage     Time At Club
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2024/25          37       12       13       12          64              62                -2               32.0%             328 days 
...
2044/45          794      314      169      311         1345            1330               15               39.0%             7636 days
2045/46          843      337      179      327         1431            1407               24               39.0%             8034 days
2046/47          880      355      189      336         1501            1455               46               40.0%             8383 days

Transfer Sale Record

Date               Player                    Position               Club Sold To                 Country                   Transfer Fee
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
22/1/2047          Elouan Lefranc 17A          RB                    Juventus                     Italy                      50,000,000
9/7/2042           Gerald Bruyere 11B          CB                    SL Benfica                   Portugal                   16,250,000 (21,500,000) 
18/7/2045          Andy Godoy 19C              ST/RW                 FC Porto                     Portugal                   5,500,000
1/9/2037           Fares Jaballah 11A          RB                    RSC Anderlecht               Belgium                    4,600,000 (7,000,000)
15/8/2034          Rudy Lenourmand 8A          CDM/CB                RSC Anderlecht               Belgium                    4,700,000 (6,000,000)
18/7/20242         Karim Attochi 9K            RB                    SPAL                         Italy                      2,200,000 (2,900,000)

Trophy Haul

Season     Competition Won
--------------------------
2037-2038     Ligue 2
2045-2046     U19 National League

Record Number of Appearances (Players From The Academy Only) (*New Player)

All time           Player             Number of Appearances                  
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2023-2042          Gilles Comte              484
2029-present       Sadibou Diop              442
2031-present       Driton Rama               425
2026-2043          Olivier Penot             403
2025-2039          Andreas Kruger            386

Record Goal Scorer (Players From The Academy Only)

All time           Player               Number of Goals                        
-------------------------------------------------------------------
2025-2039          Andreas Kruger            136 
2032-present       Houssem Omrani            121
2032-present       Liam Guillerm             76 
2025-2042          Ousmane Tine              64 
2034-2047          Clinton Nkem              63                              

Record Number of Assists (Players From The Academy Only)

All time           Player               Number of Assists           
-----------------------------------------------------------------
2025-2042          Ousmane Tine              69
2036-present       Christ Botamba            61
2035-present       Mouhamadou Diaw           60
2023-2042          Gilles Comte              54   
2026-2043          Olivier Penot             48

Record Number of Clean Sheets (Players From The Academy Only)

All time          Player               Number of Clean sheets   
----------------------------------------------------------------
2027-2044         Kevin Labonne              51
2039-present      Alexandre Pfister          32
2037-present      Ibrahim Besse    *         5 
2030-2043         Thomas Chabrier            2
2032-37           Abdoul Soro                1

 

[WhiteCat33]

@Neo_Geo if you do plan on playing a French overseas department save, make sure to load in daveincid's fix for the Coupe de France registration bug. It's in his Realisim Megapack.

If you're curious how strong the top clubs got in North America, I exported the top 2-4 teams from the major nations in my FM23 save and used my spreadsheet to calculate Squad CA Averages.

A key caveat is my save didn't have @V50 fully implemented Caribbean Shield & Cup system, so there was less money and reputation available for non-top clubs in nations.

Here are some quick rough graphs to show the general 50 year development

Spoiler

In my opinion the AI for the MLS needs to be seriously improved so they can build better squads. The MLS registration system is really complicated and its common to see the AI play millions for a player just to release him a season later due to lacking international slots or GAM/TAM for the cap buyout.

Costa Rica on the other hand is a nation that improves significantly as the game goes on. Very regularly there was a top 10 wonderkid out of Costa Rica. It was hard finding a good version of the league but I found a concacaf megapack that had all the Central American countries. Could be an interesting destination for a tougher domestic league.

 

[scarp]

Ústí nad Labem 2026/27

Not gonna lie, I was very close to stopping playing with us losing our professional status after finishing 3rd last season. We started the season with the board selling our biggest talent Lukas Rezac for only 44k (140k), which was a low blow as we do not really have that many options in central defense. At first I agreed to him continuin with us on loan until the rest of the season but afterwards I realized it might be against the rules, so I terminated his loan (after 28 days - earliest possible) with him not playing any game for us on loan - by the way, anyone can confirm whether keeping sold players for the remainder of the season on loan is against the rules?.

In Autumn we did not play exactly great and were placed 7th before winter break. I was feeling quite sad about it as I enjoyed the save thus far but with us moving to semi-pro and majority of players on contract until the end of the year, we would probably have to let go of most our players in summer on free. Something clicked through the winter break though, our full-back Vrabec and Filbert stepped up the game massively and Cerny and Bunes made fans forget about Kucera (who has became a fringe player, but still managed to score three important goals). We started winning comfortably most of the games and locked in play-offs with 3 games in advance. Coming into the last game of the season we were 3rd behind Sparta B and Hradec Kralove and we were playing away at Jihlava. We managed to get a draw and at the same time Hradec lost their home game to Teplice, thus promoting us to 2nd place in the table! And considering Sparta B team cannot be promoted, we have been promoted straight to the First Division!!!

Key players: Petr Rybicka, Jakub Vrabec & Adam Cerny

Youth watch: Stanislav Trapp, Seidu Mensah & Jiri Schut

 

[Neo_Geo]

30 minutes ago, WhiteCat33 said:

@Neo_Geo if you do plan on playing a French overseas department save, make sure to load in daveincid's fix for the Coupe de France registration bug. It's in his Realisim Megapack.

If you're curious how strong the top clubs got in North America, I exported the top 2-4 teams from the major nations in my FM23 save and used my spreadsheet to calculate Squad CA Averages.

A key caveat is my save didn't have @V50 fully implemented Caribbean Shield & Cup system, so there was less money and reputation available for non-top clubs in nations.

Here are some quick rough graphs to show the general 50 year development

  Reveal hidden contents

In my opinion the AI for the MLS needs to be seriously improved so they can build better squads. The MLS registration system is really complicated and its common to see the AI play millions for a player just to release him a season later due to lacking international slots or GAM/TAM for the cap buyout.

Costa Rica on the other hand is a nation that improves significantly as the game goes on. Very regularly there was a top 10 wonderkid out of Costa Rica. It was hard finding a good version of the league but I found a concacaf megapack that had all the Central American countries. Could be an interesting destination for a tougher domestic league.

 

Awesome, if I get bored (or sacked) in Croatia I may just look to do a build a nation save that starts as youth only though with only a few months to FM25 I doubt I’d get that far!

[naterr]

Naterr Garcia - Barwell FC - 26/27

The joys of working from home - cracking out a season in a day!

League

Improvement! We have finally lived up to our XG, mid table finish is exactly how we performed so that's good, maybe the players are understanding the formation more, or just more lucky this year!

Manager Update

With our chunk of money dwindling, the board haven't improved youth recruitment at all, but they have been very kind with the badges! All the way up to a Continental B licence now! And the Attributes are looking decent!

Working with Youngsters is still 5 - that's not good!

Youth Intake

Excellent again - Hosek looks very good, Could be a useful "big man" up top.

Hosek

Spoiler

But my favourite is a guy called Miller - because he is from Fiji. I am hoping he can break into the first team there!

Miller

Spoiler

Miller is pretty crap but he will get game time!

Competitions

We finally got to the first round of the FA cup - nice money for that too. 3rd round in the FA Trophy too.

Admin

[Stekalo]

 

LEÇA FUTEBOL CLUBE (PORTUGAL)

SEASON 1

Finances | League Results I| League Results II | League Table | Playoff Results | Playoff Table | Portuguese Cup Results | Squad | U19 Squad |  Youth Preview | Youth Intake I | Youth Intake II | Transfers |

YOUTH CANDIDATES

ELITE | António Graça |

TOP | Francisco Santos | Artur Bernardo | Gonçalo Casimiro | Paulo Morais |

GOOD | Abderrahmane Zitouni | Milton Armando Sá | Alexandre Andrade | Edgar Almeida | Bruno Fernandes | Bernardo Leal | Pedro Simão | | Hélder Batista | Denilson Silva |

 

 

 

Personal Contract

Season        Contract Start Date       Contract Expiry Date    Pre Tax Wage     Post Tax Wage
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At start          29 June 2024             30 June 2025          €43k p/y           29k p/y
2024/25           26 December 2024         30 June 2026          €43k p/y           29k p/y

Personal Coaching Data

Season     Reputation            Qualifications     Att  Def  Fit  GkD  GkH  GkS  Tac  Tec  Men  SeP  WWY  Ada  Det  PlK  YoK  LoD  PeM  Mot
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At start   Minimal   (0.50*)     None                 1    1    1    1    1    1    1    1    1    1    5    1    1    1    1    1    3    3
2024/25    Minimal   (0.50*)     None                 3↑   3↑   2↑   1=   1=   1=   4↑   3↑   3↑   1=   7↑   1=   3↑   3↑   3↑   2↑   5↑   5↑

Club Facilities

Season     Training Facilities  Youth Facilities  Corporate Facilities  Junior Coaching  Youth Recruitment  Club Reputation
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At Start        Good (12)          Average (10)       Fairly Basic        Adequate (10)     Average (10)         Decent(2*)
2024/25         Good (12)          Average (10)       Fairly Basic        Adequate (11)↑    Average (10)         Decent(2*)

Season Record

Season     Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Win Percentage
2024/25     39         26       6        7           96             51                 +45                 66,67%

Overall Career Record

After Season   Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Win Percentage     Time At Club
2024/25          39        26       6         7          96             51                +45                66,67%              337

Transfer Sale Record

Date               Player                    Position               Club Sold To                 Country                   Transfer Fee
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Trophy Haul

Season     Competition Won
--------------------------

Trophy Cabinet

League Titles
-------------

Cup Competition Victories
-------------------------

Career Overview

Season     Champions League    Europa League    Europa Conference League             League                             Position      Portoguese Cup
2024/25           -                  -                      -                    Campeonato de Portugal                2nd - Prom        Semi Final

Record Number of Appearances (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                          Cumulative Number of Appearances
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Record Goal Scorer (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                          Cumulative Number of Goals
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Record Number of Assists (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                          Cumulative Number of Assists
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Record Number of Clean Sheets (Players From The Academy Only)

Season     Player                          Cumulative Number of Clean Sheets
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[hyrule_king]

 

[CJ'43]

14 hours ago, naterr said:

Such a shame about the semi final loss. Do you think you are getting close now? 

The scores suggest you are!

I don't think so, to be honest. We were fortunate to make it that far in the competition. Our defense still isn't at the level it needs to be, which is frustrating because our front three are entering their 30s. If we don't win the UCL in the next couple of years, it could take a long time to put together an attack as good as this one again.

[hyrule_king]

Quick question , Do you offer contract extensions to players already in your squad?, or do you feel it is a bit against the challenges rules?

[fries]

1 hour ago, hyrule_king said:

Quick question , Do you offer contract extensions to players already in your squad?, or do you feel it is a bit against the challenges rules?

You are allowed to do that. And it is probably necessary in many countries to do that in order to survive the first few years.

 

On 19/10/2023 at 17:19, darren1983 said:

You're allowed to keep any player that starts under contract, you can extend their contracts as often as you like

[XaW]

XaW - Cardiff Draconians - Season 2024/25 (Season 1) - JD Cymru South

Squad | Transfers | Finances

Well, I can't complain about that season! Excellent first year in Wales for us. Promoted as champions after a very tough battle with multiple teams fighting for the top and it only was decided on the final day where several teams faced each other! We conceded a late goal at home to Afan Lido to draw rather than win, and I expected us to miss out due to it, but it turns out Carmarthen Town drew at home to Cardiff Corries and even more surprising, Caerau Ely drew to bottom side Cwmbran Celtic! All those results saw us finishing top by a single point. We also won the 2nd tier league cup, so our swoop of the 2nd tier in Wales is complete. Now we have to start building to become a strong force in the top flight. The youth intake was good, but it came just before the final in the 2nd tier league cup, so we couldn't take much advantage of them before that. At least next season we'll have a full bench at all matches!

Welsh Cup: We beat Port Talbot Town, Tonyrefail, and Taffs Well before we lost to Porthmadog in the 4th round.
Nathaniel MG Cup: We lost to Llanelli Town in the 1st round.
Tier 2 League Cup: We beat Goytre Town, Pontypridd, Cardiff Corries, and Afan Lido to reach the final. There we beat Airbus UK Broughton on pens to claim the trophy!

Best players from the academy:

Frankie Middleton 25a - Got his debut in the Tier 2 League Cup final and did well.
Taylor Riley 25b - Also played in the final, but didn't do much.
Mark Simpson 25c - A late cameo in the final for this kid too.

New club records:

Most goals in a season - Mohammad Javad Mohammadian - 14 goals
Most league goals in a season - Mohammad Javad Mohammadian - 9 goals
Most goals in a match - Mohammad Javad Mohammadian - 3 goals
Most goals in a league match - Mohammad Javad Mohammadian - 3 goals
Most assists in a season - Kevin Cheston - 18 assists
Most clean sheets in a season - Tobias Peaks - 10 clean sheets
Most player of the match awards - Kevin Cheston - 5 awards
Worst discipline - John Camilleri - 7 yellow card, 0 red cards
Most league apps for the club - Tom Blake - 30 apps
Most league goals for the club - Mohammad Javad Mohammadian - 9 goals
Youngest player - Taylor Riley 25b - 15 years, 167 days
Oldest player - Tobias Peaks - 28 years, 271 days
Fastest goal - Nacho Acha - 31 seconds
Youngest goalscorer - Haydn Huddart - 19 years, 258 days
Oldest goalscorer - Michał Machowski - 27 years, 296 days

Got a single request for improvement accepted this season.

U19s

They didn't play in a league this season.

Welsh Youth Cup: They beat Tredegar before they lost to Cardiff Met Uni in the 1st round.

Around the world

Youth intake:

Trophy cabinet

JD Cymru South - 2024/25

Tier 2 League Cup - 2024/25

Player statistics:

Most apps for the club

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Time at club	Apps
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Frankie Middleton 25a	England		<N/A>		2025-Present	1
Taylor Riley 25b	England		<N/A>		2025-Present	1
Mark Simpson 25c	Scotland	<N/A>		2025-Present	1

Most goals for the club

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Time at club	Goals
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
None yet

Most assists for the club

Name			Nation		2nd Nation	Time at club	Assists
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
None yet

Supporters:

YAC Bingo:

Summary:

[XaW]

1 hour ago, hyrule_king said:

Quick question , Do you offer contract extensions to players already in your squad?, or do you feel it is a bit against the challenges rules?

They are perfectly acceptable to use for as long as you want.

[Daddy]

15 hours ago, scarp said:

Ústí nad Labem 2026/27

Not gonna lie, I was very close to stopping playing with us losing our professional status after finishing 3rd last season. We started the season with the board selling our biggest talent Lukas Rezac for only 44k (140k), which was a low blow as we do not really have that many options in central defense. At first I agreed to him continuin with us on loan until the rest of the season but afterwards I realized it might be against the rules, so I terminated his loan (after 28 days - earliest possible) with him not playing any game for us on loan - by the way, anyone can confirm whether keeping sold players for the remainder of the season on loan is against the rules?.

In Autumn we did not play exactly great and were placed 7th before winter break. I was feeling quite sad about it as I enjoyed the save thus far but with us moving to semi-pro and majority of players on contract until the end of the year, we would probably have to let go of most our players in summer on free. Something clicked through the winter break though, our full-back Vrabec and Filbert stepped up the game massively and Cerny and Bunes made fans forget about Kucera (who has became a fringe player, but still managed to score three important goals). We started winning comfortably most of the games and locked in play-offs with 3 games in advance. Coming into the last game of the season we were 3rd behind Sparta B and Hradec Kralove and we were playing away at Jihlava. We managed to get a draw and at the same time Hradec lost their home game to Teplice, thus promoting us to 2nd place in the table! And considering Sparta B team cannot be promoted, we have been promoted straight to the First Division!!!

Key players: Petr Rybicka, Jakub Vrabec & Adam Cerny

Youth watch: Stanislav Trapp, Seidu Mensah & Jiri Schut

 

I'm glad you stuck with it!

 

You cannot loan back players you sell. Once they leave they're gone. You can try to set the transfer date for later.

[DazRTaylor]

Youth Candidates

Season 2028/29

Bury

 

We continue to get exceptional previews:

My goodness me.  What an intake.  Steve Gibbs YP29A24 arrives as not only our best player, but already of League Two standard.

[Johann]

 

Club Deportivo Arturo Fernández Vial 

Season 2028 - Campeonato AFP PlanVital (Chilean First Division)

 

Development Center

Youth Candidates

Finances

Transfers

Squad

Manager Profile

Copa Chile MTS - Terrible, lost at first round against Deportes Valdivia.

 

Final day survival 

We got three newgens been important this season, Boris de la Fuente 27c as Central Defender, Roberto Rivera 24b as Defensive Midfielder and Luis Fuentes 24e as Advanced Forward.

 

[Neo_Geo]

5 hours ago, hyrule_king said:

Quick question , Do you offer contract extensions to players already in your squad?, or do you feel it is a bit against the challenges rules?

I mean you could make the challenge even harder if you want by not allowing yourself to extend their contracts 

 

[hyrule_king]

SACKED

PLEASE REMOVE THIS POST. WILL RESTART SOON.

Edited August 22 by hyrule_king

[filipefm20]

Trying this challenge (again), this time in South America. In countries like Peru, Chile and Colombiaa, should i set the start date to 2023 and start on 2024 or 2024 and start on 2025?

[mschafer13]

11 years without promotion...should I give up yet? 

[Neo_Geo]

5 minutes ago, mschafer13 said:

11 years without promotion...should I give up yet? 

Ask @Padders 

[hyrule_king]

33 minutes ago, mschafer13 said:

11 years without promotion...should I give up yet? 

Just started , think it might be a quick restart , not had the best first season. 

[Neo_Geo]

Croatia getting on my nerves now, the whole waiting until players are 17 to play them, my U19s still not being in a league, any players I loan out can't play until they are 17 as well and now my new chairman (despite having Develop players using clubs youth system) refuses to approve the youth facilities (asked 4 times now) despite the option never disappearing.

I'm going to do something I haven't done in a long time and re-visit an old save (I'll keep the Croatia save just in case I decide to go back there some day).

I'm going back to my Crewe United save mid-way through Season 14.

EDIT: I loaded in and had so many games in such a short space of time, not going back there

Edited August 21 by Neo_Geo

[Neo_Geo]

What's the general view of transfer update packs and updated clubs per league? Is this a no go? I had downloaded a pack from sortitoutsi and its enabled 35 database editor files.

[Daddy]

Season 23 - 2045/46 - Czechia - First Division:

I accidentally copied this link first so why not start with the FA cup? Wasn't a priority, but we're good enough to win even with a lot of rotation.

Actually - 2045/46 - Czechia - First Division:

We didn't get a trophy lift this year for some reason. We ran away with this. At the end of the season, I rotated as much as possible, but with heavy fixture congestion, injuries, and resting players we didn't focus too hard on the league. I may have buried the lede here a bit, but the league focus was secondary.

Champions League:

Challenge Complete!

We had a favorable draw and pushed for the top-eight finish, but we fell one point short. 

For whatever reason we could not fully unlock again Nice, but fortunately, we played defensively sound and managed to blank them on aggregate. Newcastle was a favorable draw. They have developed into a Europa League Powerhouse but had no success in the Champions League, and have remained a 6-8th place premier league team on average. Man City remains Man City, but for whatever reason we play them tough. I hate winning on penalties, but I wasn't turning it down. Girona have developed into a team that consistently makes European competitions and regularly advances into the knockout rounds. However, we were the better team. A late goal in the second leg made the score look closer than it felt. 

I have to quickly pivot to tactics talk. Here's my default tactic:

Nothing particularly fancy here. The only player instructions I have are on the WB's the shoot less often. As the match progresses I'll switch the mentality to positive or cautious (this is the only tactic I've ever had where cautious scores a lot). I'll peek the scouting report to see if the team plays cautious or balanced etc and sometimes go into a match other than Balance. In the continental competitions and against teams that are just better defensively I wind up going more direct, and don't play out of defense etc. I say all this because the scouting report for Bayern was this very defensive shape (one I struggle against) and a cautious mentality. I knew I'd have to go more direct, but with a more talented, cautious, tiki-taka team I needed to bring the chaos. 

Enter Yolo mode. My hope was to come out, sucker punch them and hope I can keep them at bay. Worst case, they quickly score and I go back to my normal tactic and hope to win normally. 

It wasn't a total FM'ing. The constant attack unsettled them, and we benefited! I had to geek out about the tactics a little. 

Final transfer screen. 

 

@darren1983 please add to the completion page

[darren1983]

Incredible work @Daddy been a joy following the save. Have added you to the HoF 

[RCola1]

Season 1 -3 East Kilbride F.C. (Scotland)

 

This is probably my 6th save that attempted and posted. They all seem to peter out. This is the last one I will try before the next edition of FM. My last few were in Northern Ireland. I always get stuck in their second division because you can only sign 1 year contracts so your academy prospects almost all leave before they become amazing or return a good profit. Scotland appears slightly easier (although unseating Celtic or Rangers will probably more difficult than rising to the top of Northern Ireland).

I decided to wait 3 seasons to post for this save because it seemed I was going to get the sack. I started with a pretty good promoted side, East Kilbride F.C., which a roster with most of their players in the prime of their career, but they all agitated to leave at the end of the year or wanted new signings. In the last two seasons I finished 6th and 8th out of 10, but I have one wonderkind winger and a couple of prospects so we will see how Season 4 goes. Can't to insert new images now...

[mpm2342]

Crewe United 2028 Season Update

Season 5 Update:

We made it into the top half playoff and even managed to move into 2nd place for a brief spell after the new year, but could not hold the form and lost 3 out of 5 playoff games to finish 4th. The squad should be in good shape to take a run at promotion this coming season.

We did not get any facilities improvements or coaching courses last season, but Northern Ireland and the league are inching upwards in the ranking which will eventually be good for us (I am an optimist). We had a good showing in the Irish Cup, making it to the semi final and making a small amount of prize money.. Not enough to change the finances of the club, but getting closer to being a break even venture not requiring the magical fundraising revenue.

Transfers:

Spoiler

 

Youth Candidates:

Another good intake with players who are very close to helping the 1st team squad. The personalities this time were not very good, so hopefully mentoring will help..

Cleary is our 2nd best GK now and best youth keeper, so will have to get mentored some ambition. Szymczak, Hill and Michael Green are not too far from breaking into the first team, so will likely go there to get some time and get mentored.

The intake is lacking in ambition, though Szymczak is the ambitious player and will hopefully have a long run on the squad to help mentor.

The intake was mostly primary nation Northern Ireland, but Szymczak is from the Netherlands with a second nation of Poland.

Brian Stitt leads the youth in appearances and goals, though he will be challenged for playing time this coming season, so we might see him passed in the appearances total.

Squad Update:

Here is how the squad is rated heading into next season. I am showing it with best in position NOT filtered for competency to illustrate that there are some retraining opportunities with the youngsters. The 3 original players are still in starting roles and hanging in atop their positions for at least one more season, though it is getting closer. Sharvin did not play quite as well in the AF role, scoring 25 goals in league and cup play over 45 games. We finally have a decent backup at AF with the arrival of Craig Hill, so I am likely to rotate Hill and Sharvin and give Sharvin time at AM. Both Cooper and Black are now rated higher than Stitt at AM and DLP, so they will get the nod over him.  I do plan on going back to a two squad rotation for most of the season as we ended up playing 47 matches and that is too many for anyone to play and stay fresh.

The starting squad improved by 0.8 rating points this past season to inch closer to the intermediate target. We have a fairly big gap to the NI Premier target, so I am hoping that if we manage a promotion, we also get a reasonable jump in our squad rating to give us a chance to stay up. I also estimate that the squad rating needs to be around 70 or very high 60s to have a chance in the Champions League, so we have many years to go. Training facilities would definitely help.

Bingo

Two more turned green.

[mpm2342]

3 hours ago, Daddy said:

Challenge Complete!

Awesome job Daddy. Great to get that victory after so much love and .... that has been put into your save.  It's been fun following along.

[mpm2342]

1 hour ago, RCola1 said:

My last few were in Northern Ireland. I always get stuck in their second division because you can only sign 1 year contracts so your academy prospects almost all leave before they become amazing or return a good profit.

I am finding this (1 year contracts) too with Crewe. I am currently giving them a few extra £ in exchange for a club option to extend the contract for a year. That gives me 2 years of control and hopefully enough to make it up a tier.

[fries]

7 hours ago, Daddy said:

Challenge Complete!

Well done!

Can you show a few of your top players. I always love to see the heroes (others than the true hero, the manager, of course) that made it happen!

[XaW]

Congrats @Daddy!