[FM24] Luxembourg City FC

[ToMexico!!]

Luxembourg

Luxembourg is a small landlocked country in Western Europe, bordered by Belgium to the North & West, Germany to the East and France to the South. Officially called the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, it is the only surviving Grand Duchy in the world.

Its Capital and most populous city is Luxembourg. With an area of just 998 square miles, Luxembourg is Europe’s seventh smallest country. Despite this, Luxembourg has one of the highest population growth rates in Europe, with foreigners accounting for nearly half of the 660,000 population.

It's within the City of Luxembourg that we begin this save.

Luxembourg City FC

Formerly known as FC RM Hamm Benfica, Luxembourg City FC is based in Hamm, a quarter of Luxembourg City. Originally, the club was founded in 2004 after the merger of FM Hamm 37 and FM RM 86 Luxembourg. At the end of the 2021/22 season, the club changed its name to what it is now.

They play their home games at the Estadio do Cents which has a capacity of 2,800.

The club possesses basic training and youth facilities along with Adequate Academy coaching and Above Average Youth Recruitment which ties in nicely with my philosophy.

Unfortunately, the club begins the save with little money in the bank, just £1,054 but as a semi-professional outfit, the club does not have masses of contracts handed out to its players. The club has a blend of native Luxembourg nationals along with French and some African players.

Looking at the U19s we have a lot of potential with a lot of players holding Portuguese as a second nationality, a perk of the Hamm-Benfica days no doubt.

With the owner looking to sell the club the current 5-year plan has been adjusted. The expectations are to Record a 1. Division Top Half Finish and Be Competitive in the Luxembourg Cup.

The current media prediction is to finish 4th, whereas the league has us finishing in 3rd.

We begin life in the 3rd tier of Luxembourg football, having been relegated last season. At this level, the tier is split into tier leagues, one for the North and one for the South, we find ourselves in the latter.

Each league consists of 16 teams (although the pic above suggests 14) and the team top of the league at the end of the season gains automatic promotion, second place will go into promotion play-off whilst the bottom three sides will all be relegated.

There are no foreign players limitations just the above rule regarding having at least five players trained at a club within Luxembourg in the starting XI. That means we need to either develop or buy from within Luxembourg, which helps the other clubs around us too. 

We've added the bordering nations down to the lowest vanilla level but as view only along with the playable Luxembourg to tier three. We have loaded all current European national players and also added players from top division clubs to give us a database of 49000 players. 

There will be no rules to save other than to develop youth as always. Next, we'll take a look at the squad and some of the promising players at the club. 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Intrigued to see how you get on in Luxembourg. Hopefully your efforts will improve the national team as well.

 

[ToMexico!!]

July 2023

Our current first team is below, we're a semi-professional club but most players are amateur, so we're paying out very little in wages but we're susceptible to players being pinched from us at a moment's notice. 

We're fairly light in a few areas; full backs we have just one, we have just one quality winger and not much in central midfield. Our best players are; 

• Carlos Bebe - RB - the 30-year-old Cape Verdean was with Portuguese side Oriental last season, he can play in either full-back position. 
• Richard Ngoma - DM - another African, was last with French club side Ploermel, he's currently wanted by some French clubs. 
• Jean-Jacques Sery - AMC - Frenchman Jean-Jacques looks great for this level, I'll have to adapt a tactic for him to fit in behind the striker(s)
• Oliver Veselcic - AMC/ST - our best Luxembourgish player, suited to AMC but can play ST. Maybe it's two support-strikers behind an AF. 
• Ernest Basic - ST - another decent-looking Luxembourg national for this level. Will be the focal point of our attack. 

Under 19's

Some good potential in this squad of youth players. The mix of nationalities is great, the personalities less so. 

[ToMexico!!]

August 2023

We're on the eve of our first league game of the campaign and there has been some losses of players. 

Three first-choice players were poached from us, Carboni (GK) joins French National-2 side St Pryve St Hilaire, whilst defensive midfielder Richard Ngoma leaves for another French side Olympique Saumur and our best striker Ernest Basic joins US Rumelange in the second tier of Luxembourg. 

We've tried to bring in some players to replace those who have left but also improve the weak positions in the team. 

Dummong strengthens central defence but we're paying him £20 p/w for the privilege. Maquart joins on loan to initially play alongside Ngoma at DM but now operates there singlehandedly. Olivier Schermuly is a bit of a coup for the club, he slots into central midfield and is immediately our best player. Salomao offers an option on the left albeit as a LB, not his favoured ML position. 

On top of this, we've lost our other best player Carlos Bebe to injury which rules him out for another 2-3 months. 

 

We're currently operating like this but the plan was initially for wing-backs and two DMs/one MC.

[ToMexico!!]

August 2023

Two games in August and two wins. I wasn't sure what to expect going into the league season, yes we are predicted a 3rd/4th placed position come the end of the season but we'd lost a few first team players who weren't easily replaced. 

Luna Oberkorn were promoted into the 3rd tier last season so a win was on the cards but we made hard work of it. We dominated the stats; SOT 9 v 4 and xG 3.5 v 1.07. To concede three goals to 1.07 xG was disappointing. AMC's Veselcic and Sery doing the business with three goals and two assists between them. Schengen were also promoted last season but expected to finish up in 2nd place according to the media. The twin-shadow strikers doing the business again, each scoring a goal to win the game albeit we should have scored more as we had 23 shots, nine on target. They scored with their only SOT. 

We're second behind The Belval Belvaux on goal difference. 

[ToMexico!!]

September 2023

I'd seize control for £2k if I could. 

[FoxGe1994]

Will be following 

[ToMexico!!]

3 hours ago, FoxGe1994 said:

Will be following 

Thanks @FoxGe1994

[ToMexico!!]

September 2023

The wins continued into September, we demolished Kehlen in front of 190 fans. A single goal was needed to beat Blo-Waiss Itzig, that goal by on-loan defender Andre Moreira. A first loss of the season against Junglister, we dominated the game on xG and had three clear-cut chances but only managed a consolation goal. 

We beat AS Colmar-Berg from the northern division in the Luxembourg Cup First Round, a slightly rotated side doing the business. We bounced back in the league with an easy win over Munsbach, Sery with another two goals, five for the season now. We then faced Swift Hesperange in the second round of the cup, the top-tier side only managing a 1-0 win, we had eight shots to their seven but failed to hit the target with any of ours. 

3rd at the moment but we have a game in hand on Belvaux.

[ToMexico!!]

October 2023

 

[Sizeman21]

Woah, 500 extra in the bank?! Don't spend it all in one place! 

[ToMexico!!]

October 2023

A decent month all in all. 3-0 up at the roulette table team, Red Black before their veteran Brazilian pulled two back. We were then on the other end of a 3-2 scoreline, losing to league favourites Belvaux having been 2-0 up after nine minutes, our backup LB scoring a 94th-minute own goal to lose the game. We hammered Union 05, our front three scoring the five between them. We then beat top-of-the-league Sandweiler 1-0, a draw would have been a fair result. We ended the month against bottom-of-the-league Kopstal, we achieved an xG of 5.26 from 34 shots but only scored four. 

We now top the league. 

[ToMexico!!]

1 minute ago, Sizeman21 said:

Woah, 500 extra in the bank?! Don't spend it all in one place! 

It's a weeks wage expenditure 

[ToMexico!!]

November 2023

That's Sery back off to France then. His goals (8 so far) and assists (4) will be missed. 

[ToMexico!!]

November 2023

Two wins from two this month. Lowly Letzebuerg-Feschmaart were defeated 2-0 and Red Star Merl-Belair were beaten 3-0. 

Still top but two points. 

[ToMexico!!]

December 2023

Wow, Sven comes up with the goods. 

[ToMexico!!]

December 2023

[ToMexico!!]

December 2023

Just two games in December as we stop for the winter break and what a poor month. We lost heavily to Remich despite dominating the stats again, they scored their four goals from six shots on target with a 1.82 xG when had more shots on target with 3.78 xG. We rescued a draw against relegation zone-threatened Syra Mensdorf. Again, nine shots on target to their five and 3.11xG v 1.61xG. 

Luckily we're still top by two points with Junglister and Munsbach close behind. 

[ToMexico!!]

January 2024

[ToMexico!!]

January 2024

We say goodbye to Sery, he joins relegation-threatened Dunkerque in Franch Ligue 2 and Bebe who returned from injury leaves for Bettembourg in the 2nd tier. 

We replaced Sery with Peixoto on loan. 

[KristianT]

19 hours ago, ToMexico!! said:

December 2023

"Excellent intake". Looks like it, yeah.

[ToMexico!!]

21 hours ago, KristianT said:

"Excellent intake". Looks like it, yeah.

The preview feels like it's been broken for many editions now. 

Time will tell with what the actual intake is like.

[ToMexico!!]

February 2024

We returned from the winter break and mid-season pre-season in good form. With Sery gone to Dunkerque, Veselcic hopefully takes up the scoring mantel for us, he started with two goals against Schengen where we beat them 3-2 at None Stadium (actually list as unknown). A week later we beat Luna Oberkorn 5-3, Peixoto notching his first two goals since coming in to replace Sery. 16-year-old left-back Jonathan Braun assisted twice. 

We increase our lead to five points but Munsbach can close the gap with their game in hand. 

[ToMexico!!]

March 2024

The intake remains excellent with the added bonus of it being a potential "golden generation".

Seven elite talents in the first intake. I love the fact one of them is Chinese and another is Indian. 

Ouyang Nan | Tom Teixeira | Tobiasz Bartkowiak | Rui Carlos | Akshay Barreto | Raphael Sabotic | Joshua Amodio

Overall I'm pretty happy with this intake in terms of potential but disappointed with the personalities. Determination v Potential is quite poor so that needs work along with work rate. 

Spoiler

 

[ToMexico!!]

March 2024

To open against 15th-placed Kehlen with a defeat is really poor but again, we failed to take our chances. Kehlen scored twice from their only two shots on target as we had eight on target with double their xG. We were 4-1 up with 10 minutes remaining against Blo-Waiss, we made it a nervy game by conceding twice. 

We handed a debut to Indian national, Ashkay Barreto in a 2-1 win over second-placed Junglister. We also had a couple more of the players from the recent intake on the bench including Tom Teixeira who came on to become our youngest-ever player. We then faced Munsbach who had leapfrogged Junglister into 2nd place and secured another win, an injury-time winner from Mokrani assisted by Ashkay Barreto from left back. Unfortunately, a sour note from the game was that Olivar Veselcic got injured and is out for up to two months. 

We went into the game against Red Black full of confidence but it didn't show. We failed to defend again, conceding four goals from nine shots with eight of those on target. We had 28 shots on goal with nine on target, Veselcic's replacement scoring twice. 

The gap is just two points now with Munsbach just a further two points behind. Its a three-horse race with eight games remaining. 

[ToMexico!!]

April 2024

It was good to get the month off to a good start, especially reversing the outcome of the last time we played The Belval Balvaux. Jonathan Braun became our youngest-ever goalscorer. 

We welcomed back Veselcic from injury as he scored the winning goal against Union 05 in a seven-goal thriller. The home loss to Sandweiler was disappointing, we'd opened a slight gap ahead of 2nd place only to close it up again. We had to beat bottom side Kopstal and we did, with Algerian journeyman Mokrani scoring twice to take his tally to 15 for the season. 

The gap is just one point. Squeaky bum time.

 

[ToMexico!!]

May 2024

We did our best to bottle it but fortunately, Junglister bottled it more. 

An injury-time goal for a point against Letzebuerg, an 86th-minute winner against Red Star, an injury-time equaliser against Remich and an 89th-minute equaliser against Mensdorf. 

Junglister go into the playoffs. 

[ToMexico!!]

2023/24 Season Review

Luxembourg First Division South - Predicted 5th | Finished 1st

Luxembourg Cup - Second Round

A good season overall, promoted as Champions by a single point to Junglister in second place. 

Top Scorer - Oliver Veselcic (22) - needed to take up the goalscoring after Sery left in January, he outscored his xG by just two goals. He could have had more goals if he didn't get injured and missed four weeks. 

Most Assists - Andre Moreira (14) - the on-loan right-back made 14 assists in 30(1) games. 

Average Rating - Oliver Veselcic (7.80) - Oliver also contributed seven assists, scored five penalties from five taken and was POM on eight occasions. 

U19 POTS - Jonathan Braun - 1777 minutes across 21(1) appearances, scoring one goal and making four assists. 

After the takeover, the new owner injected £100k into the club to keep us going. As a result that meant we ended the season with a positive balance. 

We now have £2.7k p/w spare in the wage budget for next season. 

[ToMexico!!]

June 2024

[ToMexico!!]

June 2024

Nice feature, that doesn't work. 

[ToMexico!!]

June 2024

Not good to see the top division is dropping down the rankings. 

Sandwiched between Northern Ireland and Malta. 

[Cheez3y]

5 hours ago, ToMexico!! said:

March 2024

The intake remains excellent with the added bonus of it being a potential "golden generation".

Seven elite talents in the first intake. I love the fact one of them is Chinese and another is Indian. 

Ouyang Nan | Tom Teixeira | Tobiasz Bartkowiak | Rui Carlos | Akshay Barreto | Raphael Sabotic | Joshua Amodio

Overall I'm pretty happy with this intake in terms of potential but disappointed with the personalities. Determination v Potential is quite poor so that needs work along with work rate. 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Casually a Chinese player is popping up in Luxembourg.

[ToMexico!!]

12 hours ago, Cheez3y said:

Casually a Chinese player is popping up in Luxembourg.

I'm more surprised about the two Indian players. I hope more come through in future intakes. 

[ToMexico!!]

August 2024

Having been promoted we're predicted to finish in 11th place this season, which I will happily take right now. We've got some big boys in this league now, Grevenmacher are predicted to finish bottom, previously have won the National Division back in 2003 and finished 2nd on no less than seven occasions prior to that maiden title. Fola Esch were relegated last season, they won the top flight as recently as 2020 & 2021, winning it nine times in total and finishing second a further 11 times. 

Above is how the final positions will play out, the top two promoted whilst 3rd and 4th go into Promotion/Relegation play-offs with 13th and 14th from the National Division. Same for the bottom side, 15th/16th automatically relegated whilst 13th and 14th go into Relegation/Promotion play-offs with teams from the 3rd tier. 

[ToMexico!!]

August 2024

I thought we'd struggle a little as we make the step up from the 3rd to 2nd tier but to score five goals in each of the three games in August in awesome. 

A save-record crowd of 465 witnessed Alisontia Steinsel put to the sword with four different scorers plus an own goal. A trip away to Yellow Boys next, a club predicted to finish a place below us in the table. Another five goals were scored as we dominated with 26 Shots, eight on target and an xG of 2.79. Two new signings scored their maiden goals for the club, central midfielder Andres Vaschetto and striker Christivi Masombo. Former top-tier side Marisca Mersch was up next and a 3rd successive five-goal haul. A slightly more even game, both having nine shots of target and the opposition having the only clear-cut chance of the game, we were more clinical in front of goal. 

Early signs are great, three from three with a three-point gap already. I don't think the good times will last, we play Fola Esch and Etzelle Ettelbruck next. 

[ToMexico!!]

September 2024

The transfer window closed as we made big upgrades to some of the starting XI for the season ahead. 

We welcomed Andre Moreira back on a permanent basis after spending last season on loan with us, he was joined by Gilles Weber, another player who left Etzella Ettelbruck. We strengthened the midfield two by signing Andres Vaschetto, the Argentinian was released by top-flight Differdange. Noah Scheidweiler joins as first-team goalkeeper with Jaeden Fries signed later in the window as his understudy.  Noah Schulte joins as a backup for centre-back whilst Nuno Freire will be first choice in the same position having previously played for Remich and Mamer.

New striker Christivi Masombo was released by Kaerjeng in the summer, we've signed him on £220 p/w but hopefully, he will be worth the money. Denilson Andrade slots into defensive midfield, having been released by top-flight Jeunesse d'Esch-Alzette. Serkan de Wit is a young AMC for back-up whilst Yoann Cruz joins as more cover for AMC. 

[ToMexico!!]

September 2024

Another good month. A solitary goal was all that was needed to beat Fola Esch in their backyard, we should have scored more; 11 SOT and 2.72 xG. A first loss of the season followed to Etzella, a tight game which the away side edged, they made 2.52 xG compared to our 1.60, so they deserved the win. A week later we got back to winning ways, putting four past a poor Mamer side. Veselcic scoring twice along with a second goal of the season for Andrade from DM. A couple of changes and a win over lower league Kopstal in the cup, it came at a cost with both starting AMC's Veselcic and Cruz picking up injuries. 

Despite the loss, the gap increases to four points plus a healthy goal difference. 

 

[Cheez3y]

8 hours ago, ToMexico!! said:

I'm more surprised about the two Indian players. I hope more come through in future intakes. 

I didnt noticed them. 

Brilliant!

[ToMexico!!]

October 2024

A poor start to the month as we missed both AMC's dearly. We rescued a draw against Kaerjeng but probably on paper should have won, more SOT and xG. A second loss of the season, Wormeldange were clinical when we weren't. We had more possession, shots, SOT, xG, CCC's; a poor performance. We outplayed Grevenmacher across the board and we 2-0 up before they scored a consolation goal. We welcomed back both Veselcic and Cruz to the starting XI, as we were back to a full complement of players for the Hosert game. Belgian forward Masombo scored twice in a 4-1 win in a game where we only had four shots on target. To end the month we hosted Atert Bissen, in front of a pretty poor crowd in all honesty. A Veselcic double along with a fifth of the month for Masombo sealed the three points. 

We had slipped to 2nd place on goal difference after the Wormeldange defeat. We're now back at the top on GD. 

[ToMexico!!]

December 2024

Just give me more Indian players and some other obscure nations. 

[ToMexico!!]

December 2024

November and December are reviewed here. 

A disappointing exit in the cup, a couple of rotational players brought but a damp squib of a game. We're at the stage again now where we're dominating teams but just not putting them away with real conviction. A win is a win over Lorentzweiler but with 11 SOT we should have had more goals. 

The defeat in the cup to Rosport was compounded when we welcomed them back two weeks later and beat them. We restricted them to just two shots of target of which they scored one, we had four SOT scoring twice. We ended November with another disappointing defeat, Berbourg offered very little but created one clear-cut chance which they took and then shut up shop. 

Just one game in December as we move into the winter break, we ended the calendar year on a high note, dispatching Rodange with a third 2-1 victory in four games. Again the opposition taking their one scoring opportunity whilst we amassed nearly 3.00 xG from our 20 shots on goal. 

Three points clear of the chasing pack with league favourites Fola Esch leading them. It's now 70 days until the next competitive action. 

We have just over £2.2k p/w left in the wage budget, we could strive to bring in better options in DM maybe another in AMC. We'll see what options are available through the winter window. 

[ToMexico!!]

February 2025

We return from the winter break to two goal fests of games. 

We were 3-0 up against Yellow Boys only for them to draw level, two late goals sealed the three points. We then found ourselves 3-0 down to Alistontia, we got it back to 3-3 before conceding again and then equalising a couple of minutes later only to concede again in the 92nd minute. Alisontia managed to score all five of their on-target efforts amassing just 1.24 xG. Whereas we had 12 SOT and 2.5xG. 

Still top by two points with an equal goal difference with Fola Esch. 

[ToMexico!!]

March 2025

Our second intake remains as an excellent intake but with fewer "elite talents" than last season. 

• Claude Mendes - CM - so well rounded in my opinion, preferably a Mezzala which is a role I use. If we can pump his composure, decisions, off the ball and vision to double figures along with natural improvement physically we will have a good player on our hands. 
• Scott Haagen - CB - I also like the look of this guy, some good starting attributes for a defensive player. Improve his anticipation and concentration and we have a potential starting CB. 
• Ousmane Diallo - MC - the potential is there, just some way off being a starter or even on the bench for us. 
• Tom Rodrigues - ML - in a position we don't use but he could probably be retrained to LWB. 
• Emil Ibrahimovic - AMC - good mentally, needs work technically and pretty poor starting attributes physically. 

Disappointingly no Indian or Chinese players but we do get a couple of full Portuguese nationals and Diallo is half Burnikabe. 

Spoiler

 

[ToMexico!!]

March 2025

A very good month. A comfortable 3-0 win over Marisca, which was fair due to the we only had four shots on target. A crunch match against Fola Esch, a game we dominated on all the metrics and took us clear of the chasing pack by five points. A late 88th-minute goal stole all three points at the Stade Am Deich, which maybe was a fair result as we created three clear-cut chances to their zero. Another 2-1 win over Mamer thanks to the Veselcic / Masombo combo scoring a goal apiece. Masombo was then on target twice more to take his season tally to 21 goals for the season but we failed to take all three points, conceding a 95th minute equaliser. 

 

Nine points clear is huge at this stage. 

[ToMexico!!]

April 2025

A big opening win for the month, with Veselcic scoring twice and the other attacking midfielder with a goal but also picked up an injury. His replacement de Wit scored twice on his first start for the club in a 3-1 win over Grevenmacher. A shock loss to bottom four side Hosert followed, they deserved it; more shots, more xG and the only clear-cut chance of the game. We ended the month with a win over Atert Bissen to keep the gap at the top and claim a playoff spot. 

Nine points clear with four games remaining, we can win the league in our next game. 

[ToMexico!!]

May 2025

All it took was one game but it was late drama as going into injury time we were 2-2 until Masombo struck two injury time goals to give us all three points and more importantly...

We rotated for the Rosport game and suffered as a result but...

Fola Esch also failed to win, losing to Hosert meant we were champions at the first time of asking. 

More rotation followed with a win over Berdenia Berbourg but a loss in the season-ending game. 

[ToMexico!!]

2023/24 Season Review

Luxembourg Division of Honour - Predicted 9th | Finished 1st

Luxembourg Cup - Second Round

A totally unexpected promotion to the top flight. To finish the season with an eight-point gap to second-placed league favourites Fola Esch. 

Top Scorer - Christivi Masombo (25) - big-waged signing but he proved his worth with 25 goals. 24 of those came in the league which saw him come 2nd in the league placing. 

Most Assists - Andre Moreira (13) - he made the step up to the 2nd tier on a permanent basis and delivered 13 assists from right back. 

Average Rating - Oliver Veselcic (7.61) - 15 goals and 10 assists in 28(1) appearances. 

U19 POTS - Jonathan Braun - second season running for Braun, the 17-year-old made 25(1) appearances from left back making nine assists and scoring twice. 

The money quickly went from black to red as the ticket pricing didn't reflect the promotion/2nd tier. We need the owner to pump some more money in soon. 

[ToMexico!!]

June 2025

Two new sponsorship deals help us massively. 

Increases to the ticket and season ticket prices will also help. 

[ToMexico!!]

August 2025

We're on the eve of the 2025/26 National Division season, let's take a look at where we expect to finish. 

15th, As expected for a promoted side. Fola Esch who finished eight points behind us they are expected to finish in 12th. We face Rumelange on the opening day of the season who are predicted to finish bottom. 

Ideally, we need to finish clear of the relegation spots in 12th but so far we would need to achieve 32 (23/24) and 36 (24/25) points to finish there. If we can finish in either the 13th or 14th place which would see us given the opportunity for play-offs, we would need a minimum of 30/31 points which isn't far off the avoid relegation completely totals. 

I believe anything above 15th would be a success for the season. 

[ToMexico!!]

August 2025

What a brilliant opening month in the top flight for the club. We faced Rumelange on the opening day of the season, a club expected to finish dead last, a comfortable 2-0 win, scoring both of our only shots on target. Juenesse Canach were predicted to finish a place above us in 14th, we dominated them in their own backyard. 22 shots, seven of those on target with three clear-cut chances created. We achieved nearly four xG away from home. Things got even better as we battered another Juenesse side, this time Esch, they finished 5th last season. The result didn't match how the game played out, it was more even; 2.41 v 2.89 xG, two apiece on the clear-cut chances. It was 2-2 until the 87th minute then we put them to the sword. 

I wasn't expecting to pick up any points from Racing FC Union Luxembourg, a bumper crowd for us saw us come away with another three points. Probably deservedly so too, more SOT, more xG and more CCC. Differdange were a different kettle of fish, with multiple league wins and runners-up to their name. They've finished 8th and 4th so far in the save. However, we weren't outclassed, both achieving three shots of target, 0.94 v 0.58 xG but they took their one chance. 

Stop the season now. I don't expect to finish the season within this picture but we'll roll with it for the time being.