G_D_K

I really hate Italian seeding rules :P Another season in Serie B, as we just did this: Finished 6th in Serie B, beat Ascoli in the first round 1-0, beat Parma at home 1-0, and couldn't quite mount a comeback after conceding a 4th goal (join league-leading goal scorer Takacs -- my signing of the season no doubt, gave us an aggregate equalizer, but it was too little too late). Still, proud of what we've done this season. Now, if we can only get a stadium built (we're about €2M in the red, due to the bug which backed us into a 750 capacity stadium after we'd been in the national team stadium for first Serie B season. Going to press on, but as stadium is still in "searching for site" stage, I'd wager at least 2 more years stuck in this parking lot of a stadium. If it does take that long, I foresee a problem staying in the league.... we'll just cross our fingers. Maybe we'll get a new board each year until the stadium is built :P Well, surprise surprise! https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2964682176 We have a stadium planned... and it'll be ready after only one season! (I'll believe that when I see it!) Tho, there is hope!

I just had my latest (2033) youth intake, 9 of 16 are Sammarinese. Seems to have been about typical for me in the past few seasons. And congrats on the ranking! I'm still working on getting to top 150...sitting about 178 or so going into 2034 WC qualifiers....hoping to pick up a couple spots here, but not too optimistic

Successful year overall for the national team, with us managing to stay up in the International League Division C on our 2nd attempt. Nanni managed 6 goals on the year, putting the 31yo at 39 goals. If I can have him play to 35, I think he'll be the first to hit that 50 goal mark. Nanni, at 109 caps, is about to be joined in the 100 cap club by fullback Filippo Fabbri, sitting on 98 caps as well. As far as qualifying players for the challenge, MC Alessandro Michelotti is the closest, with the 24 year old (product of Serie A Sampdoria) sitting on 60 caps. Overall, the team has moved up to 178 in the world rankings. Be interesting to see how WC qualifiers go starting in 2033.

Pretty sure I get something like 6-8 SMR players each intake. Not all of them make the cut, however. For instance, right now, 4 of my 9 U18s are Sammarinese, and 10 of my 17 U20s are also Sammarinese (although of the 14 total, I might have actually signed one or two). Still, seem to be nearly half of the intakes for me.

I wasn't doing too badly, losing maybe 20K€/wk while in the National team stadium. But I encounter a bug at end of first Serie B season, where the 5500 seat national team stadium "didn't meet Serie B requirements" --- and so I was moved.... to the 750 seat Aquaviva stadium. I went from a sustainable 20K/mo loss to close to 100k/mo losses. SI are looking into the bug, but it won't help me. I nearly gave up on the challenge, but I figured I'd ride it out a season or two and see what happens. Thankfully didn't lose any salary cap between Season 2 and 3, but I'm in line to lose another 800k € if things stay the same, probably for at least two years as the stadium is built. I forsee problems down the road.

Second season in Serie B was a step back down toward reality. We started out in trouble, with thee starters missing significant time at the start of the season. This included Bracco, my leading goalscorer for the past two seasons, as well as Telalovich, the AMR/St who was also a good goalscoring threat as well as my primary playmaker. Bracco would miss the first 7 or 8 games, and he never really found his form after returning from a torn back muscle. He would only end the season with 9 goals in 30 appearances. That, sadly, was also the most goals scored by a player on the team --- I just struggled all season to find the net, and we would finish 15th in goals scored with 40 total. We were slightly better defensively, ending with 46 conceded, good enough for 11th on the season. In the end, even though the table shows it to be close, we were never really in danger of relegation, as with three to play we were as high as 11th, and had too many teams below us to drop 5 spots with the remaining fixtures we were facing. Late in the season I switched to a 4-4-2, so we'll be focusing on that formation for the coming season, trying to move up the two DMs into a more mid-field role and try to create more chances for my strikers. The real problem facing me now is the bug that occurred at the end of the previous season --- we are now operating out of Aquaviva --- a 750 capacity stadium, and are losing money to the tune of about 80k€/month. That was after playing our first serie B season in the San Marino National team stadium and packing about 2200/match. We had a takeover (after two or three failed attempts during this past season), which put us in the positive for about two months, at the cost of a 1.4M€ loan against the club for which we are now paying a 16K€/month payment. That means this coming season we'll be losing about 100k€/mo....something not sustainable. At the end of the season, the board have started looking at building a new stadium, but, as we're still at the searching for site stage, I think we're looking at three seasons before we move into the planned 9525 seat stadium. I'm not sure we'll still be a cohesive team in three seasons given the expected losses. Unless we have a takeover each season until the stadium is finished, we'll be several million in debt---I'm sure that is going to trigger some sort of problem --- if not a FFP violation, I'll likely see my wage allowance drop from nearly 50k€/mo to something like 5k€/mo! We'll take it a season at a time. I did manage to squeeze in my very first upgrade when the new sponsorship money came in and we had a positive balance --- 400K€ spent on upgrading the youth facilities (after the board refused to upgrade the training facilities, my first choice). I also tried for Junior coaching increase, but they rejected that as well. Things are not looking to rosy, but we'll press on.

End of the 2031 qualifying season for the European Championship. Definite improvement over previous Euro qualifiers --- and while we're still a ways from competing we are making definite progress. Sadly, Nanni (now 31yo) suffered a hip injury very early in our final match, will be out 3-5 months. He scored 3 in the campaign, but will have to do better than that over the next.... 4 years or so.... if he is going to reach 50. Of note, we cut our goal differential from -33 in the previous Euro Qualifiers to -10 this campaign, and, of course, picked up 7 points (compared to 4 years ago). The success of the campaign have moved us up to 181st in the world rankings!

A saved PK prevented us from beating a top 50 team for the first time

uploaded as Galen Kantz - Victor San Marino - San Marino.fm

Just took a look in the pre-game editor.... nothing there showed any requirements for Serie B (or Serie A for that matter). Not sure why the national team stadium doesn't qualify for a league with no stadium requirements --- regardless..... this just might kill my save

First Serie B season finished--- a wildly successful season too! We lost in a wild playoff match, succumbing 5-3 to Frosinone, but, having not expected to make it to mid-table, let alone the playoffs, it was quite the achievement. It's clear we need to work on defense --- we finished 4th in goals scored, but 16th in goals conceded! But for the heroics of our keeper, it could have been much worse. Niccolo Bracco, in his 2nd season with the team, finished 7th in league goals with 19 (23 total on season), We made our mark in our inaugural appearance in the Italian Cup as well, picking up wins over Catania, Spezia, and Serie A Salernitana to advance to the third round. The competition and gates were more than all of our previous cup appearances combined! Sadly, I also have encountered what I suppose is a bug which just might kill the save... d So, we're moving from a 5500 all-seater....to aa 750 seat stadium.... and we averaged 2200 or so attendance this season. And, we lost an average of maybe €25000/mo too. losing that extra income from attendance is going to absolutely kill us.

Top of the Table!!!!!!! t Something we won't see again any time in the near future Nanni with career goal #30 in the match as well. This is one season we shouldn't end bottom of the table, as we now have a history of not losing to Malta. Rest of the group..... not so much :P It'll go down as we progress thru the group, but the result did shoot us to our highest ever ranking of 189 in the world rankings!

Well, after losing the relegation playoff with Kazakhstan in order to stay in Div D of the European International League Division C, we had a relatively easy battle in Division D. After losing on away goals in the playoff (3-3 on aggregate), we didn't earn a loss in Division D, going 2 wins and 2 draws. Our single friendly showcased a bit of offense that I hope to see grow, with AMR Agostini (OG Nice, but on loan to Victor San Marino in order to help him develop, as he wasn't even getting much U19 time with Nice) not only scoring twice, but also providing 3 assists in a 6-0 rout -- our biggest ever win). Here's hoping we can take some momentum into the coming year (Euro qualifiers I believe?) Nanni, who is getting older, managed 3 more international goals on the year, putting his total at 29 goals. I'll probably have to look to someone else to find that 50-goal scorer for San Marino. The season saw us jump to 192 in the World Rankings.

And, the 2029/30 season ends on a positive note, and Serie B beckons us (along with a somewhat normal league and playoff structure!) I really am glad to get out of Serie C --- I couldn't keep up with all of the playoff rules as I went along!

Crazy final match of the season. Bracco's 1st goal set a new team record for goals in a season. Reggiana had already won the league, had nothing but pride to play for. We only needed on point to secure 2nd and a bye until the quarterfinal of the playoffs. Didn't expect a scoreline such as this! In great position now with plenty of rest to make a playoff run. We had a great season, but the 2nd half we really kicked it up to a new level. A couple mid-year signings really helped us solidify our position as contenders. Now we have to finish the deal and hopefully move up to Serie B.

A 3-2 home win vs 110-ranked Kazakhstan isn't enough to keep us from being relegated from the European League Division C --- but might be enough to save my international management career for another season! We are starting to find some.....better..... young players, but are still a ways short of playing well vs the big boys, as evidenced by our 0-point world cup qualifying season in 2029. Another 4 years and we just might start picking up some points though. Meanwhile, with 6 matches to play, Victor San Marino have qualified for the playoffs, currently sitting 5th on 62 points. Leaders Reggiana are on 74 points but have played 2 more matches than we have, but are still likely out of our reach. 2nd place Entella, however, are only on 70 points with an extra match played --- so that is, theoretically, possible to overcome. I'd love a #2 or #3 finish so I can enter the playoffs later in the process and have a better shot at advancing. (A 4th place finish would allow me to skip the 1st round, at least, and I only need to overcome a 4-point deficit in order to achieve that....but entering in the QF or later would make it so much easer )

The qualifying round for the 2032 World Cup is now over for San Marino: While we failed to win a point, there were some positives I'll have to take away. First, it was a tough group, with Cyprus (118th world ranking) our only 100+ ranked team in the group. We did see some talent emerge, though they'll have to improve over the coming years in order to become any sort of force on the world stage. We ended up with a 29-5 GA/GF ratio, which was better than 36-6 from the previous world cup qualifying (we definitely need some playmaking ability on this team!). Nanni had 3 of the 5 goals which we scored, putting him on 26 goals for the international team, and, at 29 years of age, he has the ability to bag some more in the coming years. Next year we have a playoff to retain our place in Division C in the European League -- we'll be facing Kazhakstan, so I have hope to stay up and face some modest competition in 2030.

Today, a new instant hero has been born in Victor San Marino! Recently graduated from the VSM Academy, Gian Luca came on in the 74th minute of the 2nd round playoff match vs Cosenza. It took him barely two minutes (less than, even) to become the youngest ever goalscorer for the team (at 15y 250d) to break the deadlock between the two teams. He very nearly scored a 2nd only a minute later, forcing a sprawling save from the keeper. He DID get his 2nd on the ensuing corner kick, with a powerful header into the net. He then completed the route with a hat-trick goal in the 84th minute, sending the fans into rapture as we routed Cosenza (who finished 4th in Serie C/C) 3-0 and send us on to the third round for the first time in team history. A long ways to go yet to secure promotion, and we face Catania next (3rd in Serie C/C), but regardless of how we fare, the fans will always remember this match!

A massive boost to the San Marino national team. Found this winger playing for Nice in the french top division. Initially didn't want to come play for San Marino, but after a two-year pursuit, we finally convinced him to represent our nation. A

It's 2028, and the San Marino National Team is starting to have a pulse: Notable addition to the squad: Mattia Santi, a 19yo fullback playing for Serie A Parthenope. I've been chasing him for 3 years, but he held out for an Italian callup. Finally he caved in after at least a half-dozen attempts to lure him to San Marino instead. Meanwhile, I had a notification that top scorer Nanni (23 national team goals) is retiring from football. With that, I was able to call up Victor San Marino's top all time goalscorer (90 goals so far) Enrico Sabba.... he's already paid off with 3 goals and 3 assists in the four friendlies so far this year. I only noticed in the 4th friendly that Nanni is actually still on the team, so I might still have him available for the upcoming European League Div C campaign --- we'll have to wait and see. In the meantime, the 5th season in charge of Victor San Marino has come to a successful conclusion. In our 2nd Serie C/B campaign, expected to be relegated, we managed to not just make the playoffs, but advance to the 2nd round before getting knocked out (4-2 on aggregate) to the Juventus U23s team. This is going to be a long slog in Serie C --- for those not familiar (I certainly wasn't) --- Serie C is divided into 3 groups --- each group consists of 20 teams. Only 4 teams are promoted to Serie B --- the 3 group winners, and a single playoff winner. The playoffs are played out over SIX rounds --- the first two single elimination, the rest (up to and including the semi-final) are double elimination. A total of TWENTY EIGHT teams compete for that final promotion spot! The higher you finish on the league table, the later you enter into the playoffs --- with the 2nd place team entering in the Quarter FInals, while the 5th-10th place start at the beginning --- so the key to winning the playoffs is finish as high in the league as possible! (That first round I played in featured 18 teams, 9 were knocked out -- 3 more teams entered in the 2nd round for 12 teams, 6 knocked out --- then 4 added for the 3rd round...... etc. So... long story short.... as I don't expect better than mid-table for the coming season or two.....promotion is going to be a huge ask! But, we're pushing on. The big concern will be finances..... my wage budget for the coming season was slashed from €22K to €18K/wk. Letting some of the older players go..... and bringing in some younger players whom I hope will stay with for a couple seasons.

National team is looking pretty good. I estimated 2029 for my first real chance at any success in the national team realm (just finished my 2027 National team Euro Qual's season), so your results are giving me hope!

Well...this wrapped up an abysmal Euro Qualifier for 2027.... Certainly not an easy group, and I wasn't expecting a lot....but I surely expected to score more than 2 goals in the campaign. If not sneaking a win against Azerbaijan or Israel. Well.... on to next year. If they give me a next year :P (I also lost all the ground in the world rankings I had moved up.... probably back to my starting spot of 205 again!) (Had risen to 194 in the early part of the year.) On a positive note, about 1/2 thru the season with Victor San Marino, and we're sitting in the playoff spots in our 2nd Serie C campaign. Hoping a recent run of poor results will turn and we'll push on up the table again. EDIT: Well, we didn't quite lose all the ground back to 205th, but we did drop back to 200th in the world rankings

Nanni's 22nd international goal helps us win the International League Division D --- next up (I believe) is a playoff for promotion from Div D. Looks like no playoff needed --- promotion from Div D! Also cracked top 200 (now ranked 199 in world), jumping ahead of two European teams (Gibraltar and Liechtenstein). Next European team a fair ways off (Andorra at 172, almost 100 points ahead). Win a game: 30/3/2024 -- 1-0 vs Somalia Win a competitive game (inlcudes Nations League): Oct 15, 2025 -- 3-1 vs Lithuania (World Cup Qualifying Group Stage) Have a player beat Andy Selva's 8 goals scored record: Sept 8, 2024 -- Nicola Nanni, 9th goal vs Andorra (International League Division D 1-1 Draw) Have a player score 50 international goals: Have a player score 100 international goals: Have a new gen reach 100 caps: Have a player score a hat-trick in a game: Oct 7, 2026 -- Nicola Nanni (3 goals in 5-1 victor over Somalia) Beat a team ranked in the top 50 in the world: Get San Marino into the top 150 in the world: Get San Marino into the top 100 in the world: Get San Marino into the top 50 of the world: Get promoted from Nations League D: 2026 after taking 9 points from four matches (vs Luxembourg and Andorra) Get promoted from Nations League C: Get promoted from Nations League B: Qualify for the European Championship: Qualify for the World Cup: Survive group stage in the European Championship: Survive group stage in the World Cup: Win the Nations League: Win the European Championships: Win the World Cup: Become the number one ranked team in the world:

Nanni doing it again! This time in the Euro League Group D match, putting us level with Luxembourg on 6 points and a match (vs Andorra) yet to play. 1 point will send me thru (to the playoffs I think?). Getting closer at least....