Foreign or national?

I'm wondering who of you prefer to play a team with a majority of players from the nation you're managing in. I've spent the longest times managing in Holland, England, Italy and Russia and especially in the last 3 I've had the biggest success with a majority of players from that nation. In Holland it seems either ridiculously expensive or impossible to get good Dutch players. Maybe I'm just a chauvinist pig

Does anyone else feel a team flows better if it's made up of a majority of the native nationality?

My Wolves squad has one English player in it and plays very much as a unit. Pick the best players and those who fit your tactical approach; simple as. No point seeking out English talent if it's not good enough. If I see a good English player, I'll consider signing him, but if there's a foreign player who's better, and/or value for money, then I'll go for him. Racism (which domestic preference basically is, if you think about it) has no place in football. This is why I'm against the whole 6+5 thing..

I could rant here..

My Wolves squad has one English player in it and plays very much as a unit. Pick the best players and those who fit your tactical approach; simple as. No point seeking out English talent if it's not good enough. If I see a good English player, I'll consider signing him, but if there's a foreign player who's better, and/or value for money, then I'll go for him. Racism (which domestic preference basically is, if you think about it) has no place in football. This is why I'm against the whole 6+5 thing..

I could rant here..

Same here. Quality trumps nationality.

I just bought a young Singaporean striker for my Pompey side (go Singapore ), and his performances make the other, more well known strikers at the club look silly.

Same here. Quality trumps nationality.

I just bought a young Singaporean striker for my Pompey side (go Singapore ), and his performances make the other, more well known strikers at the club look silly.

Yeah, I've had hard working young Belarusians and Turks keeping the likes of Aguero and Diego out of the team.

My lower league teams end up looking mostly like the French Loreign Legion, in every country I play in, except interestgly... France.

My lower league teams end up looking mostly like the French Loreign Legion, in every country I play in, except interestgly... France.

Same for me playing in the BSS - in a squad of 30 20 are French

Same for me playing in the BSS - in a squad of 30 20 are French

I had a St Albans squad with 14 Dutch players.. :confused:

I've only got one Dutch

as Mr Wenger said 'we reward talent and not the passport' and i feel the same way

My Nantwich Town side has got 1 Australian, 1 Ivory Coast, 1 Croatian, 2 Brazilians, 8 English, 2 Welsh, 1 Spainish, 2 French, 1 German, 1 Russian, 1 Romanian, 1 Portugese, 2 Irish.

The better my team gets the more British players I like to try and bring in but its expensive.

I signed with Spartak Moscow towards the end of the previous season in Russia. Back then there were only 4 Russian players in my first 11, and finished 4th in the league.

This season I have a first team of 25 players of which 15 Russian players, 2 Ukrainians, 1 Serbian, 1 Moldavian, 1 Lithuanian, 1 Czech, 1 Croatian, 2 Brazilians and 1 Argentinian. And am lying 1st in the league. The Czech, the Croatian and the Argentinian are about to leave wanting to play for a bigger club.

If I can afford them, I prefer to buy domestic players since it only makes sense to have players from the country I play in. It gets boring just poaching foreign youngsters from no-name clubs because it's cheaper. That's just how I see it though. Of course if it's a club tradition (Inter comes to mind) or something to prefer foreigners, then I'll obviously look to get quality foreigners.

It depends on the league for me. In england i do anything because the money is so free to obtain if one player becomes a dud you can just sign a replacement!

In spain and italy i run a tight ship on nationals and foreigners.

Italy has as many italians as possible, spain has as many spanish as possible and i choose to become a brazlian or argentinian club as they provide me with the best non eu players.

My reasoning behind only signing one and not the other. If i sign only brazilians they adapt better because there are other brazilians but if i was to sign someone from argentina, then their spanish will conflict with the brazilians portugese and they would not adapt as well. In italy i become either but in spain i prefer to become an argentinian club as the argentines speak spanish in a spanish speaking club.

Good examples of these clubs are the two milans and Napoli

AC Milan has lots of brazilians to complement their italians while Inter Milan have lots of argentines to complement their italians. Never mind they have like 1 or 2 italians but you see my point

Napoli is an argentine club as demonstrated by the argentines they sign but they do like all clubs sign others. Gargano is from uruguay, pia is from brazil

Overall there is no real advantage except from what ive found to be faster settling in period

Playing in Holland currently and my squad is about 80% foreign... The 20% Dutch players are mainly own youth though and they're not even in my first 11.

I play in Italy: 7 of my squad are from my Academy (but I've had a very lucky break with regards to youngsters), while another 2 are nationally homegrown but not from my Academy - one signed as a youngster while one signed because he was Italy's first-choice right-back. I have a first-team squad of 26. I sign youngsters all the time and it shows because I believe I had 14 homegrown in my Champions League squad, and 18 nationally-trained.

I don't really think there's an advantage in having a majority of your home nation at your club (besides European squad limitations which aren't technically nationality-determined) - just as there is no real advantage in real-life (look at Liverpool - the majority of their Academy is foreign and their starting eleven has more Spanish players in it sometimes than some Spanish teams).

Demographically, my squad is:

1 Argentinian/Spanish

1 Belgian/Italian

1 Finnish

3 French

1 Hungarian

1 Irish

1 Irish/English

9 Italian

1 Malian

1 Northern Irish

1 Portuguese

1 Scottish

1 Spanish

1 Sudanese/Italian

1 Swedish

1 Uruguayan/Italian

I don't really have a backup goalkeeper, though - I usually hire 36-year-olds and older usually of weird nationalities - including Slovakian, Macedonian and now Japanese.

My old Xerez squad, I believe, didn't have a single Spanish player in it because they weren't good enough.

I have an almost all African starting XI, but not delberately. Mikel and the rest looked really good at times when I had money....

My lower league teams end up looking mostly like the French Loreign Legion, in every country I play in, except interestgly... France.

My Chesterfield team who have just got into league 1. Have 13 players from Belgium.

I have an almost all African starting XI, but not delberately. Mikel and the rest looked really good at times when I had money....

Bet that was a kick in the teeth every time the African Cup of Nations came around.

as long they are better and not affecting the club,i buy...

My lower league teams were so full of french or french speaking africans I started putting my main nationality as canadian so I could speak french and english, also maybe that my wife is canadian

I play in Norway, and thanks to the league rules on foreigners, I'm actually forced to have a majority of local players. Better if trained at the club.

I'm only allowed 11 foreign players in my first team... definitely not enough if I want to become a force to be reckoned with in European competitions.

As a now top EPL side, I've gradually replaced my English players with better foreign counter-parts, mainly Latinos from Spain, Portugal, Brazil and other S. American nations. They work excellently within my tactical framework, and I'm dominating England.

And so I got offered the England manager's job. What an interesting experience - the players can't do the job my club squad can; especially there is a dearth of wing-backs, quick central defenders, midfield playmakers and strikers. The U21 and U19 sides are full of young players I've flogged off from my club because they will never make my first-team squad. I hope I win a trophy at my first opportunity in 2 years, because the future is grim.

Bet that was a kick in the teeth every time the African Cup of Nations came around.

Kanoute, Arouna Kone, Adebayor, Keita, Mikel and Yobo =D

all out

First Team Arsenal 2036

England 8

Scotland 2

France 2

Italy 2

Norway 1

Japan 1

Wales 1

Paraguay 1

Germany 1

Argentina 1

Brazil 1

Mexico 1

Burundi1

I dont care what nation players are form if the are good

I only care once I've got good

When I'm rising up the leagues and improving, talent is put before nationality but once I have money and can afford to, I'll try and buy English players.

Every season in my game in the Danish league, I decide to go with a national approach, since I have so many talented Danes that don't get to play... when summer comes around I stumble upon 5-10 class foreigners (mostly south american), and I end up with only 2-3 players in my starting team being national

My first choice Liverpool 18 (starting 11 + 7 subs) currently contains:

5 Spaniards

6 Argentines

1 Dane

1 Italian

1 English

1 Tunisian

1 German

1 Mexican

I do have a few English regens I'm trying to bring through though.

I have an entirely English Aston Villa side

Interesting question. I wonder, "EU Nationals" are not exactly foreigners within the EU, and some countries/cities are more cosmopolitan. A main problem to foreignness is language.

The game program factors language barrier and psychological traits of the player, but I doubt it includes cultural differences (other than interclub rivalry...).

I have an entirely English Aston Villa side

Any chance of a screenshot of your side, what season are you in?

Same here. Quality trumps nationality.

current 1st team squad has >

1 argentina

1 austria

2 brazil

2 bulgaria

2 cayman islands

1 croatia

2 czech rep

2 danes

3 english

1 finland

1 france

1 hungary

1 holland

1 lichtenstein

1 n.ireland

2 norway

1 poland

1 portugal

2 romania

2 scotland

my Billericay squad in my eight season in charge has:

15 English players

4 Scottish players

1 Irish player

1 Swedish player

1 Yemen player, who incidentally is the captain of Yemen.

Hold on, people. There is a limit on the number of foreigners allowed to play in each game, in most national leagues, right? Thus, I am cautious in hiring foreigners. How come you guys are hiring the UN?!... Or, is there an option for disabling this limitation?

Hold on, people. There is a limit on the number of foreigners allowed to play in each game, in most national leagues, right? Thus, I am cautious in hiring foreigners. How come you guys are hiring the UN?!... Or, is there an option for disabling this limitation?

EU national naturalisation rules. In England there is no restriction on foreign (non EU) players, it's just hard to get work permit. In Italy there is a restriction on how many you can buy per season but no restriction on playing them. In Germany and Holland no restriction at all (nor in Belgium either I believe). Poland and Belgium have 3 year naturalisation so three seasons and a month or two (to get the paperwork done) is all that is needed there. In Spain there is a 3 foreigner restriction, but a 2 year naturalisation for Latin Americans (it is coded by region so Cuba doesn't count). In Portugal rule is that you can only have 8 players max trained in same nation, so a UN team is very possible.

Personally I buy a lot of foreigners and train up locals, my policy is mostly yout young senior players. Although there are four Romanians I usually look at, and I always keep an eye on the Irish (my own nationality).

Hold on, people. There is a limit on the number of foreigners allowed to play in each game, in most national leagues, right? Thus, I am cautious in hiring foreigners. How come you guys are hiring the UN?!... Or, is there an option for disabling this limitation?

not as yet in the English leagues! as long as you can get a work permit (if needed) then you can sign whoever you want! the only restrictions apply if your team makes it into a European competition...

Hold on, people. There is a limit on the number of foreigners allowed to play in each game, in most national leagues, right? Thus, I am cautious in hiring foreigners. How come you guys are hiring the UN?!... Or, is there an option for disabling this limitation?

England and Scotland only requires work permits.

Holland and Belgium has no limits.

Success first with many nationalites, then i'll work on making them all national

In 08 I had an entirely German starting 11.

Rensing, Lahm, Pander, Schonheim, Sinkiewicz, Schweinsteiger, Podolski, Rolfes, Holzer (newgen), Kuranyi

My domestic player bias was still crapweasle.

My Wolves squad has one English player in it and plays very much as a unit. Pick the best players and those who fit your tactical approach; simple as. No point seeking out English talent if it's not good enough. If I see a good English player, I'll consider signing him, but if there's a foreign player who's better, and/or value for money, then I'll go for him. Racism (which domestic preference basically is, if you think about it) has no place in football. This is why I'm against the whole 6+5 thing..

I could rant here..

I don't see it as racism at all.

You could argue that our homegrown youngsters don't get the chance they usually would do to develop their skills because of average foreigners bloating the mid to lower leagues?

I would love to see more young English players given a chance which would in turn lead to our national team being better than it currently is surely?

Edit: Btw I do implement this thinking in the game and give as many of my youngsters as I can a good chance to prove themselves.

Foreign. My squad always have players from nearly every continent.

My domestic player bias is usually less than 50%.

my Billericay squad in my eight season in charge has:

15 English players

4 Scottish players

1 Irish player

1 Swedish player

1 Yemen player, who incidentally is the captain of Yemen.

Finally someone who likes to have a team full of local players. (unless you don't actually manage an english team)

I would love to see more young English players given a chance which would in turn lead to our national team being better than it currently is surely?

It could also lead to a drop in league standard

Probably would if it applied to the top league, but only for a time I think. Instead of going out and buying a Tevez etc you'd have to be patient with bringing through youngsters, which I would prefer to see tbh.

If it was applied more in the lower leagues as I hinted in my first message then I think it would work better. They could learn their trade then be snapped up (not tapped up ) by the top clubs, a la Fabian Delph....

My current line up has

3 French

2 Spanish

1 Brazilian

2 Italians

1 English

1 Dutch

1 Belge

I'm managing in Italy now and I don't try to stick to Italian players. However, I'm from the U.S., and I'll always try to find a good American player to see how long it takes before he can't cut it. Right now I've got an American regen that Barcelona are interested in buying, so I may have hit the jackpot.

I manage Barcelona and I like to have Spanish players, but it is not essential. I do like to have English CBs though.

I play in Germany more often than not and I always try and field as many Germans as possible. I always try to field as many domestic players as possible.

I'm on the opinion that you should be rewarding talent, not nationality. Then again (mostly for FIFA rules), if I have to choose between two similar player with similar prices, I go for the local to get those 8 players in registration

Currently on Barcelona:

1 - Belgium

1 - Brazil

1 - England

7 - Spain

5 - France

1 - Germany

1 - Italy

3 - Mexico

1 - Netherlands

1 - Romania

1 - Russia

1 - Scotland

1 - Slovakia