Concerning international call ups

Or the lack there of. To me it seems that players untested at international level have an unrealistically hard job to do in order to break into their respective sides. I get the feeling that the game has highly preconceived opinions about who's in and who's not, and more than often favour household names over more qualified players.

Here's an example:

Playing as Genoa, Robert Acquafresca scored some 33 goals in my second season, amassing an average rating of 7.60 and winning the European Golden Boot. In what world would a player with such a season in store not get called up to his national side, even for a friendly or two? What's even more concerning is who got capped in his place, namely Alberto Gilardino who managed two league goals in the entire season with an overall average of 6.50, and Marco Boriello, who performed even worse.

This is hardly a realistic interpretation of how national sides function and should be overlooked for the next installment.

I had a 17 year old English midfielder called Joe Wells called up to the England side and debut in the warm ups for the World Cup having played for me 5 times before, 3 of which were in the League cup, 3 as a substitute and only 2 starts at League Level. Yet as he had an average rating of 7.44 from these brief cameos in that last month he got called up and did honestly enough a fairly good job...

They do call up players on merit... even if it is confusing like the above. Maybe there is something wrong with your player...

They do call up players on merit... even if it is confusing like the above. Maybe there is something wrong with your player...

but do they really? i was under the impression that it was down to ca more so than form? my saves always seem to suggest this also.

Well i have Sidnei for Real Madrid and he has won 2 Champions League medals, 2 La Liga medals and one World CLub medal and still has not been called up to the Brazil squad, has not even been talk of him being called up even though he is hands down the best defender ive had in the side, which leads me to another gripe about the World Player of the Year award. I think it is wholly unrealistic about its choices for nominations, you see the same players in it every year. Whats worse is that Sergio Aguero in my save even though Atletico have never won anything in my save and he has been called up to the Argentinian side about 4 times...and they haven't won anything either. It seems to be very inconsistent and only based on player reputation which is a shame

Sometimes it is all about reputation- what was it that Roy Keane's has said about the Ireland team? Picked on basis of reputation and media exposure? Now granted he could be wrong, and I am not about having a debate on the man and his actions over the years, but surely there is some truth to the charge, and FM reflects this. Top rated youngsters at big clubs will get u21 selections more than your lads at a smaller club even if they are not as good, or not performing as well.

Media hype plays a role too. Look at Theo Walcott.

Can I assume the OP means players who exist in real life as opposed to newgens?

For example: Steven N'Zonzi was my first choice DM for Arsenal for five years running during which we won the league five times and cups etc (still that pesky CL remains out of reach though!) and he has played twice for the French national team. Now he's 31 and flogged off to Wolves and is unlikely to play again for France but his form for me was incredible (well, I viewed it so anyway). I would have expected him to at least have been called up quite often, even for friendlies but he rarely did.

Now, compare this to a young newgen I used to have called Andy Carter, English DM who played a grand total of one league games for me before earning his England debut (which he scored on by the way). It wasn't like he was a highly rated DM, indeed he was my fourth choice although, admittedly, he was only 19. This Andy Carter has got average PL stats and has got more caps than N'Zonzi (Carter's 7 to N'Zonzi's 2)

Incidentally both scored on their international debuts and both were released by me and got snapped up by Wolves...