Strangest place you've found good youngsters

Wheres the strangest place you've found good youngsters, that are able to make a good impact in the league you're in after a few years? Like Charlie Austin for example, going from Poole to Swindon and making an instant impact.

Do these kind of situations ever tend to occur in FM?

bradford city

I've been playing in the low merky depths of english football so ive found some real gems in foreign countries with a low league standard. also some great scottish players too.

Hichani Chalwe a zambian playing in the brazilian league. His potential was through the roof and he was still only 21.

Lucky. I've never really found a gem in the lower leagues, most of the ones I come across are playing for teams in the top French and German divisions and what not.

Barcelona Youth regens

I had an excellent young winger from Comoros - a small island between continental Africa and Madagascar. He was a Comoros international!

Never one to miss a good opportunity for a bit of banter - OP, you really need to reconsider the thread title unless you want all sorts of inappropriate replies

I had a regen from the Faroe Islands on a game on FM10, brought him in while I was in the Championship and he kept his place in the Prem too.

Found a Bermuda newgen on my current save, not a bad litttle player for me in BSP [potential sometimes to be between Championship - League 1 so that's good enough for me!], 18 flair and 11 dribbling so he runs around people for fun in non-league

found a zambian winger who was a wonderkid for my deportivo on my spanish career save

also found a finnish striker who went on to win world player of the year on my psv save

chelsea bought a young newgen from Sao Tome and Principe on my save

Chatroulette.

Had a defender from Eritrea, he was good in BSP, and managed to stay good till league 1 level, he was a bit out of his depths in the Championship though so I sold him. Faithful an reliable servant though.

One of my best ever players came from UAE on FM09, and had a striker I got from Dundee United who was immense on last years game.

Never one to miss a good opportunity for a bit of banter - OP, you really need to reconsider the thread title unless you want all sorts of inappropriate replies

Never realised that! But hey, everyone for their own!

Burkina Faso though i see they are pretty high in world rankings so maybe this is the reason.

I signed a winger from L2 Brentford when I was L1 Swindon... the unluckiest Wonderkid ever. He played for me for 8/9 seasons before going to Chelsea and Leicester. He played in all four divisions before he was 19yo. Got 3 England call-ups... never made a single squad. Injury hampered his development so much that he became a Wonderkid several times but never quite 'got there'.

Also got a Nigerian MC/AMC/FC from Heartland, a Romanian AML from some obscure Romanian club (I forget...)and I signed a WK/Midfield General/WC Midfielder from L1 Sheff Wed when Swindon were massive...

I forget many.. *shrugs*

Some guy from Toronto FC, Would've been world class if i worked him into my team more, but got him really young and he never got the chance. (He was a defender and im not good at developing youth defenders)

Found this guy on Expiring contracts, He couldnt sign a pro contract cuz of a longterm injury, Snapped him up

I always try to raid the youth squads of some of the better Eastern European teams - Shanktar, Dinamo Kiev, Spartak Moscow, et cetera. They like the money western Europe offers.

Thinking aobut it I have found one, although I think he's well known on the forums. A lad called Sani Emmanuel, nigerian Winger/Striker from My People. Turns quality with the right nuturing!

Yohan Guichard and Didier Caro Reunion Legends!!!!

best wonderkid on my save started at aldershot! also find the odd bargain at ajax cape town and in denmark

There is an easier way to work on this. But since you are in the business of finding the next big thing, I assume you have sufficient amount of money to spend to acquire these youngsters.

To find these youngsters, you need good amount of scouting coverage, and a good number of scouts of course! I've been using this method years ago, and it still work.

After around 1 week when the season start (from your second season onwards), on your players filter, choose age 18 and below. Obviously lots of stats would be missing, but look at the promising stats and figure out which one could be worth scouting. If you looking for centreback, the first thing I would look is jumping. Should other key stats looks good as well (tackling, positioning, team work, etc), then send your scouts to see whether they are worth it and to know the rest of the stats as well.

If it is striker the first thing I look for is finishing, and then I look for off the ball, his physical attributes, etc.

I found loads of quality regens (or newgens) with this method. Too many in fact! I'm playing with notts county and half of my squad are fill with youngsters.

In this edition of FM, it seems that physical attributes are much more important than the previous edition of FM. It would be great to have skillful players, but given the choice of choosing players that has the potential to be say, leading premiership players, between

i) developing players who is skillful but needs to improve his physical attributes,

ii) developing either strong/speedy/tall players and improve their skills,

I'll take the physically inclined players every time.

I've found players from all weird places. It is one of the most fun part of the game, developing your own youngsters.

Players from 'Reunion' are great for BSS / BSN / BSP

For the Icelandic Premier I am finding loads in Nigeria and the Ivory Coast. Brazil is still as good as ever though

Never one to miss a good opportunity for a bit of banter - OP, you really need to reconsider the thread title unless you want all sorts of inappropriate replies

Indeed, I was expecting a flurry of comments regarding Gary Glitter, Thailand and Cambodia... the fact that there weren't says more about my sick sense of humour than anything else.

Not found many at all in my save. Israel, I think, the most unusual.

Other than that, it's mainly the usual places like Spain, France, Italy, Brazil etc.

I have got a Scottish wonderkid striker, does that count as strange?

I have got a Scottish wonderkid striker, does that count as strange?

"Unlikely", I think is the word...

Not found many at all in my save. Israel, I think, the most unusual.

Other than that, it's mainly the usual places like Spain, France, Italy, Brazil etc.

I have got a Scottish wonderkid striker, does that count as strange?

A scottish wonderkid? Time for the world to cave in on itself!

Managing Nottingham Forest I sent a scout to Ireland as he had great knowledge of the country and he came back with a 16 year old wonderkid from a very obscure team (I forget).

I offered him a contract but he snubbed the bid and joined Arsenal instead!

Also got a regen come through into my youth team on my Manchester United save called Marc Parker. According to my scouts he is the most gifted player of his generation at 15 and has the potential to be better than Wayne Rooney

Chatroulette.

not a strange place.. best way to find random gems and I mean random!!

A scottish wonderkid? Time for the world to cave in on itself!

John Fleck

once found a 5 star potential player for my Leeds team (in 2016 top of premiership) from singapore at Tajong pagar

I have found an excellent young left back from Zambia on my Leicester save, potential to be a leading Premier league left back. Only cost a cool 425K plus played for the excellently named Power Dynamos.

Found a few players from u.a.e.

mali second division guy has the potential to be the best striker

John Fleck

As a Rangers fan, very very overrated

Found a good player in Niger and another in Central African Republic.

And the best ever newgen came from South Africa.

As a Rangers fan, very very overrated

not a rangers fan, but still agreed

I've found lots of good regens in Egipt , Republic of South Africa and so on. ASEC in Ivory Coast has some excelent and cheap regens in January...

Just signed a regen for £8k from Gainsborough's youth team, my assman Tony Coton reckons he has the potential to be a leading prem player. Attribute distribution is sort of like a young Jesus Navas.

Arsene Wenger's back garden, tied up to posts. Some little Africans being fed by Eboue, you could see their mental attributes growing within days.

My own academy.

On FM09 (I think), the best two players in the world were a Danish LB/MC and an Uzbeki RB who I both signed for under £100k from those teams that are full of greyed-out players. They were the actual best in the world, it was great.

Burgina Faso

not a rangers fan, but still agreed

overrated? I don't care what his stats look like, he played like a dogs arse for two seasons before I released the chump for free in anger

John Fleck

Danny Wilson - now at Liverpool is a wonderkid as well.

Fleck is a good back up player for my Liverpool team.

I always find it strange finding anyone from England with and sense of technical ability.

Back in 2015 on my FM10 game, I found a promising young left winger playing for Arsenal. That is, Berekum Arsenal who play their football in Ghana!

He wasn't quite good enough to ever be considered world class, but he was a capable squad player for my Villa team for a number of years, and having signed him for just 70k, I sold him to Atalanta for 20.5m ten years later.