Why doesn't anyone want to play for Red Star?

It's 2014 and I have just taken Red Star Belgrade back to European glory. In our winning European campaign we had some impressive results, including wins vs city home and away and a 6-0 demolition against Marseille. The board gave me a huge transfer budget of 27 million and upgraded to training facilities to 5 stars. On top of that, I just signed my favorite player of all time, Riquelme as a coach until 2019!

And yet, it seems throughout the football world we are still seen as minnows. Serbians playing at such crappy clubs as Blackburn or Zaragoza are not even wishing to discuss contract negotiations with me. My star regen central midfielder from ivory coast, who I discovered and I rescued singlehandedly from a life of playing on a dirt field covered in broken glass with no shoes on is wanting to leave the team he just co-captained to European cup glory for the greener pastures of...feynourd and clube brugge...

Reserve team players from mid-level Italian clubs are turning even offers of becoming a key player on a European cup winning team!

Does the European cup mean nothing these days? It's not like Red Star is a tiny club, we have won it before!

How many European cups do I need before these players start giving the team some respect?

You're restricted by the reputation of the Serbian league. If you do well in more continental cups, and especially if other Serbian clubs start to compete, then you'll drag the league up and be able to get your own rep higher as a result.

damn even these 18 year old nobody mexican regens are refusing to sign with me!

It's all to do with reputation. If you were a half decent player would you want to play in Serbia?

Apart from winning Champions, other cups give pretty low rep to be honest. So yeah, it'll take a few good wins for you to become popular.

It's all to do with reputation. If you were a half decent player would you want to play in Serbia?

If I was a nobody kid in Mexico I would want to go to the team that just won the European cup where I have gauranteed first team football. And if I was the vice captain Ivoirian kid who's been in Serbia 2 years and a key player on the reigning champions of Europe I'd want to stay rather than go to Feynourd or Club Brugge. I mean I'd understand him if it was AC Milan or Inter or Benfica calling, but brugge and feynourd aren't even getting champions league football! Serbia is really nice, especially if you're rich.

There are multiple problems that we'll unfortunately have to wait for SI to fix: 1) League Reputation isn't really flexible enough, 2) Club Reputation isn't anywhere near flexible enough and 3) the transfer system relies too heavily on reputation as opposed to money.

There are multiple problems that we'll unfortunately have to wait for SI to fix: 1) League Reputation isn't really flexible enough, 2) Club Reputation isn't anywhere near flexible enough and 3) the transfer system relies too heavily on money as opposed to reputation.

I agree with this. Red Star as European champions should be far more attractive than for example Shakhtar Donetsk who according to your info posted (player preferences) must still be way higher than you in terms of rep on the game. I am using them as an example because they are a club from the former Eastern Bloc who can buy the star players from most Western European clubs outside of the massive clubs. They can pillage squads like Ajax/PSV/Twente, Marseille/Lille, Anderlecht, Rangers/Celtic, Porto/Benfica/Sporting.

Simple reasoning....

1. Donetsk is an industrial dump that's miles from anywhere while Belgrade is an attractive capital city that would offer an amazing life to a young, rich footballer (stunning women, great clubs, cultural activities etc...)

2. Your club is obviously far more successful and your squad must be better than theirs because you've won the Champions League

3. You have a great history unlike them which should increase your reputation. Your club also has far better fans and far more (55% of Serbia's whole population support Zvezda) and any great player there is like a God.

4. Shakhtar is just a relatively small club that has just a few really hardcore fans and isn't as important in people's lives while Zvezda is a lot of men's lives in Serbia. The passion of the fans and their ability to travel should be a factor.

5. You said you can pay as well as these other clubs so salaries shouldn't be an issue? So if you can pay then same there's no way they'd want to leave I'd imagine.

If you are wealthy (and your board allow you to pay the going rates for wages) like you claim and did win the CL then your rep should be way higher.

No, still maxed out at only 17k wages, but better when I first started when 2k a week was the most the board would let a player sign for