[FM11] Barcelona’ing the way through the lower leagues – is it even possible?

[noikeee]

You made me nervous too! Good luck on hat

Good luck against Spain! Congrats on the double with Roma. Are you playing FM12?

Thanks. FM11 still. I take ages to play and have been on this career since May last year! Not thinking of giving it up soon neither!

[noikeee]

FIFA World Cup Final - Estádio Nacional, Jamor, Oeiras, Portugal - 14th of July 2030

Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop. The World Cup 2030 theme, a brand new remake of Scatman John's Scatman Song blasts through the speakers at the Jamor (yes my imagination is running a little wild here). Nevermind the fact that a World Cup match is being played at the Jamor, the fu*king final is being played at the Jamor. That is hilariously unrealistic, did they completely remake both the stadium and the entire surroundings? But anyway, I digress. It's the World Cup final, ladies and gentlemen, for my country, on my country's soil, no game is ever going to get any bigger than this! An unique peak of my career, surely!

As for those lineups:

If I could I would have picked the same 11 I have picked for Portugal ever since that massive breakthrough Argentina game, but I had to drop two of my players, incidentally both players I manage at club level, AS Roma defenders! Pedro Abreu is suspended which is a HUGE blow, he's the leader of my defence and neither Róbson nor Henrique Bruno have looked convincing next to him, now they'll have to control Spain's Brian Rivas by themselves. The other man out is Nem who injured himself against Italy and while available, is merely on 86% condition and I prefered to pick an 100% fit Fernando Dias instead. The team fields in my slight twist to a flat 4-4-2 that I have used throughout the entire World Cup, the most defensive of the MCs dropped to a DMC position. With the other MC on attack duty, and the wingers on support duty, it's sort of a compromise between a flat 4-4-2 and a wide diamond.

Spain pick their usual 4-4-2. I don't quite understand how they made the final, they don't look particularly strong, other than argentinian-born striker Brian Rivas (who isn't that great a forward anyway - when compared to some other stars of world football like Bagayoko, João, Tommy Davis, etc), left-winger Mikel Moreno and centre-back José Ignacio Rincón, none of the other players look truly world class. But underestimate them at your peril, they knocked out France and England, are reigning european champions and #1 on FIFA Rankings. Roma's Sergio starts at the bench which is a little daft as with his skills he could be their very best player, yet has only 1 cap, attained only during this World Cup against Peru in the group stage.

Goal.com's not-so-"expert pundit" predicts it'll go all the way to penalty kicks. I tell my players they "can win this". Let's find out.

First half

1st minute - Humm, this doesn't start very well. Before we even touch the ball, veteran forward José Luis Cruz outpaces Henrique Bruno and finds his way into the area to fire a diagonal shot, thankfully Vítor Ribeiro saves it.

10th minute - Oh ffs. Corner for us, Ricardo Canário attacks the ball but picks up an injury instead of the ball. It seems to be hindering him a little, but I'll keep him on the field for now. The physio rubs his body for ages, he seems to like it.

11th minute - GOAL FOR PORTUGAL, 1-0!!!! What a strange goal. Fernando Dias runs down the right and crosses, Steven Pereira wins in the air and heads it into the crossbar! It pings into the air and into Steven's head again, the keeper saves it but pushes it into Steven Pereira's body yet again, who introduces the ball in the goal seemingly involuntarily. It counts and that's what matters!

20th minute - Not much danger, but Mikel Moreno's freekick near the area down the left finds the head of Rubén and he puts it high.

25th minute - Dangerous conter-attack from Spain. Peio Soler's through ball finds José Luis Cruz but as he gets into the area pressured by Henrique Bruno, he shoots over the bar.

32nd minute - Pointless to mention this, but hilariously rubbish volley shot by Peio Soler. It goes over the bar like 30 metres high. Powerful shot though.

36th minute - Yellow card for Steven Pereira as he tries to rob a ball next to the corner flag but hits the spanish defender instead.

38th minute - Mikel Moreno is given too much space on the left wing, and when Fernando Dias comes to pressure him, commits a foul and concedes a dangerous free-kick. Yellow card again. Danger comes from the free-kick, Luis picks the bounce outside the area and shoots, José Luis Cruz connects the shot with a diving header very close to the goal line but it goes way way wide.

39th minute - On the counter-attack, Luis Pinto makes a sublime run past a defender but shoots a little high and wide as he enters the area.

Half-time. Our team seems quite tired already, but who isn't after an entire Summer playing a World Cup. Spain has attacked more but we had the only clear chance and bagged it home. Looking good at this moment, albeit Canário's injury and the 2 yellow cards are a little worrying. As is the fact Henrique Bruno was outpaced by a 33 year old. Can we hang on for another 45 minutes?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Second half

46th minute - Big chance for Portugal! Gilberto finds some nice passing rhythm along with Carlos Paulista, Carlos then starts a run and picks out Steven Pereira alone entering the area. But this time the lethal striker from Fiorentina shoots it just wide.

49th minute - The spanish players call for a penalty in the area after a corner, seemingly Róbson fouled someone or committed handball. I saw nothing and even if I did I wouldn't admit it!

50th minute - Clash of forwards, Brian Rivas fouls Steven Pereira, concedes a dangerous free-kick in frontal area and is given a yellow.

52nd minute - Some danger for Spain. Rubén's cross down the right finds the head of Miguel Ángel Pons but it goes a little wide.

54th minute - Steven Pereira doing well to win some yellow cards, this time it's Peio Soler who fouls him and sees a yellow.

54th minute - Substitution for Portugal, Fernando Dias has a yellow and has been playing nervously, time to bring in the not-fully-fit Nem into the pitch.

59th minute - GOAL FOR SPAIN, 1-1! Mikel Moreno's free-kick down the left finds Brian Rivas completely unmarked. Yes because our defenders apparently like to leave Spain's most dangerous player by a mile completely alone. Pato just sat there watching him move. Ffs.

61st minute - GOAL FOR PORTUGAL, 2-1! We strike back immediately! Gilberto passes it to Steven Pereira who breaks past the defenders into the area strangely easily and shoots it low for his 9th goal of the tournament. Spain replace left-back Luis for Manuel.

66th minute - Fresh legs needed in the midfield, the partially injured Ricardo Canário leaves for the experienced Fiorentina midfielder Delfim Vital to come in.

69th minute - GOAL FOR PORTUGAL, 3-1! Gilberto's corner finds Róbson at the 1st post who just has to tap it in. It's the brazilian-born defender's first goal ever for Portugal. He's come a long way since the days I managed him at Celta...

75th minute - Wow, what a missile from José Luis Cruz from just outside the area. It goes wide however.

76th minute - Double substitution from Spain. Mikel Moreno and José Luis Cruz leave for centre-back Jorge (??) and veteran striker Miguel Ángel Morán, who is out of a club at the moment after leaving Schalke in the Summer.

79th minute - Luís Pinto sees a yellow after fouling Manuel just next to the midfield line. A bit unnecessary.

81st minute - So nearly 4-1! Luís Pinto's free-kick finds Gilberto completely unmarked in the area but he heads it very wide.

87th minute - Portugal on the counter being dangerous again. Gilberto's through ball gets into Steven Pereira who hits the side-netting.

88th minute - Ohhhh, so nearly a superb goal!! Again a Gilberto pass to Steven Pereira, he dribbles a defender, he dribbles the keeper but hits the post from a difficult angle!

90th minute - Final substitution for Portugal, just to kill some time. Youngster Alexandre Queirós is given the chance to play in the World Cup final, replacing Gilberto who has been just immense today...

92nd minute - Red card for Brian Rivas! How bizarre! He sees a second yellow for diving in the box, desperately trying something to pull back a goal! It's a bit too late for that my friend!

Shortly afterwards - PORTUGAL ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS!!!! YES!!!! I can't quite believe it! Now excuse me while I take off my clothes and go do a lap of honour around the neighbourhood naked.

And with this I'm ending my international career in style to focus on my club career. I'm not going to outdo this achievement in FM, ever, so why bother. International management takes too much time anyway, I was planning to resign from the national team at the end of the Cup whatever happened. It couldn't have gone any better, I'm amazed.

[noikeee]

FIFA World Cup 2030 - the awards

[john1]

Congrats on winning the World Cup

[deltablue]

Amazing stuff!

[noikeee]

FIFA World Cup 2030 - video footage

Gonçalo Trindade's goal of the tournament against Colombia:

[video=youtube_share;ZMBAIKLL47o]

Highlights from the final, for future memory:

[video=youtube_share;DBH0BIhCxqw]

[kingjericho]

Nice job! Scolari who?

[HotChocolate]

Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Spain?

You had it easy.

[B.W.G]

Brilliant showing in the World Cup and congrats on winning it

[noikeee]

Thanks folks, time to put the World Cup celebrations past me and go back to Rome.

Roma 2030/2031 - season preview

Transfers (in)

Two top players for the main team:

Dario Vanoli (D RLC) (free) - Groomed by the Roma academy but sold to Marseille straightaway, 5 years ago. His contract wih Marseille ran out and I grabbed him on a free - he's a quality young centre-back who has just broken into the italian national team, hopefully one to stay in the first team for a long time. Unfortunately doesn't count as homegrown...

Dudu Cearense (GK) (37M€) - This season's superstar signing. Just like Dario, Dudu is 22 years old, and has just broken into his national team - the all-exclusive Brazil side. He is one of the world's greatest keepers and I'm going to give him first team games immediately.

And 4 youngsters for the future:

Anderson (DMC, MC) (free) - Released on a free by Villarreal, their loss is our gain. I loaned him to Siena.

Robert Cabrera (DMC, MC) (3.8M€) - Portsmouth let him go, thank you Portsmouth. Slightly expensive but has the ability and the potential to back it.

Niels Koot (MRC, AMRC) (2M€) - I think I definitely overpaid here but I prefer to get players before they turn 18, in order to register them as homegrown in the future.

Wayne Christie (AMR, MC, ST) (3.2M€) - Just needs a little bit of improvement in his mentals to start getting the odd first-team appearance. One of England's most exciting players of the next generation.

I also really really wanted Ajax's Richard Taument and nearly engineered an insane deal to pay 70M€ for him, but it was too late to get the money (would've involved selling Zarabi for nearly 40M€) and he rejected the contract at the last minute too.

Transfers (out)

With Soslan Ivanov coming back from his Dortmund loan, which went really really well, becoming Bundesliga's top scorer, I had one striker too many - even if all were top class. This meant selling Gérard Coulibaly by 20M€, a big profit considering last year I only gave 4.1M€ for him...

The arrivals of Dudu and Dario also meant I needed to get rid of one centre-back and one keeper, meaning Lasse Christensen was sold by 5.75M€ and Mamadou Ba by 1.4M€. A few youngsters with no future in the club left too: Aurélio Lourenço for 1M€, Giovanni Maisto for 275K€, and Riccardo Mora for 425K€.

Finances

I was saving money for Taument and since that didn't work out, the finances look absolutely excellent at the moment: 30.2M€ in the green.

Youth intake

Nothing noteworthy, sadly.

Full Squad

A very large squad again to attack all competitions - particularly the Champions League. There's a few players here which aren't good enough to be at the club really (I'm looking at you Mignani, Guzzetti, Pesce) but they're home-grown.

First fixture

Only one fixture has been played until the end of the transfer window. And that was... a trophy we won!

Not only we retained the Supercoppa, we absolutely hammered Milan too, they were completely harmless. Enjoyable, particularly since the first league fixture is going to be against... Milan.

As for the Champions League draw, I'm not very happy. We have to face Man City again, plus Dortmund and our feeder club Sparta Prague. At least we were 1st seeds this time.

Predictions, conclusions, etc

Well we're in the business of winning everything, but the #1 priority, by far, is the Champions League. It's the one trophy that escapes me and we'll do everything to get it. I'll rest the whole main starting 11 ahead of Champions League fixtures, even if it means risking a defeat in a key Serie A clash. Even if it means throwing the Serie A away. I don't care. Europe is the goal.

[SnakeXe]

Outstanding work at the World Cup, good luck this season!

[AK22]

What a great World Cup! You certainly did it the hard way! Perhaps the benefit of home advantage helped give you that extra edge when you needed it.

[Adelaidean]

Shame you didn't get that Dutch winger, certainly looks like he could Taument the opposition!

...

*crickets chirp*

Good luck for this season!

[ShyBaldBuddhist]

Excellent achievment at the world cup. Looks like you were splashing the cash in the summer. What are your youth facilities like? May be worth trying to get the board investing in them so you get some decent youth products.

Shame you didn't get that Dutch winger, certainly looks like he could Taument the opposition!

...

*crickets chirp*

Actually made me laugh :o

[noikeee]

Outstanding work at the World Cup, good luck this season!

Thanks, the season has started well too.

What a great World Cup! You certainly did it the hard way! Perhaps the benefit of home advantage helped give you that extra edge when you needed it.

Not sure if home advantage gives much or any effect at all, the games are recorded as "neutral" and there was no mention of the home advantage in NONE of the tons of news messages I received during the tournament. A bit poorly done by SI there tbh.

Shame you didn't get that Dutch winger, certainly looks like he could Taument the opposition!

...

*crickets chirp*

Good luck for this season!

:D

I'm still sticking with the plan of signing him eventually, just have to save money. Our right winger Zarabi is theoretically world class but can't maintain a good run of form for long, and Taument has 20 for pace on top of being an all-round excellent player in all other areas... best winger in the game world at the moment IMO.

Excellent achievment at the world cup. Looks like you were splashing the cash in the summer. What are your youth facilities like? May be worth trying to get the board investing in them so you get some decent youth products.

My youth recruitment is maxed out, and the youth facilities are one level from maxed out, I asked the board to improve it during the Summer and they accepted, should be finished by next season. Our Roma youth has been excellent, check the pre-season updates from the past 2 seasons, it churned out two potential world class players in Fioravanti and Antoniori (sp?), plus a large number of other mildly promising players I haven't bothered to mention. This season the youth bunch are not as good but I can't expect a superstar every year...

[ShyBaldBuddhist]

My youth recruitment is maxed out, and the youth facilities are one level from maxed out, I asked the board to improve it during the Summer and they accepted, should be finished by next season. Our Roma youth has been excellent, check the pre-season updates from the past 2 seasons, it churned out two potential world class players in Fioravanti and Antoniori (sp?), plus a large number of other mildly promising players I haven't bothered to mention. This season the youth bunch are not as good but I can't expect a superstar every year...

Been away for a few weeks so skim reading most threads at the moment to try and catch up. Must have missed the good youth prospects. With you saying you only retained Mignani, Guzzetti and Pesce as they were homegrown I thought you must have been struggling for decent youth players. Just been back and had a look at them and must say Fiovaranti and Antinori both look excellent.

[noikeee]

The thing is, with the homegrown players bug (they don't get automatically assigned as "homegrown" to a club or nation when they appear at a club, have to spend full 3 seasons there) homegrowns are fairly rare to find, I had to keep a lot of accomplished squad players out of the Champions League squad. The likes of Pesce, Mignani, Guzzetti fill those backup positions better than my unfinished young prospects, and I like having a large bunch of youngsters as desperate backups for major injury crisis too.

I'm a little worried that Fioravanti has stalled, I gave him Mignon Pedro tutoring a while back and they clashed with each other, he had a bad injury that parked him for a few months too. Striker Luca (Antinori? Antoniori? Antonioli?) has been progressing at a very impressive rate tho, from memory I think my staff already rate him as a "decent Serie A player". Bagayoko is now tutoring him, hopefully they won't clash...

Then there's a quite a few youngsters who I bought in the past few seasons (most of them before they turn 18, to count as club homegrown) that are breaking through. Karim Abdellah (DL) is getting a decent amount of 1st team games as third-choice left-back, thanks to an extreme rotation/resting system I'm putting in place to maximize condition for Champions League matches. Wayne Christie (AMR), this Summer's signing, already got some unexpected playing time on the back of a mini-injury crisis for wingers. Fabio Di Vincenzo (GK) is only the theoretical 4th keeper but progressing at an excellent rate and will soon catch up with the 2nd and 3rd choices. Marco Hofmann (MC, AMR) was wanted by some very big clubs when I sent him on loan for this season, I ended up placing him at Montpellier but it's the last season I'm loaning out for sure. Delfim Joaquim (DL), Cristiano Moutinho (ST) and Kostantin Geyer (ST) are constantly getting attention from many european clubs albeit not progressing as much as I expected.

[deltablue]

The thing is, with the homegrown players bug (they don't get automatically assigned as "homegrown" to a club or nation when they appear at a club, have to spend full 3 seasons there) homegrowns are fairly rare to find, I had to keep a lot of accomplished squad players out of the Champions League squad. The likes of Pesce, Mignani, Guzzetti fill those backup positions better than my unfinished young prospects, and I like having a large bunch of youngsters as desperate backups for major injury crisis too.

That was annoying when it switched from being 'homegrown' at generation, though at least in the CL up to FM11 you didn't have a problem with having a load of U21s, and now they have to be 'homegrown' to not have to be registered, which almost defeats the point.

[buzz2k7]

Read all of this thread today

It is brilliant!

KUTGW

[noikeee]

That was annoying when it switched from being 'homegrown' at generation, though at least in the CL up to FM11 you didn't have a problem with having a load of U21s, and now they have to be 'homegrown' to not have to be registered, which almost defeats the point.

I don't have FM12, that sounds like a total pain in the ass. But I'm assuming they're now homegrown at generation again? I think I'd rather live with that.

Read all of this thread today

It is brilliant!

KUTGW

Thanks!

[noikeee]

Good news:

(note - Ahmed Omar is my former Krylya Sovetov player who I sold for peanuts to Milan back then, under financial pressure! worst managerial decision I've done, ever!)

Great news:

Not-sure-if-good-or-bad news:

[buzz2k7]

I think its good news

[deltablue]

The original clause was unlikely to yield anywhere near half that.

[noikeee]

The original clause was unlikely to yield anywhere near half that.

Seriously, I almost felt bad at selling that, it was pure extortion from them, far too easy money. I highly doubt he's ever going to be sold anyway, he's very good and Marseille are LOADED. 5rd richest club in the world at the moment - as a sidenote we (Roma) finally broke into the top 10 this season are now 8th.

On award news,

A bit gutted that Bagayoko came so close and didn't make it, but I'll have to admit it was deserved - João scored almost as many as Bagayoko last season, and this season has just skyrocketed into absurd terrain, currently 22 scored in the Serie A, Bagayoko being his closest challenger on merely 14.

Hopefully having #1 and #2 on the Ballon D'Or can give an extra push to the Serie A reputation, it only climbed to 3rd this season beating the Bundesliga after many years of being behind Bundesliga and on par with the Ligue 1 (!). Indeed in terms of UEFA Rankings the italian league is only still 5th which means less clubs in the Champions League, the french still holding on to 3rd and 4 Champions League spots thanks to a remarkable improvement to french football over the past 2 decades.

[buzz2k7]

Did inter actually sell that player

[noikeee]

What? Inter? You talking about João? He's never played for Inter, been Napoli's superstar for many years now.

Inter has gone severely downhill, when I first arrived to Italy (3 years ago) they pipped us and Napoli to the title but Leonardo left as manager for Schalke at the end of the season, and it all went bananas at that point. Laurent Blanc made a real mess of the club, it's only picked up a bit now under the command of a serbian guy named Aleksandar Stanojevic.

I'm in the mood for exploring the game world, this is 4AM and I have to get up early tomorrow, but am planning to do one of those "World of Football" updates to show how things have evolved in past seasons.

[buzz2k7]

I thought he played for inter :o

Inter is kind of Arsenal irl At the moment :/

[noikeee]

World of Football, 2031 edition

Check it out, it's world of football. Time to take a look on what has been going on for the past few years other than my own adventures.

World Cup 2026, hosted by Mexico

The third mexican world cup started with a mildly weird group stage, hosts Mexico only going through on goal difference on the easiest group ever versus Guinea, Belarus and Uzbekistan; Spain coming last on the Norway/Iran/USA group, and England being knocked out by Algeria and Poland. In the second round the highlight would be a superb Portugal 3-3 Guinea, decided on penalties for the africans, sensationally. Brazil knocked out the hosts on penalties too, and with Argentina facing Netherlands it meant one of the favs were going to be ditched, in this case the dutch.

The quarters saw favourites France and Argentina breezing past Russia and Poland predictably, Guinea benefitting from an easy tie versus Japan to book an unbelievable semi-final spot, and Italy knocking out Brazil in extra-time. That set up the semis, France had no issue with Guinea, whereas Italy added the scalp of the argentines to their collection. However they would not add the World Cup to their european title, an unfortunate trio of injuries in the final helping France to a 2-1 extra-time victory facing a magnificent 105000 crowd in the Estadio Azteca. Portugal's Luis Pinto won the Golden Ball, just pipping the almighty Bagayoko, who also lost the Golden Shoe to the argentinian Daniel Jara despite being on equal tally of 7 goals.

European Championship 2028, hosted by England

The group stage as usual saw very little surprises due to the expanded format, albeit Portugal were out in a Russia/Poland/Greece group where all finished on 4 points, Portugal losing out on goal difference after a 5-0 hammering from the russians. In the second round no major surprises ensued, albeit Austria, Slovakia and Belarus benefitted from easy draws to become unlikely quarter-finalists, Germany beat World Cup finalists Italy, and hosts England needed extra time to put out Turkey.

World champs France had no issue in hammering Austria 3-0 in the quarters, England had a tougher tie with the Netherlands but scrapped through, Spain needed penalties to beat the germans, whereas Belarus had the luck of facing Slovakia to qualify for a sensational semi-final. It ran out as hosts England predictably beat them 3-0 to book a place in the final, Spain scrapping past the french world champions to meet them. England had home advantage in the final of course, but crashed out 2-0 to Spain to the disappointment of a 90000 crowd at Wembley. Our well known french superstar Dahamane Bagayoko clinched both Best Player and Golden Boot awards.

World Cup 2030, hosted by Portugal

A tournament reviewed extensively recently, as I was in charge of the hosts. An unusually straight-forward group stage kickstarted the tournament, with all major sides through, us portuguese booking a second round tie versus Argentina despite just about winning our group. We beat the expectations and won that game 3-1, as favourites England, Spain, Italy, Germany, France beat lesser sides, Brazil handling the Netherlands in the highest profile match.

The quarters saw Portugal against Brazil and once again Portugal were magnificent at beating the odds smashing the brazilians 4-1. England predictably hammered Ivory Coast 3-0, as France crashed to Spain (again, after the Euros) and could not renew their world title. Italy got their Euros revenge by knocking out Germany. For them it meant a place in the semis against hosts Portugal, and we surprised everyone by winning again 2-0 and booking an unlikely place in the final against the spaniards, who needed penalties to beat England. To the delight of the 51000 at the Jamor (worst stadium ever to host a World Cup final?), Portugal under my command won 3-1 and their first ever World Cup, at home. Portuguese forward Steven Pereira won the Golden Shoe on 9 goals, but was beaten by serbian star Nikola Jankovic to the Golden Ball.

UEFA Champions League

I have mentioned the amazing success story of Marseille many times throughout my career, and since my last World Football update they added their 6th and 7th Champions Leagues to their tally, under the command of legendary manager Samuel Eto'o of course. That was back-to-back titles on 2025, and then on 2028, beating a Real Madrid side who also grabbed back-to-back titles on 2026 and 2027 - both finals, remarkably, against Barcelona!! A great success by manager Leonid ****skiy. Yet another back-to-backs were seen over the past two seasons, but this time for Man Utd (one under the command of Roberto Sensini, the other under Steve Round), giving english football a title that had escaped for 13 years. One of those finals was won over my Roma side of course... Italy continues to miss a Champions League despite many appearances in the final, the last was won by Mourinho for Inter back in 2010!

UEFA Europa League

A relatively uninteresting trophy who after a few years of being won by giants, has returned to the more usual stance of seeing mid-level teams regularly grabbing it. It was the first big trophy in my career however, as I won it with Celta in 2027. Other winners since the last update were Hoffenheim, Besiktas, Zaragoza, Chelsea and Fenerbahçe - the turkish sides are doing very well in here!

FIFA Club World Cup

Marseille have now pipped São Paulo as the team with most trophies ever as they've never missed out on it when they win the Champions League - it's 6 club world cups for them now. São Paulo however did win another in 2029 against Man Utd, and the shock of recent seasons was Mexico's América humbling Real Madrid in 2026.

England

The Premier League has been an evenly shared trophy between the current 3 major sides in recent seasons: Man City winning it in 2025, Arsenal going back-to-back on the next 2 seasons, then Man Utd doing their magic in 2028 and 2029. Man City has grabbed it back last season. The one big team that has come short a few times is Chelsea, they've not won it for a decade now. Liverpool have fallen apart dramatically as they've not finished in the top 10 for the past 3 seasons, Tottenham are also incredibly in very large trouble this season as they face a severe risk of going down being in 19th place, it's amazing to think they were champions just 11 years ago.

Spain

Covered to some extent in here for a few seasons while I was at Celta - Zaragoza finally got their title in 2025 after threatening it for a few years, but have since lost some ground - the past 5 years have seen a more familiar pattern with 3 Real Madrid titles and 2 going to Barcelona. This season however something absolutely remarkable is going on as the leaders after 17 fixtures are none other than my past employers Celta!!!

Italy

Extensively covered as I've been at Roma for the past three and a half seasons. 2025 saw Roma winning a title that had eluded them for 24 years, manager Ally McCoist the architecht, but that was shortlived. The following two years a superb Napoli side emerged and clinched the 2026, 2027 crowns. Tthe next season I arrived at Roma but Leonardo won his final title for Inter before buggering off to Schalke - the next manager Laurent Blanc ruined that side. It meant that for the next 2 seasons the Serie A turned into a now familiar two horse race for the title between my Roma side and the amazingly competitive Napoli. Thankfully my team emerged victorious in both occasions and the 2029, 2030 seasons saw Roma's first ever back-to-back titles.

Germany

The picture has changed here, and dramatically. After 66 years without a title Schalke suddenly emerged as a powerhouse and clinched no less than five championships in a row!! That was under several different managers too. The engine of that side was brazilian forward Tcheco and once he left for Man City, Schalke were in big trouble. Wolfsburg, managed by brazilian regen Édson Gonzaga, picked up on their ruins and won it for the past two seasons.

France

2025 marked Marseille's 9th consecutive title but that amazing run ended there. Bordeaux were surprising champions in 2026, and things returned to normal the following season, Marseille winning it back. That was shortlived. Lyon finally got their act together again, and clinched the following 3 championships.

Portugal

Sergio Bueno's Benfica got their 5th consecutive title in 2025, matching a portuguese league record set by Porto in the 90s. The next season saw a major surprise though, Braga winning their first title ever! The league has been far closer in recent seasons, as Porto won it in 2027, Benfica in 2028, and Sporting in both 2029 and 2030.

FIFA Ballon D'Or

Heavily dominated by brazilians, indeed since the last update Man Utd's winger Hamza Benali was the only non-brazilian to pull it off, in 2026 on the back of France's World Cup title. The now retired César retained it in 2024 for Real Madrid, leaving it next season to Schalke's sublime striker Tcheco who would also win it in 2027 and 2028. In 2029 it was time for Napoli's João to take over the award and he retained it in 2030, with some advantage over my employee Dahamane Bagayoko.

World Soccer Magazine Player of the Year

Same as the FIFA Ballon D'Or except Real Madrid's argentinian forward Daniel Jara grabbed it in 2026.

[kingjericho]

Best part of the above post: the allegedly offensive name of Real Madrid's manager

[deltablue]

Ah yes, I think I can recall the chap's name.

[abulezz]

Cristiano Ronaldo mustve torn his hair apart seeing Portugal win the World Cup without him

Thoroughly enjoyed the World of Football update

[noikeee]

Best part of the above post: the allegedly offensive name of Real Madrid's manager

Ah yes, I think I can recall the chap's name.

Leonid's a bit of a promiscuous manager. And by that, I mean he's been in quite a few clubs. Obviously.

Those who don't know his surname: it starts with Slu and ends with tskiy.

Cristiano Ronaldo mustve torn his hair apart seeing Portugal win the World Cup without him

Thoroughly enjoyed the World of Football update

I haven't seen any news items featuring Cristiano Ronaldo in the media for a few years now, which must mean he's crying in fetal position somewhere feeling the lack of attention.

[noikeee]

Roma 2030/2031 - mid-season update

Transfers

I signed two rather expensive youngsters:

Theo Fortes (DC, DMC, MC) (2M€) - Got him right before he turned 18 which means within "homegrownable" range.

William (D RL) (5.5M€) - I know I know. It was a batsh*t insane transfer fee. But look at that, he's FIFTEEN. That means he has years and years and years to develop his skills.

One youngster left - I had too many strikers in the U20s taking away playing time from each other. They were all promising but one less so, therefore I sold Samuele Russo to Feyenoord for 575K€ + 50% of next transfer profit.

In terms of finances we're sitting on a 35M€ pot of cash.

League

It's been an excellent season in the Serie A so far by any standards, with points lost on only 2 matches so far and some heavy wins over big teams, like 4-1 away at Milan, 5-1 over Fiorentina, 4-0 over Juventus, 4-1 in the derby with Lazio. Not forgetting the magnificent 7-0 over Cagliari, with Bagayoko scoring 5 goals and getting the assists for the other 2 goals, which made for a perfect 10 rating.

However none of it matters unless Napoli drop points too - they are the one team we have to beat. Thankfully we did when we faced each other, a 3-1 win giving us a very precious direct advantage. However they only lost points in a single other match all season, which means when he lost to Fiorentina the very last game before this update, they suddenly caught up with us and are only 1 point behind.

It really is a two-horse race, the Serie A nowadays. All the other teams may have very good players but end up being there to make up the numbers. I thought Napoli would lose morale after being annihilated 4-0 at home to Man Utd in the Champions League (now that was a surprising result!!) but no, that was in November and they've won every single match since in all competitions.

Cups

No problems in the Champions League, albeit we suffered a little to win our first match in Manchester, turning it around after half-time. With qualification guaranteed after our first 4 matches, I decided to field a mildly weakened side against Man City at home and that ruined our 100% perfect record. Thankfully we still won the group, which gave us a very good tie in theory against Anderlecht in the next round.

In the cup, a side of reserves had no issues dispatching Verona 3-0, but I put the first teamers against Parma and it was a really tough match, the winner only by Ferraro in the 87th minute. That sets up a semi-final against Palermo, so that's looking good for another appearance in the final.

Players

I recently mentioned Bagayoko was on merely 14 goals to João's 22. Well, he scored 8 in the following two matches (5 against Cagliari, 3 against Milan) and now it's 22-22. Easy.

But Roma isn't just Bagayoko (altho he sure as hell makes a huge difference), and this season Kévin Duval has been absolutely unplayable, even more so than in recent years. 10 goals and 16 assists in half a season speaks for itself. Wingers Nicola Ferraro and Billel Zarabi have kept themselves at a very high level too and are at 10/10 and 9/11 for goals/assists, respectively.

Goals for the rest of the season

A third consecutive Serie A would be nice, but like I said at the beginning of the season, all my chips are on the Champions League pot. Before every Champions League match I'm resting my entire starting 11 the previous fixture. That may very well cost us the italian title given how relentless Napoli are, but it's a price I'm willing to pay to focus on the big trophy that I've not won yet.

[deltablue]

Risky pot to gamble completely. You're managing for now in the League anyway.

[noikeee]

Risky pot to gamble completely. You're managing for now in the League anyway.

Yes I know, but my 2nd string lineup is VERY good. Thankfully Napoli fell apart a little after the games I played since this last update, and are now 6 points behind. The plan will only get really risky when I face Napoli away because that's 3 days before the first leg of the CL quarter-finals. I really don't want to be knocked out at that stage again, I'd rather risk throwing the Serie A away... the CL is all that matters to me now, the rest are just bonuses.

[abulezz]

I wonder what the Roma fans would thnk if they managed to somehow hear you talking like that!

[noikeee]

I wonder what the Roma fans would thnk if they managed to somehow hear you talking like that!

Haha, no doubt they'd be P*SSED, but if later the gamble pays off, I'm sure they'd quickly forget about it. It's not like I don't care about the Serie A at all, it's that I have a very clear priority.

In real life this extreme rotation system would spark a completely wrong, complacent mentality in the team, causing all sorts of trouble, but FM psychology doesn't work like that, I can get away with it. And there's very little difference between my starting 11 and my first backup 11.

[HotChocolate]

Interesting badge for Anderlecht, looks nothing like the one in real life

[noikeee]

Interesting badge for Anderlecht, looks nothing like the one in real life

No idea where that badge came from. The bigger badge is correct, so it's probably a mismatch of team IDs there, or something similar.

[noikeee]

The Champions League matches against Anderlecht proved surprisingly tough. Two 1-0 victories were enough for us, but in the second leg the goal that put us out of danger only came in the 78th minute:

Celtic were the next opponents in the quarter-finals. The huge league fixture against Napoli came immediately before that, and as I had said, I rested almost my entire starting 11. This time the backups didn't do well, despite late cameo appearances from Bagayoko and Duval, who came in too late:

Anyway, with 6 fixtures to be played, we're 3 points ahead of Napoli, equal on results between teams (won 3-1 at home, lost 2-0 away, I presume away goals don't count in this?), and ahead on goal difference by a big margin. This means we can afford a single slip-up, more than that and Napoli are going to have to lose points too.

Back to the Champions League. The first leg against Celtic ended up with a comfortable scoreline, but we got a major scare as they threw away a penalty right at the beginning of the match, and ended it with bad news as Bagayoko injured himself and will stop for nearly a month:

The 2nd leg didn't mean much, but emphasizes again how difficult we've been finding these european ties against smaller teams - the winner only came very late:

As if to give us a red carpet into the final, the opponents in the Champions League semi-final are Galatasaray. Yes that's Anderlecht -> Celtic -> Galatasaray in the Champions League, don't ask me how that scenario came to reality, because none of those clubs have particularly top class squads. But I'm still cautious, Anderlecht and Celtic proved far tougher opponents than expected, Galatasaray are a little stronger and have just beaten our nemesis Atletico Madrid 3-0 to get to this stage.

Stay tuned as the season enters its most critical stage. Italian cup semi-final against Palermo coming up, too.

[kingjericho]

(won 3-1 at home, lost 2-0 away, I presume away goals don't count in this?)

If the first criteria is results between teams then away goals count.

[noikeee]

If the first criteria is results between teams then away goals count.

But yesterday in my night FM session, Napoli caught up with us temporarily because we had a game in hand, and we were still first in the table. :confused:

[noikeee]

The Champions League semi-final was pretty much decided in Istanbul already as we put in a quality performance:

The 2nd leg was merely a formality:

That means we've booked a spot in the Champions League final again, against... Ajax. Yes that's right we may just win the trophy without facing a single team from England/Germany/Spain/Italy/France in the knockout rounds. Ajax are very strong, they've been in a few CL semi-finals lately and have become a wildly rich club over the years, they're the 3rd richest in the world. But they're not world class, I would say we're favorites particularly since their superstar Richard Taument is injured!!

As for the italian cup, the first leg didn't go very well at home, setting up a tricky trip to Sicily where we would be forced to get a result...

... but the 2nd leg went far better, and so that's another final we're in:

4 fixtures remaining in the season now:

• the 2 final Serie A matches - Mantova away then Cagliari at home. We're still 3 points clear of Napoli and with a great goal difference, these fixtures are theoretically easy, so it's looking very very good for the title.
  
• the TIM Cup final - not looking good here, at all. The opponents are Napoli, and we tend to do badly in games against them. Moreover, the game is only 3 days before the CL final and I'd much rather rest players here, again.
  
• the Champions League final - to be played in Dublin, against Ajax, in the Aviva Stadium. The huge finale to the season.

[abulezz]

The Champions Leage has been very kind to you! Out of curiousity, who have Ajax knocked out? Is Bagayako out of the Finals?

[noikeee]

The Champions Leage has been very kind to you! Out of curiousity, who have Ajax knocked out? Is Bagayako out of the Finals?

Bagayoko has been back for quite a while now, but hasn't been on his best form.

Ajax did all the dirty work for us. Knocked out Man City then Barcelona then Man Utd. :D

[kingjericho]

But yesterday in my night FM session, Napoli caught up with us temporarily because we had a game in hand, and we were still first in the table. :confused:

Maybe the sorting is only calculated after the season ends. Since you had yet to play that week's match the game doesn't apply the sorting until every team has the same number of games.

[noikeee]

After hammering Mantova 5-0 away we needed a single point from the final match to become champions for the third year running...

... and that's exactly what we did. In an underwhelming performance, we did the bare minimum to clinch the championship with a record 102 points (the 100 points barrier had never been broken - Napoli ended on 101 too!!), and a record 125 goals scored too.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As for the cup final, well.. I'll let the screenie speak for itself:

WHAT A GAME!! Surely the most entertaining match of my whole career. We held a 2 goal lead midway into the 2nd half, when Napoli suddenly put 2 past us and tied things. Then scored in the 88th minute to make for what would have been a great comeback on their part... only for Ferraro to equalize again for us at the very end, taking it into extra time. Ivanov scored in the 1st minute of extra time and gave us the led again, Duval and Abreu scoring in the final 10 minutes to make it a superb 6-3 scoreline. Great great way to go into the Champions League final, although I only rested a few starting 11 players, and the ones who weren't rested will have had 120 minutes of football weighing in their legs...

This was a lovely news item to get as a reaction to the Cup victory:

Next up the big finale as we take our plane to Ireland. Can we do the treble?

[buzz2k7]

:applause:

[noikeee]

UEFA Champions League Final - Aviva Stadium, Dublin, Ireland - 31st of May 2031

Here we are then in Dublin. Roma approaches the 4th Champions League final in their history, knowing that they've not won any of the previous 3. Ajax reach a final for the first time since 1996, a year after they conquered the last of their 4 Champions Leagues (Champions Cups). Either italian or dutch football will go out of Dublin with a trophy that have escaped their reaches for a very long time - Italy since 21 years ago, Mourinho's Inter; Holland since that very same Van Gaal's Ajax, 36 years ago.

Lineups for the final:

Some changes in Roma's lineup here, as we go into the field with only a single player from the starting 11 that faced Man Utd in the final 2 seasons ago - the sublime swiss Kévin Duval. It's quite strange actually, it hasn't felt like I've done any revolution to the team at all. Billel Zarabi is injured so makes way for Gideon Gabriel on the right; whereas plenty of others have cemented their place as first choice only midway through the season - the case of Nem, Vanoli, Blaze. The major surprise is in the midfield, Mignon Pedro and Carlos da Silva have been first options since I arrived at the club, but a dip in form and plenty of games "playing nervously" means I prefer Roberto Amoroso and Sergio for this game.

Ajax field a bizarre narrow 4-4-2 diamond with portuguese winger Rui Cassamá on the AMC position despite not being adept in that role at all. With the heartbeat of that side Richard Taument out for months with a severe injury (I'm sort of glad I didn't sign him after all), I'm finding it hard to pick major stars in their squad, forward Javier Sánchez Rodríguez and left-back Gauchinho probably the best players on their side of the pitch. Then again they beat Man City, Barcelona and reigning back-to-back CL champions Man Utd, the later of which without Taument, so what the hell do I know.

Worldsoccer.com says it's a close call, but we're just about the favourites. Let's see if we can back this claim.

First half

5th minute - GOAL FOR ROMA, 1-0!!! What a start ladies and gentleman, it's the very first clip the game shows on "extended highlights". Nem cuts inside on a run from the left, passes it to Bagayoko who plays a through ball for Gideon Gabriel to meet into in a slide, beating the keeper to the ball. Ajax appeal for an offside but the replay shows it's a marginal decision which is probably right!

20th minute - Roma hit the post!! JJ Blaze passes it long into Bagayoko, he is tackled by a defender but the ball falls into Nicola Ferraro already into the area, and he is a little too accurate.

31st minute - First time Ajax attack with some danger and it's so nearly the equaliser! Pedro Abreu tries to head back Muller's clearance, but the ball falls to Sánchez Rodrigúez instead who is instantly one-on-one with the keeper. Dudu Cearense keeps his cool and dives to save it.

39th minute - Roma give far too much space in the middle for Ajax to develop an attack, then Chiquinho crosses from the right and Edinho controls it in the area but shoots over the bar.

Half-time. Bit of a strange first-half, we only had 3 shots but scored with one of them and hit the post with another. Ajax have looked increasingly better as their midfield is swamping ours, but other than that one-on-one chance they've been mostly harmless too. The spectators hope the second half will be more interesting, as I move back Duval from his regular AMC position to a quieter MC role, in order to try to stop our disadvantage versus Ajax's midfield.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Second half

46th minute - Duval's free-kick near the right corner flag finds Vanoli's head in the keeper's area, but it meets a defender.

47th minute - Nice chance, Ferraro finds some space down the left for Bagayoko to run into, but as he meets the keepers face, Moses Kunene gets the better of him and saves.

54th minute - This time it's Bagayoko who finds lots of space for Ferraro to run into down the left. He tries to chip the keeper from a tight angle and it goes over the bar.

60th minute - Another decent chance in a free-kick very near the area, Duval takes it by exchanging passes with Vanoli, passes it to Bagayoko standing in the middle who fires it straight to the keeper.

62nd minute - Swap of forwards for Ajax, Edinho goes out for Biro to replace him.

66nd minute - Chiquinho fouls Ferraro near the area, causing yet another dangerous free-kick and seeing a yellow.

72nd minute - Bagayoko is overly aggressive trying to win the ball back as usual, and gets a yellow as he fouls Iglesias. Ajax replace portuguese international Rui Cassamá who had a dismal game, for veteran Sabri Amara.

75th minute - GOAL FOR ROMA, 2-0!!! We had been having loads of corners and nothing coming out of it, this one the ball is cleared again, Blaze insists outside the area and passes it to Pedro Abreu, who slides a through-ball for Gideon Gabriel to smash into the top corner. A brace for the nigerian winger!! Ajax again appeal for offside and again they are wrong.

77th minute - Time to start wasting time with substitutions. Roberto Amoroso leaves for captain Mignon Pedro to come in.

80th minute - Jon Iglesias upends JJ Blaze and sees a yellow.

83rd minute - Giant centre-back Sané is hurt and is directly replaced by Paulo.

86th minute - Killing more time and refreshing our midfield. Carlos da Silva replaces Sergio.

89th minute - Tonight's hero Gideon Gabriel is replaced to get some applauses and for youngster Wayne Christie to be able to say he played in a Champions League final.

92nd minute - GOAL FOR ROMA, 3-0!!! How about this, there's still time for another one in the very last second. Bagayoko ran down the right, cut inside, shot but it hit a defender, it fell to Ferraro in the keepers area who hit the post. But it bounces into the head of keeper Kunene and goes in - it's a rubbish own-goal...

Mere seconds after that - ROMA HAVE WON THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE!!!! Their first in history! It's also an historical season because we won every single competition this season - Champions League, Serie A, TIM Cup and the Supercoppa -, a 100% perfect record. Party all night long in Rome!

Bit of an atypical game this, we didn't overwhelm opponents as we often do, but simply scored clinically when the occasions arised. The stats look like it was an even game but it wasn't, Ajax didn't cause any trouble at all in the second half. Gideon Gabriel was the unlikely hero, 2nd choice to Zarabi all year long, only was there because Zarabi was injured. The full-backs also excelled in this game thanks to Ajax's narrow formation leaving them completely free to bomb forward, JJ Blaze had a great game.

It was also a very strange Champions League edition, you could say winning it after facing the opponents we did (Anderlecht, Celtic, Galatasaray, Ajax!!) makes it a shallow trophy, but what the hell, we were there to pick up the pieces. Nicola Ferraro won the Champions League Best Player award and Kévin Duval came second.

[Deisler26]

Congrats on the clean sweep! Really impressive!