Athletic Club (Bilbao) - 16 years old spanish players

[IsthmianCorinthian14]

Is it the same as in FM, when we talk real life, when it come to youngsters?

That Athletic Club can sign players who are not really basque as long as they are 16 and under?

[Cas46]

Can you still do that on FM? I thought you could only sign actual Basque's now...

[Sir Alex FM]

Look at their other nationalities. Bet it says Basque.

[IsthmianCorinthian14]

No. They will be regarded as Basque later if you have them a certain amount of years is how I understand it.

Because as soon as they turn 17 I cant sign them.

[bowieinspace]

It's not quite the same as real life, no, but it's sort of a 'best fit policy' I suppose.

In real life, Athletic Club only sign players (of any age) who either have Basque nationality through their family history, or moved to the region and had their football upbringing within the region. Someone like Inaki Williams from the current team is a good example of someone who grew up in the region, making himself eligible for Athletic despite not having the family history. He was actually born in Biscay to African parents who had moved to the region.

Where the game and real life differ, is that in the game Athletic can sign any Spaniard who is 16 or under. In real life, Athletic would never sign a 16 year old from another region of Spain, unless that person had Basque nationality through their family. The reason it is different in the game is because the game can't quite simulate the outliers who moved to the region at a young age/have non-Basque parents and went through the youth development systems (such as Inaki Williams). Ideally it should be built into the youth intakes, so you see the odd unusual one come through, but I think it's hard for SI to do this. So the result is that you're allowed to sign young Spaniards to kind of get around this issue.

Personally I think this is wrong, but I can understand why this kind of compromise has been made. However as the player you can select whether to use this loophole or not - personally I don't, and I rely on signing players with only Basque nationality regardless of age. I just change the player search filters to make sure I can't accidently sign someone who isn't Basque, and if in doubt I check the players nationalities to confirm.

It would be great to see this better built into the youth intake system for Athletic, but it would probably be a tough one to implement for the sake of one club and a few players. Realistically SI are handling more significant issues with have a bigger effect on the game I think.

[IsthmianCorinthian14]

Thanks for the great description.

It is really helpful, so I understand it better.

Now I am making sure I dont sign players which are not basque in the future, to make the challenge more realistic and fun.

Btw., have you, or anyone who might read this, ever signed a french basque, which actually turned out to be a class player?

I know it is rugby who rules the sporting scene there, so it is hard in the game too.

An off-topic question: did the Athletic Club B team really play at the San Mamés this season?

And if they get promoted from Segunda Divsion B again, do Athletic Club need to upgrade the Lezama facilities and its ground?

I think I read something about, that they actually got plans or may be in the middle of, upgrading the Lezama facilities already.

[bowieinspace]

Thanks for the great description.

It is really helpful, so I understand it better.

Now I am making sure I dont sign players which are not basque in the future, to make the challenge more realistic and fun.

Btw., have you, or anyone who might read this, ever signed a french basque, which actually turned out to be a class player?

I know it is rugby who rules the sporting scene there, so it is hard in the game too.

An off-topic question: did the Athletic Club B team really play at the San Mamés this season?

And if they get promoted from Segunda Divsion B again, do Athletic Club need to upgrade the Lezama facilities and its ground?

I think I read something about, that they actually got plans or may be in the middle of, upgrading the Lezama facilities already.

Yeah I've had a decent French Basque, but not in FM16 sadly. I had a really good one in FM14 and a couple of squad players in FM15 from memory.

Bilbao Athletic did indeed play at San Mames this season, I would imagine next season they will go back to Lezama as the San Mames pitch took a beating this season from all the fixtures. I'm not sure on the development.

If you want to chat Athletic Club or show your progress, drop in to the Athletic thread in the good player/team forum here:

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/442210-FM16-Athletic-Bilbao-No-puede-comprar-un-trofeo

[Plachy]

I learnt 'French Basque' was a thing when one of the best players in the world was playing for France and Athletic - I think I ended up signing him when he was in his mid-20s when I had completed my saves aims and decided to have a party on signings, blowing 50m+ on whoever I fancied. This would have been some time between FM 11 and 13, probably the latter. Never really looked into how rare of an occurrence it was to get a player with those nationalities + the probability of him being any good.

[Swordsman]

On 5/17/2016 at 08:11, bowieinspace said:

It's not quite the same as real life, no, but it's sort of a 'best fit policy' I suppose.

In real life, Athletic Club only sign players (of any age) who either have Basque nationality through their family history, or moved to the region and had their football upbringing within the region. Someone like Inaki Williams from the current team is a good example of someone who grew up in the region, making himself eligible for Athletic despite not having the family history. He was actually born in Biscay to African parents who had moved to the region.

Where the game and real life differ, is that in the game Athletic can sign any Spaniard who is 16 or under. In real life, Athletic would never sign a 16 year old from another region of Spain, unless that person had Basque nationality through their family. The reason it is different in the game is because the game can't quite simulate the outliers who moved to the region at a young age/have non-Basque parents and went through the youth development systems (such as Inaki Williams). Ideally it should be built into the youth intakes, so you see the odd unusual one come through, but I think it's hard for SI to do this. So the result is that you're allowed to sign young Spaniards to kind of get around this issue.

Personally I think this is wrong, but I can understand why this kind of compromise has been made. However as the player you can select whether to use this loophole or not - personally I don't, and I rely on signing players with only Basque nationality regardless of age. I just change the player search filters to make sure I can't accidently sign someone who isn't Basque, and if in doubt I check the players nationalities to confirm.

It would be great to see this better built into the youth intake system for Athletic, but it would probably be a tough one to implement for the sake of one club and a few players. Realistically SI are handling more significant issues with have a bigger effect on the game I think.

so all along i did it wrong by signing any spanish players 16 and below.. 

[bowieinspace]

On 8/14/2016 at 03:58, Swordsman said:

so all along i did it wrong by signing any spanish players 16 and below.. 

There's no right or wrong with the game really...it's a game after all. Depends on the level of realism and difficulty you want...it's much harder only signing Basques, especially if you play on a small database and get fewer options come through.

I like the challenge and sense of realism though. On FM16 I just never had any good Basque defenders generate into the game, so I was in like 2031/32 or something, with a world class attacking line and a mid table defence. It was horrible but made for some entertaining games. When I eventually won the Champions League with that team it was a very satisfying achievement!!