The Ultimate Football Manager Challenge

[SkyjumperTalon]

On 23/04/2023 at 17:09, SkyjumperTalon said:

Club

A very successful season, although we are still yet to win that elusive Champions League. We lost in the semis to Manchester City, and a somewhat close title race saw us really fatigued in the midst of cup, continental, and league competitions each having matches nearly every week.

I'll stick around in an effort to win the champions league, only until a good job offer in England comes up. We'll see what happens.

Country

Final Preparations being made for the 2042 World Cup. We're ranked 3rd in the world, behind France and Argentina, the latter of which we dispatched easily in 2040 in the Copa America.

 

Challenge Progress
Club: Juventus
Country: Brazil

Domestic Leagues 9/10 (4 Big 5)
2022: India (Aizawl FC)
2024: Indonesia (Persib Bandung)
2027: South Africa (Orlando Pirates)
2030: South Korea (Daegu FC)
2032: Mexico (CF Monterrey)
2034: France (Paris Saint-Germain)
2037: Germany (Bayer Leverkusen)
2040: Spain (FC Barcelona)
2042: Italy (Juventus)

Domestic Cups 7/10
2022: India (Aizawl FC)
2025: Indonesia (Persib Bandung)
2026: South Africa (Orlando Pirates)
2031: South Korea (Daegu FC)
2034: France (Paris Saint-Germain)
2041: Spain (FC Barcelona)
2042: Italy (Juventus)

Club Continental 3/5
2028: Africa (Orlando Pirates)
2031: Asia (Daegu FC)
2033: North America (CF Monterrey)

Continental 3/5

2027: Africa (Senegal)
2031: North America (USA)
2040: South America (Brazil)

Global 1/2

2041: Club (FC Barcelona) 

TOTAL PROGRESS: 23/32

 

Club

Absolutely heart-wrenching season. I joined the team when we were in 11th, and took them to one point from the champions league spots. Our last four games saw three matches against 1st, 2nd, and 4th, all away from home. Getting just two points in that stretch would cause us to miss out on Champions League Football. I thought maybe the FA Cup would be a saving grace, but we lost to a 96th minute free kick goal, despite dominating the match statistically. My star striker, Hugo, went on a tragic goal drought of fifteen matches and there will be some changes this season to fix depth in the wings and such

Country

Qualified for the Euros, just have to win it. We've got a strong team, but with an aging goalkeeper and no future replacement, we need to perform this year.

Challenge Progress
Club: Liverpool
Country: France

Domestic Leagues 9/10 (4 Big 5)
2022: India (Aizawl FC)
2024: Indonesia (Persib Bandung)
2027: South Africa (Orlando Pirates)
2030: South Korea (Daegu FC)
2032: Mexico (CF Monterrey)
2034: France (Paris Saint-Germain)
2037: Germany (Bayer Leverkusen)
2040: Spain (FC Barcelona)
2042: Italy (Juventus)

Domestic Cups 7/10
2022: India (Aizawl FC)
2025: Indonesia (Persib Bandung)
2026: South Africa (Orlando Pirates)
2031: South Korea (Daegu FC)
2034: France (Paris Saint-Germain)
2041: Spain (FC Barcelona)
2042: Italy (Juventus)

Club Continental 3/5
2028: Africa (Orlando Pirates)
2031: Asia (Daegu FC)
2033: North America (CF Monterrey)

International Continental 3/5

2027: Africa (Senegal)
2031: North America (USA)
2040: South America (Brazil)

Global 1/2

2041: Club (FC Barcelona) 

TOTAL PROGRESS: 23/32

[SkiIIs]

 

I'm not really in the business of waiting for opportunities and unfortunately there werent many good ones on offer this offseason so have decided to head over to France.   After looking at the team, it's either going to be a long term stay to try and topple the champs or it might be quick stay if something better pops up.

[leyrtj]

Season 2042/43 - Mamelodi Sundowns - South Africa

The Sundowns were the perfect team to take over. A good established team with money, but their expectations were top 4, so nothing too unrealistic. As we joined in May, our first game game was the CAF Confederations Cup Final against Coton Sports, which we managed the win 2 - 0 in extra time. My fastest trophy ever in a job! We were given 6.5m million to spend which, looking back, was incredibly generous. We stretched this as thinly as we could and brought in almost a new starting eleven. There's a 5 foreign player limit so I focused on South African players and brought in some good quality, alongside a Slovenian Striker, Bostjan Rostik, who go on to score almost a goal a game. We started very strongly and continue in this vein all season and didn't lose a game all season other than the Super Cup before we'd signed a lot of the players. In total we won the MTN Super 8, the Telkom Knockout, the Nedbank Cup, the CAF Confederations Cup again and the Absa Premiership. One of my best seasons ever in FM.

Season 2043/44 - Mamelodi Sundowns - South Africa

One thing I noticed in our first year was the fixture congestion and the crazy scheduling. At one point, I played 5 games in 9 days including a league game two days before a Cup final. So I was intent on signing a backup squad in order to compete on all fronts. Ultimately, the Champions League was the priority, but I also wanted backup due to the higher number of injuries from the fixture congestion. We did a lot of transfer activity, including a number of loans from South America. One other thing I noticed in the first season was that foreign players under the age of 21 don't count towards the 5 foreigner limit, which freed up a number of spaces. As I bought I sold, and unbeliveably I was able to sign an actual wonderkid - a 19 year old Romanian goalkeeper, Alexandru Barbulescu for 5 million. Although not as dominant as the first season, we still won every cup in front of us, including the Super Cup and the biggest prize - the CAF Champions League. The only hiccup along the way was the quarter final of the Champions League against Kaizer Chiefs. They won the first leg at their place 1 - 0, then took the lead in the 3rd minute in the return leg. We now needed 3 goals to progress. The team then gave the best performance I've had from any team in this save to win the second leg 3 - 1, and 3 - 2 on aggregate. I was so nervous in the last 10 minutes.

I have now completed al the club based challenges - 10 league titles, 10 cups and the 5 champion leagues. It's also the first time I've completed the Pentagon challenge, though it's a not a pure completion as I think the Pentagon challenge doesn't allow international management (I think). 

2042 - Brazil - World Cup

After joining the Sundowns, we went to the 2042 World Cup with Brazil. This wasn't the best Brazil team I've ever managed - it had arguably the best striker in the world, but no quality wingers. Still, I was confident of challenging, and I'd have another go in 4 years anyway. We won both group games and then the Second Round classh against Turkey. We were playing well, but not good enough to win it. Then, we drew Germany in the Third Round, who are always good in FM20. We edged a tight game stat-wise, but they grabbed the only goal. We hit the post in the 85th minutes. At this point, I think I made a mistake. The board said they were disappointed but that they understand we had a tough fixture, so I thought I would be okay. But then they sacked me at the end. This ended up being disastrous. We'd just joined the Sundowns and my reputation dropped to 3.5 stars. I applied for all the top international jobs after the World Cup but didn't get any. Also, I believe we can never get the Brazil job again as we were sacked (I think).

Challenge Update

So we've just resigned from the Sundowns, still with 3.5 reputation and the Euros coming up next month, after which we need a big international job. Challenge wise I still need to win the Euros, the Copa America and the World Cup. My plan is to try and join a high reputation club to try and get my reputation up quickly and then apply after the Euro sackings. But I'm not sure I'll get a 4.5 reputation club. I'm going to see what happens, and depending on the result, I might take a break from this challenge. I'm facing another 6 years minimum, and I'm not sure I can do that. i also want to have a go at the Youth Academy challenge. I'll definitely be back to try and finish this but not sure when. Good luck all!

 

[SkiIIs]

4 hours ago, leyrtj said:

Season 2042/43 - Mamelodi Sundowns - South Africa

The Sundowns were the perfect team to take over. A good established team with money, but their expectations were top 4, so nothing too unrealistic. As we joined in May, our first game game was the CAF Confederations Cup Final against Coton Sports, which we managed the win 2 - 0 in extra time. My fastest trophy ever in a job! We were given 6.5m million to spend which, looking back, was incredibly generous. We stretched this as thinly as we could and brought in almost a new starting eleven. There's a 5 foreign player limit so I focused on South African players and brought in some good quality, alongside a Slovenian Striker, Bostjan Rostik, who go on to score almost a goal a game. We started very strongly and continue in this vein all season and didn't lose a game all season other than the Super Cup before we'd signed a lot of the players. In total we won the MTN Super 8, the Telkom Knockout, the Nedbank Cup, the CAF Confederations Cup again and the Absa Premiership. One of my best seasons ever in FM.

Season 2043/44 - Mamelodi Sundowns - South Africa

One thing I noticed in our first year was the fixture congestion and the crazy scheduling. At one point, I played 5 games in 9 days including a league game two days before a Cup final. So I was intent on signing a backup squad in order to compete on all fronts. Ultimately, the Champions League was the priority, but I also wanted backup due to the higher number of injuries from the fixture congestion. We did a lot of transfer activity, including a number of loans from South America. One other thing I noticed in the first season was that foreign players under the age of 21 don't count towards the 5 foreigner limit, which freed up a number of spaces. As I bought I sold, and unbeliveably I was able to sign an actual wonderkid - a 19 year old Romanian goalkeeper, Alexandru Barbulescu for 5 million. Although not as dominant as the first season, we still won every cup in front of us, including the Super Cup and the biggest prize - the CAF Champions League. The only hiccup along the way was the quarter final of the Champions League against Kaizer Chiefs. They won the first leg at their place 1 - 0, then took the lead in the 3rd minute in the return leg. We now needed 3 goals to progress. The team then gave the best performance I've had from any team in this save to win the second leg 3 - 1, and 3 - 2 on aggregate. I was so nervous in the last 10 minutes.

I have now completed al the club based challenges - 10 league titles, 10 cups and the 5 champion leagues. It's also the first time I've completed the Pentagon challenge, though it's a not a pure completion as I think the Pentagon challenge doesn't allow international management (I think). 

2042 - Brazil - World Cup

After joining the Sundowns, we went to the 2042 World Cup with Brazil. This wasn't the best Brazil team I've ever managed - it had arguably the best striker in the world, but no quality wingers. Still, I was confident of challenging, and I'd have another go in 4 years anyway. We won both group games and then the Second Round classh against Turkey. We were playing well, but not good enough to win it. Then, we drew Germany in the Third Round, who are always good in FM20. We edged a tight game stat-wise, but they grabbed the only goal. We hit the post in the 85th minutes. At this point, I think I made a mistake. The board said they were disappointed but that they understand we had a tough fixture, so I thought I would be okay. But then they sacked me at the end. This ended up being disastrous. We'd just joined the Sundowns and my reputation dropped to 3.5 stars. I applied for all the top international jobs after the World Cup but didn't get any. Also, I believe we can never get the Brazil job again as we were sacked (I think).

Challenge Update

So we've just resigned from the Sundowns, still with 3.5 reputation and the Euros coming up next month, after which we need a big international job. Challenge wise I still need to win the Euros, the Copa America and the World Cup. My plan is to try and join a high reputation club to try and get my reputation up quickly and then apply after the Euro sackings. But I'm not sure I'll get a 4.5 reputation club. I'm going to see what happens, and depending on the result, I might take a break from this challenge. I'm facing another 6 years minimum, and I'm not sure I can do that. i also want to have a go at the Youth Academy challenge. I'll definitely be back to try and finish this but not sure when. Good luck all!

 

best of luck, has been good following your journey to date!

[leyrtj]

17 hours ago, SkiIIs said:

best of luck, has been good following your journey to date!

Thanks. You too. These thread help keep the motivation against the grind sometimes. Good luck at Lyon. You're not far away. 

I got the Argentina job so currently holidaying to the World Cup. 

[leyrtj]

Argentina - World Cup - 2046

After leaving the Sundowns in May 2044, we picked up the Argentina job after the Copa America. It was a good squad, and they were ranked number 1 in the world. They had my favourite left winger from the save, Claudia Peireyra, though he was getting on a bit. It wasn't an amazing squad, but I thought it woudl challenge for the World Cup at least, and if not the Copa America in 4 years. In the 2046 World Cup we were drawn in a group with China and Sweden - quite a tough group as they were both in the top 20 in the rankings. We squeezed past China 1 - 0 and then beat Sweden 3 - 0. As Brazil 4 years ago, we were playing decent but not spectacular, and I was a little worried when we were to face better opposition. South Korea were our second round draw and on paper it looked an easy game. We were in control, but just couldn't score, and then South Korea hit us on the break in the 77th minute to go one up. Oh dear. However, we pulled one back immediately and then won it in extra time. We faced a tough draw in Italy in the next game and I wasn't confident. It was a tight game but they hit us on the break and scored the winner in the 87th minute. No comeback this time. I almost gave up on this challenge again but the Belgium job came up and they looked like they had a really good team. This would be the last try to finish the challenge. 

Belgium - Euros - 2048

The Belgium job came up after the Euros, and we had just enough reputation to get it. With them being 9th in the rankings I wasn't overly pleased with the job. However, on closer inspection I saw that they had a really nice team. I've had the Belgoum leagues loaded for the last 15 years, and they had been pumping out wonderkids all over the place. Lots of quality on the wings and in midfield, and some really nice talents coming through. Nothing amazing up front, but enough to work with. In the 2048 Euros we faced a group of Nethelands, Poland and Ireland. We dominated Netherlands 4 - 1, and also a 0 - 0 draw against Poland and I was starting to feel confident. This was a good team. In the 3rd group game against Ireland, a draw would put us through. However, they scored in the 35th minute, and we were struggling to make chances. This result would knock us out. I was thinking "not again" and then we equalized from a set piece just before half time, before hitting our form again in the second half and winning 5 - 1. 

The draw was kind to us and it looked like a Turkey, Croatia and Germany/Austria route to the final. Turkey were brushed aside easily 2 - 0, and it looked the same for Croatia until they equalized in the 87th minute. However, a set piece gave us an injury time 2 - 1 win. We face Austria in the semis which might seem an easy draw but it wasn't. Austria have won the last two World Cups and the last Euros, but I still fancied our chances. They took the lead after 18 minutes, but then we played our best football of the tournament and deservedly went in 3 - 1 at halftime. The second half was nervy. They scored a penalty in the 71st minute but we held on to win. The final was against Netherlands, who we'd beaten 4 -  1in the group stage. It was now or never - I said to myself if I lose this game the challenge was over.

Well the challenge is still on as we won the final 2 - 1. Next up the World Cup in 2050. There's some talent coming through so I'm confident of maintaining a challenge. Just the World Cup and Copa America to go. 

  

[vikeologist]

On 30/05/2023 at 18:07, leyrtj said:

 Then you get near the end and think I might as well finish it. 

Glad you're going to keep going. 

It's possible you will get another chance with Brazil or Argentina. Don't count out the winners of the Gold cup who should be in the following Copa America, though that may not be the case in the iteration you're playing.

[leyrtj]

Thanks for the encouragement. Currently holidaying to the World Cup. I'll have a look at Mexico/US for the Copa America. Think I've also seen Australia and Qatar in there as well. 

[darren1983]

2033 Season Review - Atlanta United

 

After the double last season the focus this year would be on the Champions League, to do so I needed to add a couple extra players to my squad, I was helped by 2 of my foreign players taking up green cards freeing up a couple of international slots so i did what did last year and raided my new favourite country in this save - Serbia! We added CB Marko Popovic for 1.2m and CM Zoran Ilic for 1.8m. We added depth with a couple players from the draft and went into the new season with, what I felt, was a squad capable of competing on all fronts.

Having topped our group we started in the second round of the Champions League with a game against Chivas. A 4-0 win in Mexico was followed up with a 3-1 win at home for us to progress, we then faced MLS side Nashville and another 4-0 first leg win (this time at home) meant the 1-1 draw away meant nothing. In the Semi finals we faced defending Champions America from Mexico. a tough 0-0 draw in Mexico (where they should have won) meant for a nervy second leg. 2 second half goals saw us through 3-1. The final was against Mexican side At. San Luis and we went into this game with not fit striker, and 2 of our first choice midfield 3 unable to play more than 30 minutes. I was worried. I shouldn't have been as we smashed them 6-2! No Idea where this came from. In this seasons Champions League I messed up the group stage by rotating too much, finishing 3rd meaning I had to win 2 playoff games to keep the club in it, we did so but it was unneeded stress

I stuck around after winning as we had the Club World Cup upcoming and there was no interesting jobs anyway. In the Club World Cup we somehow managed to win our group by beating Flamengo and AC Milan before losing to real Madrid 3-1 with 2 late goals in extra time just 48 hours after our game with Milan. My team were dead for this game.

I probably should have quit there but with no jobs going I thought I'd play out the season and see what comes up. We managed to retain the Eastern Conference, the Supporters Shield and then the MLS Cup but in the US Cup we lost in the final. This season was crazy as we played 64 games and while going in I felt our squad could cope the injuries we suffered really hurt us. We lost last years main man up top Mitrovic for 4 months in the early part of the season, then when he came back he took a while to find form and just as he did he missed a lot of the run in with another 6 week lay off. We also lost main CB Jakovic for 3 months in the middle of the season. Playing 2 or 3 times a week for the best part of 5 months was insane. So I will be resigning from Atlanta now to focus on South Korea while waiting for a new club job.

Speaking of South Korea we won our group (just about after my trying out some young players almost cost us by losing 3-1 away to Syria) meaning we qualified for this summers World Cup. Need to do well enough in that not to be fired before the Asian Championship in 12 months time.

Career Overveiw

Year		Club			League	Position	Nation			Notes & Achievements 

2022/23		Polokwane City		NFD	 11th 		South Africa		Took over with 9 games left of the season
2023/24		Polokwane City		NFD	1st 		South Africa		Completed first coaching badge
2024/25		SuperSport United	PL	1st 		South Africa		Won Nedbank Cup and completed second coaching badge
2025/26		SuperSport United	PL	1st 		South Africa		Won Champions League and completed third coaching badge
2026		Daegu			KL	4th		South Korea		Took over with 8 games to go
2027		Daegu			KL	1st 		South Korea		Won the FA Cup
2028		Daegu			KL	1st 		South Korea 		Won Asian Champions League. Completed B licence. Started on A licence.
2028/29		FC Nordsjaelland	SL	4th		Denmark			Cup runners up
2029/30		FC Nordsjaelland	SL	2nd 		Denmark			Won the cup
2030/31		FC Nordsjaelland	SL	1st 		Denmark			Retained the cup, started final coaching badge
2031		Atlanta Utd		MLS	8th 		USA
2032		Atlanta Utd		MLS	1st 		USA			Won the Open Cup, finished all coaching badges
2033		Atlanta United		MLS	1st 		USA			Won NACL, runners up in the cup

Year		Country			Ranking		Notes & Achievements
2025		Algeria			26th 		Qualified for World Cup
2026		Algeria			26th		
2027		Algeria			15th		Won Cup of Nations
2028		USA			12th 
2029		USA			11th 		Gold Cup Winners
2031		South Korea		35th 
2032		South Korea		36th 		Won the EAFF Championship
2033		South Korea		34th 		Qualified for the World Cup

Challenge Progress

Club
 4/10 top domestic leagues – South Africa 2025 (SuperSport United), South Korea 2027 (Daegu) Norway 2031 (Nordjaelland) United States 2032 (Atlanta Utd)
 4/10 domestic cups – South Africa 2025 (SuperSport United), South Korea 2027 (Daegu), Denmark 2030 (Nordsjaelland) United States 2032 (Atlanta Utd)
 3/5 club continental championships – Africa 2026 (SuperSport), Asia 2028 (Daegu), North America 2033 (Atlanta United)
 0/1 club world championship 

International
 2/5 continental tournaments – Africa 2027 (Algeria), North America 2029 (USA)
 0/1 world tournaments

 

[leyrtj]

Belgium - World Cup - 2050

After winning the 2048 Euros I was confident of winning the World Cup, especially as the South American teams hadn't looked good recently. An easy group was dispatched with, and the second round draw gave us a viable route to the final - Scotland in the 2nd round, then Portugal in the 3rd round then probably Germany in the semis. Scotland gave us a scare though. We took the lead and were dominating, then they scored a free kick out of nowhere. Good on them, I thought, let them have a goal. But we couldn't score another and it went to extra time. We finally broke them down and scored 4 in extra time. Still, the extra time was damaging as Portugal awaited us three days later. It was a tight game and it finally went to penalites. Portgual missed two of their first three penalities and then we missed two, but we won it in suddent death. We battered Uruguay in the quarters and then it was Germany in the semis. To be fair Germany dominated the game, but we were more clincal and won 3 - 2. We faced Netherlands in the final, the team we'd beaten twice at the Euros. But that's where the story ended. We'd been riding our luck in the last few games, and Netherlands deservedly won 3 - 1. 

Argentina - Copa America - 2052

Following the World Cup, we needed to go to the Copa America as this was one of the two competitions we still needed to win. I wasn't confident going in to the 2052 Copa America. Argentina had one world class striker and midfielder but nothing beyond that, Brazil looked to have a really good team. We had the easy half of the group stage, with most of the bigger teams in the other group. We eased past Uruguay, USA, Paraguay, Bolivia and Chile, only dropping points in 1 game and scoring 17 goals. Meanwhile, the other group was a slugfest. On the last match day, Ecuador scored a 94th minute winner against Brazil to knock them out. I started to believe. We faced a very good Colombina side in the quarters but brushed them aside 4 - 0. Then, in the semis, Uruguay battered us for 45 minutes but couldn't scored, before running out of steam and we scored 3 goals quickly after the break. In the final, Mexico went 1 - 0 up after 2 minutes, but we scored two back before half time. In the 88th minute they had 3 clear cut chances to score but our keeper pulled off 3 miraculous saves. We did it. 

Challenge Update

With just the World Cup to win to complete the challenge, we faced a big dilemma. We applied for a number of international jobs and Belgium made an offer. The Belgium team we'd won the Euros and reached the World Cup final with. I thought the team would be past it, but their best players will be 27 - 30 by the next World Cup and they have yet more talent coming through. I took the plunge and we will go to the 2054 with Belgium.  

[leyrtj]

Belgium - World Cup - 2054

Too devastated to write a proper update. Lost in the final.....again. We were dominant throughout but came up against a strong Spain team who went 2 - 0 early. Gutted. 

But we will try again (again). We staying with Belgium. Their squad will be slightly on the old side for the World Cup in 4 years, but there's also so much talent coming through - 11 young players with 4.5 star potential or more. Just hope we don't get fired after the Euros.

[leyrtj]

On 04/06/2023 at 16:11, darren1983 said:

2033 Season Review - Atlanta United

 

After the double last season the focus this year would be on the Champions League, to do so I needed to add a couple extra players to my squad, I was helped by 2 of my foreign players taking up green cards freeing up a couple of international slots so i did what did last year and raided my new favourite country in this save - Serbia! We added CB Marko Popovic for 1.2m and CM Zoran Ilic for 1.8m. We added depth with a couple players from the draft and went into the new season with, what I felt, was a squad capable of competing on all fronts.

Having topped our group we started in the second round of the Champions League with a game against Chivas. A 4-0 win in Mexico was followed up with a 3-1 win at home for us to progress, we then faced MLS side Nashville and another 4-0 first leg win (this time at home) meant the 1-1 draw away meant nothing. In the Semi finals we faced defending Champions America from Mexico. a tough 0-0 draw in Mexico (where they should have won) meant for a nervy second leg. 2 second half goals saw us through 3-1. The final was against Mexican side At. San Luis and we went into this game with not fit striker, and 2 of our first choice midfield 3 unable to play more than 30 minutes. I was worried. I shouldn't have been as we smashed them 6-2! No Idea where this came from. In this seasons Champions League I messed up the group stage by rotating too much, finishing 3rd meaning I had to win 2 playoff games to keep the club in it, we did so but it was unneeded stress

I stuck around after winning as we had the Club World Cup upcoming and there was no interesting jobs anyway. In the Club World Cup we somehow managed to win our group by beating Flamengo and AC Milan before losing to real Madrid 3-1 with 2 late goals in extra time just 48 hours after our game with Milan. My team were dead for this game.

I probably should have quit there but with no jobs going I thought I'd play out the season and see what comes up. We managed to retain the Eastern Conference, the Supporters Shield and then the MLS Cup but in the US Cup we lost in the final. This season was crazy as we played 64 games and while going in I felt our squad could cope the injuries we suffered really hurt us. We lost last years main man up top Mitrovic for 4 months in the early part of the season, then when he came back he took a while to find form and just as he did he missed a lot of the run in with another 6 week lay off. We also lost main CB Jakovic for 3 months in the middle of the season. Playing 2 or 3 times a week for the best part of 5 months was insane. So I will be resigning from Atlanta now to focus on South Korea while waiting for a new club job.

Speaking of South Korea we won our group (just about after my trying out some young players almost cost us by losing 3-1 away to Syria) meaning we qualified for this summers World Cup. Need to do well enough in that not to be fired before the Asian Championship in 12 months time.

Career Overveiw

Year		Club			League	Position	Nation			Notes & Achievements 

2022/23		Polokwane City		NFD	 11th 		South Africa		Took over with 9 games left of the season
2023/24		Polokwane City		NFD	1st 		South Africa		Completed first coaching badge
2024/25		SuperSport United	PL	1st 		South Africa		Won Nedbank Cup and completed second coaching badge
2025/26		SuperSport United	PL	1st 		South Africa		Won Champions League and completed third coaching badge
2026		Daegu			KL	4th		South Korea		Took over with 8 games to go
2027		Daegu			KL	1st 		South Korea		Won the FA Cup
2028		Daegu			KL	1st 		South Korea 		Won Asian Champions League. Completed B licence. Started on A licence.
2028/29		FC Nordsjaelland	SL	4th		Denmark			Cup runners up
2029/30		FC Nordsjaelland	SL	2nd 		Denmark			Won the cup
2030/31		FC Nordsjaelland	SL	1st 		Denmark			Retained the cup, started final coaching badge
2031		Atlanta Utd		MLS	8th 		USA
2032		Atlanta Utd		MLS	1st 		USA			Won the Open Cup, finished all coaching badges
2033		Atlanta United		MLS	1st 		USA			Won NACL, runners up in the cup

Year		Country			Ranking		Notes & Achievements
2025		Algeria			26th 		Qualified for World Cup
2026		Algeria			26th		
2027		Algeria			15th		Won Cup of Nations
2028		USA			12th 
2029		USA			11th 		Gold Cup Winners
2031		South Korea		35th 
2032		South Korea		36th 		Won the EAFF Championship
2033		South Korea		34th 		Qualified for the World Cup

Challenge Progress

Club
 4/10 top domestic leagues – South Africa 2025 (SuperSport United), South Korea 2027 (Daegu) Norway 2031 (Nordjaelland) United States 2032 (Atlanta Utd)
 4/10 domestic cups – South Africa 2025 (SuperSport United), South Korea 2027 (Daegu), Denmark 2030 (Nordsjaelland) United States 2032 (Atlanta Utd)
 3/5 club continental championships – Africa 2026 (SuperSport), Asia 2028 (Daegu), North America 2033 (Atlanta United)
 0/1 club world championship 

International
 2/5 continental tournaments – Africa 2027 (Algeria), North America 2029 (USA)
 0/1 world tournaments

 

Nice update. I've always found the World Club Cup one of the hardest to win. As you say you can sometimes have 48 hours between games, and it's before pre-season so you're players are match fit either. 

[darren1983]

2 hours ago, leyrtj said:

Nice update. I've always found the World Club Cup one of the hardest to win. As you say you can sometimes have 48 hours between games, and it's before pre-season so you're players are match fit either. 

Cheer. Yeah can be brutal, never likely to win it with a side outside of Europe or South America but the game really doesn't help you at times. Like in this one we didn't know till after our last group game if we had qualified for the enxt round, which was 24 hours later, so didn't even have a chance to rotate or rest players with the next game in mind. 

[darren1983]

World Cup 2034 Review. South Korea

Group Stage

Uruguay 0-3 South Korea - A storming to start to our campaign as we cruised our hardest game. 2 goals in a 5 minute spell halfway through the first half had as leading and then a late goal rounded it off

South Korea 1-3 Romania - a shocking performance from us. We took the lead but it was our game when our defence just didn't turn up, we made them look world class and the defeat left us worried about making it through

Second Round (If Applicable)

Spoiler

South Korea 1-1p Denmark - we did make it through and our reward was Denmark (who would finish 3rd in the end) and we took an early lead before Denmark got level with 20 minutes to go. Extra time was pretty dull as neither side did much so to pens it was. Both sides missed their first but then the next 11 were all scored before our RB stepped up and saw his saved. Annoying but was nice to take such a good side to the limit

Third Round (If Applicable)

Quarter Finals (If Applicable)

Semi Finals (If Applicable)

Final/third place playoff (If Applicable)

Aftermath 

Very weird. The target was to get to the second round, which we did, but the press reports were all about what a disaster the tournament was. My captain even resigned as an apology to the fans but the board were happy and I didn't get the sack? Like I say, strange. However I did keep my job and the target is still the Asian Cup in 6 months time. Hoping as well for a club job soon as well. 

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's 2044 France Euro Report

 

My break from the challenge didn’t last long.

Still no new club job though. I have Germany, Scotland and Portugal loaded, but absolutely nothing suitable came up all 43/44 season.

So France.

Despite being ranked 3^rd on the world, we only have to reach the QF for me to keep my job, which should be doable.

We lost the Nations league final on penalties. Frustrating because Holland finished the match with only 9 players, but we couldn’t break them down. It shows that we have a chance of winning this though.

Just to make myself miserable I counted up how many major tournaments this will make. 13, (of which I’ve won 3, hardly impressive).

Group Stage

Spoiler

France        3-0    Kosovo

France        3-1    Bosnia & Herzegovina

France        2-0    Denmark

Next up is Wales who drew all 3 group matches, but two of them were against spain and Italy, so no pushovers.

 

Second Round

Spoiler

France        4-3    Wales

From early in the latch, always in the lead, but they kept pegging us back in a stressful match.

Norway next.

Quarter Final

Spoiler

France        4-2    Norway

I can’t see us winning the championship this way, but on the other hand we are the only team with a 100% record.

Hosts England next. Probably effectively the final.

Semi Final

Spoiler

France        1-3    England

Awarded a penalty after just 10 seconds, we missed it. Shortly afterwards we had a player issued a straight red.

I think this is the 3^rd time in this save I’ve gone out at an international semi because of a straight red.

Final

Spoiler

N/A

 

After The Tournament

Spoiler

No danger of being sacked. I am considering applying for the vacant Spain job, but it’s hard to say whether they’re a better prospect than France so I might as well stick; not that Spain would offer me a job again anyway. Thing is, all my best French players are in their thirties. World Cup in 2 years maybe. In 4 years time I think I have a problem.

Domestic
Season	Team		Division	Position	MVP			Notes										
22/23	Black Leopards	S African L1	5th					Took over with 8 matches to go.Edge of relegation to edge of promotion.
23/24	Black Leopards	S African L1	1st		Kiyaam Bull 		SA Cup Q/F
24/25	Kaizer Chiefs	S African Prem	10th					Took over with 6 matches to go. Won SA Cup.
25/26	Kaizer Chiefs	S African Prem	2nd		Sphesihle Maduna	Won Confederations Cup.
26/27	Kaizer Chiefs	S African Prem	1st		Mduduzi Shabalala	League, ACL, SA Cup, S8 Cup.
2027	Atlas		Mex 1st Ap	12th					Took over after 8 matches. Lost in Playoffs Prelim
2028	Atlas		Mex 1st Cl	2nd		Connor Buck		Lost in final.
2028	Atlas		Mex 1st Ap	2nd					Lost in S/F
2029	Atlas		Mex 1st Cl	2nd		Kevin Castañeda	Lost in final.
2029	Atlas		Mex 1st Ap	3rd					Left before playoffs
2029	Pumas		Mex 1st Ap	n/a					Lost immediately in playoff plelim.
2030	Pumas		Mex 1st Cl	2nd					Won league. Lost Champions League on penalties
2030	Pumas		Mex 1st Ap	1st					League champs
2031	Pumas		Mex 1st Cl	1st		Hugo Moreno		League / NACL double.
2032	Suwon		Kor L1		2nd		Johnny			Took over in 8th with 21 matches to go.
2033	Suwon		Kor L1		1st		Johnny			League, Cup, ACL
2035	Gremio		Bra L1		11th					Took over midseason. Won Copa Sudamerica to qualify for Copa Lib.
2036	Gremio		Bra L1		1st		Kluvert Ako Oru	League, Copa Lib S/F
2037	Flamengo	Bra L1		2nd		Endrick			Club World Cup, Brazilian Cup, Libertadores. Missed out on league by 1 point.
39/40	Man Utd		Eng Prem	1st		Diego Esedin		League, Carabao Cup, Champions League
40/41	Inter		It Ser A	1st		Dániel Kis			League and Cup double, plus Champions League.
41/42	Real Madrid 	Sp La Liga	1st		José Antonio Palacios	League / Cup double.
42/43	PSG		Fr Ligue 1		1st		Luis Ferro			League

International
Year			Team			Achievements
23-24			Fiji			Oceania Cup S/F
24			Morocco U23		Olympics Losing Finalists
26-27			Iran			Asian Nations Cup losing finalists
27-31			Morocco			ACON S/F
						WC R2
						ACON winners.
31-32			Belgium			Euro S/F
32-34			Mexico			Gold Cup, sacked after World Cup
35-36			Australia
36-40			Brazil			WC S/F, Copa America
40-42			Spain			WC S/F. Sacked.
42-			France			Euros SF


Challenge Progress 23/32

Club
 8/10 top domestic leagues 		(S Africa, Mexico, S Korea, Brazil, England, Italy, Spain, France)			
 6/10 domestic cups 			(S Africa, S Korea, Brazil, England, Italy, Spain)							
 5/5 club continental championships	(Africa, N America, Asia, S America, Europe)		
 1/1 club world championship

International
 3/5 continental tournaments 		(Africa, N America, S America)	
 0/1 World Cup		

 

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's 2044/5 Bayer Leverkusen Report

 

I took over midseason. After 20 matches Leverkusen were in 11^th.

With 4 matches to go we were in 7^th and a Euro qualifying position. Unfortunately those last matches were against 4 of the top 5 sides including Bayern, and we ended up in only 9^th.

However, one of the reasons I took the job was because the club were still in the cup. We made it all the way to the final, where we were thrashed by Bayern. There’s a huge gulf between us and them, but unfortunately the Bayern manager will leave them only when he retires, or when I manage to wrestle the title off them. I’m not confident that will be next season.

I hoped that getting to the final would mean that we got the Europa League slot as the runner up, but no.

The financial situation is not great, and not helped by failing to qualify for Europe.

Not going to do any ratings as I was in charge for less than half the season.

I suppose if a top job came up in Portugal or Scotland I would jump ship.

Domestic
Season	Team		Division	Position	MVP			Notes										
22/23	Black Leopards	S African L1	5th					Took over with 8 matches to go.Edge of relegation to edge of promotion.
23/24	Black Leopards	S African L1	1st		Kiyaam Bull 		SA Cup Q/F
24/25	Kaizer Chiefs	S African Prem	10th					Took over with 6 matches to go. Won SA Cup.
25/26	Kaizer Chiefs	S African Prem	2nd		Sphesihle Maduna	Won Confederations Cup.
26/27	Kaizer Chiefs	S African Prem	1st		Mduduzi Shabalala	League, ACL, SA Cup, S8 Cup.
2027	Atlas		Mex 1st Ap	12th					Took over after 8 matches. Lost in Playoffs Prelim
2028	Atlas		Mex 1st Cl	2nd		Connor Buck		Lost in final.
2028	Atlas		Mex 1st Ap	2nd					Lost in S/F
2029	Atlas		Mex 1st Cl	2nd		Kevin Castañeda	Lost in final.
2029	Atlas		Mex 1st Ap	3rd					Left before playoffs
2029	Pumas		Mex 1st Ap	n/a					Lost immediately in playoff plelim.
2030	Pumas		Mex 1st Cl	2nd					Won league. Lost Champions League on penalties
2030	Pumas		Mex 1st Ap	1st					League champs
2031	Pumas		Mex 1st Cl	1st		Hugo Moreno		League / NACL double.
2032	Suwon		Kor L1		2nd		Johnny			Took over in 8th with 21 matches to go.
2033	Suwon		Kor L1		1st		Johnny			League, Cup, ACL
2035	Gremio		Bra L1		11th					Took over midseason. Won Copa Sudamerica to qualify for Copa Lib.
2036	Gremio		Bra L1		1st		Kluvert Ako Oru	League, Copa Lib S/F
2037	Flamengo	Bra L1		2nd		Endrick			Club World Cup, Brazilian Cup, Libertadores. Missed out on league by 1 point.
39/40	Man Utd		Eng Prem	1st		Diego Esedin		League, Carabao Cup, Champions League
40/41	Inter		It Ser A	1st		Dániel Kis			League and Cup double, plus Champions League.
41/42	Real Madrid 	Sp La Liga	1st		José Antonio Palacios	League / Cup double.
42/43	PSG		Fr Ligue 1	1st		Luis Ferro			League
44/45	Leverkusen	Ger Bund	9th

International
Year			Team			Achievements
23-24			Fiji			Oceania Cup S/F
24			Morocco U23		Olympics Losing Finalists
26-27			Iran			Asian Nations Cup losing finalists
27-31			Morocco			ACON S/F
						WC R2
						ACON winners.
31-32			Belgium			Euro S/F
32-34			Mexico			Gold Cup, sacked after World Cup
35-36			Australia
36-40			Brazil			WC S/F, Copa America
40-42			Spain			WC S/F. Sacked.
42-			France			Euros SF


Challenge Progress 23/32

Club
 8/10 top domestic leagues 		(S Africa, Mexico, S Korea, Brazil, England, Italy, Spain, France)			
 6/10 domestic cups 			(S Africa, S Korea, Brazil, England, Italy, Spain)							
 5/5 club continental championships	(Africa, N America, Asia, S America, Europe)		
 1/1 club world championship

International
 3/5 continental tournaments 		(Africa, N America, S America)	
 0/1 World Cup		

 

[SkiIIs]

Season 2041/42 - Lyon

First season at Lyon was one that i didnt have much expectation. Firstly because of the talented and filthy reach team from the capital, but also because the team lacked the talent to be able to challenge. The team consist of two really good players, one up front and the other in the middle of the park, but the defence and keeper were bang on average so I needed to overhaul the team a bit. With a transfer budget of 40m, that gave me some options but due to the amount of players that needed changing, i had to be smart.  Brought in some loans and some foreign talent on the cheap, whilst maintaining the 4 non euro players in tact. 

We started the season to my surprise really strong spending from rounds 7 to 17 in top spot. There were lots of 1 - 0 wins in that period so I had suspected we would not be able to ride our luck the whole season.   And in the end i was right. We crumbled a little towards the end but the fact that PSG only conceded 13 goals all year, 2 of them from us in 1 game meant they werent going to drop too many games. 

In the Cup we made it all the way to the final where we would play against Rennes who had suddenly found some form who had won their last 9 games in all competitions. We already had knocked out PSG in the Eleventh round (round before quarters) so i felt like we deserved the trophy.  But we all know that FM doesnt work like that and hence we conceded a 116th goal to lose the final in extra time 1 - 0. 

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's 2045/46 Bayer Leverkusen Report

 

We challenged for the title, but in the end Dortmund put an end to Bayern’s run of 11 straight titles. Bayern finished 2^nd, us 3^rd. Hopefully the Bayern manager will be sacked, but I’ve managed to improve things at Leverkusen on and off the field, so I should have a decent shot at the title next season. Surprisingly the club have never won the league so kind if want to be the one to make that happen having invested a season and a half already.

The really annoying thing was going out of the cup at the Q/F stage, as Bayern and Dortmund also crashed out at the same time. We were unlucky to lose that match, and would probably have won the cup otherwise.

We’re moving into a new stadium over the summer, paying for which is not helping our financial situation, but hopefully will start to pay for itself a bit.

As we weren’t in Europe at all, I slashed the size of the squad, but should have the money to bring in reinforcements over the summer. I’ve already secured a 35 year old left winger, Jose Gomez, but 15 years ago I signed him as a 20 year old for Pumas and we won league, cup, Champions league and (with Mexico) a Gold Cup together. It will be fun to link up with him again at the end of his career.

Top Goalscorer – Kieran Rees – 28

I dropped Rees halfway through the season, but he still scored one more goal than his successor. He’s not a bad player at all. Averaged a goal every 62 minutes, but he’s a backup now. With no continental football we only played 38 matches anyway, so this was never going to be a massive total.

Highest Average Rating (minimum 10 matches played) Maximiliano Páez – 7.63

My current starting striker. If he avoids injury he might score quite a few next season.

Man of The Match – Robert Fichtelmann – 7

An attacking midfielder, or at least that’s where I play him out of position.

MVP – Nobody really stands out.

Edit- Turns out that Maximiliano Páez was the league top scorer, despite only starting 18 of the 24 matches, so I'll give it to him

Next up is the World Cup.

Domestic
Season	Team		Division	Position	MVP			Notes										
22/23	Black Leopards	S African L1	5th					Took over with 8 matches to go.Edge of relegation to edge of promotion.
23/24	Black Leopards	S African L1	1st		Kiyaam Bull 		SA Cup Q/F
24/25	Kaizer Chiefs	S African Prem	10th					Took over with 6 matches to go. Won SA Cup.
25/26	Kaizer Chiefs	S African Prem	2nd		Sphesihle Maduna	Won Confederations Cup.
26/27	Kaizer Chiefs	S African Prem	1st		Mduduzi Shabalala	League, ACL, SA Cup, S8 Cup.
2027	Atlas		Mex 1st Ap	12th					Took over after 8 matches. Lost in Playoffs Prelim
2028	Atlas		Mex 1st Cl	2nd		Connor Buck		Lost in final.
2028	Atlas		Mex 1st Ap	2nd					Lost in S/F
2029	Atlas		Mex 1st Cl	2nd		Kevin Castañeda	Lost in final.
2029	Atlas		Mex 1st Ap	3rd					Left before playoffs
2029	Pumas		Mex 1st Ap	n/a					Lost immediately in playoff plelim.
2030	Pumas		Mex 1st Cl	2nd					Won league. Lost Champions League on penalties
2030	Pumas		Mex 1st Ap	1st					League champs
2031	Pumas		Mex 1st Cl	1st		Hugo Moreno		League / NACL double.
2032	Suwon		Kor L1		2nd		Johnny			Took over in 8th with 21 matches to go.
2033	Suwon		Kor L1		1st		Johnny			League, Cup, ACL
2035	Gremio		Bra L1		11th					Took over midseason. Won Copa Sudamerica to qualify for Copa Lib.
2036	Gremio		Bra L1		1st		Kluvert Ako Oru	League, Copa Lib S/F
2037	Flamengo	Bra L1		2nd		Endrick			Club World Cup, Brazilian Cup, Libertadores. Missed out on league by 1 point.
39/40	Man Utd		Eng Prem	1st		Diego Esedin		League, Carabao Cup, Champions League
40/41	Inter		It Ser A	1st		Dániel Kis		League and Cup double, plus Champions League.
41/42	Real Madrid 	Sp La Liga	1st		José Antonio Palacios	League / Cup double.
42/43	PSG		Fr Ligue 1	1st		Luis Ferro		League
44/45	Leverkusen	Ger Bund	9th					Took over after 20 matches in 11th. Losing cup finalists.
45/46	leverkusen	Ger Bund	3rd					Cup Q/F.

International
Year			Team			Achievements
23-24			Fiji			Oceania Cup S/F
24			Morocco U23		Olympics Losing Finalists
26-27			Iran			Asian Nations Cup losing finalists
27-31			Morocco			ACON S/F
						WC R2
						ACON winners.
31-32			Belgium			Euro S/F
32-34			Mexico			Gold Cup, sacked after World Cup
35-36			Australia
36-40			Brazil			WC S/F, Copa America
40-42			Spain			WC S/F. Sacked.
42-			France			Euros SF, 2 Nations League R/U


Challenge Progress 23/32

Club
 8/10 top domestic leagues 		(S Africa, Mexico, S Korea, Brazil, England, Italy, Spain, France)			
 6/10 domestic cups 			(S Africa, S Korea, Brazil, England, Italy, Spain)							
 5/5 club continental championships	(Africa, N America, Asia, S America, Europe)		
 1/1 club world championship

International
 3/5 continental tournaments 		(Africa, N America, S America)	
 0/1 World Cup		

 

Edited June 14, 2023 by vikeologist

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's 2046 France World Cup Report

So World Cup attempt number 5.

We only topped our qualifying group on goal difference, although it wasn’t that worrying. Romania were somewhat lucky to get 2 draws against us, and we won all the other matches.

We’ve also lost in the final of the last 2 Nations Leagues finals on penalties, which is a bit more worrying. I have 2 strikers in my squad who are just there in the event of penalties, but only 2 of my still poor crop of top 7 penalty takers are starters.

The squad is quite inexperienced as I’ve had to bring in younger players to replace those who’ve gone over the hill. We have very few out and out stars. We also have nobody in the latest NxGn, no one labelled a wonderkid and only 10 players labelled promising.

Easy group, including one of my old teams, Morocco.

Oh, and we have to reach the Q/F to save my job, which given that we’re ranked 3 in the world seems generous of the France FA. We might not be the best team in the world, but the humility of the FA is quite helpful.

 

Group Stage

Spoiler

France        3-0    New Zealand

This result looked a lot more respectable when New Zealand beat Morocco 1-0 in the middle group match.

France        3-1    Morocco

Next up is Ivory Coast, who we should be able to crush.

Second Round

Spoiler

France        3-0    Ivory Coast

South Korea next. No pushovers, and 12 years ago they beat my Mexico side in the World Cup and consigned me to the sack. Belated revenge then.

Third Round

Spoiler

France        9-1    South Korea

Was trying to run the score up. In fact brought on lots of players who needed a run out and played defensively.

But now it gets difficult. Argentina next.

After all, I’m here to win, not just keep my job.

Quarter Final

Spoiler

France        1-3    Argentina

I thought we were unlucky to lose.

Semi Final

Spoiler

 

Final / 3^rd Place Playoff

Spoiler

 

After The Tournament

Spoiler

My job will be safe, but maybe I should look elsewhere. There are nations with better players. Not getting sacked when I fail to win a tournament is a definite plus though.

 

[numero uno gunner]

Quick question:

I'm playing on FM22, and struggling to get any interviews at all. I've got my National A licence, I've won the league, cup and African Champions League with Sundowns, and I'm managing Ghana (4 wins and a draw from 5 games in charge). I wasn't getting any interviews whilst still managing Sundowns even though we were top of the league and cruising through the Champions League, so I chose to leave, but that hasn't helped either. Any ideas?

[vikeologist]

7 hours ago, numero uno gunner said:

Quick question:

I'm playing on FM22, and struggling to get any interviews at all. I've got my National A licence, I've won the league, cup and African Champions League with Sundowns, and I'm managing Ghana (4 wins and a draw from 5 games in charge). I wasn't getting any interviews whilst still managing Sundowns even though we were top of the league and cruising through the Champions League, so I chose to leave, but that hasn't helped either. Any ideas?

What leagues do you have loaded?

In previous versions it's more difficult to get interviews when you also have an international job.

[SkiIIs]

2042 World Cup - France

My first tournament with France was one i was looking forward to (i dont consider the Nations League thingy as a proper tournament).  I really need to make up ground on the international front as after managing for 20 years, ive only won 1 international tournament.  Confidence within the team is pretty good as after losing my first game in charge to England, ive since gone unbeaten winning all the qualifier games.  The team is pretty solid but lacks strength in wingers which is the key to my tactic.

Group games were against New Zealand and Morocco where we beat them 5 - 0 and 2 - 1 respectively. The game against Morocco we had 35 shots and their goal came in the 90th minute so the scoreline doesnt really paint the picture well.   After topping the group, we have a tough knockout match against Mexico next.

Second Round

Spoiler

Mexico 2 - 1 and that ends the tournament and my tenure with France!

Third Round (if applicable)

Spoiler

 

QF (if applicable)

Spoiler

 

SF (if applicable)

Spoiler

 

Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

 

 

[SkiIIs]

Season 2042/43 - Lyon

The season started off similar to last year, really pushing PSG for the top spot.  As like last season, we found ourselves first at the halfway point but this time it did feel much deserved.  The games we were winning, we were dominating and could score goals with much more ease.  It actually felt like a proper title challenge. The question would be whether it was sustainable to stay ahead of PSG who again were not leaking many goals at all. Unfortuantely, the answer was no!   We had a slight blip after a strong 10 game winning streak where we lost 2 and drew 2 in the space of 5 games which pretty much make it mission impossible. PSG did drop a couple of points after that but it wasnt enough for us to catch them and hence finished only 4 points behind them.

It wasnt all lost this season as we managed to win the French Cup which was really aided by avoiding PSG and also having to play against division 2 teams in the QF and SF. We then pummeled Moncaso in the final. 

On the international scene, there really isnt anything happening as I was unemployed for the full year.  I had applied for the Senegal role after the world cup but they decided to go managerless into the AFCON and the role is still vacant.  Has to be some sort of weird bug as i didnt even get an interview or a rejection.   Still waiting for any job to come up at this point as im very far behind now

Edited June 27, 2023 by SkiIIs

[SkiIIs]

Season 2043/44 - Lyon

My third season with Lyon and this is the year I had predicted before taking the job that I would challenge/win the title.  In order for that to happen, we'd need two things.  A slip up by PSG and to continue on the good projectory over the past couple seasons. Well the first of the two happened as PSG had a poor season and ended up finishing 4th place and ended up sacking Arteta (who if you remember was hired instead of me).  But unfortunately, we slipped up at the start of the year and couldnt really get into gear to the midway point where we went the last 21 games undefeated.  This helped us get to first place with a 3 point gap to the others with only 3 games to go and with a much better goal difference than the others.  We then went to Toulouse away and really stank it up.  We were outplayed, only had 38% possession, they doubled our shots and needed an 89th minute equaliser to get something out of the game. Not sure where this result really came from.  Knowing that we then had Monaco at home next, we couldnt afford to drop any points as we were first by goal difference. Unfortunatley we could only muster a 2 - 2 draw having to come behind twice.  Going into the last game we needed results to go our way, and they almost did until this:

This has to be one of the all time best FM's ever.  Rennes won the game with the last kick of the game to win the title ala Aguero all those years ago for Man City.

 

The consolation of the season was winning the French Cup again, this time against PSG in penalties.  Not sure if this game contributed to our poor game against Toulouse and/or the next draw against Monaco as it was split in the middle of those two draws.   But Arteta got the sack and I might have a little cheeky dabble even if i can smell the finish line with Lyon 

[SkiIIs]

I couldnt help myself.  World Club Cup is on in a couple years so i want to give that a crack given PSG finished runners up last season

[SkiIIs]

Finally got an international job, World Cup in two years

[ANGL]

After the last announcement, will it be okay to carry on with the save when FM24 is out? @vikeologist

There is no way I can complete the challenge before FM24 is out, but if I can carry on with the save I will totally keep playing it

[vikeologist]

6 hours ago, ANGL said:

After the last announcement, will it be okay to carry on with the save when FM24 is out? @vikeologist

There is no way I can complete the challenge before FM24 is out, but if I can carry on with the save I will totally keep playing it

Sure. I might be in the same boat, although I'm not sure how I'll feel about being close to completion and having my tactics suddenly stop working with a new version. The announcement has actually spurred me into resuming the challenge, although it hasn't taken me long to remember why the situation with both club and country made me want to take a break.

[SkiIIs]

Season 2043/44 - PSG

This game is that much easier when you have the funds and squad at your disposal.  In short, we walked in the league and every other tournament we played in and completed the treble.  We wont the game with a fair few matches in hand so started playing the second team for league matches and tried to win the champions league and cup which we did.

I got my years mixed up with the World Club Cup which ended up being post the season. My first time entering this competition. Unfortunately we were knocked out in penalties against liverpool in the quarters so that was not fun! Consolation is that they ended up going on to win the comp.

And with that, i think i will resign and look to take on a role with Dortmund which just came up.  Hopefully i get it. 

Edited July 6, 2023 by SkiIIs

[SkiIIs]

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's 2046/47 Bayer Leverkusen (and France) Report

 

 

 

About a quarter of the way into the season Bayern had already opened up a 10 point lead, and we had crashed out of the cup in an early round. This caused me to take a break from the save.

Eventually I skulked back and we inflicted Bayern’s only league defeat (we thrashed them) and basically maintained the gap finishing 2^nd, but 14 points adrift.

We reached the Champions league Q/F and finally have some transfer funds, but I’m probably going to spend the whole £45 million on a left winger we had on loan for the second half of the season. We also have a free transfer left back coming in on a team high salary. It probably won’t be enough to see us overtake Bayern.

I’ve spent more than 2 seasons here with at least one more to come. If a better job came up over the summer, I’m not sure what I’d do. If it was the Bayern job of course I know exactly what I’d do, but Julian Nagelsmann is never leaving.

Top Goalscorer – Maximiliano Páez – 53

We set a league record for number of team goals with 100 in the 34 matches. I’ve had to offer Max a new contract because I was worried someone in the Champions League would meet his release clause.

Highest Average Rating (minimum 10 matches played) César Tedeschi – 7.74

Attacking midfielder. The goalmaker. Might have to offer him a new contract as well if anyone starts sniffing around.

Man of The Match – Maximiliano Páez - 12

MVP – César Tedeschi

Difficult choice between the two.

Nothing much happening with the French national team. Not many wonderkids coming through. We don’t have a single good goalie. I should have jumped ship after the World Cup. Should qualify for the Euros comfortably though.

Domestic
Season	Team		Division	Position	MVP			Notes										
22/23	Black Leopards	S African L1	5th					Took over with 8 matches to go.Edge of relegation to edge of promotion.
23/24	Black Leopards	S African L1	1st		Kiyaam Bull 		SA Cup Q/F
24/25	Kaizer Chiefs	S African Prem	10th					Took over with 6 matches to go. Won SA Cup.
25/26	Kaizer Chiefs	S African Prem	2nd		Sphesihle Maduna	Won Confederations Cup.
26/27	Kaizer Chiefs	S African Prem	1st		Mduduzi Shabalala	League, ACL, SA Cup, S8 Cup.
2027	Atlas		Mex 1st Ap	12th					Took over after 8 matches. Lost in Playoffs Prelim
2028	Atlas		Mex 1st Cl	2nd		Connor Buck		Lost in final.
2028	Atlas		Mex 1st Ap	2nd					Lost in S/F
2029	Atlas		Mex 1st Cl	2nd		Kevin Castañeda	Lost in final.
2029	Atlas		Mex 1st Ap	3rd					Left before playoffs
2029	Pumas		Mex 1st Ap	n/a					Lost immediately in playoff plelim.
2030	Pumas		Mex 1st Cl	2nd					Won league. Lost Champions League on penalties
2030	Pumas		Mex 1st Ap	1st					League champs
2031	Pumas		Mex 1st Cl	1st		Hugo Moreno		League / NACL double.
2032	Suwon		Kor L1		2nd		Johnny			Took over in 8th with 21 matches to go.
2033	Suwon		Kor L1		1st		Johnny			League, Cup, ACL
2035	Gremio		Bra L1		11th					Took over midseason. Won Copa Sudamerica to qualify for Copa Lib.
2036	Gremio		Bra L1		1st		Kluvert Ako Oru	League, Copa Lib S/F
2037	Flamengo	Bra L1		2nd		Endrick			Club World Cup, Brazilian Cup, Libertadores. Missed out on league by 1 point.
39/40	Man Utd		Eng Prem	1st		Diego Esedin		League, Carabao Cup, Champions League
40/41	Inter		It Ser A	1st		Dániel Kis		League and Cup double, plus Champions League.
41/42	Real Madrid 	Sp La Liga	1st		José Antonio Palacios	League / Cup double.
42/43	PSG		Fr Ligue 1	1st		Luis Ferro		League
44/45	Leverkusen	Ger Bund	9th					Took over after 20 matches in 11th. Losing cup finalists.
45/46	Leverkusen	Ger Bund	3rd		Maximiliano Páez	Cup Q/F.
46/47	Leverkusen	Ger Bund	2nd		César Tedeschi		CL Q/F. Niever close in the league.

International
Year			Team			Achievements
23-24			Fiji			Oceania Cup S/F
24			Morocco U23		Olympics Losing Finalists
26-27			Iran			Asian Nations Cup losing finalists
27-31			Morocco			ACON S/F
						WC R2
						ACON winners.
31-32			Belgium			Euro S/F
32-34			Mexico			Gold Cup, sacked after World Cup
35-36			Australia
36-40			Brazil			WC S/F, Copa America
40-42			Spain			WC S/F. Sacked.
42-			France			Euros SF, 2 Nations League R/U


Challenge Progress 23/32

Club
 8/10 top domestic leagues 		(S Africa, Mexico, S Korea, Brazil, England, Italy, Spain, France)			
 6/10 domestic cups 			(S Africa, S Korea, Brazil, England, Italy, Spain)							
 5/5 club continental championships	(Africa, N America, Asia, S America, Europe)		
 1/1 club world championship

International
 3/5 continental tournaments 		(Africa, N America, S America)	
 0/1 World Cup		

 

 

Edited July 8, 2023 by vikeologist

[Neo_Geo]

I've been mainly in the Youth Academy Challenge in the last year or so playing the game and it's time for something different where I experience new countries and get back to scouting and signing players again (so I'm going to be rusty to say the least!)

Here is my manager profile

For those that have seen my posts in the Youth Academy Challenge you'll know I like to use infographics to summarise the save. For this challenge its a split between details of the current club and the progress checklist, it'll probably change a bit over the course of the challenge as I figure out what I want to share about the current club or the save.

[SkiIIs]

On 12/07/2023 at 19:15, Neo_Geo said:

I've been mainly in the Youth Academy Challenge in the last year or so playing the game and it's time for something different where I experience new countries and get back to scouting and signing players again (so I'm going to be rusty to say the least!)

Here is my manager profile

For those that have seen my posts in the Youth Academy Challenge you'll know I like to use infographics to summarise the save. For this challenge its a split between details of the current club and the progress checklist, it'll probably change a bit over the course of the challenge as I figure out what I want to share about the current club or the save.

that sounds about right, i tend to switch between the youth academy and this challenge as you tend to miss certain aspects of game in both challenges...  

Someone should come up with a challenge that combines the two...  ie. need to win each continental club competition, must start with a non playable team (each time you move continents it's a non playable team the year before) and can buy players up to a certain age like 18 or 17...   just a rough thought that popped into my head

 

[Neo_Geo]

So it's a little alien to me with regards when to post updates in this challenge however I have had my first job and also left it so it seemed like a good time to summarise my time there (and I will need to keep it brief as this is a long challenge) and detail whats next:

So I took over at Indonesia League Two club Persegres Gresik United for the first appointment of the challenge.

The board wanted me to get into the play-offs (that required finishing in the top 2 of my group after 18 games) which we did as we topped the group with a 3 point gap for second place. It wasn't all smooth sailing however as initially my plan of a 3-4-3 was sucker punched by losing the top 2 current ability players in the squad (both strikers), one with a broken ankle (4 months) and the other with a damaged achilles tendon which resulted in the 34 year old retiring from football.....nice.

I opted to change from the 3-4-3 to a flat back 4 after signing the clubs only right back on loan (the right backs available at to me at the start weren't worth it and my strength was up top so I wanted to focus in outscoring opponents).

Having made the play-offs you are drawn against two teams from the other groups, play each other twice and the winner of the group plays in the final (where both teams are promoted) and the second place plays in the third place play-off (only the winner is promoted).

By this point we had gone from £500k in the black to around £150k in the red, so as far as my planning for this club was concerned it wasn't something I felt I could meaningfully take forward to try to win a major trophy or title (made the quarter final of the national cup) so it was about getting experience, getting 2 coaching badges and maybe get promotion.

I topped the play-off group in the last game beating the then leaders 3-0 after they had a man sent off (they had beaten me 4-1 in the first game), so we went off to the final match against Persekat which we won with an 88th minute winner from my replacement striker signing that I had signed 2 months earlier.

The board had FOUR separate cash injections at the end of the first season to try and help the club so at this point my mind was made up, I wasn't going to be able to challenge in a season to win the League One or the Indonesian Cup.

This is where I think this challenge is so different to the likes of the youth academy challenge in that if the club you are at currently has no further benefits to the save then you need to move on. The board wouldn't fund any further coaching badges given the financial position and like I said the league and cup seemed too far out of my reach to think I could come close to challenging......and there's 32 trophies to be won!

So when my contract expired I left the club as a 1 star reputation manager with a National B Licence and the following stats over my time at Gresik and I also made it into the Indonesian Hall of Fame in 10th place:

At this stage in the save I have the following nations:

• Indonesia
• Malaysia
• Australia
• South Africa
• Canada
• England
• Scotland
• Wales
• Northern Ireland

My thinking was either using a major nation lower league to get coaching badges or take a top division job in one of the lesser nations.....

Off to Malaysia it is after 4 months of being turned down for a lot of 2 star reputation jobs.

 

[SkiIIs]

Season 2045/46 - Borussia Dortmund

My first season at Dortmund was eventful to say the least.  I knew it was going to be a challenge given they finished 3rd last season behind Munich and RB, 15 points behind the winners. Bayern has won every single year since the save which makes it 33 years straight for them.  Dortmund have only finished runners up in 3 of those years so you can see how far they have fallen off in this save. 

Apart from 1 - 1- 1 start to the season (win over RB), we then went on to win the next 5 and by round 13 we were sitting atop the league. At this point i thought we would contend for the league but in all honesty i didnt think we would last the whole year as our depth falls away very quickly.

Then came a run like no other!  We picked up 3 points of the next available 27 in a horrid run that lead me to have a two separate meetings with the board to keep my job.  The supporters were protesting against me with a rating of F, the Board still had me at a D which in the end saved me.  In this horrid run we were also knocked out of the DFB Pokal albeit to Munich in extra time. At this point we had hit the low of 9th on the table. 

I somehow survived the chop (yes i was visiting the job board weekly in preparation) and then went on a 10 match winning streak, putting us back into champions league contention in third spot.  That run came to an end when we lost to Munich away in a tight game but by then we were safe in third and all but saved my Dortmund career.

Not sure what to make of the season, feels like we're not too far away as we can definitely dominate for long periods of the season, but something was just not right in that middle part of the season. Will try to bolster my full backs if i can as i feel thats where we're the weakest, but dont really have a load of cash to spend so will have to play it smart in the market.

Edited July 18, 2023 by SkiIIs

[vikeologist]

@SkiIIs 

I am finding it equally hard to dethrone Bayern. I did not expect to still be at Leverkusen after three and a half seasons, and it's gong to be at least four and a half.

Annoyingly, Dortmund did dethrone them my first full season, and we were close to doing it ourselves, but it was too soon, and that's the only time Bayern have faltered.

I knocked Dortmund out of the cup this season, and with their bad league position, i thought they might sack their manager. I wasn't going to apply for it. I'm determined to win with Leverkusen now, and Dortmund haven't sacked their manager.

But i could be here a while.

[SkiIIs]

11 hours ago, vikeologist said:

@SkiIIs 

I am finding it equally hard to dethrone Bayern. I did not expect to still be at Leverkusen after three and a half seasons, and it's gong to be at least four and a half.

Annoyingly, Dortmund did dethrone them my first full season, and we were close to doing it ourselves, but it was too soon, and that's the only time Bayern have faltered.

I knocked Dortmund out of the cup this season, and with their bad league position, i thought they might sack their manager. I wasn't going to apply for it. I'm determined to win with Leverkusen now, and Dortmund haven't sacked their manager.

But i could be here a while.

the fact that they drew 5 games and lost 4 in the season does give me hope, but the gulf is definitely real!

in hindsight, i should have had a crack at the Bundesliga earlier on in the challenge but yeah, it does look like a minimum 3 year stint here 

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's 2047/48 Bayer Leverkusen (and France) Report

We kept up with Bayern until Christmas, but dropped out of contention after the break. Even more annoyingly, we only reached the German Cup semifinal. Bayern weren’t unbeatable. We just weren’t good enough.

Will we be better next season? Our new stadium now has even more seats. We have a bit more money. Probably not enough to bring in the quality of players necessary to win the league, but you never know. Trying to bring in a few promising youngsters rather than blow my entire budget on one aging superstar as I normally do. I think my first team is pretty good. I just need better cover in a couple of positions.

Next up is the euros with France. Our results have been good, but I don’t think I have as many good players as other major nations, so if we don’t win I will probably look for something better.

Top Goalscorer – Maximiliano Páez – 43

He missed the start of the season, and I gave a young striker some chances later on. 77 minutes played per goal. However, I am bringing in an equally good striker over the summer, so I may rotate a bit to keep the new guy fit.

Highest Average Rating (minimum 10 matches played) Maximiliano Páez – 7.50

Man of The Match – Maximiliano Páez – 11

MVP – Maximiliano Páez

Not such a difficult choice this year.

Domestic
Season	Team		Division	Position	MVP			Notes										
22/23	Black Leopards	S African L1	5th					Took over with 8 matches to go.Edge of relegation to edge of promotion.
23/24	Black Leopards	S African L1	1st		Kiyaam Bull 		SA Cup Q/F
24/25	Kaizer Chiefs	S African Prem	10th					Took over with 6 matches to go. Won SA Cup.
25/26	Kaizer Chiefs	S African Prem	2nd		Sphesihle Maduna	Won Confederations Cup.
26/27	Kaizer Chiefs	S African Prem	1st		Mduduzi Shabalala	League, ACL, SA Cup, S8 Cup.
2027	Atlas		Mex 1st Ap	12th					Took over after 8 matches. Lost in Playoffs Prelim
2028	Atlas		Mex 1st Cl	2nd		Connor Buck		Lost in final.
2028	Atlas		Mex 1st Ap	2nd					Lost in S/F
2029	Atlas		Mex 1st Cl	2nd		Kevin Castañeda	Lost in final.
2029	Atlas		Mex 1st Ap	3rd					Left before playoffs
2029	Pumas		Mex 1st Ap	n/a					Lost immediately in playoff plelim.
2030	Pumas		Mex 1st Cl	2nd					Won league. Lost Champions League on penalties
2030	Pumas		Mex 1st Ap	1st					League champs
2031	Pumas		Mex 1st Cl	1st		Hugo Moreno		League / NACL double.
2032	Suwon		Kor L1		2nd		Johnny			Took over in 8th with 21 matches to go.
2033	Suwon		Kor L1		1st		Johnny			League, Cup, ACL
2035	Gremio		Bra L1		11th					Took over midseason. Won Copa Sudamerica to qualify for Copa Lib.
2036	Gremio		Bra L1		1st		Kluvert Ako Oru	League, Copa Lib S/F
2037	Flamengo	Bra L1		2nd		Endrick			Club World Cup, Brazilian Cup, Libertadores. Missed out on league by 1 point.
39/40	Man Utd		Eng Prem	1st		Diego Esedin		League, Carabao Cup, Champions League
40/41	Inter		It Ser A	1st		Dániel Kis		League and Cup double, plus Champions League.
41/42	Real Madrid 	Sp La Liga	1st		José Antonio Palacios	League / Cup double.
42/43	PSG		Fr Ligue 1	1st		Luis Ferro		League
44/45	Leverkusen	Ger Bund	9th					Took over after 20 matches in 11th. Losing cup finalists.
45/46	Leverkusen	Ger Bund	3rd		Maximiliano Páez	Cup Q/F.
46/47	Leverkusen	Ger Bund	2nd		César Tedeschi		CL Q/F. Never close in the league.
47/48	Leverkusen	Ger Bund	2nd		Maximiliano Páez	Cup S/F. Finished well behind Bayern.

International
Year			Team			Achievements
23-24			Fiji			Oceania Cup S/F
24			Morocco U23		Olympics Losing Finalists
26-27			Iran			Asian Nations Cup losing finalists
27-31			Morocco			ACON S/F
						WC R2
						ACON winners.
31-32			Belgium			Euro S/F
32-34			Mexico			Gold Cup, sacked after World Cup
35-36			Australia
36-40			Brazil			WC S/F, Copa America
40-42			Spain			WC S/F. Sacked.
42-			France			Euros SF, 2 Nations League R/U


Challenge Progress 23/32

Club
 8/10 top domestic leagues 		(S Africa, Mexico, S Korea, Brazil, England, Italy, Spain, France)			
 6/10 domestic cups 			(S Africa, S Korea, Brazil, England, Italy, Spain)							
 5/5 club continental championships	(Africa, N America, Asia, S America, Europe)		
 1/1 club world championship

International
 3/5 continental tournaments 		(Africa, N America, S America)	
 0/1 World Cup	

 

[SkyjumperTalon]

On 31/05/2023 at 11:41, SkyjumperTalon said:

Club

Absolutely heart-wrenching season. I joined the team when we were in 11th, and took them to one point from the champions league spots. Our last four games saw three matches against 1st, 2nd, and 4th, all away from home. Getting just two points in that stretch would cause us to miss out on Champions League Football. I thought maybe the FA Cup would be a saving grace, but we lost to a 96th minute free kick goal, despite dominating the match statistically. My star striker, Hugo, went on a tragic goal drought of fifteen matches and there will be some changes this season to fix depth in the wings and such

Country

Qualified for the Euros, just have to win it. We've got a strong team, but with an aging goalkeeper and no future replacement, we need to perform this year.

Challenge Progress
Club: Liverpool
Country: France

Domestic Leagues 9/10 (4 Big 5)
2022: India (Aizawl FC)
2024: Indonesia (Persib Bandung)
2027: South Africa (Orlando Pirates)
2030: South Korea (Daegu FC)
2032: Mexico (CF Monterrey)
2034: France (Paris Saint-Germain)
2037: Germany (Bayer Leverkusen)
2040: Spain (FC Barcelona)
2042: Italy (Juventus)

Domestic Cups 7/10
2022: India (Aizawl FC)
2025: Indonesia (Persib Bandung)
2026: South Africa (Orlando Pirates)
2031: South Korea (Daegu FC)
2034: France (Paris Saint-Germain)
2041: Spain (FC Barcelona)
2042: Italy (Juventus)

Club Continental 3/5
2028: Africa (Orlando Pirates)
2031: Asia (Daegu FC)
2033: North America (CF Monterrey)

International Continental 3/5

2027: Africa (Senegal)
2031: North America (USA)
2040: South America (Brazil)

Global 1/2

2041: Club (FC Barcelona) 

TOTAL PROGRESS: 23/32

 

Club

A season of mixed feelings. The main goal was to qualify for the Champions League, which we did, getting 2nd place. For a second it looked like we might have been able to have mounted a title charge to take down Chelsea, but their star player and surely Ballon D'or winner David Lamour went insane scoring left and right.

My starting goalkeeper was injured right as we went up in the FA Cup Semi-final and the backup's error led to a 1-0 defeat. I think the goal next year is to win the FA Cup and mount a serious challenge for the League and/or UCL, and hopefully win the big thing in 2046-47, and be done with Europe by 2050. My 100m+ signing Arne Reiter had a very solid season, with 30+ G+A, but I think someone needs to step up for us to have a truly marvelous season next year. My star striker Hugo struggled again this year, hitting a 12-game goal drought.

Country

A shaky display, we were upset by Romania in the Round of 16 and I was sacked. No good jobs were offered so I'm taking a break from international management in this window. Hopefully a good Asian or European job can open up.

Challenge Progress
Club: Liverpool
Country: Unemployed

Domestic Leagues 9/10 (4 Big 5)
2022: India (Aizawl FC)
2024: Indonesia (Persib Bandung)
2027: South Africa (Orlando Pirates)
2030: South Korea (Daegu FC)
2032: Mexico (CF Monterrey)
2034: France (Paris Saint-Germain)
2037: Germany (Bayer Leverkusen)
2040: Spain (FC Barcelona)
2042: Italy (Juventus)

Domestic Cups 7/10
2022: India (Aizawl FC)
2025: Indonesia (Persib Bandung)
2026: South Africa (Orlando Pirates)
2031: South Korea (Daegu FC)
2034: France (Paris Saint-Germain)
2041: Spain (FC Barcelona)
2042: Italy (Juventus)

Club Continental 3/5
2028: Africa (Orlando Pirates)
2031: Asia (Daegu FC)
2033: North America (CF Monterrey)

International Continental 3/5
2027: Africa (Senegal)
2031: North America (USA)
2040: South America (Brazil)

Global 1/2

2041: Club (FC Barcelona) 

TOTAL PROGRESS: 23/32

Edited July 21, 2023 by SkyjumperTalon

[SkiIIs]

2046 World Cup - Italy

Keeping this short and sharp as we got knocked out of the 3rd round to eventual winners Germany.   This was 1 round short of the expectations which meant we were sacked.   Getting really frustrated on the international scene!

Im now the manager of Iran and have the Asian Cup scheduled for January...  have very little expectations but you cant win it if you're not in it...

Also, I'll see how I go but I might give my suggestion earlier of a new challenge a go and see if there's any traction with others....   might come straight back to this challenge if it falls flat (which i expect it to do given we're so close to a new FM version)

[ANGL]

 

CLUB AMÉRICA 2036/37

It has taken me almost 2.5 months to complete a season, as work hit hard and I was getting tired of the save and felt like some rest would be good to me. Anyway, there is no better way to come back than this:

Got the last tournament remaining that I could win with América: NA Champions League, and also all the rest: League's Cup, Champions Cup and both Apertura and Clausura. It has been almost a perfect season! Winning NACL came with a gift: qualification for Club World Cup, which I didn't expected to play that early.

Put a 7-0 on Mozambe - a very weak team -  and then happened what I expected: lost 1-4 to Arsenal, after a red card in the 60th minute. I was sure we weren't prepared to compete with European teams and that winning this one was not realistic at this stage, but it has been nice to play it either way.

And now, I move to the future. My vision is on South America - will try Argentina, as I never managed there, but Brazilian teams are stronger and a better option to win Libertadores. Also, there is a World Cup in 2038 that may open interesting national team options, but I prefer keeping it at a club level at the moment.

Unemployement, here we go!

 

 

 

Title count: 6/32

 

 

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's 2048 Euros France Report

 

France are ranked 3^RD in the world. We should be one of the favourites, but I don’t think we have enough good players. Certainly our lack of players in the top 50 footballers in the world (2 in the last one, I think) and NxGn 50 (1) is disheartening.

A tough group as well, although I actually think it’s better to have a tough group with possibly 3 teams going through.

Let’s just hope that we don’t go out at the semifinal stage because of a sending off (which has happened 3 times at international tournaments so far).

 

Group Stage

Spoiler

France        10-0  Hungary

France        3-1    Belgium

Belgium scored first and both teams had a player sent off early, but we were the better 10-man team.

France        1-1    Spain

Honestly Spain looked the better team, but a draw was all we needed to finish top.

Croatia next, just about the toughest team we could have been drawn against and unbeaten in their group, having drawn against England.

Croatia beat us twice when they were in our nations league group a couple of years ago. I seem to remember they were both fluky, but I’m certainly up for revenge.

That said, England and Spain are both in the other half of the draw. We should reach the final. If we beat Croatia.

Looked for the first time at how well we need to do to keep my job, and it’s the semifinals. As I plan to leave if we don’t win though, (and probably even if we do), not a huge problem. I’d just prefer to leave on my own terms.

 

 

Second Round

Spoiler

France        3-0    Croatia

However they beat us before, there was no danger of it happening this time.

Next up Austria, which should be a super easy match.

Quarter Final

Spoiler

France        3-2    Austria

Spoiler

Reader, it was not super easy. The main trouble with France is that we have no good goalkeepers. None. That’s fine of course as long as nobody is allowed to shoot, but Austria went ahead early because of a free kick that any decent goalkeeper could stop. We managed to equalise, but with 12 minutes left Austria were awarded and converted a penalty. We went gung-ho and managed to equalise again, but our winner didn’t come until 2 minutes into injury time.

I suppose this is the kind of lucky escape that I’ll soon forget about if we win the whole thing.

Next up the S/F (which obviously stands for sending-off fiasco) against Netherlands. We should be narrow favourites.

Semi Final

Spoiler

France        0-2    Netherlands

No sending off. Just second best throughout.

Final

Spoiler

N/A

 

After The Tournament

Spoiler

Netherlands won the whole thing. I think at least two times they’ve offered me the job in recent years without my applying for it.

England would have been the available job I’d wanted, but as ever they didn’t want me, so I had the choice between Argentina (to have one go at the World Cup in 2 years), Italy or Portugal. It’s a gamble either way, but Italy’s players and results look alright. I’ll give them a spin.

these 6 years with France have been an enormous waste of time.

Domestic
Season	Team		Division	Position	MVP			Notes										
22/23	Black Leopards	S African L1	5th					Took over with 8 matches to go.Edge of relegation to edge of promotion.
23/24	Black Leopards	S African L1	1st		Kiyaam Bull 		SA Cup Q/F
24/25	Kaizer Chiefs	S African Prem	10th					Took over with 6 matches to go. Won SA Cup.
25/26	Kaizer Chiefs	S African Prem	2nd		Sphesihle Maduna	Won Confederations Cup.
26/27	Kaizer Chiefs	S African Prem	1st		Mduduzi Shabalala	League, ACL, SA Cup, S8 Cup.
2027	Atlas		Mex 1st Ap	12th					Took over after 8 matches. Lost in Playoffs Prelim
2028	Atlas		Mex 1st Cl	2nd		Connor Buck		Lost in final.
2028	Atlas		Mex 1st Ap	2nd					Lost in S/F
2029	Atlas		Mex 1st Cl	2nd		Kevin Castañeda	Lost in final.
2029	Atlas		Mex 1st Ap	3rd					Left before playoffs
2029	Pumas		Mex 1st Ap	n/a					Lost immediately in playoff plelim.
2030	Pumas		Mex 1st Cl	2nd					Won league. Lost Champions League on penalties
2030	Pumas		Mex 1st Ap	1st					League champs
2031	Pumas		Mex 1st Cl	1st		Hugo Moreno		League / NACL double.
2032	Suwon		Kor L1		2nd		Johnny			Took over in 8th with 21 matches to go.
2033	Suwon		Kor L1		1st		Johnny			League, Cup, ACL
2035	Gremio		Bra L1		11th					Took over midseason. Won Copa Sudamerica to qualify for Copa Lib.
2036	Gremio		Bra L1		1st		Kluvert Ako Oru	League, Copa Lib S/F
2037	Flamengo	Bra L1		2nd		Endrick			Club World Cup, Brazilian Cup, Libertadores. Missed out on league by 1 point.
39/40	Man Utd		Eng Prem	1st		Diego Esedin		League, Carabao Cup, Champions League
40/41	Inter		It Ser A	1st		Dániel Kis		League and Cup double, plus Champions League.
41/42	Real Madrid 	Sp La Liga	1st		José Antonio Palacios	League / Cup double.
42/43	PSG		Fr Ligue 1	1st		Luis Ferro		League
44/45	Leverkusen	Ger Bund	9th					Took over after 20 matches in 11th. Losing cup finalists.
45/46	Leverkusen	Ger Bund	3rd		Maximiliano Páez	Cup Q/F.
46/47	Leverkusen	Ger Bund	2nd		César Tedeschi		CL Q/F. Never close in the league.
47/48	Leverkusen	Ger Bund	2nd		Maximiliano Páez	Cup S/F. Finished well behind Bayern.

International
Year			Team			Achievements
23-24			Fiji			Oceania Cup S/F
24			Morocco U23		Olympics Losing Finalists
26-27			Iran			Asian Nations Cup losing finalists
27-31			Morocco			ACON S/F
						WC R2
						ACON winners.
31-32			Belgium			Euro S/F
32-34			Mexico			Gold Cup, sacked after World Cup
35-36			Australia
36-40			Brazil			WC S/F, Copa America
40-42			Spain			WC S/F. Sacked.
42-48			France			2 Euros SF, 2 Nations League R/U
48-			Italy


Challenge Progress 23/32

Club
 8/10 top domestic leagues 		(S Africa, Mexico, S Korea, Brazil, England, Italy, Spain, France)			
 6/10 domestic cups 			(S Africa, S Korea, Brazil, England, Italy, Spain)							
 5/5 club continental championships	(Africa, N America, Asia, S America, Europe)		
 1/1 club world championship

International
 3/5 continental tournaments 		(Africa, N America, S America)	
 0/1 World Cup

 

 

Edited July 22, 2023 by vikeologist

[Neo_Geo]

Sabah FC do the double!

So that's my first two trophies taken care of for the challenge in the shape of the Malaysian Premier and the Malaysia Cup, unfortunately I missed out on the Malaysian FA Cup after losing to Johor DT on away goals after a 5-5 aggregate draw (1-1 followed by 4-4 after being 4-1 up at half time).

The key to the success for this team was getting a solid formation (4-1-1-4 DM Wide Asymmetric) and having 2 fantastic strikers (one of which I had only signed mid-way through June but scored 37 goals in 29 games). Johor DT were with me all the way until about 9 games to go where we started to pull away before finishing 16 points clear of them

I managed to get my Continental B licence so it was a really worthwhile job and one that I enjoyed and would have stayed at in a normal save but given I have won the league and a cup the only thing left here would be the Asian Champions League which would take an exceedingly long time to do (also the finances were appalling as I was always at the -£300k mark with the board injecting funds on a regular basis).

I left the job on the 15th of December and waited patiently for jobs to appear that I thought would be of value to me and the save.

First up was Western United FC in Australia, second bottom of the A-Leauge and a 2.5 star reputation (my reputation is 2 star at this time), didn't make the shortlist.

Next up was Dundee Utd in the Scottish Premier, sitting bottom at the time and a 2.5 star reputation. I got an interview and I thought I was going to get offered the job but instead it went to Scott Brown.

Mid-January and the majority of the jobs were lower league English clubs, no sign of TNS manager moving or Linfield sitting third to sack Grant McCann and give me a chance there.

Then in March a flurry of jobs became available with a number of EPL jobs (didn't bother applying for any of these) but also the Hearts job (sitting 6th in Scottish Premier), Kaizer Chiefs (sitting 3rd from bottom in South African Premier) and shortly after the Celtic job with Ange Postecoglou taking over at Brighton.

I applied for all expecting to not get an interview, but I got an interview for all 3 including Celtic.

At the Celtic interview I decided to say I would drop out of the other job applications (not that this would make any difference right?)......

As a Rangers fan this doesn't sit well with me, but here is why I've opted to take this job:

Within 1 month of taking the job I may have completed Scotland for the challenge with a title and cup win and then can move freely with 4 out of the 32 competitions ticked off the list. This was just not an opportunity to turn down and I have no issues with it being labelled as a shortcut or a hack (unless of course its in the rules but I didn't see anything saying you had to be in charge for a certain number of games).

[Neo_Geo]

59 days in charge and 2 more items off the list and now I've resigned 

Iceland and Latvian leagues now loaded in so keeping an eye on these and Cavalry FC manager is insecure so that might be a possibility.

I had no interest in staying with Celtic any longer than I needed to and with all that I can realistically do (coaching course started for Continental A as well)  it was best to leave to give myself a better chance of getting another job (not looking to step up the ladder at the moment, just looking for opportunities to win trophies and fairly quickly too).

To have 4 trophies 3 years into the save is much better than I had hoped (especially since I haven't been signing players in the game for a good while due to the restrictions of the Youth Academy Challenge).

List of Competitions

Spoiler

Competition	Status
La Liga	Not Attempted
Premier League	Not Attempted
Bundesliga	Not Attempted
Ligue 1	Not Attempted
Serie A	Not Attempted
Malaysian Super League	Complete 2024
Cinch Premiership	Complete 2025
Other League 3	Not Attempted
Other League 4	Not Attempted
Other League 5	Not Attempted
Champions League	Not Attempted
Champions League	Not Attempted
Copa Libertadores	Not Attempted
NACL	Not Attempted
ACL	Not Attempted
UEFA Euros	Not Attempted
AFC	Not Attempted
Copa America	Not Attempted
Gold Cup	Not Attempted
ACON	Not Attempted
FIFA World Cup	Not Attempted
FIFA Club World Cup	Not Attempted
Malaysia Cup	Complete 2024
Scottish Cup	Complete 2025
Domestic Cup 3	Not Attempted
Domestic Cup 4	Not Attempted
Domestic Cup 5	Not Attempted
Domestic Cup 6	Not Attempted
Domestic Cup 7	Not Attempted
Domestic Cup 8	Not Attempted
Domestic Cup 9	Not Attempted
Domestic Cup 10	Not Attempted

I'll post an update when I have my next job

EDIT: Time for an international job with Ivory Coast. Target will obviously be the African Cup of Nations in 2027

Edited July 26, 2023 by Neo_Geo

[Neo_Geo]

Having qualified for the 2026 World Cup I have now taken over at Knattspyrnufélagið Víkingur in Iceland in addition to the national job.

For a brief spell it looked like the TNS manager may have taken over at Chelmsford which would have left the door open for another 2 easy trophies but it wasn't to be so I joined Vikingur after they narrowly missed out on the title by 2 points to Valur.

Haven't managed in Iceland before (neither had I managed in Indonesia or Malaysia) so I am looking forward to the challenge.

[SkiIIs]

2047 Asian Cup - Iran

Having sucked at international management and being in the role for 6 months, i really didnt have any expectations going into this tournament.  More of a hit and hope.  A group of Vietnam, Phillippines and Thailand provided no shocks as we won 2-1, 4-1 and 4-2 respectively.  Second Round opponents are Saudi Arabia

Second Round

Spoiler

A solid 2 - 0 win, scoring in the 2nd and 68th minutes. In between Saudi Arabia did have a goal disallowed but we managed 35 shots in this game and truly deserved to win.  Up next is the mighty Japan

Quarter Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

A game that we started slowly, we started to find our rhythm towards the end of the first half and carried that over into the second half scoring the only goal of the game in the 68th minute. Up next is host nation China who knocked off Australia to get gere 

Semi Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

having conceded in the first minute, we then went to score 4 before half time before they pulled on back in injury time to head into the break 4 - 2 up. We ended up winning 5 - 3 and find ourselves into the final against a really strong South Korea team.  Could this be my second international trophy??

Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

Im clearly to blame for this one. I brought on an semi injured DM on in the 75th minute to see the game out but he had to come off with 7 minutes left of normal time left and i had no subs left  

 

Edited July 27, 2023 by SkiIIs

[SkiIIs]

Season 2045/47 - Borussia Dortmund

After 35 seasons straight, there is a new Bundelsiga champion as Bayern have been toppled!!!   Unfortunately, its not by Dortmund but by RB. 

I was confident of improving on last years performance after what i felt was a good offseason with transfers and we kinda did as we obtained 2 more points but fell down a spot to 4th.  Really wasnt good enough and to culminate the poor season was the fact we got knocked out of the DFB Pokal in the second round by SC Freiburg.

Edited July 27, 2023 by SkiIIs

[SkiIIs]

was not feeling it at Dortmund and couldnt give up this chance

[Neo_Geo]

Quick mid-season update:

Ivory Coast
Qualified for the World Cup winning all games in my qualification group with Nigeria, Niger and Madagascar.

World Cup saw Ivory Coast drawn with Holland and Paraguay so I thought second place was most likely and thats what happened. 4-1 win over Paraguay before narrowly being beaten by Holland (where we hit the woodwork 3 times during the game).

Finishing second meant I drew Group G winner Portugal which was a difficult draw and once again it was a tightly contested match that Ivory Coast ultimately lost 2-1. Portugal went on to finish 3rd but the Ivory Coast FA thought it was a miserable performance in the World Cup and I have been sacked meaning my plan of trying to win the African Cup of Nations will have to be shelved. I was losing confidence in being able to win the African Cup of Nations with Ivory Coast anyway as the squad lacked in ability in goal and up front with no real signs of great prospects coming through at this stage in the save.

Vikingur
The first part of the season was a League Cup A campaign which consists of a group stage of 5 games followed by Semi Final and Final. We topped our group with 5 wins and a +12 goal difference.

A 4-1 win over Selfoss in the Semi Final set up a final against FH which we managed to win 3-2 AET. Another domestic cup won making it 3 out of 10.

I used my knowledge of Ivory Coast players to sign a left sided utility player and a striker on loan from Zilinia, Eric Bille, who has to date has scored 26 goals in 19 starts and currently I am sitting top of the league by 2 points with FH pushing hard. The Europa Conference games have just started and given I purely want to win the league here I don't want to go particularly far as again I'm not winning the champions league from Iceland. During the World Cup there was some hectic scheduling and the squad was tiring quite badly which meant the early form where I was beating teams comfortably started to wane a bit. Hoping to hold on and get the 3rd of the 5 domestic league titles required for the challenge.

Next Steps
See how the season pans out with Vikingur and see if we can win the title. If we can win the title I'll leave at the end of the season, if we don't and its close then I'd probably stick around to try and win it next year.

If I do end up leaving I'm still planning on trying to get the 5 top leagues completed so I will look to clubs where it looks likely I can easily win the league before then looking for a club to work with for a while to try and get continental success (South Korea or Australia for the Asian Champions League perhaps).

I'm absolutely loving how this challenge has given the game a new lease of life for me before FM 24 later in the year following a lot of months solely doing the Youth Academy Challenge however I think that challenge has really helped because I choose tactics to fit with the squad I am given to try and get short term success. So for example at Vikingur I play a 4-2-4 Wide and at Ivory Coast I was playing a 4-1-2-2-1 as that was a great fit in terms of the squad available.

Will post another update at the end of the season

[Neo_Geo]

Icelandic season now complete Vikingur are celebrating a double winning season!

It ended up as a title win with a 14 point gap and in amongst this we qualified for the Conference League putting out AEK Athens 5-3 on aggregate.

Naturally as I had just got my coaching course approved (for the Continental Pro) and I had won a cup and the league (got knocked out of the FA cup in the quarter finals by Valur) I resigned shortly after the final game of the season. First time I've had the board try to convince me to stay and I'd have loved to have made a full blown save with this club with a youth academy first approach but this challenge leaves no room for sentiment.

I've ultimately left the club in a much better position than when I started and I've got everything I wanted out of the job in return so its back to the job centre to wait for the next opportunity.

I now need to decide if I want to wait it out for another targeted league (Northern Ireland or Wales) , add more lower reputation leagues and wait for a top job or go for one of the jobs in Australia or South Korea to target the Asian Champions League and spend a few seasons trying to win it.

Progress

Spoiler

Competition	Status
La Liga	Not Attempted
Premier League	Not Attempted
Bundesliga	Not Attempted
Ligue 1	Not Attempted
Serie A	Not Attempted
Malaysian Super League	Complete 2024
Cinch Premiership	Complete 2025
Icelandic Premier Division	Complete 2026
Other League 4	Not Attempted
Other League 5	Not Attempted
Champions League	Not Attempted
Champions League	Not Attempted
Copa Libertadores	Not Attempted
NACL	Not Attempted
ACL	Not Attempted
UEFA Euros	Not Attempted
AFC	Not Attempted
Copa America	Not Attempted
Gold Cup	Not Attempted
ACON	Not Attempted
FIFA World Cup	Not Attempted
FIFA Club World Cup	Not Attempted
Malaysia Cup	Complete 2024
Scottish Cup	Complete 2025
League Cup A	Complete 2026
Domestic Cup 4	Not Attempted
Domestic Cup 5	Not Attempted
Domestic Cup 6	Not Attempted
Domestic Cup 7	Not Attempted
Domestic Cup 8	Not Attempted
Domestic Cup 9	Not Attempted
Domestic Cup 10	Not Attempted