Back to Africa 3 - Avoiding the Partition

[ToMexico!!]

The Partition of Africa

In the map above you can see the land mass of Africa diveded up by European countries for them to rule except two green areas, Ethiopia to the East and Liberia to the West. The Partition of Africa began at the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 in which the biggest European countries would claim African colonial land for them to rule. 

Normally, when selecting a country to manage in I have looked at which country had colonial rule over that said country and loaded that nation to enhance the save. In FM we see the roots of this colonialism still engrained in football, players from the likes to Guinea-Bissau, Angola and Cape Verde coming through at teams in Portugal, players from many of the French speaking nations joining teams in France, DR Congo players coming through in Belgium for examples. 

I've decided this time to choose a non-colonised country and that country is Ethiopia. 

Ethiopia

Ethiopia is a land-locked country in the East of Africa, bordered by Eritrea to the North, Djibouti to the North-East, Somalia to the East, Kenya to the South,  South Sudan to the West and Sudan to the North-West. Ethiopia is the 12th most populous country in the world with roughly 113m inhabitants, that makes it the 2nd most populous in African behind Nigeria. Ethiopia's capital is Addis Ababa and its largest city. 

Save Setup 

Ethiopia as the only playable nation with seven further nations as view-only. These nations have been chosen on the basis of that they are considered to have large Ethiopian communities within their own population. This may or may not help us bring through Ethiopian players in youth intakes. 

A large database with Players from top division clubs in Africa and Europe loaded. 

The Club

Addis Ababa City FC

There isn't much online I can find in regards to history other than that they formed in 2012. On FM their competition history is minimal, they were promoted to the Premier Division (tier one) but were promtly relegated again but found themselves back in the top tier last season but relegated once again. So they start life in the Seconde Division (2nd tier) in Group B (2 leagues) with a media prediction of 3rd overall (both leagues).

The board want us work within the wage budget which is a given, we're currently spending £2417 of a £2460 budget. 

Finishing in the top two places is doable I think, only the top team in the league gains promotion to the Premier Division. 

We start the save with a modest set-up facilties wise but with ok coaching and youth recruitment which sets us off on the right foot. We also have use of the 35,000 capacity Addis Ababa Stadium which is also home to the national side, Saint George, Ethiopian Coffee and Mekelakeya. 

Above is our current first team, all 14 of them. 

• Elias Mamo is deemed the best player who can play at RB or DM. Current Ethiopian international. 
• Zerihun Anshebo is a decent central defender. 
• Yeshewas Belew is the best striker at the club. 

We have a few reserve players and currently no youth players, a blank canvas. We're going to play a basic 4-4-2 initially with the view to move to a more attacking formation when we begin to improve and recruit players. 

[deltablue]

Good luck with this.

[ToMexico!!]

1 hour ago, deltablue said:

Good luck with this.

Thanks delta 

[ToMexico!!]

Pre-Season - Nov 2022

Bit of a mixed pre-season but it was more about fitness and tactical familiarity rather than results. 

Upon starting the save, we had just 7 days before the transfer window closed to improve the squad. However, with the lack of fund, both transfer budget and available wage budget (just £44 left to spend per week) we failed to bring anyone in. 

[ToMexico!!]

Transfers - Jan 2023

We managed to strengthen in January after allowing a couple of players to leave. Sisay joins from top flight side Adama City on loan to play RM and fill in at CM, Nasir improves the defensive options and Gambato joins having been released by Sudtirol in Italy, although we could only sign him until the end of the season. You may notice he's already agreed a deal with Juve Stabia to join the Italian in September, he wanted around £600 a week to remain in Ethiopia.  

[ToMexico!!]

Youth Intake Preview - April 2023

Not expecting much in this first three to five seasons depending on improvements, if we can afford them. 

[ToMexico!!]

New Contract - July 2023

They originally offered me more wages and just a one-year deal, I managed to squeeze in a two-year deal at the expense of a few quid. 

 

[ToMexico!!]

Youth Intake Review - July 2023

Dawit Taddese is the only player worth introducing. 

Map of Ethiopia

[john1]

Good luck in Ethiopia!  

[ToMexico!!]

2022/23 Season Review

First season completed and it was very straight-forward, we breezed to the Seconde Division league title by a huge 20 points over second placed Worabe Ketema, winning promotion in the process. We won 20 of the 22 league games, drawing against second placed Worabe Ketema and losing to Nekemt Ketema. We scored goals for fun, 86 in fact whilst conceding 26, which I feel was a little too high. 

We gave a decent fist of it in the Ethiopian Cup too, beating both Sidama Coffee and Ethiopian Coffee before losing to Hadiya Hossana in the Quarter Final. 

The main bulk of the goals came from Yeshetaw, who was quite frankly outsanding as he plundered 47 goals in 25 games. New signing Kifle Gambato supported well with 17 goals in 19 games and also contributed nine assist. Israel Hussein made the most assists with 16 from left midfield. Pretty much every players contract is up at the end of the season and expectedly most are asking for more wages per week, which at this moment we can't afford. 

Having signed all the youth players we are massively over the wage budget which has resulted in us losing more money than expected by the end of the season. 

[ToMexico!!]

4 minutes ago, john1 said:

Good luck in Ethiopia!  

Thanks john! 

A successful first season at least 

[ToMexico!!]

Transfers - Summer 2023

The squad needed good improvements in most areas but we also retained quite a few original players to help with cohesion. 

Deliel as back up GK. Kasaye and Muhudin improve the left back situation and Worku in at RB. Sisay and Aniley improve the wings. Dalga and Belguda offer more options up front. 

Edited December 4, 2022 by ToMexico!!

[ToMexico!!]

Youth Intake Preview - April 2024

Centre backs and strikers, nothing much inbetween. 

[ToMexico!!]

Youth Intake Review - July 2024

One elite talent in Tariko Saliso who is a RB. Could possibly get some gametime as back up next season. 

Personalities are quite poor overall but that is to be expected at this point in the save. 

[ToMexico!!]

2023/24 Season Review

We started the season emphatically, with 7 wins on the bounce which saw us sit top of the table comfortably. We beat the likes of Bahir Dar (predicted 4th) and Ethiopian Coffee (2nd) but we entered a break in the league when the AFCoN was played and things tumbled down around us. One win in 11 games with three draws saw us tumble down the table, thankfully our fantastic league start saw us ahead of where we should be still. May saw us pick up a win and a draw to stabilise things before two more losses. We then picked up back-to-back wins over Wolkite and Sebeta Kenema before seeing out the season with three draws and three losses, eventually finishing in a respectable 9th place. 

Just one game in the Ethiopian Cup this season as we lost 3-1 to Arba Minch in the 2nd Round. 

Yeshewas Belew was the cream of the crop for us once again, finishing the season with 25 goals in 31 games, with 24 of those in the league which saw him finishing the season as the leagues top scorer by eight goals. Mintesnot Zekarias scored 14 goals in a support role but finished the season early through injury. Sadick Temam made the most assists with 11. 

The balance continues to decrease as we only received £12k for finishing in 9th place in the league. 

 

[ToMexico!!]

Transfers - Nov 2024

Three players in and no players out, so with the board slashing the wage budget in more than half due to the financial situation, we're over the wage budget by nearly £400. 

Worku is for attack, Beketa for defence and Legesse for midfield. 

[keeper#1]

14 hours ago, ToMexico!! said:

Youth Intake Review - July 2024

One elite talent in Tariko Saliso who is a RB. Could possibly get some gametime as back up next season. 

Personalities are quite poor overall but that is to be expected at this point in the save. 

Disappointed there are no German second nationalities.  

[ToMexico!!]

8 hours ago, keeper#1 said:

Disappointed there are no German second nationalities.  

 

I was surprised to see an Italian one so soon. 

[ToMexico!!]

Transfers - Feb 2025

I've managed to loan out 11 youth team players for various amounts of wage percentage to help reduce the wage expenditure, its dropped from circa £400 p/w over budget down to £150 p/w over. It does leave my youth team short of players but when they're all pretty poor theres no point having them here to be honest. 

[ToMexico!!]

Youth Intake Preview - April 2025

I don't see this staying as an excellent intake. 

[ToMexico!!]

Youth Intake Review - July 2025

As expected its dropped from an excellent intake to a below average one. 

Nothing here of note, player wise, we do get our first foreign born player in Samuel Mekonnen who was born in the Italian town of Monteleone di Puglia. Personalities are pretty poor across the board apart from one Resolute, one Professional and one Determined. 

[ToMexico!!]

2024/25 Season Review

A much better season for us as we finished in the dizzying heights of 4th place. This season started much like last season, with numerous wins on the bounce, this time it was only four though, Arba Minch (5-0), Ethio Electric (3-0), Legetafo (5-0) and Hadiya Hossana (6-0). We soon settled down though, losing our first match (gameweek 8) in early January. We hit a really rough patch where we didn't win for nine games in the league but only losing two of them. May was better with two wins, then three strange months where we played just four games between the 7th June and the 9th August, we only won one of those games. 

59 goals scored was a league high but still three goals short of Saint George's league record of 62 set in 09/10. We conceded 48 goals, we concede 7 once, 4 four times and 3 four times, it was actually the 2nd highest behind relegated side Ethio Electric. 

We reached the quarter finals of the Ethiopian Cup beating Dire Dawa City (4-0) and Ethiopia Nigd Bank (5-0) before losing 2-1 to Hawassa. 

Yeshewas Belew was the hero again, 37 goals in 32 games with 32 of those coming in the league to be top scorer once more and set a new record for the league. Zekarias scored 16 in another injury ended season. Temam improved on last season assists tally with 14 this season. 

Just shy of £250k in the red, we're over the wage budget largely thanks to signing a few youth players and renewing the odd expiring contract here and there. 

[ToMexico!!]

Youth Intake Preview - April 2026

[ToMexico!!]

Youth Intake Review - July 2026

Downgraded again which is no surprise. 

One elite talent in Tekelemariam Shemeles (I had to double take at his surname). Decent enough goalkeeper but poor personality. 

A slightly more positive set of players personality wise than previously. 

Edited December 9, 2022 by ToMexico!!

[KristianT]

Shemeles, not Shemales  

[ToMexico!!]

4 minutes ago, KristianT said:

Shemeles, not Shemales  

Bloody autocorrected it 

[ToMexico!!]

205/26 Season Review

We flew out of the blocks again winning eight on the bounce, scoring 34 goals in the process and conceding just once. We remained unbeaten for another six games until April when we lost our first game of the season to Jimma Aba Jafar. Form was then inconsistent until the end of the season, we lost a further five times in 15 games plus three draws. That inconsistency saw us drop from 1st place to 3rd place and that where we ended the season in 3rd. Our own form all seemed to coincide with the personal form of Yeshewas Belew who blitzed 21 goals in those first eight games but then only scored another 15 league goals in the remainder of the season. 

We exited the Ethiopian Cup at our first hurdle this season, losing to Ethio Electric 2-1 in the 2nd Round. 

36 goals in 28(3) games for Yeshewas Belew this season which takes him up to 145 goals in 128 games for the club in all competitions. Only Binyam Getachew managed to reach double figures in the remainder of the squad whilst Kirubel Wendimu managed 12 assists from left midfield. 

We continued to lose money throughout the season with ticket pricing seemingly holding us back, average price of £1 per ticket isn't doing anything to improve things. 

[ToMexico!!]

Youth Intake Preview - April 2027

I think this will even get downgraded upon coming through. 

[willemvandoorn15]

Good to see you keep improving. Ethopia isnt a country i would ever choose to manage cause idk anything about Africa so its fun to read about it, it makes me curious about the teams and Ethiopian Coffee stuck in my mind,.

[ToMexico!!]

17 hours ago, willemvandoorn15 said:

Good to see you keep improving. Ethopia isnt a country i would ever choose to manage cause idk anything about Africa so its fun to read about it, it makes me curious about the teams and Ethiopian Coffee stuck in my mind,.

Thanks willem, its a country I've looked at previously when doing my African saves but decided on others countries. 

There isn't too much information on most clubs due to the fact its a edited database. 

Thanks for reading 

[KristianT]

I had one season with Saint George on FM19 as part of a selfmade "Win the league in every country in Africa" challenge. You only need a few very good players to dominate everything domestically.

[ToMexico!!]

2026/27 Season Review

We opened the season with a 0-0 draw which was disappointing but we then won the next six games without conceding a goal including a 9-0 (record vicotry) over Woliata Dicha. The wins continued into the new year with a 7-1 win over Legetafo and 5-2 over Ethio Electric before we drew a couple of games. We were finally beaten in mid-February by Bahir Dar but that didn't stop us in our tracks, the wins continued and we didn't lose again until July (12 games) but the title was won by that point. We ended the season extremely poorly, losing the last three games of the season. 76 goals scored eclipsed the league record, whilst we conceded 25 which equals our own record from last season. Winning the league has seen us qualify for the African Champions League which starts in September. 

We made it a league and cup double by winning the Ehtiopian Cup for the first time, we beat Wolkite City, Legetafo, Ethio Electric and Arba Minch en-route to the final in our home stadium. We narrowly beat Bahir Dar 1-0 to lift our inaugral cup title. 

A little quieter season for Yeshewas Belew but he still managed to return a goal a game with 32 goals in 28(4) games. He was backed up by Wamisho (18 goals) and Zekarias (13 goals). New signing and first foreign signing Alioune Sy managed six goals and seven assists in 19 (1) games. 

The money situation is deteriating continuously, we got around £30k for winning the cup and £50k for winning the league but with most of that going to competition bonuses it hasn't managed to make a dent in the balance. 

 

[ToMexico!!]

17 minutes ago, KristianT said:

I had one season with Saint George on FM19 as part of a selfmade "Win the league in every country in Africa" challenge. You only need a few very good players to dominate everything domestically.

Oh absolutely, its on the continental stage where we will sruggle for years and years, if not decades. 

[willemvandoorn15]

I would struggle to have fun dominating the league and i hope the Africian Champions League will keep u entertained.

[ToMexico!!]

30 minutes ago, willemvandoorn15 said:

I would struggle to have fun dominating the league and i hope the Africian Champions League will keep u entertained.

It can get a little repetitive once you are dominating but sales to bigger European clubs and the ACL struggles certainly help for longevity. 

[ToMexico!!]

African Champions League - September 2027

We technically still in the 2026/27 season as we enter the Champions League for the first time. We face Fomboni Club from Comoros over two legs. 

A couple of rather routine wins home and away. We face Algerian side CR Belouizdad the 1st Round. 

Hopefully we can register all the new signings I've been making in the close season. 

[ToMexico!!]

African Champions League - 1st Round - October 2027

We weren't able to register any players still so we were without a recognised goalkeeper, just a grey one and we had four subs. 

I'm quite pleased that we scored some goals against a decent North African team. Hopefully next season we field a full team. 

[ToMexico!!]

Confederations Cup - 2nd Round Draw - October 2027

We drop down into the Confederations Cup and face current holders AmaZulu FC from South Africa. 

[ToMexico!!]

Transfers - October 2027

Five players join. 

The Mor Diedhiou signing had two purposes, add depth and quality to the defence and to apease a promise to Alioune Sy in signing a fellow countryman to help him settle. We were desperate for a new goalkeeper and I saw that Ehtiopian Coffee weren't renewing Kirubel Haile's contract, he joined at the time as first choice but on a back up contract. Thankfully that was the case as Fasil Gebremichael became available after his release from Bahir Dar, the Ethiopian international becoming our highest paid player in the process. 

Both Kibreab Yared and Fuad Abdella are depth options in defence and midfield. 

[ToMexico!!]

Confederations Cup 2nd Round - Nov 2027

And that ends our involvement in the continental competitions for this season. We still couldn't register players for this round, despite it being a different competition too. 

I'm quite pleased with the results considering we were also playing the current CC champions. 

[ToMexico!!]

Ethiopian Super Cup - November 2027

An easy win over Jimma Aba Jifar to lift our first Super Cup, we've now won all the domestic competitions in Ethiopia. 

[ToMexico!!]

International Management - November 2027

I like the idea of this but it feels too soon in the save. We haven't even moulded our squad or started producing players through our intakes. 

If I get offered it again I will take it, just not now. 

[ToMexico!!]

Youth Intake Preview - April 2028

Uh oh!

[keeper#1]

[ToMexico!!]

Youth Intake Review - July 2028

Apparently better than expected. 

Just two top talents. 

A really poor set of players with a very poor set of personalities. 

[ToMexico!!]

2027/28 Season Review

Back-to-back titles as we rack up 79 points from a possible 90, lose just once and set a record for the most goals scored in a campaign with 96, a huge 35 more than the next top scoring side. That many goals meant many high scoring players and we had four of the top five scorers in the division, Belew (26), Washimo (22), Sy (18) and Zekarias (17). We qualify for the Champions League where we will face Tunisian side ES Tunis, a tough first round opponent. 

We lost to Ethiopian Coffee in the 3rd Round of the cup, 4-2. Poor. 

Belew top scored for the club as we all expect now, although less goals than games this season with 31 in 30(2) games, Wamisho scored 24 in 22(4) but broke his leg with two games remaining of the season, Zekarias had the best minutes per goal ratio for his 22 goals in 18(7) games whilst player of the season had to be Alioune Sy, 20 goals and 26 assists in 35 games at left wing. 

[ToMexico!!]

Issues

For some unknown reason I can't seem to register any of the players I signed last season for this seasons African Champions League. Its left me in a predicament where I don't have enough players to fill a team sheet and players from key areas are missing. 

This seems to be a bug and its one that will continue I guess, so I feel like this is save over. 

I will return to Africa in the future no doubt, maybe with a different download file for FM. 

[Raycast]

Sad news