FM23 - Growing Gambia

[ToMexico!!]

October 2033

Lamin Sarr returns, one game played and £80k later, he will take the #1 jersey. Saikou Touray is a stop-gap, we've been unable to replace Omossola's quality in midfield, the 33 year old will offer some cover for DM for a season or two. We struck a deal with Etoile du Congo for a then 4.5* potential winger in Christ Niyitegeka, he joined and then plummeted to a 3* CA/PA. 

Towards the end of the window I saw a player I had mentioned before was available on a free. Fred Soro had previously not wanted to join whilst he was with CFDFA in the Cote D'Ivorie but now he was willing to join, we're paying him a pretty penny, over £2k p/w but he should be worth it. I'm going to play him at right wing which seems a waste but we still have Ceesay up front. 

[ToMexico!!]

November 2033

Opening day of the 2033/34 season. 

A new league and club record win. 

[ToMexico!!]

April 2034

We've sold our club record goalscorer. Firstly he wanted to leave, secondly, we have Soro who out skills him in pretty much every attribute. His contract was also due to run out next season and didn't want to sign a new one. 

[ToMexico!!]

May 2034

Tchamba | Thiam | Soro

[ToMexico!!]

May 2034

I decided to sell the profit clause included in the deal to sell Omossola. He has been in the U21 all season available for loan but with no takers. He's also stagnated due to this, I can tell even some attributes have decreased. On that basis taking the near on £8m seems a no brainer. 

[ToMexico!!]

June 2034

The third season in a row where we failed to drop a point, meaning we're currently on a 76-winning streak in the league. 138 goals were scored and just three conceded which is a new record. 

Just one goal conceded in the Gambian Cup too, beating Wallidan, Bombada, Banjul Utd and then PSV Wellingara in the final. 

Mighty Barolle (Liberia) and Al-Hilal Omdurman (Sudan) were beaten with ease to reach the group stage. We finished 2nd in our group which has Casa Sports, Club Africain and ES Tunis. We then faced ES Sahel another Tunisian side in the quarter-finals. We beat them 1-0 at home but lost in Tunisia 6-4 to bow out.  

A quieter season for Ceesay prior to his sale, I hope Soro will take up the mantle next season. We have just space to sign another starting foreign player, most likely to be a right-winger. 

Financially we're set fair for a few seasons without the need to sell anyone. 

[ToMexico!!]

June 2034

Originally billed as a poor intake it's been upgraded but I don't see it. 

There's some current ability there with Juwara and Janko but not much else. 

[ToMexico!!]

July 2034

Gone early on selling this clause, whilst Ceesay has played a few games for Al-Ahli, he hasn't performed well. 

[Ace40]

Great save so far, do you plan on moving clubs anytime soon?

[ToMexico!!]

15 hours ago, Ace40 said:

Great save so far, do you plan on moving clubs anytime soon?

Thanks Ace! 

Nope, there is no plan whatsoever to move. I haven't even had a job interview offer despite having lowest tiers of Spain, Germany and France loaded. 

[ToMexico!!]

December 2034

Five new players arrive. 

Musa and Ceesay are Gambian, offer depth and arrive from Spain. Latyr Faye is our new right inside-forward, he joins for a modest £60k, he looks like he could go on to have a decent career. 

Antoine Dossou-Yovo was signed because we're losing Fred Soro to Feyenoord. The young Beninese striker joins from Ivorian side ASEC for 230k. 

Soro wanted to leave for a bigger team and he had multiple offers from Spain, France and Germany but it was the Dutch sides offer which appealed the most. It includes 20% profit clause and a friendly. He leaves in January. 

We returned to the Ivory Coast late in the window to sign a replacement for wantaway defender Gilson Varela. He left to join 1 de Agosto in Angola in a deal worth £160k. His replacement is Jocelin Gbohouo from SC Gagnoa for £200k. 

We have a host of issues, with other players wanting to leave; Dahaba is exploring his options, Tchamba is leaving on a free transfer and Dukureh is unhappy again and is wanted by clubs in the MLS. 

[ToMexico!!]

February 2035

A sentimental signing of sorts as a 33-year-old Nicolas Jackson signs on a free transfer having had his contract terminated by his former club Auxerre. I wanted to sign Musa Barrow as he started his career at Banjul Hawks but he decided to retire instead. He will play mostly from the bench.

[ToMexico!!]

June 2035

A thirteenth straight league win, 22 from 22 wins, 146 goals scored and seven conceded. 

Bombada, Marimoo and PSV beaten en-route to the final where we defeated Real de Banjul 4-0

In the Champions League we beat Le Messager Ngozi (Burundi) and FC San Pedro (Ivory Coast) in the qualifiers. We topped our group consisting of Al-Hilal Omdurman, AS Otoho and Sundowns. We beat Coton Sport (7-0 agg) and ES Tunis (8-5 agg) to face ES Sahel in the final. Problem was we had 12 first team players away on international duty for the first leg, somehow we managed to draw 4-4. In the away leg we only had 11 first team players unavailable and again somehow got a 1-1 draw, unfortunately we lost on penalties. 

We're now ahead of Wallidan to become the most successful Gambian side.

A great debut return for Dossou-Yoro with 48 goals, hopefully he can reach 60+ next season, he did miss eight weeks of the season with a muscle injury. Back up striker Carayol who came through the academy managed a solid 30 goals return. Latyr Faye with 34 assists in his first season, Jawara has a stunning season with 33 from RWB. 

We moved into our new 5750 all-seater stadium and basically filling it already, with a 4383 average attendance from this season. 

[ToMexico!!]

December 2035

Opening day of the season. 

[KristianT]

I'd call that a decent start.

[Vakama2619]

Caught up with this save, defo will be following along in the future

[Vakama2619]

On 22/07/2023 at 23:26, ToMexico!! said:

February 2035

A sentimental signing of sorts as a 33-year-old Nicolas Jackson signs on a free transfer having had his contract terminated by his former club Auxerre. I wanted to sign Musa Barrow as he started his career at Banjul Hawks but he decided to retire instead. He will play mostly from the bench.

Nic Jackson oooh! I am for real!

[ToMexico!!]

11 hours ago, KristianT said:

I'd call that a decent start.

Pretty good start. Shame we conceded though. 

6 hours ago, Vakama2619 said:

Caught up with this save, defo will be following along in the future

Thanks very much, not much detail to read but plenty of seasons played through. 

6 hours ago, Vakama2619 said:

Nic Jackson oooh! I am for real!

Big name signing coming to the end of his career, I wanted Musa Barrow too but he decided to retire at 35 instead of play out his twilight years in his homeland. 

[ToMexico!!]

March 2036

Majorly late transfer update from October. 

Four players joined to boost the ranks. Musa Darboe joined from La Nucia in Spain for his release clause of £190k, I've overpaid but I've secured a good back up striker. Abdoulie Touray left Langreo also in Spain to join for £130k, also his release clause. He will be back up to AMC. 

We then paid PSV Wellingara £300k for Lamin Keita, I could have got him for way less but we had the funds and I wanted to see if they would use that money to improve. He's primarily an AMR but can play at AMC. He was also a product of a Spanish academy, coming through at Xerez but PSV managed to sign him for £17k, they made some good profit on him. Last to join was Leon Roland from APEJES in Cameroon, mentally brilliant for his age, he will slot into MC to utilise his great passing and vision. 

[ToMexico!!]

June 2036

We've sold another academy graduate, this time Mustpha Bah, an Icelandic international leaves to join Saudi side Al-Khaleej for £1.2m + clauses. He joins the other academy player to leave Alieu Mendy, who left last June to sign for the same side. 

We currently have three clauses which we could sell. Varela's is for pittance, Thiam's is worth £340k and Mendy's is worth £570k. Fred Soro is currently wanted by Aston Villa, Man City, Dortmund and Leipzig, whilst being worth £25m to £38m but we only have a 20% clause on him. We did good selling the Omossola clause because he's now worth £0 and waiting for his contract to expire. 

[ToMexico!!]

June 2036

Cruising through the seasons at the minute. 

Title number 14 in a row but we managed to draw a game, against Fortune FC, a bitter end to the 106-game winning streak. 140 goals scored but it felt like less, 12 goals conceded is far too many. 

Brikama, Interior and Wallidan were beaten en route to the final where we defeated PSV Wellingara four-nil, they must be sick of us, we've beaten them five times in the final now. 

Bullets FC (Malawi) and ASC Jaraaf (Senegal) were beaten in the qualifying rounds, six wins from six in the group stages beating Hearts of Oak (Ghana), Generation Foot (Senegal) and Zamalek (Egypt). Ghana's Asante Kotoko beat us in the first leg of the quarters but we managed to equal their result and then beat them on pens. Al-Ahly smashed 6-0 in the home leg of the semi's, we lost 2-0 in the return. ES Sahel awaited us in the finals, we scrapped a 2-2 draw despite having 31 players away on international duty, it was carnage. We smashed them in the return leg with all our players back and our strongest starting XI out there. We are Champions of Africa once again. 

A gargantuan season for Dossou-Yoro with 83 goals, I don't expect him to be with us next season so I need to get scouting for a replacement. Dukureh continues to pump in the numbers from the left wing, whilst youngster Faye gets another 35 assists. I've had to add Dossou-Yoro to the overall table just to see his scoring record alone. I may have to add another table that organises by goals scored. Maybe even showing all players with goals or assists over 100. 

We're fine for money but we are spending a fair whack each month, the youth setup alone equates to £220k per month and has produced enough players to warrant that in my eyes. 

[ToMexico!!]

July 2036

Huge sale of Antoine Dossou-Yovo (just realised it's Yovo, not Yoro ) to Koln for £8m + clauses. He's now worth double that. His 83 goals from last season were invaluable and its a record that may not be broken for many years to come. 

[ToMexico!!]

August 2036

Soro moves from Feyenoord to Dortmund for £34.5m and we get £4m from the 20% profit clause. Which doesn't add up but £4m is still £4m.

[Vakama2619]

Just out of curiosity will you be moving clubs at all or is this a one club save?

[ToMexico!!]

2 minutes ago, Vakama2619 said:

Just out of curiosity will you be moving clubs at all or is this a one club save?

Just a one club save. Trying to grow Gambian football.

[ToMexico!!]

October 2036

Just three players in this window. 

There seems to be a disproportionately low amount of RWB's (RBs, RM's, RW's included) compared to LWB's etc in this save, especially decent-quality ones. So on that basis, we'll be swapping from a RWB to a LWB, we signed Emanuel Mendes to fill that role. The only problem is his single-digit crossing and we're paying him £3k a week. Hopefully, we can scour the market, find a replacement and move him onto Europe soon enough. We'll start to work on his crossing immediately. 

We then returned to Spain to raid Algeciras for Omar Darboe, a young goalkeeper for £105k and Castellon for Amadou Camara for £140k. Young Gambian goalkeepers are hard to come by and with Sarr (35yo) and Jaiteh (31yo) coming towards the end of their careers we needed to find someone soon. Camara doesn't offer heaps of quality but offers youth and a rotation option for the AML. 

We have 7 clauses available to sell. Varela is still at a pittance, I may as well cash in. Dossou-Yovo pops up with appearance money (£650k if we sell) and profit clause (£1.5m). He's worth £13m+ so we'll wait for at least a season first. Thiam's is worth £340k with two years left on his contract. Mendy's is worth £600k, we sold him for £650k so that would be a good deal, not many players tend to move on from Middle-Eastern clubs once they're there. Bah has two clauses, appearances which we will leave as their season hasn't started yet and a profit clause which is worth £460k at the moment. He has a release clause of £3.1m, I don't see a European club triggering that despite him being an Iceland international. 

We're set fair for money anyway, with £17.5m in the bank at the moment. 

[ToMexico!!]

January 2037

Two players leave, Roland and Faye leave for the Iberian peninsula. Roland returns on loan back but it leaves me with an opportunity to fill two foreign spots. Scouring the market will commence immediately. 

Roland's value increases to £1m whilst Faye is worth up to £2.5m. 

[ToMexico!!]

February 2037

I should have waited for the window to complete before showing the outgoings. 

Atletico Madrid return for Jocelin Gbohouo, our foreign central defender. I would have liked to have got more for him but it was a case of needing to get rid once the interest was there and find a replacement. 

Incoming...

We raided Nigeria for two promising players. Fresh-faced 18-year-old Julius Ahmed arrives from Plateau Utd for £525k rising to £650k. He will slot into AMC, which means Keita moves over to AMR to fill the void left by Faye going to Ath. Madrid. I then opted to replace Gbohouo with Samuel Abdullahi for £350k from Wikki Tourists. Traditionally a left-back, my plan is to use him at CB this season and potentially move him to LWB if we sell the current LWB, Mendes. We'll see how that one pans out over the course of the season/summer. 

[ToMexico!!]

June 2037

Would we miss the goals from Dossou-Yovo? The short answer is no... 

Another league win but this time it was much closer, 21 wins from 22 games, the solitary draw coming against Brikama. PSV were hot on our coattails for most of the season, finishing with 20 wins from 22, their losses coming against us. 163 goals scored is a new record with just eight conceded. 

In the cup we finally lost a final again. PSV Wellingara got the better of us on penalties after a 2-2 draw after extra time. 

In the Champions League we defeated both Bouenguidi (Gabon) and Buffles FC (Benin) to reach the group stage. Five wins from six in a group consisting of Stade Malien, Club Africain and Salitas, we lost to Club Africain in Tunisia. USM Alger defeated 6-1 on aggregate in the quarters and an away goal win over Kaizer Chiefs after a 5-5 aggregate draw. We drew 3-3 in the home leg, whilst missing 5 players from the first team on international duty and a player sent off. We then played the CWC and the second leg wasn't played until 25 days after the first leg but luckily Gambia were knocked out of the AFCoN in time for the players to return and play in the second leg. Darboe did the trick netting twice to see us win 3-1 and pick up our third and back-to-back Champions Leagues. 

Oh and we won the African Super Cup, I forgot about it, we beat Raja Casablanca 3-1. 

In the Club World Championship we faced Boca Juniors and Arsenal with 13 first-team players away on international duty. We didn't really have a chance, we lost 5-1 to Boca and 6-0 to Arsenal. 

We didn't miss Dossou-Yovo, I couldn't believe Darboe's scoring rate and to miss out on three-figures by one goal is criminal. His exploits now see him wanted by Espanyol and Real Betis. Dukureh is a god, the new LWB had a great debut season. 

[ToMexico!!]

July 2037

Former player watch...

Eliezer Vianney - still only 24 and now plays at Bayern Munich. He moved from Flamengo to Benfica for £31m and then onto the German giants for £41m. Worth a lot more now and has already amassed 56 caps for the Ivory Coast

Ismael Omossola - now turns out for Celta Vigo having been released by Liverpool, making just six appearances for them. To date we've made the most from this player, I was right to sell the clause when I did. 

Eric Yahaya - the player that made me think to do this. He engineered a move to Spain, played pretty horrendously 92 times for them and they just sold him to Cottbus for £230k. 

Ousman Ceesay - sold for a pittance to Qatari side Al-Ahli after goalscoring heroics, still there at the age of 31 with a 1 in 2 scoring rate. 

Cheick Thiam - at the same club as Ceesay, still yet to cash in on his clause. Solid left back in his time with us. 

Fred Soro - now described by the media as an Elite striker, he looks the part but can't do it on the pitch it seems, just 9 goals in 36 appearances for Dortmund. Worth way too much. 

Alieu Mendy - our first academy player to be sold, a 1 in 3 striker in Saudi Arabia, I may well sell his clause for £700k. 

Mustapha Bah - at the same club as Mendy, came through the academy, still only 1 cap for Iceland. His clause is worth £460k. 

Antoine Dossou-Yovo - big money sale to Koln, made all 28 appearances from the bench last season, scoring just 2 goals. His profit clause is only worth £800k, I'll monitor it. 

Roland spent the remainder of the season on loan with us. 

Latyr Faye - made 18 appearances for Athletico Madrid, scoring twice. Will monitor the new season to see whether we sell his clause or not. 

Jocelin Gbohouo - 13 appearances for Athletico Madrid. I can sell his clause for £540k but again will monitor it.  

[ToMexico!!]

July 2037

£1.5m on upgrades to both training and youth facilities to be upgraded. 

[ToMexico!!]

October 2037

Five clauses remain as we sell Thiam's for a tad of £410k. I had noticed it had started to drop in value, that's never a good sign. 

Leon Roland's clause has appeared since he returned to Benfica and at the moment it's worth £5m. At the moment he hasn't been registered to play in the league for them which is a concern. 

[ToMexico!!]

November 2037

Just one summer signing this window. Julius Owolabi joins from Nigerian side Enyimba Aba for £675k, a new club record transfer. The teenager will slot into defensive midfield, while at the club we're going to work on his physicality. 

Due to the lack of quality Gambian players available to sign, I've decided to promote a few from the U19's including 15 year old Bamba Colley from last season's youth intake. 

[ToMexico!!]

December 2037

257 league goals for Lamin Dukureh in 255 games. 448 Games, 353 Goals and 367 assists in his overall career. 

Those figures mean my tables are pish, trouble is the new season starts with ACL qualifiers before the game resets for the new season. 

[ToMexico!!]

December 2037

A new record win. 

[KristianT]

4 hours ago, ToMexico!! said:

December 2037

A new record win. 

They should be called Inferior FC.

[ToMexico!!]

Just now, KristianT said:

They should be called Inferior FC.

Very good 

[ToMexico!!]

February 2038

One in, one out this window.

Nigerian attacking midfielder Julius Ahmed's short stay with us comes to an end as he joins German side Armenia Bielefeld in the Bundesliga. 19 goals and 22 assists in 37 games and £800k profit. 

He's replaced by Yassine Zarrouk, an 18 year old Tunisian for a huge £2.7k. Bargain basement shopping. Obviously not as good as Ahmed but anyone can score goals in this team.  

[ToMexico!!]

June 2038

Another title, the 16th of the save. 22 wins from 22 again, 164 goals scored which is a new record but we conceded 12 goals which was disappointing. 

Africell FC, Real de Banjul and Banjul Utd beaten en route to the final where we beat PSV Wellingara for cup number 13. 

Al-Ahly Benghazi and APR FC beaten in the qualfiers. ASEC Mimosas, Rivers Utd and ES Tunis all beaten twice to top the group. In the quarters we beat USM Alger 6-2 on aggregate but then struggled against Sundowns as we lost 4-3 on aggregate. 

Darboe missed 4 months of the season due to a broken foot which equated to around 16-18 games, he still scored 49 goals in the 22 games. Carayol took advantage and scored 55 goals whilst the legendary Dukureh scored 43 and assists 40 in his 35 appearances this season, his overall record is truly amazing. 

[ToMexico!!]

June 2038

A bidding war between the French clubs; Nice, Lorient, Bordeaux and Strasbourg ended with Nice securing the signature of Emanuel Mendes for an initial £6m rising to £7m plus 40% profit. 

[ToMexico!!]

July 2038

The first player has been poached. I think he's going to be class. 

[ToMexico!!]

August 2038

After relegation from the Bundesliga, Julius Ahmed moved on from Armenia Bielefeld to Sheffield Utd. 

We received £4m overall with half in instalments. 

[robterrace]

6 hours ago, ToMexico!! said:

July 2038

The first player has been poached. I think he's going to be class. 

Thats a sign you're definitely getting something right though.

[ToMexico!!]

4 hours ago, robterrace said:

Thats a sign you're definitely getting something right though.

Definitely. It's been a long time coming too though. 

Yes, we have youth academy players in the first team and we have sold youth academy players albeit to the Middle East, we haven't really had a genuine star academy player yet. 

I'm looking forward to him come through and more players being poached in the future. 

[ToMexico!!]

October 2038

A busy window, after players leaving at the end of their contracts we were left with 14 first team players. Priority was the defence. 

Having sold our only left wing back at the end of last season we needed to bring someone in. Mauro Junior was the player I brought in to do the job, preferably a LB with poor defensive skills we will retrain him to the LWB role, he doesn't need to do much defending in our system anyway, just provide width down the left. I then signed a host of players from our league to fill the positions on the bench. Alieu Corr at DM, Lamin Bah at CB & DM, Alagie Bajo for CM and Omar Juwara for CB. 

We only had one goalkeeper too and I stumbled across Babucarr Manneh at AIK in Sweden, and somehow missed him on my scouting missions. We paid the £250k fee and now we have two decent quality Gambian goalkeepers, the only problem is that both will undoubtedly be called up for international duty. Late in the window, I was presented with the scout report for Yakubu Balogun at Nigerian side Nasarawa Utd. The 18-year-old Model Citizen left-back was signed for £550k, with only half up front. I decided to loan him back for the season to Nasarawa due to us having all four foreign spots filled at the moment, he will join the first team next season. 

[ToMexico!!]

January 2039

We've sold Julius Owolabi to Bayer Leverkusen for £4m + 50% profit. He leaves quite a hole that needs filling in midfield. 

[ToMexico!!]

January 2039

We've managed to bag another £1.2m from Fred Soro by Dortmund selling him to PSG for £75m. 

[ToMexico!!]

February 2039

One player in, Nigerian midfielder David Abdulsalem joins from Enyimba Aba for a new club record fee of £825k. He's not a DM but he's going to play and retrain for that position as a Segundo Volante. I'm sure he was a Mercenary personality when I scouted him but he's Fairly Determined now, which is better but I was scouting numerous other players to slot into DM. 

[ToMexico!!]

May 2039

A second poaching. Poorer quality but will still be decent. 

[ToMexico!!]

June 2039