Cross

January 21

This legendary! Really nice read and what a challenge!! I love reading this, keep up the good work.

March 1, 2023

I will start a new save the coming days. My last save with San Marino Calcio in Fm20 got corrupted

Any tips before starting? What are the pro/cons of starting in the San Marino League vs Serie E? Or should I do both?

March 16, 2020

San Marino Calcio 23/24

I forgot to update after this season, so this will be very short. We ended up as runner up. Cesena had a really good season and we couldn't keep up with them. I think they only lost to us in the league, which was annoying.

In the playoffs we had to play against Rimini, which are a nemesis in my whole Serie C campaign. Ofcourse we lost 1-0, the classic 100 chance for us and 1 for them game.

Good thing is that the big clubs in Italy are given us more and more oppurtunities to loan players from them. So next season will be me last season in the Serie C, finally!

San Marino Calcio 24/25

This season we led the league beginning to end. Our young contract players improved, we renewed some loanees and found some good new loanees. Doing a team report on the big clubs in Italy was really helping me.

Also the last two season we were able to sell two players for around 600k€. This improved our finances, which are still terrible.

San Marino NT

In the Nations League we were able to fight for the top spot with Armenia. Away from home we didn't stand a chance against them and lost 2-0. At home we were leading the whole game with 1-0, but in the last 10 minutes they managed to score 2 goals. And I think they deserve it, because our NT is still terrible.

In the WC qualifiers we are hopeless. What really annoys me is that when we lose 2-0 against Greece I still have to be angry at my team to keep them motivated. When I use the 'symphatize' or 'you managed to give your best' team speak they are annoyed with me, which is unrealistic in my eyes.

San Marino players and prospects

After six seasons I think it's time to show you some of my players from the NT and young upcoming talents. Our acedemy and youth recruitment are adequate. The youth recruiment is now being upgraded to average.

Nicola Buscarini

Next to Gaiola and Bernardi our NT star player and also the biggest San Marino talent. Also, he is the only player which is getting regular play time in the San Marino Calcio squad. He isn't in the first eleven, but is being used as the 12th men. His versatility helps a lot.

Francesco Bernardi

Francesco is a talent from the first YP I had in the game I think. I had high hopes for him, but couldn't give him enough play time in the San Marino Calcio squad. With the promotion to the Serie B he is released from the club. I really hope he can find some nice Serie C team to get him some play time.

Luca Bernardi

Another Bernardi up front which is making confusing sometimes. This Bernardi hasn't got a lot of my attention yet, but when I was making this screenshot I saw he was already at 12 caps at the age of 19. I think most of them were as substitute, as he isnt as good as Buscarini, F. Bernardi or Nanni yet.

Silvano Tamagini

Another good pull from my first season which hasn't got the play time he needed. I tried to loan him out a couple of times, but no teams were intrested. Which is a shame, because I think he is good enough for some Serie C teams. With the promotion to the Serie B I also released him in the hope to get him some playtime.

Massimo Censoni

The player from the last YP with the most potential. This has to be our keeper for the years to come. Only, he is 1.82M (6ft?)...

February 27, 2020

Is a a club in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malta or San Marino an option for this challenge?

February 26, 2020

You play fast mate! Keep it going and congrats with the 54th position of Europe

February 25, 2020

Nice! Doing the San Marino challenge myself as well with SM Calcio. Good luck and I will follow.

February 24, 2020

The setup of both sides is exaclty the same with an IF(S), MEZ(S) and WB(A). Try to vary a bit with an IF(A) and FB or WB(S) for starters.

Also, the CF(A) is a demanding role. Are you sure you have someone available who is capable of that role?

February 23, 2020

San Marino Calcio 22-23

This season went better than the last and we were competing the most of the season for spot 4-7. Untill March were we hit a bad run due to my chance of tactics. I am really disapointed, because I think with this squad I should've finished in the top of the league.

\

Vladulescu 3th player of the season is really suprising to me, as he was mostly substitude and did not score a lot. He has a lot of potentatial though. Unfortunatly he is not San Marinese :P

The National Team is not really improving. I introduced a lot of young players from my under 18 and under 20' teams to give them experience at national levels. I really need to find a tactic which is working.

For next season I hope to get promoted (finally) and to improve my facilities to strenghten the NT.

February 14, 2020

Yes that's correct. There are three Serie C's (A, B and C) so there are 9 promotions spots available, one for each Serie D league.

The playoff does not guarantee you promotion. Only when More than 9 teams are relegated from Serie C or when a Serie D winner fails to meet requirements for promotion.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serie_D

February 13, 2020

I just finished my 3rd season and 2nd season in Serie C. The Serie C is, at least for me, a superhard challenge. With the squad this year I really expected to fight for the top spots, but instead we finished 12th. I invested a lot in this squad, so we are now 500K in debt. I have to see if I can manage this another season.

Gaiola was once again my POTS, followed closely by fellow San Marinese Berardi

The NT did not went that well either. We almost snatched a draw against Turkey and Belarus, but that was it. Hopefully we can get the morale up in the Nations League.

February 1, 2020

I just finished my 2nd season at San Marino Calcio and I think it was my worst season off all CM/FM games I have ever played lol. I should have the players available to me to at least finish in the mid table, but unfortunately nothing was working. The first 20 games we were on 8 points..

Luckily we managed to finish within 9 points of the number 16 and the FM gods let me win the playoffs for relegation.

Next season will be different. Now we are full professional I want to be more specific in which players I want for my team. I hope I can offload most garbage from this year's team.

In the YP we pulled a exiting and hard needed CB for the NT.

The draw for the WC has been very favourable to us, but I don't expect anything to happen the next few years. Good thing is that Gaiola, the best player of San Marino Calcio, became a San Marinese and is now also the best player of the NT. Did this happen to anyone else?

January 27, 2020

First game with San Marino and first win. I really don't know what happened that second half lol

January 25, 2020

First season done. Won promotion from Serie D to Serie C by winning the division. Got a nice newgen. Another Bernardi for San Marino.

Haven't managed San Marino yet. Will start to do that next season.

January 9, 2020

Cool thanks! Will start a new save tonight

January 9, 2020

So I would like to play a youth only game, but the save you shared of SM Calcio in the Serie C is way to hard for me. The difference with the other teams is huge and the selection in inbalance.

Is there also a save available for the Serie D where I don't have to edit anything but load the leagues?

January 18, 2019

I really love this idea! Hope you will get to top 10 leagues soon.

I am Doing the same kind of challenge with SC Heerenveen in the Dutch league. Trying to get the Dutch league above the French and German is already very hard. So I can't imagine how hard the N. Ireland league must be!

February 2, 2018

On 24-1-2018 at 03:36, vikeologist said:

@yugularCongrats on your second World Cup. Hopefully you'll win the Club World Cup and be a leaderboarder soon. It's a bit sparse at the moment.

@GloryFan2002 Certainly is hard on FM17 to get a club job when you're an international manager. Anyway, congrats on the champions league. Look forward to following your next adventure.

@YellowLittle Were you offered the Tottenham job when you were Wolves manager? Anyway, hope your season goes well.

@streety Not sure why Red Bull were champions when they had less points. Must be some kind of weird arse multi-stage league. Have never managed in Austria. Weird how many leagues that's true of, given how long I've been playing this game.

@Cross Hope your spell at São Paulo is going well. Can't say that managing in Brazil appeals to me all that much, (because of the long seasons), but when I do try this challenge again, I guess I'll have to go there because I didn't have a lot of success winning the Libertadores from any other nation.

Oh your so right. I just finished the State championship (won) and I already feel that I managed for a season, while I still have to play 50+ games... This country is great for developing youngsters because of the many match opportunities, but for this challenge it is horrible.

Does the State championship count as a cup or league win by the way?

January 17, 2018

Woop!

January 17, 2018

2022

Thinco goes abroad

After resigning at Defensor Sporting it was time to look beyond Uruguay. Applications were made at topclubs in Mexico, Brazil, USA and Argentina, but none would take Thinco as their manager. Most of them had better options, or weren't approving Thinco's handling at his previous clubs. Finally, after 9 months of rejections, Thinco found his club: São Paulo FC. One of the most succesfull clubs in Brazil was begging Thinco to get them back at the top again. Funny thing is that the same club kicked Defensor Sporting out of the Copa Libertadores.

Série A

When Thinco arrived at Morumbi, the 77.000 all seater stadium of São Paulo, the club found herself halfway season in 12th position. About 12 points behind the leaders Cruzeiro and Bahia. But still alot of games had to be played, so nothing was lost yet.
The club itself wasn't managed very well in the last years. There were lots of players in the first team and reserves. Most of them begging for playtime. So much potential was being wasted. Unfortunately the transfer period had just ended and nothing could be done. A selection of the best players and highest potentials was made and the rest was dropped in the reserves. They would all be sold in the next tranfer window.

We almost came back to top position. With 3 games to go we had to play against Cruzeiro. There was only 1 point difference between the two clubs, with the advantage of Cruzeiro. The match went even, but sadly Cruzeiro was just a bit more effective with her chances. After another loss against Vitória we ended up 4th in the overall rankings and placed ourselves for the Copa Libertadores:

Copa SudAmerica

When Thinco took over São Paulo was still competing in the Copa SudAmerica. The previous manager defeated Thinco's previous club Defensor Sporting (again) and gave us a 3-0 lead in the first match against Cerro Porteño. Cerro Porteño was defeated on aggerate. The next match against Boca Juniors was close, but lost in the end. Boca Juniors had signed Cavani, and although he was in the late days of his career he gave us real trouble. Boca Juniors were the later winners of the tournament after defeating Santos in the finals.

International

WC 2022

The World Cup draw was really though for Ivory Coast. A group with Belgium, Italy and Iraq proved too much for the team. Although the last match against Italy was really close. Belgium won the tournament, after defeating France in the finals.

African Cup of Nations

We qualified easily. Hopefully we can win the cup next summer.

Next Season

The next season is all about winning prices. Thinco has to win the copa libertadores before he can leave South America. Also a national title or cup win would be nice.
The squad of Ivory Coast is too good to not win the African cup of nations next summer. So we expect to win that and will resign afterwards.

Season    Team                    League                     Position   Domestic Cups            Continental Cup       Notes
2017	  Villa Española	  Secunda División	      5th        -                        N/A                  Promoted
2018      Villa Española	  Primera División	      9th        -                        N/A               
2019	  Villa Española          Primera División            11th       -                        N/A                  Sacked - National C and B license
2020      Defensor Sporting       Primera División            2nd        runner up                DNQ                  National A license 
2021      Defensor Sporting       Primera División            1st        winner                   2nd round            Continental C and B license
2022	  São Paulo		  Série A		      4th	 -		          1/4th Finals         Started around halfway season 




INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT
Season   Nation        FIFA Ranking   Continental Tournament   World Tournament   Notes
2021     Ivory Coast   24th           N/A                      N/A                Qualified for WC 2022 in Australia
2022	 Ivory Coast   14th           Qualified                Group Stage	  Qualified for African Cup of Nations 2023

Challenge Progress

Club

1/10 top domestic leagues: Defensor Sporting

1/10 domestic cups Defensor Sporting

0/5 club continental championships

0/1 club world championship

International

0/5 continental tournaments

0/2 world tournaments

January 13, 2018

Thinco's revenge

The season couldn't start better for Thinco. In a tight game against Atlético Peñarol Thinco's team was finally lucky. This meant that Thinco won his first official cup in his career. Also, this gave the team confidence for the rest of season.

Copa Libertadores

This year we were automatically placed for the group stage. Unfortunately the draw was not in Defensor Sportings favor with one the best clubs from Chili and Brazil in the group. But the matches were easier than expected. A loss in the last game away against Cruzeiro made us end in the second place, which was enough to go through.

In the next round we had to play against São Paulo. An opponent which was to strong for us. Both games were lost with 1-0

Opening Stage

We rolled the opening stage. Atlético Peñarol started really bad and Club Nacional couldn't follow our lead in the end. The youngster from Defensor Sporting developed so fast and became too good for this league.

Intermedio

In the intermedio (cup) we had an easy draw again. No Atlético Peñarol or Club Nacional. But both CA Cerro and Montevideo Wanderers had a really good run. In the end we all three ended with 16 points, but Defensor Sporting had the better goal difference and thus went to the final.

In the final we finally had to play Club Nacional instead of Atlético Peñarol. But, the one loss of the opening stage was against Club Nacional, so we knew this was going to be a hard game. And hard it was. A red card and a penalty shootout thriller. Luckely we won in the end, after lots of misses from both sides.

Closing Stage

The closing stage was a walkover. Early fixtures against Peñarol (win) and Nacional (draw) already decided that we were going to win this competion and that Thinco managed to win the treble in his 4th season of managing.

Transfers

Thinco started when Defensor Sporting was in debt. At the end of 2021 the club was in the positives against due to some good sales. The best players left, but young talent quickly replaced them. The future for Defensor Sporting seems bright.

Season 2021

After winning the treble Thinco quit his job. He had a feeling that he was done in Uruguay and that his current reputation was enough to secure him a job at a topclub in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina or USA. We will have to see..

International

When Thinco saw a job vacany at Ivory Coast he decided to just apply, without much hope for getting the job. Suprisingly he inmediatly got offered a job interview and one week later he was hired.
The reason became clear quickly. The last manager had troubles in a WC qualifing group with Cameroon, Zambia and Burkina Faso. But, there were still chances to qualify with only 2 points behind Cameroon. And so we did, because Cameroon lost against Zambia and Thinco won both his games with his new national team against Burkina Faso and Zambia. So we are going to the World Cup in Australia!

Season    Team                    League                     Position   Domestic Cups            Continental Cup       Notes
2017	  Villa Española	  Secunda División	      5th        -                        N/A                  Promoted
2018      Villa Española	  Primera División	      9th        -                        N/A               
2019	  Villa Española          Primera División            11th       -                        N/A                  Sacked - National C and B license
2020      Defensor Sporting       Primera División            2nd        runner up                DNQ                  National A license 
2021      Defensor Sporting       Primera División            1st        winner                   2nd round            Continental C and B license




INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT
Season   Nation        FIFA Ranking   Continental Tournament   World Tournament   Notes
2021     Ivory Coast   24th           N/A                      N/A                Qualified for WC 2022 in Australia

Challenge Progress

Club

1/10 top domestic leagues

1/10 domestic cups

0/5 club continental championships

0/1 club world championship

International

0/5 continental tournaments

0/2 world tournaments

January 4, 2018

@shirajzl Congrats mate! You did that really quick. Thanks for the tips

January 4, 2018

Thinco's never Lucky

A despression had almost hit Thinco as he sat at is his appartment in Montevideo for months. He applied at different clubs every day, They laughed at him.
The few appointments that he had ended in nothing. Always there was a manager with more experience or the chairman did not like his handling at Villa Espoñola. Nothing wrong with a few lies to keep your players happy and applying at other clubs, right?
But then, around Christmas, something magical happened. Thinco was invited by Nicolás Medina, the Argentian (!) chairman of Defensor Sporting!

With the promise of focussing on developing youngsters and keeping a good squad harmony Thinco could start in January.
Defensor Sporting has a great squad, with lots of talent. But also some deadwood and good players at the same position. Also, 1,4 Million of the total expenses of 4 million is put into youth recruitment. Defensor Sporting has a lot less supporters (~4000 compared too ~50.000) than Atlético Peñarol and Club Nacional. This means that we have to sell our best players every year to keep the finances positive. And so we did..

Copa Libertadores

The season started with a important qualification match for the Copa Liberadores. We drew Deportivo Cali, the number 3 of Colombia last year. Two exiciting matching were played. We were better at home and equal away. Unfortunately we lost at home (1-2) though some defensive errors. We managed to win away (1-2), but lost with penals.

Opening Stage

Thinco started really well with Defensor. From the first 8 games, only 1 was lost. But then came our nemesis: Atletico Peñarol. With Villa Española Thinco did not manage to win against Peñarol and unfortunately it was not different with Defensor (0-2).
This led to some other losses and draws. In the end we ended up 4 points behind Peñarol.

Intermedio

In the intermedio (cup) we had a really easy draw without Peñarol and Nacional. From the 8 games we lost only one and so we had to play the final against Peñarol, the winner of the other group. Defensor came ahead in a good first half. But in the second half the pressure got to big and Peñarol equalized. The extra time was dramatic for Thinco's defence. Error after error resulted in a 1-4e loss.

Closing Stage

Same as the opening stage we started fantastic. We lead for a long time, because both Club Nacional as Atlético Peñarol started but. Thinco was really proud, as he had to sell his best players in the summer transfer window. But some annoying draws and another loss against Peñarol made Defensor the runner up of the season, despite a 4-0 home win against Club Nacional.

Transfers

After the opening stage Gonzalo Carneiro started complaining that he wanted to go to a bigger club. So he left to Brazil. With him we could've won the closing stage, as he was on 1 goal in 70 minutes at the moment.
The other players sold were also really good players, but didn't fit in Thinco's plan or the offer was just too good to turn down.

Season 2021

Thinco really likes managing as Defensor. He loves to develop youngster. But Club Nacional and Peñarol have way more to spend and are both really hard to beat in the league. So he is not sure what next season will bring.

Season    Team                    League                     Position   Domestic Cups            Continental Cup       Notes
2017	  Villa Española	  Secunda División	      5th        -                        N/A                  Promoted
2018      Villa Española	  Primera División	      9th        -                        N/A               
2019	  Villa Española          Primera División            11th       -                        N/A                  Sacked - National C and B license
2020      Defensor Sporting       Primera División            2nd        runner up                DNQ                  National A license

Challenge Progress

Club

0/10 top domestic leagues

0/10 domestic cups

0/5 club continental championships

0/1 club world championship

International

0/5 continental tournaments

0/2 world tournaments

December 31, 2017

SACKED!

As was feared Thinco got sacked after a 3-2 defeat against Sud America. To bad, because he really had gathered a good team, with an extremely talented 17 years old Uruguayan goalkeeper.

But if the defence lets you down like this, it is maybe better to move on. At least he just got his C license for his departure.

Season    Team                    League                     Position   Domestic Cups            Continental Cup   Notes
2017	  Villa Española	  Secunda División	      5th        -                        N/A              Promoted
2018      Villa Española	  Primera División	      9th        -                        N/A               
2019	  Villa Española          Primera División            11th       -                        N/A              Sacked - National C license

Challenge Progress

Club

0/10 top domestic leagues

0/10 domestic cups

0/5 club continental championships

0/1 club world championship

International

0/5 continental tournaments

0/2 world tournaments

December 31, 2017

Wow almost there! With 4 cups to go, I wonder where you will finish.

December 30, 2017

Congrats! Fun thing about this challenge is that you manage in leagues which are complety unknown. My goal is to manage in as much as leagues where I never managed before. Can't wait to start in Asia and some obscure European countries.

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