leyrtj
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Posts posted by leyrtj
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On 29/12/2023 at 09:59, leyrtj said:
Lam Dong - Season 17 - 2036 - Vietnam - Wake UP 247 V. League 1 (Tier 1) - 1st - AFC Champions League - WINNERS!
CHALLENGE COMPLETE!
Oh man. What a season. We won the AFC Champions League and therefore have complete the challenge. I'm playing on FM20 if that's important. The number one emotion is relief. I've come so close the last few seasons, so it feels nice to finally get over the line. This challenge tests you so much along the way. I've been totally obsessed with it over the Christmas period. I've now completed Africa and Asia. The next continent will be North or South America I think. I see Colombia hasn't been done yet so that's high on the list.
AFC Champions League - Winners
We drew a medium to tough group with Ulsan Hyundai, Shanghai SIPG and Hokkaido Sapporo, and took 7 points from the first 3 games. We were then 3 - 0 up in the 4th games, then Hokkaido scored 3 goals in the last 5 minutes. A loss away to Ulsan left the group wide open as we travelled away to Shanghai SIPG. A tight game saw Lukas Etterlin score the winner and put us through top of the group. This season really was about Lukas Etterlin, and all action seemed to revolve around him. As mentioned in the previous update, he started the season at left wing, but things weren't clicking. We then put him back up front, and he then went to score more than a goal a game including the winner to put us through top of the group.
Finishing top of the group, we were hoping for a good draw and Melbourne City was pretty good, and we battered them at home to go through. Then it was time for Jeonbuk - we seem to play them every year - three years in a row to be precise. Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors had knocked us out twice in recent years and won the competition numerous times. However, we enacted revenge again, and brushed them aside fairly easily. The semis against Shangdong Luneng was a tight affair. In the away we were pretty dominant but they hit us on the break twice to win 2 - 1. The AI had started playing 2 up front against me, and it was proving really effective on the break with quick strikers. In the second leg Lukas Etterlin stepped up again. He scored a penalty in the first minute to settle the nerves, then again inthe 23rd minute, before completing his hattrick in injury time.
In the final we faced Al-Sadd from Qatar, a team who had won the Champions League 6 times in the last 10 years. Featuring a load of foreigners who had acquired Qatari passports (3 years needed), an old Bakaya Saka had scored the winner in the final last year. In the home leg, it was somehow goal less - Lukas Etterlin hit the post 4 times and they had 5 clear cut chances, but then we had a man sent off in the 57th minute. They peppered our goal but it finished 0 - 0. Then, disaster - we lost 8 players who went to the AFF Championship with Vietnam. We managed to put out a team, but our bench was full of U19 youth players. I genuinely thought we had no chance, but then Lukas Etterlin made his presence felt again. A 5th minute penalty was given to us and a golden chance for the away goal. Etterline stepped up and....put it wide. However, he scored a first time half volley in the 24th minute after a knock down from Nguyen Van Hien. Al-Sadd drew level in 49th minute with a header, but then Lukas Etterlin scored a header of his own following a cross from Truong Tron Sang. They scored a penalty to equalize and it was 2 - 2, but we were ahead on away goals. They absolutely dominated us for 30 minutes, and I was struggling to watch. But then he popped up again, laying on an assist for Nguyen Van Hien to make it 3 - 2. It was all over, and the trophy was our's. Had I been Al-Sadd I would have been gutted. Not quite an FMing but they deserved to win.
Elsewhere in the League
The league was won again, but only by 3 points this time. We also won the cup and the Super Cup. In total we won the league 6 times and the Bamboo Airways Cup 4 times.
More on Lukas Etterlin
As mentioned above this season was all about Lukas Etterlin. He is the most memorable player I've had in the game even though I've only managed him for 2 season. Last season he was a bit inconsistent up front so I thought I'd put him on the left wing and I have another good striker to go up front. however, it wasn't working, so we moved him back up front. After a poor start to the season he then started firing at a goal a game. With 5 star ability and plenty more to go, he's far too good for this level, and he knows it. I rejected an offer for him from Hoffenheim and he kicked the toys out the pram. Luckily he was on a long contract with an extension clause. He missed training after staying out late to enjoy the Dalat nightlife 4 times. During this time he also acquired Vietnamese nationality. I'm quite tempted to continue the save, become Vietnam manager and see if he'll change nationality. He also did something I'd never seen before - scored a penatly from a rebound.
The Final Squad
In the end I don't think the squad had any big weaknesses. Normally, with these saves, you lack in one position. Perhaps midfield we lacked during the save, but we have a couple of young talents coming through. Lukas Etterlin was undoubtedly the player that got us through. We had a team to compete in the knock out stages of the Champions League, but his goals were what helped us win it. It's strange. In my South Africa Youth Academy challenge I had a similar player come through at the same time - young foreign striker (Jamie Wood from England), who helped us win the Champions League.
Player Records
Youth - for what it's worth
@darren1983 Also I completed in Vietnam a while back. Link above.
Congrats to the completioners! Very impressive.
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Chernomorets Balchik - Bulgaria - Build a Nation Challenge
Season 11 - 15 Update
It's been a really good 5 seasons in the challenge and much progress has been made.
Domestically we continued to dominate, but that's expected. In the Champions League we have continued to reach the latter stages, and have beeen in the semis 3 times in the past 5 seasons. It's solid stuff, but not spectacular as we've not managed to win it again since Season 10. We have a pretty decent team, and we're gradually strengthening it. Part of the issue is we keep on having to sell 100m of players each year to subsidize our loan farm. There's very little money domestically, so it's only Champions League money that brings in money. In Season 13 we sold our star keeper for 120m as it just seemed too good to turn down. But then our 5 star potential replacement keeper ended up only being a 3.5 star keeper. But, all in all, it's good progress. The only achievement we have left at club level is getting our reputation into the top 5 in Europe. So far, we haven't got past 13th but I think this is limited by the reputation of the league, so we'll need to be a bit patient there.
Possibly our star player. Not sure I've had a better player at 18.
Other Teams in Bulgaria
The other teams in the league have also been doing well. Many of them are regulary reaching in the knock out stages in Europe and Slavia Sofia won the Conference League. All this meant the Bulgarian league currently sits 4th in the coefficients meaning that objective has been ticked off. The league has been steadily rising and now sits 6th in reputation, one off the target. The other teams' reputation is also slowly rising so hopefully we'll go above the French league soon. This should in turn help our own reputation.
The loan farm is going well, and we're loaning out 40 - 50 players to the domestic teams in Europe. The good part is that better and better players are willing to go there on loan, which then helps performance in Europe, which leads to a better reputation etc. Just need patience here and to keep doing what we're doing.
Internationally
Internationally is where we've made the most progress. As at the last update, we'd just taken over the national team and been promoted to Division B of the Nations League. We then failed to make the World Cup, that loss at home to Scotland costing us. However, we then got promoted again in the Nationas League, and things started snowballing. We qualified for the Euros, partly because our Nations League performance gave us a first seed, which led to a much easier group.
In Euro 2036, we drew a relatively easy group of Denmark, Turkey and Serbia. A 1 - 0 win in the final game against Serbia saw us squeeze through as best 3rd placed team. Unfortunately, Italy knocked us out in the round of 16. We need to reach the quarter finals to reach the goal, so we'll have to wait 4 seasons.
Then things got a bit silly. We beat France and Germany to win our Nations League division, then qualified for the World Cup, topping our easy group. We then beat Nigeria and Japan in the World Cup group stage, which was enough to meet that criteria. I was happy and knew we'd lose soon. But then we beat China. Then we beat Germany in the round of 16, making it to the quarter finals. Only an extra time goal by Argentina saw us knocked out. All that saw our ranking hit a high of 23rd, up 52 places from our ranking at the beginning.
Much of this was down to fresh blood in the squad. A number of decent players were coming through. There are no world beaters, but a lot more strength and depth than previous. We also managed to persuade 5 players to represent us, having been on our club team for 5 years. Again, no world beaters, but each was a small increase in quality.
The one downside. Our top regen scorer, Petar Mihaylov, retired on 74 goals, one short of the requirements. Not even qualifying for the World Cup could persuade him out of retirement. Hopefully we'll persuade him with the higher ranking, but if not we have a number of seasons ahead. We have 21 year old striker on 15 goals, but at, say 7 - 8 goals a year, we're looking at 8 seasons or so. The one difficulty here is you can't organize many friendlies due to the nations league fixture, so you can play too many games againsty San Marino and the US Virgin islands. Still we wait.
The first player we persuaded to represent Bulgaria.
Challenge Progress (6/10)
Goals for the next 5 seasons:
- Keep going domestically. It'll come
- Qualify for the Euros
- Reach the quarter finals of the Euros
- Persuade Mihaylov out of retirement to score one more goal
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Chernomorets Balchik - Bulgaria - Build a Nation Challenge
Seasons 6 - 10 Update
Seasons 6 to 10 in challenge have been excellent, totally surpassing my expectations, and we only went and won the Champions League in Season 10. I'm loving this save.
As at the Season 5 update above, we'd established ourselves as a top 4 Bulgarian team and were generally quialifying for the Europa League group stages. We finally picked up silverware in Season 6 with a cup win, and then won the Bulgarian efbet Liga title in Season 7. We managed to retain the leagues in seasons 7, 8 and 9, but each time was a battle, and it wasn't until season 10 that we were able to dominate the league. Being able to dominate the league was key as we were able to play a second XI in league games, meaning our first XI was well rested for the Champions League games. Also, it meant our morale was high throughout the squad.
We made it out of the Champions League group stage for the first time in Season 7, and generally were a Round of 32 or Quarter Final team from then on. Until Season 10 that is. Selling some players for huge money meant we were able to reinvest in weak areas and we put together a good squad. However, the squad is not good enough to win the champions, but we had an unbeliveable run to the finals - playing Ajax, Porto, Sevilla and Athletico Madrid along the way. Not sure I've ever had an easier path to win the Champions League.
Transfers
The key to progress was dealing in the transfer market and it's one of the favourite parts of the game for me. Finding cheap wonderkids in random parts of the world - not sure there's much better. We managed to unearth wonderkids from Mali, Kosovo, Japan and two from Bosnia. We looked to turn over players to build a bank and then repeat the process. Thos players that were Champions League potential we held on to unless a ridiculous bid came in. We made good money, but then in Season 8 we sold Mustafa Ibrahimovic for 35m. This enabled us to go after a higher class of player, which then meant more profit. Selling Gaston Padovano for 85m in Season 9 was another catalyst.
The squad is now a lot more stable and we don't need to sell as much. I'm starting to focus on bringing in U18s with 5 star potential to then go out of loan in the league or to sell them to domestic clubs.
Some wonderkids:
Other teams in the league
The other teams in Bulgaria have been doing well, beyond what I was hoping for. They're investing in their facilties and have been regualrly making the knock out stages in Europe. I've not created a loan farm as such, but I'm been loaning out around 20 players per season. The league reputation is now up to 8th and our coefficients in up to 6th. We're only a few places from meeting the challenge criteria there but I suspect it'll take a few seasons to break the top 5
Internationally
Internationally is the only part of the challenge that hasn't gone well. We took over the national team at the beginning of Season 9. We managed to gain promotion from Division 3 to Division 2 of the Nations League which was good progress. We're now halfway through World Cup qualification and it was going well after 5 games. We'd only lost to France and were sitting in 2nd. However, a home loss to Scotland has meant it'll be difficult to qualify unless they slip up or we beat France at home.
One area of concern has been the poor quality of youth intakes in Bulgaria. I've been scouting all the youth intake players and in the past 5 seasons there's only been one player with really good potential. There's a fair few okay players but nothing of quality that will make us a better team. There are, however, a few good players aged 27 - 31 so we need to produce some soon before they retire.
I've also been learning more about how get players to represent your nation. I have an Argentinian on our team who's been with us for 5 years and just took up Bulgarian second nationality. He's really good but not good enough for the Argentinian national team. Once he got second nationality I was going to ask him to represent us, but there wasn't the option. After looking around online I believe that a player has to have the second nationality before they have any youth caps otherwise they can never represent the new country. I believe this is how it works but if anyone knows more let me know. I have a number of other players who'll reach the 5 years in the next Season or two so I can learn more. Nationalizing players was always part of the strategy. If this rule is the case then I'll need to focus on players over 21 who don't have any youth caps.
Challenge Progress (3/10 achieved)
Goals for the next 5 seasons:
- Continue going far in the Champions League to build our's and Bulgaria's ranking
- Bring in lots of top potential players to them loan out to the other teams and then sell on later
- Become financially independent
- Get up to 12 foreign affiliates
- Nationalize 3 good players who improve the national team
- Bring in some players who are over 21 with no youth caps. They should be good enough to improve us but not good enough for their country's national team (if only to test the system)
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Chernomorets Balchik - Bulgaria - Build a Nation Challenge
Seasons 1 - 5 Update
It's been an excellent start to the save. Our goal was to get promoted and get into Europe and that's exactly where we are.
Getting promoted out of the Tier 2 Vtora League was more challenging than expected. With a total lack of money and player quality, we scrambled around for a half decent team to start the season with. Then we gradually populated the team with loan players, which gave us enough quality. We couldn't make the play offs in the first season, but went up automatically in the second season.
I was expecting the first season in the top flight to be more difficult than it was but, again, loans were the key alongside some decent signings and we finished 3rd. Seasons 4 and 5 saw 2nd place finishes, which put us into the qualifying for the Champions League group stages, but didn't get through qualifying. Levski Sofia are by far the best team still, so the next 5 years will be to topple them. They have been signing lots of wonderkids with their champions league money so this will be tough.
We had two good seasons in the Europa League, making it out of the group stage both times. Levski has also been doing well in Europe meaning the coefficients and rankings have been boosted.
Transfers
Quite possibly my favourite part of FM is wonderkid hunting on the cheap. The focus has been to generate as much money as possible through buying and selling. This has hurt us a bit in the short term in the league, but this is obviously a long term save. The process has gone really well, much better than expected. Yordanov going for 10m in Season 3 was a big help and sped up the process. Take the money, reinvest, sell etc. I started offering him out, hoping to get a 40% clause on him, then saw the media message that teams were going to bid 9m for him. I actually almost didn't sign him initially, but he was on a free and cheap wages so thought why not. There are two clauses ready to sell but they're not worth much.
International
Not much to talk off. Bulgaria are still in much the same ranking position, and only have one elite player. I'll look to take the international job in 5 to 10 years.
Challenge Progress
Goals for the next 5 years:
- Win the league and cup
- Reach the group stage of the Champions League
- Continue to make money through transfers. Aim to have a settled squad by Season 10
- 3 upgrades to Training and Youth Facilities
- New stadium
- 5 foreign affiliates
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Chernomorets Balchik - Bulgaria
For my second go at this challenge, I'm heading to Bulgaria. Bulgaria's youth rating is mostly okay at 72 and their game importance is Very Important which is what attracted me to them. Bulgaria are sitting at 75th in the world so we need to take them up to 35th. I holidayed 5 years into the future this time, as I mostly like to play with regens.
Bulgaria's top flight only allows 3 non-EU players which is definitely going to be one of the challenges here. But players can get Bulgarian nationality after 5 years. The league is already at 22nd in the ranking, and Bulgaria sit 21st in the UEFA coefficients.
We chose Chernomorets Balchik as they're on the coast of the Black Sea and have some okay facilities.
The Plan - the 5 year plan is to get promoted and get into Europe.
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So I've rethought the rules for completion. The initial criteria I set out, whilst possible, would have taken too long. And I'd like this challenge to be able to be completed in 20 - 40 seasons. It makes the challenge easier but it's still hard enough anyway.
Ultimately, Build a Nation to me means makes the nation better, but not necessarily the best. With this I've also changed the country criteria to be any country outside the top 50 of the current FIFA rankings.
Changes are detailed below (changes in red) and will be updated in the first thread. Not sure this will tempt anyone to try the challenge (I see many are doing it anyway in the Careers thread). But I'm going to have another go. I won't count the Maldives attempt for the challenge.
New Country criteria
- Any team outside the top 50 of the FIFA rankings (so 51st and upwards)
New Challenge completion criteria
Club Honours
- Win the top domestic league
- Win the domestic main cup competition
- Win the champions league of the continent your club is based in
- Have the club's reputation be in the top 5 of all clubs in the continent
Division Honours
- Have your domestic league's reputation be in the top 5 of all leagues in the continent
- Have your country's coefficient be in the top 5 of all nations in the continent
Country Honours
- Have your country reach the knock out stages of the World Cup
- Have your country reach the Quarter Finals of the continental championships
- Have your country move up 40 places in the World Rankings
- Have a regen national team player score 75 international goal
Thinking behind the changes
- For the club honours I canged it from 1st ot top 5. In the Maldives save I won the Champions League 5 times in a row but was still 2nd.
- For the division honours I changed it to top 5. This means the challenge can be completed in the 20 - 40 year timeframe as it takes ages for the AI to catch up.
- For the International side I made it easier. The requirements are now much more achieveable for the competitions. Also you have a trade off. If you take a team just outside the top 50 of the FIFA rankings (e.g. Slovenia), reaching the kcock out stages of the World Cup is achieveable. However, you then have to get Slovenia up to 17th in the rankings which is much tougher. Or if you take a team low down in the rankings, it's easier to move up 40 places but harder to get the competition objecives.
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@vikeologist Congrats on Maitland. Very impressive to complete before 30.
And we have another one to add to the list. I went back to my Maldives save to see whether Kouakou could get there and he did. It helped, like Maitland, Kouakou wasn't injury prone. As we were by far the best team in the league and there are 38 games in the league season he was ideally placed. It also helped that his international career kicked off as well. Also, we started playing him at 18. I wasn't thinking about this challenge when I did that.
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Kelaa Sports - Maldives - Build a Nation Challenge
Season 21 - 25 Review
I took a break from this save after 22 seasons, but I always wanted to come back and finish 25 seasons for completion. Also I wanted to give Kouakou a chance to get to a 1,000 goals.
On the club side, we won another 2 AFC Champions Leagues in Seasons 21 and 22, making it 5 in a row. When we came back to finish the save, we weren't as focused so didn't manage another one in Seasons 23, 24, or 25. We continued winning league and cup doubles. However, we didn't quite manage to become the highest reputation team in the continent, despite the 5 Champions Leagues in a row, with Al-Ahli somehow managing to hold on to that.
Kouakou hit a career 1,000 goals in the final season
On the league side, the highest the Maldivian Dhivehi league went to in the rankings was 4th, and 2nd in the coefficients. The Saudi league is number 1 and doesn't look like being surpassed any time soon. The other teams in the league havne't made much progress in the last 5 years, though they are slowly upgrading their facilities as the TV money continues to come in. None of them has gone beyond the group stage of the Champions League.
Internationally, it's been a very good 5 years. In the previous update we'd managed to get out of the World Cup first qualifying group, knocking out Saudi Arabia in the process. In the Final Grouo stage won only managed a 5th place finish but qualified for the playoffs. We beat Vietnam across 2 legs and I thought we were through the the world cup. But, no, we had another game. We beat Vanuatu in the next game, but there was another game. This time we face Uruguay and I thought the World Cup dream was over. However, we beat them 4 - 0 and the Maldives reached their first World Cup. We drew Croatia and Chile in the World Cup group stage, which didn't seem too bad a group for our seeding, but couldn't manage a point.
The qualification for the World Cup apparantly meant we didn't need to qualify for the Asian Cup in 2043. 3 key players had retired after the World Cup, so the team was weakened. However, out good seeding meant we had a relatively easy group with Myanmar, Oman and Lebanon. We finished second in the group and qualified for our first ever Asian Cup knockout game. Unfortunately, it was against Saudi Arabia and our dreams were over quickly.
So, great progress on the international side. However, with some key retirements the future doesn't look so good. In the past 5 seasons, there's only been one quality player coming through the youth intake.
Overall Challenge Progress
- Domestically, it's been good and the only downside is not hitting number one in reputation - not sure why with those 5 Champions Leagues in a row
- Division wise, we did well, but it would need another 25 years for the other clubs in our league to catch up
- Internationally, again it's been good progress, but I can't see us hitting those goals in the near future with the retirement of key players
- With more focus, I think two of the other objectives could be achieved in the next 5 years - Highest reputation and 75 international goals
Final Thoughts
It's been a really fun save, possibly my favourite ever. I'm definitely going to start another one of these in the near future
- I'm going to look at tweaking some of the rules of this challenge. No one else has started it yet so that shouldn't be an issue. I'd like to make it more achieveable. In theory I could complete this challenge with the Maldives but you could be looking at 50 - 75 years before the domestic teams catch up. So I'd like to make the challenge achievable in 25 years or so.
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This is painful. In the last four season, I've lost in the Copa Libertadores on penalties twice, on away goals and in the final. We lost in the final this year, but had our three best players out injured.
Time for a break.
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Luversense - Brazil - 2038 - Season 12 - Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A (Tier 1) - 1st (Champions)
Urghhh. Not happy. Dominated Corinthians in the second leg of the Quarter FInals of the Copa Libertadores. Just couldn't score, and lost in penalties. Somewhat my fault as well. I thought it would go to extra time, but it didn't so I could have pushed for a winner in normal time. Not sure I can bear another year of this. After the loss I just simmed through the rest of the season and won the league and cup for what it's worth. I won't update again until I win it.
Barbosa won U21 footballer of the year is the only other relevant news.
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Luversense - Brazil - 2036 - Season 11 - Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A (Tier 1) - 1st (Champions)
Knocked out in the QF of the Cope Libertadores. It was a tight game against Internacional. We lost the first leg 4 - 2 as they hit us on the break no less than 4 times. We managed to win the second leg 2 - 0 away, even hitting the bar in injury time, but we lost on away goals. On to next year.
We won the league agin on the last day for what it's worth. Barbosa top score in the league again with 26. We have a 5 star potential striker coming through so Barbosa might move to right wing next season.
Nothing in the youth intake. Nothing else important to mention.
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Luversense - Brazil - 2036 - Season 10 - Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A (Tier 1) - 1st (Champions)
And that's the league won!
We took a slightly different strategy in pre-season this year. In Brazil, the "pre-season" lasts from January to April as you play in the state championships. In previous seasons I'd played my first team here, but this hurt later in the seasons with fixture congestion and injuries. This year, we played the second Xi from January until March, and then put the first team in from the beginning of April to get them ready for the league season. We also played the second XI in the cup and Copa Sudamericana hoping to get knocked out as theose competitions don't matter. It all went to plan. We won our first 7 matches in the league, had a bit of a blip but then went on a run of 12 victories in a row (including five 1 - 0 wins), which put us 13 points clear. We had a few bad performances but made it over the line. Ironically, as we were playing the last few games, we were reading about Botofogo losing a 13 point lead in the league in 2023. We were in the same position with five games to go and then took 1 point from 3 games. In the penultimate game we went 1 - 0 down, and I was thinking about the irony of losing the league whilst reading that article. But we came back to win 2 - 1 and that was the title.
Squad wise, it's mostly a finished squad. We have good quality in every position, and some okay quality as back up. I've never produced such quality from my youth team in all my years in FM. It's wonderkid after wonderkid and explosive green arrows in training - it's the joy of managing in Brazil. Jader Barbosa progressed well and was the top scorer in the league with 23 goals from 38 games. He still not natural as a striker and he's a better winger, but you can't argue with the stats.
I feel confident going into the next season winning the Copa Libertadores, but you just never know with cup comeptitions
Current Squad
Past wonderkids - Jean Carlo (DC), Jean Carlo (DL),
Current wonderkids - Eduardo Henrique( AMC), Jader Barbosa (AMR/SC), Eloilson (DR)
Jader Barbosa was labelled as the player of his generation in the youth intake. He's made excellent progress in one year (he came through at 18), though not sure he'll become world class.
A pretty good intake. We finaly got our striker, but we most likely won't ever see him in the first team. Some decent players coming through as back up as well.
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Luversense - Brazil - 2035 - Season 9 - Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A (Tier 1) - 10th
Almost the Copa Libertadores.
We had a really poor start to the season. At one point we were playing 4 games a week - Brazilian Serie A, State Championship, Cope Libatadores Group Stage and Briazilian Cup. Despite rotation and resting, the players were tired and we were near relegation after 10 games. After the group stage ended, our form came back and we slowly moved up the table. We finished mid table but that doesn't qualify us for the Copa Libertadores next season.
In the Copa Libatadores we made unspectacular progress. We were losing our away leg but then managed to win the tie at home in the quarters and semis against good Brazilian teams. We then faced Vasco de Gama in the final who were only one place above us in the league. It was an opportunity we couldn't take and they shaded a close game.
So we have two more seasons at least. At least 4 of our players are refusing to sign contracts but they are on long contracts at least. I think 2 more seasons and we can challenge. I will need to rotate more at the beginning of the season.
A very poor youth intake.
Barbosa is making slow progress but still score 17 in the top flight this season. More to come I'm sure.
The whole of Europe is after this guy. I rejected a bid from Real Madrid and he wasn't happy.
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Luversense - Brazil - 2034 - Season 8 - Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A (Tier 1) - 6th
A good season. Gosh, Brazil is fun. Intersting names, explosive growth and wonderkids galore. Not so fun is having all teams in the world circling around your players.
We finished 6th and qualified for the Copa Libertadores on the final day of the season. We were flirting with the top 4 around the mid way point of the season but fixture congestion meant we slipped down. This team is still very young and we just need to hang on to our players. I feel we're around 3 seasons away from completing Brazil if we can. Crazy TV money came in this year so finances are very good.
Our youth intake brought us one superb talent. We wanted a striker and a right winger and we got both in one player. Barbosa is better as a winger but we really need a striker so I'm going to retrain him as a striker. That leaves us weaker on the right wing but I feel it's worth it.
Wonderkid 1
Wonderkid 2
Dubbed the next Ronaldinho, he'll be a wonderkid soon
Only one talent through the intake but Barbosa is a beauty. I can only recall seeing "player of his generation" once before from an intake. Shame he's 18, but hoping for more explosive growth next season. Also, we now have 3 left backs called Jean Carlo (and a centre back).
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Luverdense - Brazil - 2033 - Season 7 - Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A (Tier 1) - 11th
A very satisfactory first season in the top flight, finishing mid table. We had a slow start but then pulled clear of relegation and stayed lower mid table the whole season. This qualifies us for the Copa Sudamericana. Nothing much else happened. The youth take was disappointing. A good right back came through but we have plenty of talent in defence. We still need a striker and a right winger and a bit of patience and we'd have a good team. Another mid table season next season will be most welcome.
Best player
A disappointing intake. One elite talent but we have plenty of talent in defence.
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Luverdense - Brazil - 2032 - Season 6 - Campeonato Brasileiro Seri B (Tier 2) - 1st (promoted)
So I picked up the save after a few months mid season and we were sitting top of the league after a good start to the season. I'd looked back at my previous post and said I needed patience. We ended up winning the league by quite a gap.
I started remebering the players. In particular Eduardo Henrique came through our youth intake last season and is already a starter at 16. The growth in his stats in one year (see below) is unlike anything I've seen before. Some of his stats have increased by 3 in one season. Unfortunately he won't sign a new contract as he wants to move to Santos. Hopefully the promotion will tempt him to stay. He looks like a really good player.
We haven't had a good striker come through an intake yet. However, Lourenco scored 45 this season, but surely he isn't good enough for the top flight.
The board want us to fight bravely against relegation in the top flight next year. We're predicted to finished 19th out of 20. As usual, staying up is the goal.
I didn't get a screenshot of the youth intake, but it was decent. This guy came through.
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On 20/01/2024 at 16:12, leyrtj said:
Luverdense - Brazil - 2031 - Season 5 - Campeonato Brasileiro Seri B (Tier 2) - 9th
Another season of mid-table. We're slowly improving as the old squad get replaced by the youth intake. We had improvements approved in Youth and Training Facilities and Junior Coaching so we should see the effects there.
We managed to sell a player for 5m. We were trying to sell off one of our prospects to FC Porto with a sell-on but they wouldn't bite. Then there was a news article where apparantly one of the Serie A teams were going to buy our right back for 5m. I didn't believe it but I offered him out and Flamengo bid 5m. Lovely. His loss did weaken the team, but it's not too bad.
One area which I like about Brazil is how quickly the players improve. We don't have amazing facilities but there's green arrows everywhere. We managed to get a lot of the prospects on long contracts so I think we just need to be patient.
Green arrows everywhere.
Another disappointing youth intake. Henrique comes straight into midfield, but not much else. We need a striker and a right winger and the first XI looks good.
So after a break from FM for a number of months, I'm to progress this challenge. I'd completed Vanuatu and then moved to Brazil where we'd done 5 seasons. I'm going to pick up from this save. I'm a long way behind XaW so we've got some catching up to do.
@XaW 4 down, 2 to go. Very impressive. Am I right and you left Germany after a few seasons despite being in the Bundesliga?
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Luverdense - Brazil - 2031 - Season 5 - Campeonato Brasileiro Seri B (Tier 2) - 9th
Another season of mid-table. We're slowly improving as the old squad get replaced by the youth intake. We had improvements approved in Youth and Training Facilities and Junior Coaching so we should see the effects there.
We managed to sell a player for 5m. We were trying to sell off one of our prospects to FC Porto with a sell-on but they wouldn't bite. Then there was a news article where apparantly one of the Serie A teams were going to buy our right back for 5m. I didn't believe it but I offered him out and Flamengo bid 5m. Lovely. His loss did weaken the team, but it's not too bad.
One area which I like about Brazil is how quickly the players improve. We don't have amazing facilities but there's green arrows everywhere. We managed to get a lot of the prospects on long contracts so I think we just need to be patient.
Green arrows everywhere.
Another disappointing youth intake. Henrique comes straight into midfield, but not much else. We need a striker and a right winger and the first XI looks good.
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12 minutes ago, XaW said:
XaW - Markham FC (Papua New Guinea) - Season 2042/43 (Season 20) - Kumul Petroleum National Soccer League
There we go! Two in the box, and Oceania was surprisingly easy, but the intakes we got here in Papua New Guinea has been amazing. We also retained the league and I threw the cup since it interfered with the Champions League, and the 2nd string failed. I think I'm heading back to Africa now to try to do it again there before I then go to Asia. Onwards!
Papua Cup: We beat Eastern Stars before we lost to Welgris Highlanders in the 1st round.
Oceania Champions League: We drew Eastern Suburbs of New Zealand, ABM Galaxy of Vanuatu, and AS Dragon of Tahiti. We won 2 and drew the last to finish top of the group. We then beat Henderson Eels of the Solomon Islands, and AS Dragon of Tahiti again to reach the final. There we had a rematch against AS Piraé of Tahiti who had won it 5 times in a row, including beating us last season. This time we did it in a dominating fashion to clinch our 2nd big trophy!
Around the world
Youth intake:
Trophy cabinet
Continental
CONCACAF Champions League - 2037 (Astros de Colombia)
OFC Champions League - 2042/43 (Markham FC)Caribbean Cup x6 - 2031, 2033, 2034, 2035, 2036, 2037 (Astros de Colombia)
Caribbean Club Shield x9 - 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032, 2033, 2034, 2035, 2036, 2037 (Astros de Colombia)Papua New Guinea
Kumul Petroleum National Soccer League x2 - 2041/42, 2042/43 (Markham FC)
National Ch'ship Group A - 2040/41 (Markham FC)Curaçao
Liga MCB 1st Division x11 - 2027, 2028, 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032, 2033, 2034, 2035, 2036, 2037 (Astros de Colombia)
Curaçao Segundo Division - 2025 (Astros de Colombia)
Curaçao Terser Division - 2024 (Astros de Colombia)Player statistics:
Most apps for me
Name Club Nation 2nd Nation Time at club Apps ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Anthony Martina 26a Astros de Colombia Curaçao <N/A> 2026-I left 435 José Rodríguez 24b Astros de Colombia Curaçao Colombia 2024-2037 369 Juan Francisco Scarpeta 28b Astros de Colombia Colombia Curaçao 2028-I left 364 Fabián Díaz 28e Astros de Colombia Curaçao Colombia 2028-I left 338 Nicolas González 29c Astros de Colombia Curaçao Colombia 2029-I left 313
Most goals for me
Name Club Nation 2nd Nation Time at club Apps ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Anthony Martina 26a Astros de Colombia Curaçao <N/A> 2026-I left 414 Estéfano Muriel 30a Astros de Colombia Curaçao Colombia 2030-I left 219 Nicolas González 29c Astros de Colombia Curaçao Colombia 2029-I left 119 Dayro Belalcázar 31a Astros de Colombia Colombia Curaçao 2031-I left 90 Pedro González 32c Astros de Colombia Chile <N/A> 2032-I left 85
Most assists for me
Name Club Nation 2nd Nation Time at club Apps ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Nicolas González 29c Astros de Colombia Curaçao Colombia 2029-I left 136 Estéfano Muriel 30a Astros de Colombia Curaçao Colombia 2030-I left 108 Dayro Belalcázar 31a Astros de Colombia Colombia Curaçao 2031-I left 101 Anthony Martina 26a Astros de Colombia Curaçao <N/A> 2026-I left 76 Pedro González 32c Astros de Colombia Chile <N/A> 2032-I left 69
Supporters:
Summary:
Wow that was quick! Congrats. Think I've got another 7 - 8 seasons before (if) I finish South America.
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Luverdense - Brazil - 2030 - Season 4 - Campeonato Braileiro Serie B (Tier 2) - 7th
After our promotion last season, this was a nice boring season in Serie B. We were hanging around the top 4 and automatic promotion for a while, but eventually we slipped back and finished high mid table.
We look well set up for promotion in the next season or two. This is assuming we don't lose a load of players, but being in the higher league this season has made it easier to hang on to players. FC Porto are interested in 3 of our players. I'd sell one for a sell-on fee but they don't seem interested in that. That sell-on would probably allow us to max Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment. We did, finally, get one upgrade there this season. Money-wise, we're doing much better, with a cup run and the Serie B TV money.
Only 2 players remaining from the original squad. We desperately need a striker to come through a youth intake. Jean Carlo is looking like our best player. Not quite a wonderkid, but might possibly be if he joins Porto at aged 20.
Pretty disappointing intake. No-one who can get into the first team, and the 2 elite talents are in places where we already have players.
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On 17/01/2024 at 17:26, libbyshuss said:
South Africa Premier Soccer League - 2034/35
League: 4th
Champions League: Quarter Final
well, what I was hoping was a romp to the league title to add to our Champions League triumph last season turned into a transitionary season. The Champions League win made our players much more visible and two of the best got stolen away from right under our eyes. Stupid minumum release clauses! so we had to rebuild.....
Kaizer Chiefs were head and shoulders above everyone else and they were the bane of our existence. They knocked us out the cup 6-1 and battered us in the Champions League quarter final too, gaining revenge for last season.
Players
Top Scorer: 39. Phakamani Molefe 25K with 29 goals from
Player of the Season: 39. Phakamani Molefe 25K with an AR of 7.57
I love the fact my most consistent and important player was the 11th best looking prospect from my first youth intake! Who woulda thunk? But he's just so so consistent, easily outperforming his attributes
But.....
They stole away my first potential wonderkid! For a paltry 400k! Without even a sell on!
Youth
I got a preview!
pretty good! two A grades, but I think the three strikers might have slightly skewed that
Career
I haven't decided yet but I might carry on if I complete this and go for the pentagon. Can you do it just with vanilla databases?
I think it's theoretically possible to do the Pentagon Youth on the vanilla. I'm still using FM20, so you'd need to check with someone using your version. On mine, Europe (many vanilla nations), Africa (SA - you've almost completed), Asia (China), South American (Brazil, Argentina) would be fine (other choices available as well, those are examples of the ones should work on mine). The only one that might not work is North America. Mexico works on FM20 (one team gets promoted to the second tier). But I've heard it might not work like that on future versions. Perhaps add the Mexican leagues now, and hopefully you'll see if it's working as you finish in South Africa. Oceania you wouldn't be able to do, but I don't think it's technically part of the Pentagon. Good luck!
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11 hours ago, XaW said:
Uhh.... I suspect there is in an issue in the file I'm using for Papua New Guinea... The rules say the two best teams in the top tier will qualify for the Oceania Champions League, but I suddenly got an info I'm playing there now.... and I have no idea why???
I looked a bit further, and noticed the winner of the league last season is NOT qualified, but my team and the team that finished mid-table last season are in. So I have no idea how the team is picked for the CL here... I will add a few other Oceania leagues into the save, but I might have to go there unless I figure out how the game picks what teams to enter...
Edit: I looked into it a bit, and it turns out ourselves and the other team were top of the league on Feb 1st, so perhaps the game picks the teams who are top, at that point rather than the last winner and runner-up? @darren1983 is it ok if I continue this, or should I move to another country in Oceania?
It was the same in Vanuatu. I worked it out as the top 2 teams in the league as at January 2nd went into the OFC Champions League.
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Luverdense - Brazil - 2029 - Season 3 - Campeonato Braileiro Serie C (Tier 3) - 2nd (promoted via the plaoffs)
Last season's last gasp relegation escape might be the most important season in this save. This season, with the addition of 3 of last season's youth intake, and a year's first team football for the youth intake from two seasons ago, we managed to secure promotion. We finished second in the league, then only needed to win the play off quarter finals to gain promotion to Serie B. Given the financial troubles the club is heading towards, the promotion is much needed.
Luverdense History
Mauriki History
The squad is now mostly youth players coming through. We have a really good core of players at GK, Def and Mid, but not much coming through on the wings and up front. We will need a good striker at some point. A number of the original squad will retire this year, giving an opportunity for youth to step up. I hope we can stay up, but I have the feeling we wouldn't be sacked if we get relegated.
The AI teams contiune to hunt our players. Last season, after we got out youth intake, by the time the players accepted their youth contract, there were already teams interested and they wouldn't sign proper contracts. I somehow managed to keep hold of all of them and got them to sign a contract in small windows when teams weren't interested. Hopefully promotion will make this easier.
Out best player, who came through the youth intake last year. He's improved so quickly, I'm guessing his PA is pretty high. We already can't afford a contract renewal, so either we get promoted soon or we'll lose him. One more year and I'd then be happy to sell with a sell-on.
An okay youth intake. No one special came through and the talents were in positions where we already had players.
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Luverdense - Brazil - 2028 - Season 2 - Campeonato Brasileiro Serie C (Tier 3) - 8th
Well, I didn't think we'd make it. With 13 games gone (out of a total of 18 games in the season), we were rock bottom and hadn't won since the opening day of the season, Then, out of nowhere, we won a game. Then we faced 9th place Ferroviario at home and scored a late winner, and we were virtually safe.
We had a really nice youth intake. Only 3 elite talents, but they were all in areas where we were lacking, so all three will walk into the first team. Hopefully this will be enough to keep us safe next year, though I'm not convinced. The Board keep accepting upgrades and we now have Good Junior Coaching and Excellent Youth Recruitment.
One possible area of concern is how much the AI teams are after our players. We had one youth player poached which is fair enough. But one week after last year's youth intake, all the decent new players had multiple teams interested in them. I've somehow kept hold of all of them - in one case the board accepted an offer over my head, but the player accepted an offer from a different team so I was able to cancel the transfer. But how long can I keep hold of them?
Luverdense History
Mauriki History
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The FM24 Youth Academy Challenge
in Challenges, Sign-Ups & Experiments
Posted · Edited by leyrtj
Thanks for organizing it darren. Still the best challenge out there.