corinthiano

January 2024 Our debut was rough as we were outclassed by Flamengo and could have been beaten by way more. The game against Fluminense was also gutting as we were 2-0 up with 20 mins to go but a defensive lapse saw us concede a penalty and have a man sent off. It looked like we were going to hold on to a win but Germán Cano scored with virtually the last kick of the game to deny. Early days so not a worry and the board only expects us to get to the Semi Final of the State Championship so if we keep beating the smaller teams we should be good. Transfers In Out With a squad that is relatively balanced with few gaps I decided to use our transfer budget on one big signing by bringing in Nathan from Grêmio. He adds quality to midfield and will play for us as a Mezzala. Alan was an opportunistic signing on a free to give us depth up front. On the outgoing front I started clearing some players as our squad is way too big. Next Fixtures Our last "big" game in the State Championship in the league stage before we host Venezuela's Portuguesa in the Second Qualifying Round of the Libertadores, a tie which we should really progress from.

Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas was initially founded as a rowing club in the Botafogo neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, but ten years later it created a football team. They won some of the early Rio de Janeiro State titles and have won 21 of those in total, making them the 4th most successful in the state behind the other big 3 clubs. The mantra of successful, but not quite as succesfull is repeated in most competitions, as they have won the joint fewest national titles (2) of the Big 12 and have not won a Copa do Brasil or Copa Libertadores. They have historically had financial difficulties, but in 2022 became a plc and were acquired by John Textor, who also owns Crystal Palace and the group behind Olympique de Lyon. This saw renewed investment in the club and a competitive team for the first time in decades. They dominated the first half of the Brazilian league in 2023 but managed to collapse spectacularly after its coach Luis Castro left for Saudi Arabia. Bruno Lage came in but only lasted 3 months as Botafogo only finished in 5th, with a qualifying round place in the Copa Libertadores hardly a consolation prize. They play their games at the Estádio Nílton Santos, built for the Panamerican Games in the early 2000s. It is new and very modern, but the olympic track is a little bit anti-climatic. Despite the club having John Textor in FM the finances don't seem to be amazing, with only around $5M in the bank and a $600k monthly loan repayment on a $140M loan...The expectations of the board are to qualify for the Libertadores again which should hopefully be doable as we are predicted 7th (which is the last place to get there if the Copa do Brasil winner is also amongst the top 7). In theory we could get out of Brazil within a season as we will be in the Libertadores but I don't think we are quite there yet compared to the other big boys. We seem to have a balanced squad but maybe needing a bit more quality in midfield, the 3 top rated players at the club are: Experienced club captain at the club for 7 years. Another more experienced player, can play AP or Mezzala. Worryingly another experienced player, seems like we need to inject youth into the club. Initial Fixtures We have a month until the long season in Brazil kicks off and we start with a tough one at Flamengo...

Country 1 - Brazil Brazil is the largest country in South America, and 5th largest in the world. It borders every country in South America, with the exception of Chile and Ecuador. It is the only country in South and Latin American that speaks Portuguese and is the most populous too, and 7th most populous in the world. São Paulo is its biggest city, but Brasilia is the capital and was actually built precisely for this reason. The area which is Brazil today was previously inhabitated by various tribes before Pedro Alvares Cabaral discovered the land and claimed it for the Portuguese Empire. Brazil remained a colony for over 300 years until 1822 when it proclaimed independence and became the Empire of Brazil. It became a presidential republic in 1889 and has mostly remained that, apart from the time between 1964 and 1985, when it was ruled by a military dictatorship. It is politically divided into 26 states and a federal district, where the capital Brasilia is located. Brazil is the largest economy in Latin America and 9th largest in the world by nominal GDP. Brazil has a very diversified economy with a majority of the GDP coming from services and industry, but it is also rich in natural resources and agriculturally rich, being one the biggest exporter of various items such as coffee, sugarcane, soy and oranges. Corruption, crime and social inequality do hold the country back however. Tourism is a large and growing sector, with a variety of attractions in the country, from the beautiful beaches to the Amazon Rainforest and Pantanal, as well as several historic cities. The most iconic image of the country is the Chris Redemeer statue overlooking the Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro. Football in Brazil. Football and Brazil go hand in hand. It was introduced by the British in the late 19th century and has become part of the Brazilian culture from then on. The Brazilian national team is arguably the most successful in history with a record 5 World Cup wins, albeit the last one came over 20 years ago in 2002. Football did develop regionally first with tournaments in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, which would become the centres of success within the country. A national league was only created in the late 50s and had various formats (sometimes very unusual) until 2003 when a standard league format was adopted. The team with the most titles is Palmeiras, who have won 12 and won the title last year. They have had a very strong team in the last few years but as you can see from the league winners in the last years the title does not tend to stay in one place for too long. In FM Palmeiras are also considered one of the more reputable clubs, behind Flamengo. There are plenty of strong clubs in a balanced league, however historically it has been dominated by the Big 12. The Big 12 are a collection of clubs from the biggest hubs in Brazil - São Paulo (Corinthians, Palmeiras, São Paulo), Santos (which is just off São Paulo), Rio de Janeiro (Flamengo, Fluminense, Botafogo and Vasco), Belo Horizonte (Cruzeiro and Atlético Mineiro) and Porto Alegre (Grêmio and Internacional). Between them they have won all but 6 Brazilian Championships and despite ups and downs are considered the largest in the country. 11 out of the 12 have also won the Copa Libertadores before, with Fluminense winning it for the first time in 2023 (told you this was important), which leads me to Gabriel's first club...

So I finally got to the point where I can play the save I wanted to since FM24 is out, first because I found a database that is mostly accurate when it comes to the South American leagues not in the original game, and secondly because with the 24.3 update we have the 2023 Copa Libertadores results updated, which as will be explained was an important factor. The Copa Libertadores de América is South America's elite tournament and has been in place since 1960. There were informal precursors to the tournament but it only came into creation after the European Cup inaugurated in 1955. In 1958 the then FIFA president João Havelange announced the Copa de Campeones de America with the ultimate aim being a game between the European and South American champion to determine the best club in the world. In 1965 the tournament was renamed to Copa Libertadores, in honor of the liberators of America such as Simón Bolívar. In its 64 editions the tournament has been primarily won by Argentinian and Brazilian teams, with the title going outside of these countries only 16 times, half of those to Uruguay. Peru, Bolivia and Venezuela have never had a team win the tournament, with the first having a couple of finalists. In terms of successful clubs there is not a clear dominance like Real Madrid in Europe. Independiente of Argentina is the biggest champion with 7 titles, but the latest was in 1984. The Premise Inspired by other saves I have decided to try and win the Copa Libertadores with a team from every CONMEBOL nation. With only ten countries this should be an achievable goal. In line with the other saves and to make it a bit more challenging I will try to win it only with teams that have not won it before. This means the choices in Brazil and Argentina will be more limited and it will take out some of the big hitters in the other countries. I will start from the country with the league that has the highest reputation and work my way down, which currently means a start in Brazil and end in Bolivia. The manager taking on this task will be Gabriel Libertador (a.k.a Gabriel the Liberator), loosely inspired by Brazilian rapper Gabriel O Pensador (a.k.a. Gabriel the Thinker, which is very random I know, but is what came to my head ). He will be the youngest age he can be and have his experience and coaching badges matched to his first club, which I will select and explain later. As soon as he wins a Libertadores he will resign and look for a club in the country with the next lowest reputation. He can move clubs between countries but can never manage a club that has won the Libertadores before. So on we go to the first country...

June 2025 An international break to forget as we lose clearly to the Solomon Islands and then let a 4-1 lead turn into a 4-5 defeat against Tonga.

March 2025 We thought we got a late win against New Caledonia when we scored in the 90th minute, but they equalized with the last kick of the game, surely ending our World Cup qualification hopes.

November 2024 - Word Cup Qualifiers It is not looking good in the qualifiers for us as again we run the bigger nations close, but not close enough.

September/October Friendlies A very mixed set of results, seems like we are not good enough against the weaker Asian nations. Big plus though has been finding two Cook Islanders playing in the depths of Europe, they are now amongst the best players in the squad. Playing in the lower Dutch leagues, could be starting goalkeeper for years to come. Playing in Switzerland, could be an excellent goalscorer for us.

OFC Nations Cup - Second Round Squad There was one big miss in Tylerr Barringer-Tahiri, our by far second best defender. Second Round Very respectable again, but not quite good enough. We lead against Fiji and Vanuatu at points but couldnt capitalize on it. Up Next We didnt qualify for the Semi Finals, but by not finishing bottom of our group we did qualify for the next stage of the World Cup Qualifiers, which start in November.

2024 OFC Nations Cup - First Round Squad No major changes to the squad other than Harlem Siliona being back in the squad after being injured, which is big news as he is our best midfielder. A few 15 year old newgens popped up in Cook Islands too and I called up 3 of them to the main squad. First Round The 4 worst teams in Oceania compete in a separate First Round out of which only one qualifies for the Main Group Stage. We easily dispatched the other teams and comfortably qualified. Up Next We avoid New Zealand in the Second Stage and with us having run Fiji close before I think we have a small chance at making top two and progressing to the Semi Final. We do have to wait until June to play though...

2023 Pacific Games Squad All players are based in Oceania, with the better players in Australia, New Zealand and Vanuatu. Ben Mata from Wellington Olympic is our best player and the only one worth any money. Warm-up Friendlies Invited over islanders from the Caribbean to very mixed results. Group Stage A very respectable campaign where we ran the bigger boys close. If the tight games against Fiji and Solomon Islands had gone differently we would have had a chance at making it to ast least the Third Place Playoff. In the Final Fiji beat Vanuatu to claim their third title.

October 2023 Mixed results against some of the bigger boys in Oceania, which leaves me thinking we'll not embarrass ourselves when it comes to competitive fixtures. Talking of which we have the first chance at that in the Pacific Games coming up next month. They are essentially a preview to the OFC Nations Cup with the exception that New Zealand play with an U23 side. Only the top side goes to the final so it'll be tough but as some of the friendlies have shown we should keep it close most of the time.

Thanks! Yes it could be a long and painful journey but at least we'll get a lot of obscurity out of it

September 2023 The first defeat of the save and one that does not bode well for our chances in the OFC Nations Cup, although we took them close. Hong Kong was up in 144th in the rankings but we beat the easily and with that we moved from 187th to 183rd.

June 2023 Friendlies were picked on having one higher ranked team (Chinese Taipei - 152nd) and one lower (Anguilla - 209th). In the end two easy victories.

March 2023 Two decent draws in the first friendlies. The game against Solomon Islands was already set up and they are above us in the rankings, but Pakistan were the lowest we could play (200th vs us at 187th).

The Premise Mau Penisula is a frustrated figure. His country Tuvalu is not affiliated to FIFA and will never be able to even try and qualify for a World Cup. He knows he can't change that, so instead he sets out to help other countries have their time to shine. He aims to venture into each continent with two aims. Win the Continental Trophy with a Nation that has never won it before Qualify a country from the Continent to the World Cup for the first time These two do not have to be achieved with the same country. Mau will start with the lowest rep Continental trophy and work his way up, from Oceania, through CONCACAF, Asia, Africa, South America and finally Europe. At the end he will try to win a World Cup with a country that has never won it before. In terms of the game set-up we will have a few leagues loaded for whichever continent Mau is in so that enough players get generated locally. There will be no club management at any point whatsoever, only international roles will be taken. Which is why Mau is starting with all necessary badges, but a Sunday League reputation. So, on to the first continent, Oceania and the OFC Nations Cup. Oceania is the weakest of the continents from a footballing perspective, with only two nations making it to a World Cup, Australia, which is now part of AFC and New Zealand. The OFC Nations Cup has also only been won by three nations, again Australia, New Zealand and a solitary win by Tahiti in 2012. The tournament is held every four years, with the last being in 2016, won by New Zealand and 2020 cancelled due to the Covid Pandemic, with the next tournament in 2024. As can be seen not a lot of countries high up in the ranking and Mau took a job with the only country with a vacancy. Cook Islands One of the weaker countries in the continent, the Cook Islands only participated twice in the OFC Nations Cup, losing all 4 games they played, scoring 1 goal and conceding a massive 41. The bar is low for Mau to do better for the country. The aim will be to see how far he can take the country before deciding if a jump to one of the bigger nations will be needed to complete the continent. Let the journey begin

Literally two minutes after finishing the update this happens...could have saved myself some time

Ajax Lasnamäe - 2028 Season Report We found the step up to the top tier to be too much for us. We started OK, but a third into the season we went into a dreadful run which included 15 straight losses and never looked like we would escapae relegation. Our Youth Intake actually saved us some grace as we picked up 7 points in the last 8 games to make the gap to 9th at least somewhat respectable. Squad by Appearances There are more midweek games in the top tier due to international breaks so we did rotate a bit more. The squad was not good enough for the top tier, with our best players decent second tier players as per our coaches. Top Player - Chris Lepik 26j: One of the few players to have a decent season as he looks to be developing into a decent striker. Did have a nasty injury at the end of the season though which will put him out for 5 months - I hope it doesnt stifle his development too much. Youth Players Once again a great CA intake and the personalities are not as awful, which is good improvement. This part keeps the save really exciting as we have a few players each intake that immediately improve the team and with all improvements we have had I hope this trend continues. An amazing 4 players slot straight into the first team and we now all our starters are youth academy players. Transfers Nothing of note again, squad is getting big though so will look to release some players in the off-season. Infrastructure Board agreed to the improvements in the off season, didnt request for anything else as we weren't doing well, but hoping to get Junior Coaching and Youth Network improvement next season. Finances Not bad considering we spent 90k in training facility improvements. We managed to get a senior affiliate in Sudtirol of Italy, which gets us another 28k ish a year. Progress Back to the second tier we go, which isnt necessarily a bad thing and to be honest if we dont go straight back up that is OK too. I think we need a couple more years to improve the side before we can be competitive at the top level.

Congrats!!!

Ajax Lasnamäe - 2027 Season Report Surprisingly we found the step up to the second tier quiet easy and lead the league almost the entire season. As with a couple of years ago our form dipped towards the end and we were pipped to the title by the fact Nomme Utd had less losses...I thought we would have little chance in the promotion playoff but absolutely outplayed Vaprus (P) to get promoted to the top tier in Estonia! In the cup we primarily played a rotated side and ended up knocked out against a lower league side. I'll continue that approach until/when we become an established Premium Liiga side. Squad by Appearances The squad is starting to get really well balanced with good back up options across most positions. The only place where we are still a bit short is up front, with our starting duo being converted strikers. Top Player - Jevgeni Bodrin: Still our best player, but we don't rely as much on him anymore. At 27 I feel we have another couple of seasons before we have to worry about a replacement. Youth Players Another great CA but poor personality intake. Our HOYD is Fairly Determined but I can't seem to find a better one. Will look again in the off season. Four players into the first team is not bad at all though. Transfers Nothing of note, I think I need to start releasing some of the youth that didnt quite make it. Infrastructure Managed to convince the board to improve Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment twice this season due to our good form and overachievement. Finances Still in the red but we made 30k profit in the season so should hopefully be in the black next year. Progress I did not imagine we'd be up in the top tier already, it'll be tough as there are 5 professional sides out of the 10 in the league, so we'll be in a battle with the other 5 semi-pro outifts.

Ajax Lasnamäe - 2026 Season Report Another inconsistent season, but this time our form improved towards the end of the season and we were able to secure promotion to the second tier at the third time of asking. We actually have 3 less points than last season, so we definitely are not dominant in this tier and could struggle next season. In the cup we keep having really tough Second Round draws (which is the stage we enter at). Couldnt have been harder this season than playing at the best team in Estonia. We actually did really well, even going up 1-0 and securing that lead up until halfway through the second half, but from then collapsed and lost 4-1. Squad by Appearances More of the youth players get time this season. We will have three of the original squad retire at the end of the season, with the biggest loss being DLF Deniss Jogiste. Goalkeeper Kirill Andreev also retired but he was getting so bad I started playing youth players two thirds into the season. Top Player - Jevgeni Bodrin: Him again, he is actually our only player considered to be second tier material. Youth Players Much better intake from a CA perspective, although personalities are not great again. Three players go straight into the first team squad. Transfers Let go of a fringe goalie and loaned out a promising defender. Infrastructure We managed to convince the board to improve the Youth Facilities, which are now at Basic, but we are in the red as a result of it. Finances As mentioned in the red, but we should be able to make some gains next season without facility investment. Progress Up into the second tier and I just hope we manage to keep up there and consolidate.

Bora Timão!!

Ajax Lasnamäe - 2025 Season Report What a bottle job. We were sitting top by 6 points with 6 games to go. We weren't really that convicing all season but I thought we had enough to go up. 6 games later we were trounced by Maardu and Laanemaa, picked up only two points and missed out even on a promotion playoff. Very disappointing end of the season, but may be best for us to spend another season in the third tier consolidating the squad. Squad by Appearances It was nice to have more options to rotate and we did give some of the youngsters game time. By the end of the season 3 of last year's intake were in the first XI. Really concerned with GK as the 38 year old Andreev declined a lot this season and all the youngsters are pretty rubbish. Top Player - Jevgeni Bodrin: Our best player again with an impressive amount of assists. Youth Players Very underwhelmed with this intake. Rubbish personalities and only two players go into the Senior Squad. Transfers Forgot to show this last season so both seasons are here. Only let go one of the original squad this season as he was down the pecking order at RB. Infrastructure Only request approved, we are at Average now. In the end it was a stadium expansion, almost doubling our capacity for 50k seems like a decent deal now. Finances No losses this season, mostly thanks to an additional 10.5k sponsorship. Progress Disappointing not to be promoted but may be a blessing in disguise as we don't feel ready for the second tier yet.

Decent first run in the NACL, seems like there is still a bit of a gap to close to Mexican and U.S. teams, how long you think until you can close that?