[FM18] Road to 1,000 Goals: Life of a Striker

[kandersson]

Early end of the season for Rodrigo Paulista?

Paulista scored minutes into the first leg of Copa Libertadores final but got injured shortly after and was forced to leave the game (veteran back-up striker Marcos Junior managed to score a brace off the bench ). It turned out to be a twisted ankle, slightly more serious than previous injury but still nothing major (it's again the ankle though). Rodrigo will miss 3-4 weeks which means he's out for second leg and for the final Série A fixtures (title already sealed), missing the Copa Libertadores match is particularly disappointing as Paulista lost the chance to win top scorer title in this competition for the first time (two more goals were needed).

This could be an early end of the season for Rodrigo Paulista, though he still has a chance of returning for Club World Cup matches in mid-december if we qualify (which seems likely after first leg of Libertadores).

[BoxToBox]

Ahhh, sucks.

[kandersson]

1 ora fa, BoxToBox ha scritto:

Ahhh, sucks.

It's not ideal, though I have to say I can't complain really. It's been a crazy long season with non-stop action from january 1st to late december for a total of 80 games I think. Rodrigo missed a total of about 5-6 weeks with non-major injuries, and still played a lot of games with very little rest or rotation. Realistically I'd be more than ok with this kind of injury rate in the long run!

[BoxToBox]

Aye, it's not bad overall, but it's a shame to miss a chance at a goalscoring award.

[kandersson]

Rodrigo Returns!

Rodrigo Paulista returns for the highly anticipated Club World Cup after River won the Copa Libertadores. Paulista was a big part of River's continental success as he scored 11 goals in 11 matches (sadly only good for 2nd place in scoring charts) so it's only right that he has a chance to play in the CWC. I decided to take a risk here as Rodrigo was not fully fit and actually still one day away from full training when the tournament started. I wanted him to play though, after all it's just a couple of games (at best) before end of the year break, and it was a pretty special occasion for both the club and the player. It went well.

River won the Club World Cup defeating Cruz Azul in the grand final! Quite shocked that Madrid didn't make it to the final, so it was a relatively easy path for us as we beat chinese side Shanggang in the semifinal and then the mexicans of Cruz Azul in the final. Paulista was again instrumental for our success, as he scored 3 goals in the tournament (including a brace in the final) and was the winner of Golden Ball award as best player (and also top scorer) of Club World Cup.

At the age of 17 Rodrigo Paulista has basically won every possible trophy and individual award at club level for a player based in South America, as already suggested the biggest challenge now will probably be keeping him in Brazil for the rest of his career. A somewhat low transfer activity from abroad in my save gives me some hope though!

[LUFCspeni]

Going to be heartbreaking if he gets snatched up by Europe in 5 or 6 years! Going really well though, how is the rest of your team looking? I'm assuming they are very good. Always liked Brazil, I remember 3 or 4 versions back I had a long save there and Sao Paulo became genuinely world class and were keeping hold of players. 

[kandersson]

7 ore fa, LUFCspeni ha scritto:

Going to be heartbreaking if he gets snatched up by Europe in 5 or 6 years! Going really well though, how is the rest of your team looking? I'm assuming they are very good. Always liked Brazil, I remember 3 or 4 versions back I had a long save there and Sao Paulo became genuinely world class and were keeping hold of players. 

Yeah I have a lot of already good youngsters that could become world class soon, though my veterans aren't really that great. The way things work in Brazil with the release clause system it's easier for me to stockpile potential wonderkids at low price and develop them, than buying established players that cost and earn too much. Signings from other south american countries plus very good youth intakes usually make the rest of my team. The other top 4-5 teams in the league also have some very good players and seem to be able to keep them with some consistency, so I do have hopes for Rodrigo!

Will post some screenshots of my best players later if you're interested.

[kandersson]

And the winner is... Rodrigo Paulista!

It was a spectacular year for River and Rodrigo Paulista as the young striker led the club to winning every single competition they entered: Campeonato Piauiense, Copa do Brasil, Série A, Copa Libertadores and Club World Cup in order! Rodrigo also won any kind of individual title, award and recognition this year in fact I'll probably forget some.

Another Chuteira de Ouro as Brazil's top marksman, adjusting his own record with a score of 179.00 points

Second artilheiro title as top scorer of Série A aka Rei do Gol with 43 goals in only 31 matches

Other 'old' awards include Bola de Ouro, Rei da Bola and Melhor Atacante awards for best player and best striker in Série A. Prestigious Rey del fútbol de América was a brand new award for Paulista though - should be pretty much the equivalent of Balon d'Or for South America

All in all a decent year for Rodrigo!

 

 

[kandersson]

Rodrigo Paulista Year 2021

Time for a season recap of Rodrigo's goals, stats and progress. The cold numbers:

116 goals in 66 appearances. That's a new high for Paulista. 53 goals in Piauí state obviously helped a lot, though 43 goals in Série A (in just 31 matches) and 11 in Copa Libertadores are a very good result. Other stand out numbers are an excellent 61% of shots on target, 25 assists (that he needs to cut!) and a 17/21 on penalty kicks (a good average on so many attempts).

Here's the man himself at the end of the season.

At 17 Rodrigo already looks like a mature, well developed striker and he's now described as a legit wonderkid. He's also a regular call-up for Brazil at this point though he's yet to make his debut for the national team. Unfortunately Paulista failed developing new  PPM's this year he's still so young though, I will try again in the future (I'm going  for 'First time shots' next). After an intense year (80 competitive matches from january to december!)  River and Rodrigo will enjoy a well deserved rest: end of the year break is on december 21st,  and team will report back for next season on... december 27th .

203 goals scored, 797 to go!

 

[tajj7]

He looks amazing for a 17 year old, what are you training him as? Long shots and composure look like obvious areas to work on. 

[kandersson]

2 ore fa, tajj7 ha scritto:

He looks amazing for a 17 year old, what are you training him as? Long shots and composure look like obvious areas to work on. 

He's been mostly on a Trequartista schedule as it gives a good combination of technical and mental training, plus additional focus on penalties (which rose from 6 to 10 in two years). The key part of development was obviously consistent playing time from a very early age - basically he's been automatic first choice since he turned 16 and was eligible to play.

[kandersson]

Rodrigo Paulista with a good start in 2022:

Yep that's 10 goals in a single game in a 14-0 thrashing against a weak Piauí side. This is obviously a new record for River, Campeonato Piauiense and Paulista himself.

Campeonato Piauiense at its best here. A couple of teams have actually got better in time and they tend to do a surprisingly good job shutting down River and Rodrigo in particular thanks to my personal FM nightmare, the 4-2-2-2 DM narrow (obviously they still lose and Rodrigo usually scores, but it's more like 3-0 or 4-0 and 'only' one goal for the striker). The other teams are generally embarrassing though, and scores like the one you see above are not that uncommon really - in the two matches against Piauí Rodrigo has scored 18 goals... Dignity was never an option for this challenge.

 

[BoxToBox]

Brilliant!

[kandersson]

Nardin Out!

Former 1000 goals candidate, promising striker Henrique Nardin has been sold to Porto for a decent 4,8M euros.

As I said directly to him in my parting comment, he didn't progress as expected and he was quite a disappointment. A few injuries harmed Henrique's development, but most of all he kept rejecting tutors (he got stuck with a neutral Balanced personality and a below average Determination) and even loan offers despite needing regular first team action. Long term, I couldn't really see him as a supporting striker for Rodrigo Paulista as Nardin lacks the technique and creativity required for that role. He could have been a decent back-up, but his injury proneness and less than ideal personality convinced me to sell. I have a number of much better prospects developing much better than him at this point, and 4,8M meant a nice profit for the club (he was bought for 120K).

It's hard to believe that just a couple years before Nardin was actually my original candidate for this challenge. In fact, he was undisputed first choice for a while and had a promising start of his career.  If Santos hadn't made Paulista available on loan back then, things would be much different today. All of this came so close to never happening...

[kandersson]

Contract Extension!

Alberto Rossini and River are pleased to announce that striker Rodrigo Paulista has signed a new contract with the club.

The five-year deal (plus the usual three-year option) effectively locks Rodrigo until december 2029. I know he had signed an extension just one year ago, but as Paulista turned 18 he was eligible for a much longer contract, and at this time he was still willing to sign for a reasonable salary. Bonuses and clauses are once again a bit out of control, though I'm very happy with the deal overall. Let's take a more detailed look at the new contract.

The basic salary of 1,2M per annum is close to the original request of the agent, and doubles the previous deal. The real challenge here was convincing Rodrigo to accept the three-year option, and most of all drop the coveted release clause for foreign clubs (he wanted a 18M clause - nonsense!). An insane amount of bonuses and clauses did the trick, here are some highlights of new contract:

• Loyalty bonus of 1,6M
• Agent fee also 1,6M
• Team of the year & Top Scorer 200K each
• League/cup winning bonus for a maximum of 600K
• Multiple landmark goal bonuses for a pretty much guaranteed 2,4M every year
• 50% sell on fee percentage (never going to happen)
• Relegation release clause 0€ (very unlikely)
• Match highest earner clause (very unlikely)

[BoxToBox]

Nice!

[jengaehassim]

This contract should be enough to keep him until the 1000th goal. Perhaps unhappy, but still scoring.

[kandersson]

51 minuti fa, jengaehassim ha scritto:

This contract should be enough to keep him until the 1000th goal. Perhaps unhappy, but still scoring.

Sounds like a fair assessment barring serious injuries and/or sudden drop in performance. I would love to keep him for 20 seasons - and maybe 2000 goals - though

[kandersson]

Campeonato Piauiense 2022

It's that time of the year again.

60 goals in 16 appearances for Rodrigo Paulista, a new record for Piauiense state. In what has become a common pattern Paulista started the year on fire but finished quietly with just 4 goals in last 5 matches, obviously an average of almost 4 goals per game is extraordinary even at this level, final games were a bit disappointing though, I don't know maybe I'm getting delusional here. Rodrigo missed a couple of games with a series of very light but very frequent injuries that culminated in a 3-4 weeks stop (twisted ankle) during an ill-fated Libertadores game (missed a penalty and a few easy chances before his injury). Paulista will miss the last match of group stage against a weak Peruvian side, plus both legs of 5th round of Copa do Brasil. Luckily he won't miss any Série A action as the injury occurred just before the little break between state championships and national leagues. 66 goals at this point of the year is certainly a good platform towards the 100-goals target for the season.

Make it three consecutive Artilheiro and Best Player of Campeonato Piauiense:

Rodrigo topped an all-River podium, with supporting strikers Roberto Cascio and Alan easily scoring over a goal per game. Here's a screenshot of recent signing Cascio after he joined the club.

Our record signing at 4M and an excellent complement for Rodrigo indeed. Also as you can see he apparently likes to 'change his face' every now and then, not exactly what I meant with the Ricky Rubio video posted a few days ago but hey whatever (oh boy those regen faces and hair are so messed up year after year).

 

 

[danmcconnell1]

Silently followed this, incredible! Never been confident to manage South America due to my lack of knowledge and the Brazilian club names annoy me on FM but I might edit that with a download because it does seem like a great place to manage. Keep up the good work! 

[LUFCspeni]

Still doing really well! 

I've also identified my candidate for the 1000 goals challenge, although I'm not too sure if he is up to it. 22 goals in 11 games at the age of 16 in the Brasiliense championship isn't too bad though. 

[kandersson]

5 ore fa, danmcconnell1 ha scritto:

Silently followed this, incredible! Never been confident to manage South America due to my lack of knowledge and the Brazilian club names annoy me on FM but I might edit that with a download because it does seem like a great place to manage. Keep up the good work! 

Thanks mate, appreciate you being less silent! Brazil is a lot of fun, large squads and focus on youth development are a must with so many games, and even the most obscure clubs can produce potential wonderkids (first youth intake of my then 4th division club produced a next Jairzinho and a next Ronaldo). Club names and kits issues can be easily fixed though I'm afraid it wouldn't be wise to talk about it on SI official forums. Maybe check some popular fansites like sortitoutsi or fmscout  

[kandersson]

5 ore fa, LUFCspeni ha scritto:

Still doing really well! 

I've also identified my candidate for the 1000 goals challenge, although I'm not too sure if he is up to it. 22 goals in 11 games at the age of 16 in the Brasiliense championship isn't too bad though. 

Sounds great for a 16 years old, feel free to post a screenshot of the young gun 

[kandersson]

Rodrigo Paulista to play in World Cup 2022

The prolific striker is one of 5 River players called-up by Brazil - he joins veteran goalkeeper Matheus and fellow teenagers Vinicius, Alex Sandro and Tassio - a remarkable accomplishment for our club. Paulista is still uncapped before World Cup, can he have an international breakthrough a la Pelé in 1958?

[BoxToBox]

Written in the stars.

[kandersson]

Rodrigo Paulista still uncapped for Brazil after the Seleçao failed to impress at recent World Cup.

A disappointing tournament for Brazil with an early exit in 2nd round against eventual runner-up Italy. Even more disappointing for Paulista as the young striker has not debuted yet for Brazil despite being a regular call-up for a year now. Manager Levir Culpi was sacked at the end of the tournament, so...

The FA was happy to offer the job to legendary manager Alberto Rossini, the man behind River miracle and a winner of multiple championships and cups including the recent Club World Cup. I'm not doing it for Brazil nor for the money (though the 3,45M per year contract is about 6 times of club contract with River), this is all for Rodrigo Paulista. With a regular 75-80 matches every season with the club I would have gladly passed, but this will give me the chance to control Rodrigo's international call-ups and career - and give him that elusive debut at least! The only international match available for 2022 will be the traditional Superclasico friendly vs Argentina in october: Paulista will NOT be called-up, as he'd miss two league games just to play against a very strong national team - not going to happen! Dignity never an option.

[kandersson]

Meanwhile in San Marino...

As expected Rodrigo Paulista's challenge suffered a slight delay due to this manager's need of starting a traditional San Marino save. I will surely come back to the 1000 goals challenge soon though I felt like I needed a break from the never ending brazilian season (full season in Italy was a breeze, less than 50 games!). The good thing is I still have Rodrigo on my mind:

Striker Gabriele Moncini pulled a Paulista and scored 62 goals in 45 matches for San Marino between Serie C and cups. After this season I'm once again sold on the 'Shoots with power' PPM and strongly leaning towards training Rodrigo to learn it. My strikers (including Paulista himself) always have the tendency to throw weak garbage into the arms of goalkeepers, well if you're gonna hit the keeper at least do it with fury!

I'm not going to lie, had San Marino youth set-up produced the next Alessandro Paolone (my SM god striker from FM12) I'd be probably doing a 1000 goals challenge with him and leave Rodrigo on stand by for months. But it didn't happen so road to 1000 goals should be back soon!

[BoxToBox]

4 hours ago, kandersson said:

After this season I'm once again sold on the 'Shoots with power' PPM and strongly leaning towards training Rodrigo to learn it.

My favourite strikers PPM of FM18, if you have a striker that's strong, has good technique and finishing, he'll clean up with it.

[kandersson]

1 ora fa, BoxToBox ha scritto:

My favourite strikers PPM of FM18, if you have a striker that's strong, has good technique and finishing, he'll clean up with it.

Yeah, I like that too. Even when they miss, I like that at least they're trying to rip the head off the keeper! Paulista has very good finishing and technique plus a decent 13 for strength at his young age so he does fit the bill. It seems to me that, even without the PPM, he has more success when he strikes with power rather than finesse. Hopefully 'Shoots with power' + 'Tries first time shots' will be a nice combo for Rodrigo!

[kandersson]

River accept record breaking offer...

... not for Rodrigo of course! Fellow wonderkid and Brazil international Alex Sandro has been sold to PSG for a hefty 30M euros. Sandro was a product of River academy so it's particularly tough to see him leave, the money was good though and most of all other brazilian clubs were also interested and could have activated a release clause of just 9M. 'Luckily' Sandro had a few suitors from abroad due to his EU second nationality (Spain) and a war of bids between PSG and Milan resulted in a very good 30M offer. It's the first signal of big money transfer activity for a River player, hopefully they will leave Paulista alone! Good news is Paulista doesn't have a second nationality despite a somewhat european-ish surname (Rapchan, according to my research deriving from Rapčan, a croatian or romanian surname and yes I've researched this!), which is good for us.

A fantastic young player indeed, already a first team player for Brazil at just 18. Of course those 30M gave me the chance to find more than adequate replacements plus the usual amount of cheap wonderkids stockpiling. Main signings were these two midfielders, both from Argentina:

Patricio Escalante (4,7M)

Adrian Biasoli (6M)

A couple of young, hard working enforcers already described as wonderkids. That's how I like my midfielders!

We'll get back to Paulista soon!

 

 

 

[BoxToBox]

Big sales just mean more money to keep Rodrigo Paulista with.

[kandersson]

More glory for Rodrigo Paulista:

Best player and top scorer of the Recopa (continental super cup for South America) as River easily got rid of Copa Sudamericana champions Sport Recife. It's been another great year for Paulista so far as the legendary striker just passed the 300 career goals mark this september thanks to a hot streak of consecutive braces and hat-tricks (it does help that we played about 100 games in september between league and cups; I swear it took me less to play a full season in Italy than the single month of september in Brazil!). Still over two months - which means 20+ more matches - till the end of the season...

[LUFCspeni]

@kandersson Sublime progress as usual. Agree about the long slog of Brazil, it does get tiring! I'm instant resulting a few state games because they are just too boring.

 

Here is my regen you asked to see a few days ago.

Profile

Last season, aged 16/17

[kandersson]

@LUFCspeni he's amazing! A well-rounded striker a la Paulista, looks great except for the mohawk, that is very bad!

Next Ronaldo or next Jairzinho? 

[LUFCspeni]

56 minutes ago, kandersson said:

@LUFCspeni he's amazing! A well-rounded striker a la Paulista, looks great except for the mohawk, that is very bad!

Next Ronaldo or next Jairzinho? 

Thanks, £450k from Fluminense! I'll check his "next" when I'm next on FM.

I think you're actually my twin or something, I always have a San Marino save too, will probably run that alongside the Brazilian save at some point. Complete with San Marino shirt I got online, of course 

[kandersson]

18 minuti fa, LUFCspeni ha scritto:

Thanks, £450k from Fluminense! I'll check his "next" when I'm next on FM.

I think you're actually my twin or something, I always have a San Marino save too, will probably run that alongside the Brazilian save at some point. Complete with San Marino shirt I got online, of course 

TFC/Canada and New Zealand also a classic for me 

As for San Marino, well it was the best save I've ever had (and probably will ever have) back in FM12 http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/football-manager-2012-stories/87029-not-another-san-marino-story.html

[kandersson]

Very unlikely to go on with this save (or FM18) anytime soon as frustration easily exceeds fun for me at the moment. While I was fighting my way through a mad NBA-like schedule (dozens of games with only one day of rest plus the occasional back to back!) I suffered a crash that wasted hours of playing - and lots of goals by Paulista .

The crash per se wouldn't be enough to break my will to play, unfortunately I just can't enjoy playing this game atm despite a ME that maybe for the first time in 5 years I don't actually hate! Too many issues in this save (aforementioned schedule; registration bugs; U20 team not playing in a division) and generally in this game (regen faces, hairstyles and relative bugs kill the immersion for me; a number of other unsolved issues still persist). The crash (the first one I had in FM18, obviously immediately after 18.2 update) was just the final straw.

Rodrigo 'retires' with over 300 goals at the age of 18... Thanks for following!

[kandersson]

Didn't like the idea of leaving Paulista's best season unfinished so close to the end, so decided to complete at least year 2022 thanks to a cold winter! Rodrigo still has 'it':

Finally the elusive Copa Libertadores Golden Boot thanks to 16 goals in 11 matches! Plus another little award I wasn't aware of:

Melhor Jogador - COB (an award assigned by Brazil olympic commitee), ending a four year domination of Neymar! Now we can really say that Paulista has won every possible trophy and individual award at club level for a player based in South America!

The cold numbers:

 

That's 128 goals for you in 68 appearances, which is a personal record for my CM/FM career! Numbers are obviously inflated by those 60 goals scored in a weak state championship, though 45 goals in Série A and 16 in Copa Libertadores, well above the average of one goal per game, are absolutely amazing.

The man himself at the end of a fantastic season:

All hail Paulista!

[kandersson]

Didn't like the idea of leaving Paulista's best season unfinished so close to the end, so decided to complete at least year 2022 thanks to a cold winter! Rodrigo still has 'it':

Finally the elusive Copa Libertadores Golden Boot thanks to 16 goals in 11 matches! Plus another little award I wasn't aware of:

Melhor Jogador - COB (an award assigned by Brazil olympic commitee), ending a four year domination of Neymar! Now we can really say that Paulista has won every possible trophy and individual award at club level for a player based in South America!

The cold numbers:

That's 128 goals for you in 68 appearances, which is a personal record for my CM/FM career! Numbers are obviously inflated by those 60 goals scored in a weak state championship, though 45 goals in Série A and 16 in Copa Libertadores, well above the average of one goal per game, are absolutely amazing.

The man himself at the end of a fantastic season:

All hail Paulista!

[kandersson]

Right, that's 331 goals at the age of 18 

[BoxToBox]

Monster.

[Geordieboy52]

So. happy you decided to continue this mate

[kandersson]

Decided to go for an extra season and see if I could push for a new seasonal record for Paulista, as he's now playing close to his full potential and his teammate have also got much better. First part of the season was very encouraging:

68 goals in 18 matches, a new record for Campeonato Piauiense as Paulista led an all-River podium as usual. The legendary striker (who now goes just by the name of 'Paulista' - I dropped 'Rodrigo' as it took too much space on the screen!) also scored at unprecedented rate in the group stage of Copa Libertadores:

15 goals after the 6 group stage matches (admittedly against weak teams from minor countries like Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia), and Paulista already looks like a lock to win the Top Scorer award!

A strong start in Série A...

7 goals in a single match, beating a long standing record set by my personal hero Edmundo! With this type of performances the 100 goals mark for the season became a formality, and breaking last season record of 128 goals also looks very possible at the moment.

As Brazil manager I still haven't called-up Paulista, I really wanted him to be our front-man for the 2023 Copa America, but the league didn't have a break during the competition so Paulista would have missed over a month (that's a ton of games in Brazil...) while also playing against B teams of Mexico and Honduras that wouldn't count as official caps (or goals). Gabriel Jesus did a good job 'deputizing' for Paulista, as Brazil eventually won the Copa in convincing fashion. He recorded 9 official goals between easy friendlies and  Copa America matches, Paulista almost doubled that score at River in the same period though...

 

[kandersson]

International debut

It took a while but finally Paulista made his debut for Brazil in a World Cup qualifier against Paraguay in october 2023.

Of course he scored a brace in his international debut, a penalty (that he won) and a beautiful solo goal in a 3-0 win against a solid Paraguay side. And yeah, those are 137 goals so far this season .

Paulista missed two games for River to have his elusive international debut and actually got injured while playing for Brazil (bruised head, out 4-5 days), though in the end it felt the right thing to do for both the kid and the country. Paulista, 19 years old, 1 cap, 2 goals for Brazil!

[kandersson]

Just completed another intense season for River and Paulista, and the artist formerly known as Rodrigo was absolutely on fire. New record of goals in a Copa Libertadores edition:

24 goals (in 13 matches), smashing the old record of 17. Paulista led River to another successful campaign in the Copa, and eventually to a Club World Cup final against a star-studded Manchester United side. José Mourinho seemed to have a plan:

Did it work then?

Nope. Paulista scored a brace in a narrow 2-1 win (an early red card for our star midfielder Reyes didn't really help), leading River to another title with 5 goals in the tournament - obviously he was Best Player and Top Scorer of the competition.

Up next: a more detailed look at Paulista's season (hint: those 160 goals mentioned in the last screenshot aren't a bug...)

[kandersson]

Paulista: Year 2023

Paulista broke any kind of goal scoring record this year, as he once again led River to success in every competition they played: Campeonato Piauiense, Copa do Brasil, Recopa, Série A, Copa Libertadores and Club World Cup. Paulista won every kind of individual accolade as best player, best striker and top scorer (basically every possible award except those concerning Copa do Brasil as he missed a few games in this competition). The cold numbers:

160 goals in 74 appearances for the club (72 as a starter), plus two goals in his debut match for Brazil. This has to be the most impressive individual season I've ever witnessed in my long CM/FM career. 68 goals in the weak state championship were once again a great platform, though 55 goals in Série A (new league record) and 32 in continental/intercontinental competitions are an incredible result considering the standard of opponents. Paulista was able to smash his previous record of 128 goals thanks to a series of factors:

• A more favorable scheduling: 2022 was a World Cup year, so the league took a break in June/July which resulted in a nightmare of congested fixtures especially September-December. 2023 was non-stop action from early January to late December, which gave me the opportunity to micro-manage Paulista's personal schedule and playing time. Paulista eventually played 74 of a possible 82 matches for the club, plus one game for Brazil.
• Almost no injuries: Paulista managed to stay healthy most of the year, as he only suffered a few minor knocks that cost him just a couple of games.
• Development: 19 years old Paulista is now playing at close to his full potential according to my staff. He's faster, stronger, tougher than last year, simply put he's a better player.
• Teammates development: same goes for Paulista's teammates. The core of River first team made of potential wonderkids has also developed at excellent rate, so those hot prospects have now developed into bona fide young superstars. The group of playmakers and supporting strikers is particularly impressive, all these players are generally great, creative passers who have a great connection with Paulista and have also been trained to feed him relentlessly (most have PPM's like 'Try killer balls', 'Look for pass instead of shot' etc).
• Penalties: we had A LOT of them this year and of course Paulista was undisputed first choice taker. He converted at sub-par rate actually (19/28), which is weird as he seemed to do better when his Penalty Taking attribute was much lower (he has 13 now, started at 6 I think). Still 19 extra goals from the spot are always a bonus for a goalscorer.

 

And finally, a screenshot of the glorious Paulista as of 25th December 2023. Merry Christmas!

493 goals (491 with River, 2 with Brazil) at the age of 19!

This is most likely the end of this story unless next patch can fix a few game breaking bugs as I had already written previously. This last season was a bit like testing a Ferrari and push it to the limit, well I think the limit is 160! Feel free to request other stats or screenshots if you like!

 

 

[After]

Only valued at 16,5M!

[Geordieboy52]

I'd be interested to see how he does at other clubs; I see Barca want him.  His stats look as though they'd stand up in most leagues - obviously not 160 a season but he's definitely on the way to 1000 goals.  Perhaps you can continue the game without managing it once he inevitably leave Brazil...

[adamdfry]

It's a small thing, but I love you've nicknamed him just 'Paulista'. He's looking class!

[kandersson]

9 hours ago, After said:

Only valued at 16,5M!

I think he reached 17M at some point but yeah that's nonsense! It's hard to get outrageous offers for players based in South America, I think the highest I got was 60M euros for an Argentine striker in FM17. I think Paulista has to command at least 100M!

 

8 hours ago, Geordieboy52 said:

I'd be interested to see how he does at other clubs; I see Barca want him.  His stats look as though they'd stand up in most leagues - obviously not 160 a season but he's definitely on the way to 1000 goals.  Perhaps you can continue the game without managing it once he inevitably leave Brazil...

It would be interesting indeed. To do it right I'd should take a job at another team in the same league though (Spain in this case) otherwise ME wouldn't run in full detail so stats and goals scored wouldn't be 'real'. Also AI managers usually are not that great with strikers, I'd hate to see Paulista struggling to hit double figures in a whole season...

 

5 hours ago, adamdfry said:

It's a small thing, but I love you've nicknamed him just 'Paulista'. He's looking class!

Yeah, I have another couple of Rodrigo/Rodrygo so decided to go with 'Paulista'. I kinda liked that .