The first decision you make at the start of any Football Manager sim is also the biggest: what club do you want to take the reins of? Unless you’re starting as an unemployed journeyman, you’ll need to find a squad that appeals to you and what you’re trying to accomplish with your save.
The great news is that with the comically expansive scope of the game’s approach to soccer leagues around the world, you are spoiled for choice, sometimes to the point that it can even be too many options. To help narrow things down and pick a winning save for your next go, we’ve put together five save suggestions that are challenging for players with experience in FM looking to get right underway with a project club for their first Football Manager 26 save.
Schalke 04
One of the most fun ways to get on board with a mid-level side is to look for a former power that has fallen on hard times. Formerly a regular in the Champions League, where they had the talent and tactical nous to cause problems for big sides on their day, Schalke 04 was absolutely devastated by the COVID pandemic. The club faced potential bankruptcy, and while the worst-case scenario was avoided, that doesn’t mean things have been rosy ever since.
Owners of the coolest walkout tunnel in all of world football, Schalke now use that epic walkout to kick off their 2. Bundesliga matches, having been relegated in 2021. Taking over, it becomes your responsibility to turn things around. Stabilize the club, get back into the top flight, take down your neighbors in Dortmund, and bring Schalke 04 to the very top of world football!
Newport County
England is the default league for players looking for a large pyramid to explore and access to the biggest competitions in the world, with enough persistence, and that’s with good reason. With four fully professional tiers and a fifth that is nearly so, the depth of challenge in England is off the charts. While you can certainly opt to delve even deeper down the ranks to find your ideal squad, for this challenge, it’s time to take on the worst team in the English Football League.
Newport County may have some of the sharpest kits in the league, but what they don’t have at present in the real world is a whole lot of points, having claimed just 11 from their first 14 and sitting rock bottom of the EFL. While things are currently trending toward relegation in real life, you’re responsible for instead transforming them into a side that can compete not just this year but much higher up the table in the seasons ahead.
Sampdoria
If the rescue job in Germany didn’t seem like enough work, then maybe Sampdoria and their iconic blue kits are what you need. Like Schalke, Sampdoria has a proud tradition but has hit financial troubles in the post-COVID years. As dire as things can seem right now with the club mired in Serie B for yet another season, things were nearly worse. La Samp finished in 18th place last season, a finish that would have seen them sent down to Serie C. Instead, a four-point deduction to Brescia pushed Sampdoria up into 17th and safety.
Your job at the helm is to take that good break and turn it into a new tradition. Consolidate your place in Serie B, acquire the players you need to progress to Serie A, and turn Sampdoria into world beaters. For good measure, do all this for a club in deep financial distress, ready to promote up into a top flight with many European powers.
CE Europa
Bringing a club from the lowest depths of a league pyramid to its apex is a time-honored tradition in Football Manager games, and with FM26 introducing women’s football, you can finally do so in the women’s game. While the women’s pyramids may not have as many layers as their men’s counterparts right now, there are still minnows to be found to transform into world beaters.
Europa is making its return to the Segunda Federacion Femenina, a division they have occupied for the majority of its seasons since its 2001 debut. Despite many years at this level, their high-water mark for a season remains twelfth in that second tier. It’s on you to change that. Take over for CE Europa, acquire the players to finally reach the top, then set your eyes on the end boss of women’s football in 2025: Barcelona. Take this club that has only known struggling against the inevitable and instead turn them into a club that is inevitable in taking down the biggest trophies in women’s football.
Chicago Stars
If you’re looking to dip your toe into the waters of women’s management but aren’t sure about a project as expansive as CE Europa, then the NWSL may be a good option for you. As an American sports league, it comes with its own unique structural challenges, but it is also a league where parity is more on the table. This enables you to take on one of the more moribund sides without feeling totally hopeless and without anything with which to work.
The Chicago Stars are a storied NWSL franchise, but having a rough go of it this season, which also serves as Alyssa Naeher’s final one as a pro. In the real world, the year has been a disaster for Chicago, plummeting from last team in the playoffs last season to just plain last team this one. Turn things around immediately, make them a contender again to send the legend out in style, then see how you can manage trying to fight the forces of American sports parity to build a proper dynasty, with a squad that can rival the biggest sides in the world.
Football Manager is a buffet of save options. While these are all saves we think would be a blast, we likely missed out on your first plan, so tell us who you intend to take to the top in the comments!
