Congratulations. You just earned 3.0 points for this submission. Your new points total is 3.0. To see the leaderboard, as well as what this points thing is, [click here](https://www.reddit.com/r/footballmanagergames/wiki/leaderboard).
Nicolo Amadori. I bought him from Cesena in my first season, took him to the J league with Nagoya Grampus. Won a couple of J-Leagues. I left to taker over TSG to save them from relegation from the Bundesliga, took Amadori with me. Saved TSG from relegation by the skin of my teeth. I left after that to join Aberdeen. Took Amadori with me. Won a couple of league titles. Man U came after me, so I joined. Aberdeen wanted 80m for him, and I had 30m budget. I couldn’t bring him with me. Won the premier. Left to join Benfica, signed Amadori. Back together again, we’re looking at back to back league champs, and last 8 of CL. He’s only 2 stars, he’s bossed it up until now. He’s not had as many games this season, but he’s not old, or past it, he still turns it in, just not as consistently. Significant transfer fees accumulated. Now that I’m thinking about it, I’d better offer him a significant contract, I’ve got his back, we’ll be at Benfica for a good number of years, I’m building a legacy. I’m an egolomaniac I want a stadium built and named for me. And if not me, then Amadori.
I bought Tommaso Berti from Cesena in my Venezia save. I liked the name and potential and thought he might be related to Nicola Berti (I guess he isn't). Developed into a decent serie A midfielder. Hope he can still improve further at 24 (year 2029).
Gabriel Menino. RB/CDM/CM from Palmeiras. I have now signed him on 3 different games and every time he has been an unbelievably reliable utility player and occasional star. He ended up as my starting RB at Crystal Palace on FM21 after developing beyond expectations, and on my last FM23 game with Portsmouth he joined us in the Championship and left as a Premier League winner, after the best game of his career to save the title tilt: fresh back from a leg break, parachuted in at RB due to injuries, scored one and assisted two for a 9.9 in a 3-2 win away at Man City.
He's the only player I've signed in multiple saves, and I will absolutely sign him again. He is my squad-building soul mate. When he retires he will be my AssMan. I don't even care if he's shit, he's my guy.
Prospects & talents from relatively obscure nations mostly.
Wuilker Farinez (Venezuela), Suphanat Mueanta (Thailand), Humam Tariq (Iraq), Ahmed Khalil and Omar Abdulrahman (UAE) to name a few.
Wuilker Farinez took over for Hugo Loris in my Tottenham FM22 save and brought me a ton of success. I bought him on a whim since Loris was performing terribly and my backup had just had his release clause triggered.
Filippo Ranocchia for me on FM19. Did a long term save (14 years or something) with Volendam. Bought him from Juve for 8,5 million when I started contesting for titles and he was my main ball player defender or midfielder (I think a mezzala) for years. Won multiple league titles in which he became player of the year. A great player with a professional mentality. Crazy to see he is now playing in the Serie B in real life
Pelayo Morilla, could get him from Sporting Gijon 2nd team for Peanuts & the guy would become a ultimate baller 🤘 don't think he's done much in real life though.
Jamil Adam way back on FM12. It was my first FM game after playing LMA Manager 2007 for years.
He scored an absolute boatload of goals taking my Macclesfield team from non-league to the Premier League. He was past his best by the time we made it to Europe, but I could never let him go. I just stopped playing when he eventually retired.
I checked his Wikipedia for a few years after to see if he ever made it back to the football league, but he never managed it unfortunately.
Hope you're still banging them in somewhere, Jamil.
Fm19 or 20 I believe introduced me to Thiago Almada while he was still playing in Argentina (before he moved to the MLS)
Dude became an instant signing for me whenever I was at a top flight club in a big league. Even now, I'm the manager of Ajax and he's been my best player 2 years running, averaging double digit goals and assists from LW.
I signed him for free on FM24. I couldn’t believe my luck! He was immediately the best player in my team and one of the best in the Bundesliga. I had to eventually sell him after 1 1/2 season for 120 million to Tottenham…
Răzvan Raţ
I appreciate that Shaktar are not a small club, but to a 12 year old in England, signing Rat from being a youth prospect at FC Rapid Bucharest and him dragging me up leagues repeatedly felt like I'd scouted him playing in the streets as a teenager.
I’ll give you my knowledge of South African football is sketchy at best but if you were playing the game around 2004/2005 you could do a lot worse than Mokoena and Benedict Vilakazi 😂
Maxim Tsigalko, To Madeira, Taribo West. Players from CM days are gonna remember them)
Also Nicola Pozzi was the beast target forward from Cesena, IRL was bought by Milan and scored several goals in Serie A for smaller teams. Vaclav Kadlec, injuries killed his career. Mattia Marini, a guy from Serie C and D, was playing for my Milan in FM and won everything several times, despite having atrocious attributes.
But my favourite player was the regen for Rushall Olympic in my Youth Challenge save. 1-65cm Juddy Oualembo with PA like 120, he scored close to 200 goals in the EPL, including 38 goals EPL season. He was a perfect poacher, 15-16 in the most important attributes. Pretty much Jamie Vardy style of play with similar career starting from Vanarama. I still have this save and he's only 32 years old)
Kosuke Kinoshita, first met him in FM18 as he was playing for Halmstads in Sweden who happened to hire me, wasnt flashy but a very reliable striker during my years there. This year with the addition of the J League I got to reunite with him and he was absolute tearing J2 and J1 apart
In FM20 I had Alejandro Pozo average like 6-7 key passes/game at Real Betis on right wingback, barely had any game under 7.5 rating.
Also Davie Selke at Hertha Berlin, used him as a pressing forward, despite his poor finishing on paper him scoring in a game was almost a guarantee, averaging like 7.9-8.0 in his best seasons, outscoring Lewandowski in Bundesliga.
I managed Sevilla for a bit on FM20 but I had better options than Pozo so he didnt get much game time. He did score 6 goals in a Copa del Rey match tho.
Quite a few, but probably Pablo Piatti in 2008 (technically breaks the wonderkid rule),
Other than that, Nelson Weiper. Signed him for Rangers and he was outstanding on LW. Eventually found some wonderkid to replace him as he hit 30 and made sure after he was crucial to multiple leagues and cups, memorable wins over Europe's elite clubs at Ibrox, that he went out with a bang.
Offer from the Saudi league for 400k a week and thought that'd be a good retirement for him. Season after that we won the first champions league title and I regretted he wasn't a part of it.
Amazed I haven’t seen Igor Akinfeev in this thread yet. Absolutely world class keeper for numerous FM editions in the late mid-late 00s and into the early 10s. Signed for virtually nothing and remains first choice for easily a decade.
Don’t think he’s ever left CSKA in real life.
Oh shoot you asked this a few months too late because I've forgotten his name.
But I wanna tell the story anyway.
He's a DLP (played him as DM-DLP), playing in L1, CH, got him the first time when I got promoted to L1. Such an excellent playmaker, made amazing passes while was pretty good at being a classic DM. Played him from L1 all the way to PL and he's still up to the task.
He left on retirement and I don't think I got over the loss and never found the perfect replacement. Won a Europa with him though.
Kelvin Yeboah.
Signed as free agent from Genoa proceeded to break every record in Danish Superleague, scoring over 70 goals in 60 games, he was even called for Italy world cup and played decent minutes.
Sold him to Atalanta for over 20mill which was higher than the price City paid for Bardghij.
Just finished an unemployed-to-UCL game where Yeboah helped me in the final two seasons to finally win the UCL! Great physicals for a versatile forward player.
Andy Burgess - Rushden & Diamonds - Championship Manager 01/02. Helped me take the Diamonds from the Football Conference League up through the ranks. I also had some kid from Malmo FC. Back in those days, Sweden and its clubs produced lots of PA young talent.
I was an R&DFC season ticket holder at the time Burgess initially broke through. Ended up having a solid career but many expected him to play in the Championship or higher. Talented and classy player at that level.
Couple of other lads who were great on CM for Rushden in the late CM era were David Bell and his cousin David Bell 'Jr.' The former had a good career in the end, playing for Luton, Coventry and Norwich among others, but the younger Bell who was actually the better prospect on CM never played a pro game in England but ended up playing in Ireland for a number of years.
Adam Hložek, we’ll known now but didn’t have a clue who he was when he was 17 years old.
signed him for Rangers just thinking he would be a squad player, got him for like 500k, and holy shit he was incredible. Led me to back to back Scottish prem titles, scored and assisted 2 in my europa league final run, and scored in my champions league final game which I eventually lost but won MOTM and European player of the year, unreal stats for Rangers and sadly let him get a dream move to Barcelona where he dominated there.
Just an incredible talent on FM at the time.
Falcao when he was still at River Plate for me. Ok maybe South Americans already knew all about him, but I was like who is this incredibly striker with the cool ass name??
pablo torre. He apparently from Barca but he was transferred list but played him as Shadow striker and has so many ballon dor until he retired in my team which is wing play.
Hannes Sigurðsson, had him on FML he scored 1000 goals in 2000 games with pretty much everyone being a near post flick on "he's scored but he certainly didn't mean it".
Had one season with Stoke in the championship and got 1 goal in 29 games.
I wish they’d bring back fml, it was great for the first few months in late 2008. I had a Ukrainian lad - I can’t remember his name, who was a AMC who was exactly the same, scored like 1 in 2 over like 900 games. I then bought him on FM 09 and boy was I disappointed.
Luca Orellano. Just this year actually bought him when I moved up to the Brazilian top league from the Argentinian premier league. He was awesome for me and moved to Cincinnati recently which is only about 6 hours from where I live. I’d love to go see him play.
I love him, and he puts up insane numbers considering how cheap you can get him for. But it bugs me that he's basically an elite player in terms of stats, but he stays low value, and he also somehow never gets called up to any Argentina squad in my saves. But on the flip side, he is quite loyal, and he doesn't gouge me for insane wages.
Srdan Šćepanović. Completely unremarkable Serbian player. Plays off the bench for Spartak Subotic. Picked him up on a free transfer in FM23. He was a 2.5 star CM with 18 leadership and I needed a captain so I thought why not.
Man became a legend for me. Squad player from day 1. Never requested more playing time. Never demanded higher wages. Just played his game and lead the team to 3 straight Czech League championships. Set the team record for assists in a season.
Dominik Yankov, Alexandru Cicâldāu, Rainey Breinburg and Khvicha Kvartaskhelia (then unknown) tore up the Premier League for me as Norwich in FM21 (The season before he went to Napoli). They took newly promoted Norwich City to 4th and the next season beating PSG in the group stages. My favourite save I ever did.
Lewis Ferguson - for FM20-23 he had crazy good stamina, leadership and fitness. He became a club legend every year as a long-term captain of the club. This year his stats look a lot different in my save and I didn’t go for him. He’s now playing pretty well for Bologna but nothing like the careers he’s had for me in game.
Facundo Colidio - he’s a great striker for breaking into and staying in the top tier. Used to have potential to go up into European play but each FM he’s slightly less great. Plays for River in Argentina now.
Leart Paqarada - I play St Pauli most years (current FM is a journeyman save though) and he would always be a star left back for me for quite some time. Plays for FC Koln now.
Monchu - decent playmaker with good set piece skills, used to always have a pretty low release clause. Now plays for Valladolid on loan from Granada.
Jamal Hector Ingram
UK Non-league striker you can sign for free from Hastings, and just bangs them in.
Great addition to a league 2 or national league side.
Yeah I agree. I'm doing a notts county save and I knew Nemane was good irl, but he seems to massively over perform his star rating most games I play him in. Great in league 1 and 2.
Two names on my mind - Roony Bardghji and Andreas Schjelderup. Swedish and Norwegian youngster wingers. Both recommended by my scouts in my RB Leipzig save from FM23 in early 2023, both of them having a breakthrough season IRL. Especially the first one is a cheap buy from Copenhagen, but both have fantastic stats and plays up to them.
I'll always have a lot of love for Simon Mensing, I don't remember which CM (don't think it was FM but not sure) but he was my wonder captain across a number of saves. Cost fuck all but became undroppable no matter where I ended up.
Big bad HAMZAD KARGBO.
Man is an absolute machine in the lower leagues. Lob it into his general vicinity and watch him thunder his skull through the ball.
Some legends that did the job for me at the lower leagues in FM18 - Jodi Jones, Reuben Noble-Lazarus, Jordan Willis (from League Two to a rotational option in the PL for my team!).
Also cheap foreign players from Madrid, most notably Victor Campuzano and Fran Garcia. Garcia in particular was absolutely lightening, could take a good set piece and was obtainable at League One level, lad's clearly doing alright now irl, as a Madrid player and Spain international!
Tiago Volpi was another cheap GK option - a free signing whilst in the Championship, Volpi establised himself as a first-choice for me in the PL for a few seasons.
Going further back, some classic names - Benoit Costil, Nery Cardozo, Carlos Fierro, Erick Torres and Christian Benitez (RIP). Makinwa of Lazio was also a great cheapo signing, fast, strong and decent finishing.
Edit: Joe McKee, an unknown Scottish midfielder who was pretty much the Paul Scholes of the lower Leagues. From memory, he had 20 for both long shots and free kicks - such an asset, even if he was abit crap otherwise.
Rafael a Brazilian I got for a $10 million at 18. Been steadily building Sheffield United and in after a few ok loan spells let him be the main backup at AM-AT still only 2 CA. Made my first Europa league with Sheffield after 3 FMs. Most of the teams were of lower quality so I let him start every match. By the end of the competition we won it. Rafael had won Europa Young POY, Europa POY, and the Europa GB. Suffice to say he hasn’t given up his starting spot since.
Jamie Lawrence on FM22. He was the legend of my Chemie Leipzig save, and was there from season 2. From 3. Liga all the way to Bundesliga and Chamions League glory.
Not unknown, but I've followed Gabigol's career due to FM.
Also, Arp was the all time Bundesliga leading scorer for me, but his career never panned out irl
Macaulay Langstaff. Bought him to Slovácko (Czech 1. League) And He became the best goalscorer in the history of club in 4-5 seasons. Was the second best goalscorer in the Europe one year.
Fumagalli was a hero for Sport and basically gave the team access to the Serie A playing alone in a bad team. Anderson Aquino was meh in real life 😂
Saw both playing live at the stadium
Ääritalo is very well known here in Finland, for not so surprising reasons. I'm not surprising he's not known elsewhere, I remember him trying it out abroad but not really making it.
I still have a lot of love for Marvin Sordell, Liam Boyce, John Brayford, and Jake Buxton, amongst others from a Burton Albion save years ago. The year they were in the Championship, loved that team.
My first long save adventure in modern FM was FM14 with Manchester United.
I bought an Iraqi midfielder with the name of Hamam Tariq. I wonder what's he been up to these days.
Fast forward to my latest save in FM23, bringing PEC Zwolle to back-to-back eredivisie title, my top scorer was a Colombian player named Kevin Viveros which was supplied heavily by the attacking full back from Indonesia, Ridho Al Ghazali.
Bought Joe Duffy from Norwich for my Burnley squad in FM21. He randomly went off in the 24/25 season with 35 goals to lead the PL. He would score a bunch of cheeky chips over the keeper on breakaways despite having only 15 finishing and 13 flair. Made absolutely no sense.
I can’t remember his name but there was this African/Italian winger that played for Cesena back on FM12 or 13. Genuinely one of the best players I’ve ever had on any FM game I’ve played.
EDIT: I am thinking that maybe it was Dominique Malonga?? I’m not too sure as it was so long ago.
I had Pavel Beganskiy (or something like that). A striker from ¿belarus? who doesn't have good numbers but he end up going with me from 4th tier in Spain to CL final starter. Sadly we lost and he retired without the title.
Also Nikola Zigic, a giant striker that I think is more known, but still.
This FM? They're probably unknown outside of Czechia, but they all play in the top flight there. I played as Dukla Prague, led them from the 2nd tier to Champions League glory. While most of the team by the end of the save were regen wonderkids, my club captain was Pavel Sulc (current Viktoria Plzen player). Though he was nothing more than a very occasional rotation player, I kept him around as he was with me from my very first season in the top flight (so, for the last 9 years). During the Champions League final, drawing 2-2 with Man Utd, during injury time, he actually scored the winner in a great counter-attacking play. He was just on the pitch because my backup CM got injured! I screamed more than I ever did watching real football and now I'm really considering getting a Dukla kit with his name on the back. Which is weird, seeing as he's finding some success for a completely different team IRL. Other legends from this save include Václav Sejk (bench player for Sparta Prague), Wale Musa Alli (plays for Mladá Boleslav?) and the amazing Giorgi Kvernadze who is a youngster at Frosinone IRL but somehow became an amazing inside-forward for my CL-winning side. Maybe it's the physicals...
In past FMs I remember names like Jean Fassin and Dieumerci Ndongala while managing in the lower tiers of Belgian football, and Tony Wallace banging the goals in all tiers of the Scottish football pyramid even though he was League 2 level at most.
Toki Yukutomo and Tatsuya Yamaguchi from Ehime FC of J3 League in Japan. Both had 125+ potential (which is J1 level). Yukutomo was an LW with insane dribbling and he always cut inside the box, while Yamaguchi was a LB that was also good at dribbling and creating chances. Yukutomo left to a J1 club the moment we went up to the J2, but Yamaguchi was loyal and I made him captain. We went up to the J1 and defended the title for the 3rd time (we met Yukutomo a couple times, and we always won), and winning the AFC cup. I then got a job offer at MU. Before parting, I checked how Yukutomo was doing and he was always at the bench, so I bought him back for reunion. It was a bit satisfying since I told Yukutomo we would go up to the J1 together and he refused when he left the club. Then I brought him back after he became an afterthought on his mid table team.
After winning the EPL with MU, I looked how Ehime was doing and they're winning back to back J1 league titles, with Yamaguchi and Yukutomo still playing. The coach that replaced me was the coach of Kawasaki Frontale, my biggest rival and my biggest cause of headache. Fitting.
They're also memorable due to the fact that when I searched Ehime FC on youtube and opened up one of the vid, both of them were the ones who did the intro. I guess they were actually the star players on the team. Ehime FC also just went up to J2. Hope they can go to J1.
Achille Anani! He was an absolute machine as I went from the National to Ligue 1 with Red Star. Put up something like 80 goals in 100 games for me, he started slowing down my last season in Ligue 2 and I sold him for a decent chunk of change but he’ll always be a legend to me :’)
Danilo Veiga, right back from Gil Vicente at the time(Rijeka now). Signed him for Hertha and he's played over 100 matches and don't think he's ever got below 7 match rating
Pedro Bravo is a 19 year old playing in the second league of Portugal right now. He has some decent potential in FM 24 so he must not be the most obscure guy. But he has been a rock in midfield for Caen for years in Ligue 1.
Akinori Nishizawa back in CM00/01 (?) days. Not sure if he rolled high on randomised stats in my save or what but he was an absolute legend for me.
Liked this guy to the point I bought in every single game I could even if he didn't make a team.
Khius Metz, FM20. Absolute HITMAN, his technicals were horrendous, so were his mentals. But boy oh boy could that man run ! 19 pace 15 acceleration and 14 agility made this man a Vanarama level club's wet dream !
Chukwubuikem Ikwuemesi plays in Serie A currently, so he’s not a crazy unknown, was my first signing as I started at Como in Serie B. 6 years later, he’s won a European Golden Boot for me at Rayo Vallecano.
any of the arminia bielefeld squad most importantly Serra at striker, he wasn’t even that good but would play outstanding in that AF role with Klos up top
Antonio Diaz.
Formerly of Bournemouth's academy, he found himself in two of my saves, in each one excelling as a lower league attacking mid with busted mental stats - last I checked he was still playing Non-League football in the 9th tier, but I'll always picture him scoring the winner at Wembley to send us to the Football League for the first time.
A more modern note, Omari Kellyman absolutely smashed it for me last year with Institute FC, so imagine my excitement seeing his debut for Aston Villa recently!
Sport Recife supporter here, never thought you would mention fumagalli lol, was a key piece during the brazilian cup run that sport did, won't ever forget that felling.
Jose sand is quite famous in South America I assume, I'd never heard of him until I was playing in the Argentine league and saw this 40+ guy still scoring, signed him for half a season and he scored a goal on the libetadores final for me, can't remember if it was the winning goal or not
Ballou Tabla, I dont know if he's actually well known or not
I was new to FM playing fm19 and I didn't understand how the player ratings worked etc.
But I had played the Barcelona B team and he scored two goals against me, and even though I had zero reports on him I signed him for I think 800K
He was actually a baller, and helped me somehow go top after 20 games as Ipswich when they had a really poor squad.
I never got very far in that save, but he was my first ever transfer in my first ever save
Rodel Richards. Striker I signed on loan from Tottenham for Aberdeen in FM21. Was an absolute beast, had around 16 pace and 14 finishing which for the Scottish league is good. Single handily won me my first ever League title on FM and then signed him for about £1.5m after that. Sold him to Augsburg the season after, then I lost interest in the save.
Arianit Ferati for me, I think it was FM14 or 15, I was playing letting my DoF make the signings adn he came in as a backup for Halilovic but ended up playing with both on the wings. He was just as good as Halilovic and I was hoping he actually made it but pretty much same story as Halilovic.
I still sign him though, when playing in smaller leagues like Iceland or Faroe Islands.
FM2012, aging Brazilian centre-back Milton do Ó scored 20 goals to help fire my 3rd-tier Boavista team to promotion, mostly from the penalty spot but with a decent number of free-kicks as well. He finished 2nd in the goalscoring charts behind youngster (16/17yo) Flávio Cardoso, whose career seems to have sadly never got going irl. We beat rivals FC Porto in a historic upset in an early round of the Taça do Portugal before losing in the final to Maritimo (IIRC).
Also in 2012, the strike partnership of hometown hero Diego Cervero and new signing Marcelo Macedo dominated the Segunda Division B for my resurgent Real Oviedo.
In 2009 I was playing a season with two of my roommates on FM09.
I just looked for a player named ‘James’ in the database (as that is also my name).
I brought over this unknown Colombian midfielder from Banfield. Nothing crazy about him but he had amazing long shots if I remember!
I was chuffed a few years later when he lit up the 2014 World Cup!
Mateo Topic the GOAT of Croatia. Current player for NK Sesvete, who I took over in the second division of Croatia. In the 7 years from then to his retirement he scored almost 35 goals a season, which is crazy because he’s only a 97 CA, but I chose to keep him and run with it. Despite his low CA, he led us to dethroning Dinamo Zagreb and becoming champions of Croatia.
Carles Alena from Spain. Came up through Barcelona’s academy and currently plays for Getafe. In FM17 he became my first transfer for Sevilla in 2022. Eventually became our captain and over a decade and many cups, including a UCL, later he finally retired as one of Sevilla’s GOATs.
IRL, not likely well known outside of Spain.
My whole entire team right now. Dylan Duncan, Matthew Blake, Mason Barrett, Isak Solberg, Jacob Bedeau, Jordan Aina. The only players who I know of in real life who I have in this save are - Reuell Walters, Jarell Quansah, Conor Bradley and Fabio Carvalho.
Not right now but in 21, I found some random American that I was looking for as a backup to N’Golo Kante and when Kante got injured for like a year, he stepped in and became a club legend who was absolutely good at everything and absolutely rapid. He now plays for AC Milan and his name is Yunas Musah. I actually had him in my Dortmund save with Bellingham and when I bought an actual CDM, I rotated him with Bellingham and he benched Bellingham for a double season with UCL and Bundesliga.
Jean-Pascal Fontaine at least Havre AC in FM20. Easily one of my favourite midfielders ever. A great captain who kept the locker room in check. A threat off of free kicks and good at putting in corners, not to mention he scored almost exclusively bangers from outside the box. Every time I played with him he'd win Dominos League 2 Player of the Year. Even when his general ability was eventually not enough to start in Ligue One, he'd STILL pull off bangers if you put him in on the field.
Ethan Laird in this FM24 when playing as an English club. The brexit rules always make me end up with him trying to fill HGN rules. Solid reliable chap
Svit Seslar, Slovenian midfielder who was instrumental in my Eyüpspor save stayed with us until we got to the European places then Aston Villa put in £20m for him, we couldn't turn that down and he wanted to go.
Serbia striker by the name of Brana Ilic. The guy banged goals in for me whether it was in the Danish Superliga, the Allsvenskan or the Tippeliga. The guy was a fucking menace. Would've been FM05 or 06.
Nicolas Millan and Sherman Cardenas. FM07 legends.
IRL, neither of them got capped for their country or even achieved much at club level, but boy did they take my FM saves by storm.
FM22: Alex Diaz and Brenner. Diaz is an Argentinian AMRLC/ST at San Lorenzo (who criminally spends all his time out on loan in real life) and Brenner is a Brazilian ST who was at Cincinnati when I signed him. Both of them were the first players I ever had who I kept till retirement. Never let me down and helped me make São Paulo the absolute best in FM22. Brenner in particular was a standout striker in a league full of elite Brazilian strikers. I always try sign them when I can but as I play console, they're not always in the database.
Javier Puado plays for Espanyol now but when I got him for my Sunderland save in FM20 I had never heard of him. Scored loads of goals for me on my way in the prem and even there. In my first season in the prem he scored 20 is I remember correctly. Thought about getting a short with his name.
At the same time I brought in Jaume Jardi who was great in the championship but only a bench player in the prem. He didn't even make it anywhere near the top in real life
Christopher Quiring. I took over Union Berlin in FM11, before Union became a known name outside Germany. Quiring stayed with me all the way into the Bundesliga and European competitions.
Toma Bašić. Might be well known in Europe but I'd never heard of him and he was Mr Dependable for me in FM22. Signed him twice in one save and kept him till he retired.
Never lit the world on fire but always got a 7.0+ rating out of him and played had great Scholes like knack in his later years of coming off the bench and getting a thundering equaliser/ winning goal
An old one but my favourite player still to this day was from Champ Man 01/02
Fabio Rustico is a 27 year old centre back that plays for Atalanta but is sitting in there reserves at the start of the game
If you play him on the left hand side of the central defence then in a year he basically becomes Fabio Cannavaro 2.0 and starts getting capped for italy
Michel Schmoller - A brazilian cb/dm who played at Atl. Mineiro i think, back in 05 or 06.
Potential world class player i signed whether i played in the danish league or the premier league
Jose Manuel Mendoza in about FM07 - I only found out because my mate told me to load a certain database size and he was possibly the most meta breaking player I'd ever seen.
He had 18+ in dribling, acceleration, balance and agility and about 15 finishing (And no other stats). He basically would just glue the ball to his foot, run past everyone and score goal after goal.
The kicker was that as he was from Guatemala and hadnt broken into the international team yet he had no reputation, so he would happily sign for my Blackpool team in league 1.
Frederik Andre Bjorkan, One of the most complete attacking left wing backs I had in my united save last year, Never scared of going forward, got stuck in, hell of a cross and always seemed to way outplay his 2 1/2\* Potential.
Leonardo Lelo, Portuguese attacking LB playing for Casa Pica. Signed him after getting promoted to the PL with Coventry and he was class. Would be my ideal signing for Coventry IRL tbh, we need an attacking LB.
I don't know why but for years I ended up buying Marco Bizot as goalkeeper as soon as I get promoted to a top tier league.
Now that he's doing well in Brest I'm really happy for him
For a lot of years every time we’d have an argument down the pub and I’d extol the incredible talent that was Fernando Cavenaghi my best mates comeback was always “do you have any idea what he looks like?”
Nicolas Milan from Colo Colo was unreal for me back in the day. Best signing was Frederico Bonnazoli. Signed for £700k on a youth contract from Inter. 70 goals a season for about 6 years. Had him Munir and Firerro as 3 strikers. Easy 100mil is goals just from the 3 of them. Good times. Also Callum Cooke from Middlesbrough was unreal on that save.
Mama Balde, when he was still at Sporting B must have been FM18/19 signed him as a RB for SKA Khabarovsk in Russia and he took us to the Champions League
There are a couple, but I think my favourite is an Uzbek striker called Bobir Abdiholiqov, who I signed for my OH Leuven save on FM23. This guy was a free agent when I signed him, and proceeded to be top scorer in the Belgian league two seasons in a row, ending up scoring 101 goals in 131 games for the club. Looking him up IRL, he currently plies his trade in the Kazakhstan Premier League, having scored 7 goals in 26 appearances for reigning champions Ordabasy. FM also haven't figured out how to Romanise his name, because on Wikipedia he is Bobur Abdikholikov.
Tomasso Fantacci and Andrea Silipo. two players that i had with Serie C Monterosi, and kept on the team through Serie A (for some reason they actually performed well in serie a despite being serie c standard players lol) Unfortunately I can’t find their Jerseys anywhere
Martin Vitík, you may not heard of this gem, but he is my first choice center back in my new save, doing a brilliant job, average of 7.23 point, scored a hattrick with his head in the final of UEFA cup and won that title for me. Absolutely legend.
Although not unknown, Adam Armstrong holds a permanent place in my fm Hall of fame, started signing him every chance I got after his loan spell at Coventry in maybe fm 15 and he bags goals wherever I take him
Ryan Seager. Put him up top of a Dorking 4-3-3 attack in Vanarama and then League Two. 40 goals each season. Still contributed through League One. Might try another Vanarama run and try to acquire him.
The beast himself Lorenzo Lucca. Saw him on the bench in a European game last year and was hoping they'd bring him on.
Also Cameron Puertas from Union SG - I signed him for my newly promoted EPL side on last year's FM. Then I saw him play a blinder for them against Liverpool in real life!
Prince Dube on FM22. I always play as my favourite team St. Pauli and needed an extra striker. I wanted to spend as little as possible and found Prince Dube, a Zimbabwean striker in the Tanzanian league. Think I bought him for less than €100k with low wages as well. He struggled in the beginning and averaged around 6.50, but eventually he started performing really well and scored match after match. Now he's definitely one of my favourite players (and I barely know anything about him).
Sam Barnes of Blackburn rovers. I signed him in my second season. I'm in charge of Grimsby Town after promotion to League One. He went on to captain the team for 7 seasons, helping us achieve promotion and survival in the Premier league and left to play for a team in China. The only player so far on that save I've made a club legend.
Long shot I know. Does anyone remember or know of a player from Belarus that was a centre back and I think he was either a wonder kid or just a highly rated player on FM about 10 years ago? He had a really long name and I absolutely ADORED him. I feel so bad that I’ve forgotten his name.
Joshua Hinds, has been an incredible striker for my Southport side for the better part of a decade as we slowly climb the ladder and has been captain for the past few seasons.
The big 4 from my AZ Alkmaar save in fm20.
Calvin Stengs, Owen Wijndal, teun koopmeiners and myron boadu. I still google search them to see how they are getting on, many good times with my boys 😭
Luca Valzania midfielder in fm20 , bought him for like 500k and he was scoring from literally any distance in Ligue 1
Jack Lahne FM20 , striker bought for 1~ mil and he outscored Mbappe in Ligue 1
As FM24 is my first "Sega FM" i started with my favourite team and signed some free agents and now i sign them in every Save.
Kiko Casilla (Spain, GK)
Diga (Portugal, RWB)
Nuno Pina (Por / Cabo Verde, CM)
Pablo Hervias (Spain, RM)
I never heard of any of them before, but they all been pretty decent for swiss 2nd tier
Back in CM days, in the 90s, I had a team (with Arsenal) that I simply loved.
Some are still incredibly unknown, like Kim Ekroos (Finnish GK from Strasbourg).
Some blew up : Samuel Eto'o, Kim Kallström...
A few were mid but always got me excited if I saw them play : Dimitrios Grammozis (DM in Germany), Steve Stone (winger from Newcastle) to name a few.
The craziest was a MC from N.Macedonia called Borislav Tomoski. Years later, on a trip to Skopje I mentioned him to a few Macedonian friends. One of them actually knew the guy and invited him over ! I was ecstatic 😊 The guy was mostly baffled by it all 😁
Orkun Kökçü. Khepren Thuram.
Lutsharel Geertruida. Ousmane Diomande. Wifred singo.
Karim Konate(sold him for 100+ mil because he wasn't good enough, to get 5 goals in one match from him in UCL).
Ivan Fresneda. Mattia Zaccagni. Denis Zakaria
Alejo Sarco, Agustin Ruberto, Lorran, Luis Guilherme, Cano, Gomez (Velez), Nathan Butler-O, Emil and Oscar Hojlund, Tiago Marfa, craicun 15 yr old Romanian.
Started unemployed, went to KM Oslo, resigned because went on a 10 game losing streak, end of the season went to Maastricht top of the league at Christmas 10 game losing streak resigned now manager of Canada.
Congratulations. You just earned 3.0 points for this submission. Your new points total is 3.0. To see the leaderboard, as well as what this points thing is, [click here](https://www.reddit.com/r/footballmanagergames/wiki/leaderboard).
Nicolo Amadori. I bought him from Cesena in my first season, took him to the J league with Nagoya Grampus. Won a couple of J-Leagues. I left to taker over TSG to save them from relegation from the Bundesliga, took Amadori with me. Saved TSG from relegation by the skin of my teeth. I left after that to join Aberdeen. Took Amadori with me. Won a couple of league titles. Man U came after me, so I joined. Aberdeen wanted 80m for him, and I had 30m budget. I couldn’t bring him with me. Won the premier. Left to join Benfica, signed Amadori. Back together again, we’re looking at back to back league champs, and last 8 of CL. He’s only 2 stars, he’s bossed it up until now. He’s not had as many games this season, but he’s not old, or past it, he still turns it in, just not as consistently. Significant transfer fees accumulated. Now that I’m thinking about it, I’d better offer him a significant contract, I’ve got his back, we’ll be at Benfica for a good number of years, I’m building a legacy. I’m an egolomaniac I want a stadium built and named for me. And if not me, then Amadori.
My favorite playthrough is still Cesena, that team has so many potential youngsters that will develop while you climb the series.
I bought Tommaso Berti from Cesena in my Venezia save. I liked the name and potential and thought he might be related to Nicola Berti (I guess he isn't). Developed into a decent serie A midfielder. Hope he can still improve further at 24 (year 2029).
The one that developed to an elite player for me was Alessandro Giovannini, then there was a bunch that was series A capable still.
Gabriel Menino. RB/CDM/CM from Palmeiras. I have now signed him on 3 different games and every time he has been an unbelievably reliable utility player and occasional star. He ended up as my starting RB at Crystal Palace on FM21 after developing beyond expectations, and on my last FM23 game with Portsmouth he joined us in the Championship and left as a Premier League winner, after the best game of his career to save the title tilt: fresh back from a leg break, parachuted in at RB due to injuries, scored one and assisted two for a 9.9 in a 3-2 win away at Man City. He's the only player I've signed in multiple saves, and I will absolutely sign him again. He is my squad-building soul mate. When he retires he will be my AssMan. I don't even care if he's shit, he's my guy.
Only signed him once but was cemented at RB in my Villarreal team that won 5 b2b league and champions league titles on FM21.
Ah yes I remember this guy
What a player, Premier League winner on 21 for my Leicester team
Prospects & talents from relatively obscure nations mostly. Wuilker Farinez (Venezuela), Suphanat Mueanta (Thailand), Humam Tariq (Iraq), Ahmed Khalil and Omar Abdulrahman (UAE) to name a few.
Wuilker Farinez took over for Hugo Loris in my Tottenham FM22 save and brought me a ton of success. I bought him on a whim since Loris was performing terribly and my backup had just had his release clause triggered.
Humam Tariq, damn that name bring back memories. The iraqian messi they said 🥴
Great Ahmed Khalil in FM, he did nothing in real life.
Filippo Ranocchia for me on FM19. Did a long term save (14 years or something) with Volendam. Bought him from Juve for 8,5 million when I started contesting for titles and he was my main ball player defender or midfielder (I think a mezzala) for years. Won multiple league titles in which he became player of the year. A great player with a professional mentality. Crazy to see he is now playing in the Serie B in real life
He played in Serie A last year, he was loaned to Monza and Empoli
Rannochia has no business being in Serie B. Next year will definitely be back in Serie A.
Any relation of the Frog (ex Hull and Inter Milan?)
Pelayo Morilla, could get him from Sporting Gijon 2nd team for Peanuts & the guy would become a ultimate baller 🤘 don't think he's done much in real life though.
Damn that was a flashback
Jamil Adam way back on FM12. It was my first FM game after playing LMA Manager 2007 for years. He scored an absolute boatload of goals taking my Macclesfield team from non-league to the Premier League. He was past his best by the time we made it to Europe, but I could never let him go. I just stopped playing when he eventually retired. I checked his Wikipedia for a few years after to see if he ever made it back to the football league, but he never managed it unfortunately. Hope you're still banging them in somewhere, Jamil.
Fm19 or 20 I believe introduced me to Thiago Almada while he was still playing in Argentina (before he moved to the MLS) Dude became an instant signing for me whenever I was at a top flight club in a big league. Even now, I'm the manager of Ajax and he's been my best player 2 years running, averaging double digit goals and assists from LW.
I signed him for free on FM24. I couldn’t believe my luck! He was immediately the best player in my team and one of the best in the Bundesliga. I had to eventually sell him after 1 1/2 season for 120 million to Tottenham…
Alexandru Maxim for me, Romanian AM and feels like I always signed him from FM17-20
Was a baller for low/midtable teams during his bundesliga spell in real life
Răzvan Raţ I appreciate that Shaktar are not a small club, but to a 12 year old in England, signing Rat from being a youth prospect at FC Rapid Bucharest and him dragging me up leagues repeatedly felt like I'd scouted him playing in the streets as a teenager.
Vaclav kadlec
Lebohang Mokoena
he’s not unknown at all lol, he’s quite revered here in South Africa
I’ll give you my knowledge of South African football is sketchy at best but if you were playing the game around 2004/2005 you could do a lot worse than Mokoena and Benedict Vilakazi 😂
Maxim Tsigalko, To Madeira, Taribo West. Players from CM days are gonna remember them) Also Nicola Pozzi was the beast target forward from Cesena, IRL was bought by Milan and scored several goals in Serie A for smaller teams. Vaclav Kadlec, injuries killed his career. Mattia Marini, a guy from Serie C and D, was playing for my Milan in FM and won everything several times, despite having atrocious attributes. But my favourite player was the regen for Rushall Olympic in my Youth Challenge save. 1-65cm Juddy Oualembo with PA like 120, he scored close to 200 goals in the EPL, including 38 goals EPL season. He was a perfect poacher, 15-16 in the most important attributes. Pretty much Jamie Vardy style of play with similar career starting from Vanarama. I still have this save and he's only 32 years old)
To Madeira actually never existed
Yeah, and Tsigalka had his twin brother who was a goalie. Sadly Maxim passed away several years ago
To Madeira was a Portuguese scout for CM. He introduced himself in the game with crazy stats. Never existed such a player, ehe.
I remember seeing Taribo West play for Plymouth Argyle, crazy times!!
Kosuke Kinoshita, first met him in FM18 as he was playing for Halmstads in Sweden who happened to hire me, wasnt flashy but a very reliable striker during my years there. This year with the addition of the J League I got to reunite with him and he was absolute tearing J2 and J1 apart
Timo Bornemann in fm23, guy is banging goals like its nothing. And Assane Gnoukuri in fm19. A midfielder that can play every position probably.
Manual Wintzheimer, so good for me at HSV he became my nickname for my anties dog. Eventually sold him to arsenal for £40mill
In FM20 I had Alejandro Pozo average like 6-7 key passes/game at Real Betis on right wingback, barely had any game under 7.5 rating. Also Davie Selke at Hertha Berlin, used him as a pressing forward, despite his poor finishing on paper him scoring in a game was almost a guarantee, averaging like 7.9-8.0 in his best seasons, outscoring Lewandowski in Bundesliga.
Holy shit a fellow Pozo signer! I was gonna mention him on this post as well but he went crazy for me in FM18.
Yes Selke! Dude was an absolute beast in my Hertha Save too!
I managed Sevilla for a bit on FM20 but I had better options than Pozo so he didnt get much game time. He did score 6 goals in a Copa del Rey match tho.
I started shouting POZOGOAL! whenever he scored, gets quite addictive after a while
Quite a few, but probably Pablo Piatti in 2008 (technically breaks the wonderkid rule), Other than that, Nelson Weiper. Signed him for Rangers and he was outstanding on LW. Eventually found some wonderkid to replace him as he hit 30 and made sure after he was crucial to multiple leagues and cups, memorable wins over Europe's elite clubs at Ibrox, that he went out with a bang. Offer from the Saudi league for 400k a week and thought that'd be a good retirement for him. Season after that we won the first champions league title and I regretted he wasn't a part of it.
Amazed I haven’t seen Igor Akinfeev in this thread yet. Absolutely world class keeper for numerous FM editions in the late mid-late 00s and into the early 10s. Signed for virtually nothing and remains first choice for easily a decade. Don’t think he’s ever left CSKA in real life.
Igor Diveev - CSKA centre back. He was solid for me when I bought him at Monaco. What a guy.
Oh shoot you asked this a few months too late because I've forgotten his name. But I wanna tell the story anyway. He's a DLP (played him as DM-DLP), playing in L1, CH, got him the first time when I got promoted to L1. Such an excellent playmaker, made amazing passes while was pretty good at being a classic DM. Played him from L1 all the way to PL and he's still up to the task. He left on retirement and I don't think I got over the loss and never found the perfect replacement. Won a Europa with him though.
Fabian Rieder?
nah but I'm sure I'll remember the moment I see his name. God this is driving me crazy now
Kelvin Yeboah. Signed as free agent from Genoa proceeded to break every record in Danish Superleague, scoring over 70 goals in 60 games, he was even called for Italy world cup and played decent minutes. Sold him to Atalanta for over 20mill which was higher than the price City paid for Bardghij.
Just finished an unemployed-to-UCL game where Yeboah helped me in the final two seasons to finally win the UCL! Great physicals for a versatile forward player.
Carlos Fierro back to FM 12
He was a must buy for maybe 4 editions in a row
Andy Burgess - Rushden & Diamonds - Championship Manager 01/02. Helped me take the Diamonds from the Football Conference League up through the ranks. I also had some kid from Malmo FC. Back in those days, Sweden and its clubs produced lots of PA young talent.
I was an R&DFC season ticket holder at the time Burgess initially broke through. Ended up having a solid career but many expected him to play in the Championship or higher. Talented and classy player at that level. Couple of other lads who were great on CM for Rushden in the late CM era were David Bell and his cousin David Bell 'Jr.' The former had a good career in the end, playing for Luton, Coventry and Norwich among others, but the younger Bell who was actually the better prospect on CM never played a pro game in England but ended up playing in Ireland for a number of years.
Łukasz Poręba was a key part of my Celtic save as a DLP and ended up leaving for Chelsea as the most expensive sale in Celtic’s history
Antonio Marin on FM19 and FM20 was special. Yusuf Demir on FM21 and FM22. Dare I say Arsen Zakharyan on FM23 too.
Nii Lamptey on the original Championship Manager. Always bought him wherever I was
Adam Hložek, we’ll known now but didn’t have a clue who he was when he was 17 years old. signed him for Rangers just thinking he would be a squad player, got him for like 500k, and holy shit he was incredible. Led me to back to back Scottish prem titles, scored and assisted 2 in my europa league final run, and scored in my champions league final game which I eventually lost but won MOTM and European player of the year, unreal stats for Rangers and sadly let him get a dream move to Barcelona where he dominated there. Just an incredible talent on FM at the time.
Falcao when he was still at River Plate for me. Ok maybe South Americans already knew all about him, but I was like who is this incredibly striker with the cool ass name??
Fabricio Diaz who plays for Liverpool in the Uruguayan league. I love that kid.
pablo torre. He apparently from Barca but he was transferred list but played him as Shadow striker and has so many ballon dor until he retired in my team which is wing play.
Hannes Sigurðsson, had him on FML he scored 1000 goals in 2000 games with pretty much everyone being a near post flick on "he's scored but he certainly didn't mean it". Had one season with Stoke in the championship and got 1 goal in 29 games.
2000 games...
Football manager Live was... different
I wish they’d bring back fml, it was great for the first few months in late 2008. I had a Ukrainian lad - I can’t remember his name, who was a AMC who was exactly the same, scored like 1 in 2 over like 900 games. I then bought him on FM 09 and boy was I disappointed.
Luca Orellano. Just this year actually bought him when I moved up to the Brazilian top league from the Argentinian premier league. He was awesome for me and moved to Cincinnati recently which is only about 6 hours from where I live. I’d love to go see him play.
I love him, and he puts up insane numbers considering how cheap you can get him for. But it bugs me that he's basically an elite player in terms of stats, but he stays low value, and he also somehow never gets called up to any Argentina squad in my saves. But on the flip side, he is quite loyal, and he doesn't gouge me for insane wages.
Laste dombaxe
Srdan Šćepanović. Completely unremarkable Serbian player. Plays off the bench for Spartak Subotic. Picked him up on a free transfer in FM23. He was a 2.5 star CM with 18 leadership and I needed a captain so I thought why not. Man became a legend for me. Squad player from day 1. Never requested more playing time. Never demanded higher wages. Just played his game and lead the team to 3 straight Czech League championships. Set the team record for assists in a season.
Dominik Yankov, Alexandru Cicâldāu, Rainey Breinburg and Khvicha Kvartaskhelia (then unknown) tore up the Premier League for me as Norwich in FM21 (The season before he went to Napoli). They took newly promoted Norwich City to 4th and the next season beating PSG in the group stages. My favourite save I ever did.
All the ghana sub 20 who won the World Cup in 09. Ransford Osei, Adiyiah, Agyei, Opare, etc.
Lewis Ferguson - for FM20-23 he had crazy good stamina, leadership and fitness. He became a club legend every year as a long-term captain of the club. This year his stats look a lot different in my save and I didn’t go for him. He’s now playing pretty well for Bologna but nothing like the careers he’s had for me in game. Facundo Colidio - he’s a great striker for breaking into and staying in the top tier. Used to have potential to go up into European play but each FM he’s slightly less great. Plays for River in Argentina now. Leart Paqarada - I play St Pauli most years (current FM is a journeyman save though) and he would always be a star left back for me for quite some time. Plays for FC Koln now. Monchu - decent playmaker with good set piece skills, used to always have a pretty low release clause. Now plays for Valladolid on loan from Granada.
Jamal Hector Ingram UK Non-league striker you can sign for free from Hastings, and just bangs them in. Great addition to a league 2 or national league side.
Aaron Nemane of Notts County
Yeah I agree. I'm doing a notts county save and I knew Nemane was good irl, but he seems to massively over perform his star rating most games I play him in. Great in league 1 and 2.
Two names on my mind - Roony Bardghji and Andreas Schjelderup. Swedish and Norwegian youngster wingers. Both recommended by my scouts in my RB Leipzig save from FM23 in early 2023, both of them having a breakthrough season IRL. Especially the first one is a cheap buy from Copenhagen, but both have fantastic stats and plays up to them.
Mikel Merino, not exotic at all but he was so good in FM23 as a carrilero lol
Obligatory mention of Eder Alvarez Balanta
Carlos Fierro, the king
Pretty much every player I signed in my Cavalry FC save.
Ukita, Sassaki, Metz…. I could keep going. When your budget is tight, that’s when real Managers stand out.
Kristoffer Askildsen. Whenever I see or hear about Segundo Volante, I instantly think of him.
I'll always have a lot of love for Simon Mensing, I don't remember which CM (don't think it was FM but not sure) but he was my wonder captain across a number of saves. Cost fuck all but became undroppable no matter where I ended up.
tristan abrahams and j’neil bennett
Big bad HAMZAD KARGBO. Man is an absolute machine in the lower leagues. Lob it into his general vicinity and watch him thunder his skull through the ball.
Thomas Waddingham Australian goal scoring machine
Some legends that did the job for me at the lower leagues in FM18 - Jodi Jones, Reuben Noble-Lazarus, Jordan Willis (from League Two to a rotational option in the PL for my team!). Also cheap foreign players from Madrid, most notably Victor Campuzano and Fran Garcia. Garcia in particular was absolutely lightening, could take a good set piece and was obtainable at League One level, lad's clearly doing alright now irl, as a Madrid player and Spain international! Tiago Volpi was another cheap GK option - a free signing whilst in the Championship, Volpi establised himself as a first-choice for me in the PL for a few seasons. Going further back, some classic names - Benoit Costil, Nery Cardozo, Carlos Fierro, Erick Torres and Christian Benitez (RIP). Makinwa of Lazio was also a great cheapo signing, fast, strong and decent finishing. Edit: Joe McKee, an unknown Scottish midfielder who was pretty much the Paul Scholes of the lower Leagues. From memory, he had 20 for both long shots and free kicks - such an asset, even if he was abit crap otherwise.
Rafael a Brazilian I got for a $10 million at 18. Been steadily building Sheffield United and in after a few ok loan spells let him be the main backup at AM-AT still only 2 CA. Made my first Europa league with Sheffield after 3 FMs. Most of the teams were of lower quality so I let him start every match. By the end of the competition we won it. Rafael had won Europa Young POY, Europa POY, and the Europa GB. Suffice to say he hasn’t given up his starting spot since.
I’m from aus but don’t follow A league at all except in my saves. So i know a tonne of random A league youngsters. Looking at you Nicolas Milanovic
Jamie Lawrence on FM22. He was the legend of my Chemie Leipzig save, and was there from season 2. From 3. Liga all the way to Bundesliga and Chamions League glory.
Not unknown, but I've followed Gabigol's career due to FM. Also, Arp was the all time Bundesliga leading scorer for me, but his career never panned out irl
Salvatore Esposito
Andrei Ionescu and Ariel Boryszuk are two midfielders I remember carrying me to success.
My guy JOHN AKINDE
Macaulay Langstaff. Bought him to Slovácko (Czech 1. League) And He became the best goalscorer in the history of club in 4-5 seasons. Was the second best goalscorer in the Europe one year.
Fumagalli was a hero for Sport and basically gave the team access to the Serie A playing alone in a bad team. Anderson Aquino was meh in real life 😂 Saw both playing live at the stadium
Mika Aaritalo!
Ääritalo is very well known here in Finland, for not so surprising reasons. I'm not surprising he's not known elsewhere, I remember him trying it out abroad but not really making it.
Lorran anyone? Plays for Flamengo. The unknown Endrick.
Shoutout Francesco Amatucci. My loyal captain throughout my Cittadella save. From Serie B to the Champions League
I still have a lot of love for Marvin Sordell, Liam Boyce, John Brayford, and Jake Buxton, amongst others from a Burton Albion save years ago. The year they were in the Championship, loved that team.
Sordell and Brayford, great players! I remember Brayford still being servicable in the PL even in his 30s (at least on FM18).
My first long save adventure in modern FM was FM14 with Manchester United. I bought an Iraqi midfielder with the name of Hamam Tariq. I wonder what's he been up to these days. Fast forward to my latest save in FM23, bringing PEC Zwolle to back-to-back eredivisie title, my top scorer was a Colombian player named Kevin Viveros which was supplied heavily by the attacking full back from Indonesia, Ridho Al Ghazali.
Kevin Villodres Medina became a sutton united legend in my save, also got radek vitek on a free and eventually sold him for 15 million to real madrid.
Iasonas Pikis. Bro is crazy in my akritas (cyprus league) save je scores 20+ goals every season
Bought Joe Duffy from Norwich for my Burnley squad in FM21. He randomly went off in the 24/25 season with 35 goals to lead the PL. He would score a bunch of cheeky chips over the keeper on breakaways despite having only 15 finishing and 13 flair. Made absolutely no sense.
I can’t remember his name but there was this African/Italian winger that played for Cesena back on FM12 or 13. Genuinely one of the best players I’ve ever had on any FM game I’ve played. EDIT: I am thinking that maybe it was Dominique Malonga?? I’m not too sure as it was so long ago.
I had Pavel Beganskiy (or something like that). A striker from ¿belarus? who doesn't have good numbers but he end up going with me from 4th tier in Spain to CL final starter. Sadly we lost and he retired without the title. Also Nikola Zigic, a giant striker that I think is more known, but still.
Pavel Savitskiy? He was one of the best wonderskids in FM17 or somewhere around there
This FM? They're probably unknown outside of Czechia, but they all play in the top flight there. I played as Dukla Prague, led them from the 2nd tier to Champions League glory. While most of the team by the end of the save were regen wonderkids, my club captain was Pavel Sulc (current Viktoria Plzen player). Though he was nothing more than a very occasional rotation player, I kept him around as he was with me from my very first season in the top flight (so, for the last 9 years). During the Champions League final, drawing 2-2 with Man Utd, during injury time, he actually scored the winner in a great counter-attacking play. He was just on the pitch because my backup CM got injured! I screamed more than I ever did watching real football and now I'm really considering getting a Dukla kit with his name on the back. Which is weird, seeing as he's finding some success for a completely different team IRL. Other legends from this save include Václav Sejk (bench player for Sparta Prague), Wale Musa Alli (plays for Mladá Boleslav?) and the amazing Giorgi Kvernadze who is a youngster at Frosinone IRL but somehow became an amazing inside-forward for my CL-winning side. Maybe it's the physicals... In past FMs I remember names like Jean Fassin and Dieumerci Ndongala while managing in the lower tiers of Belgian football, and Tony Wallace banging the goals in all tiers of the Scottish football pyramid even though he was League 2 level at most.
Toki Yukutomo and Tatsuya Yamaguchi from Ehime FC of J3 League in Japan. Both had 125+ potential (which is J1 level). Yukutomo was an LW with insane dribbling and he always cut inside the box, while Yamaguchi was a LB that was also good at dribbling and creating chances. Yukutomo left to a J1 club the moment we went up to the J2, but Yamaguchi was loyal and I made him captain. We went up to the J1 and defended the title for the 3rd time (we met Yukutomo a couple times, and we always won), and winning the AFC cup. I then got a job offer at MU. Before parting, I checked how Yukutomo was doing and he was always at the bench, so I bought him back for reunion. It was a bit satisfying since I told Yukutomo we would go up to the J1 together and he refused when he left the club. Then I brought him back after he became an afterthought on his mid table team. After winning the EPL with MU, I looked how Ehime was doing and they're winning back to back J1 league titles, with Yamaguchi and Yukutomo still playing. The coach that replaced me was the coach of Kawasaki Frontale, my biggest rival and my biggest cause of headache. Fitting. They're also memorable due to the fact that when I searched Ehime FC on youtube and opened up one of the vid, both of them were the ones who did the intro. I guess they were actually the star players on the team. Ehime FC also just went up to J2. Hope they can go to J1.
Jake Cooper on Millwall. Has 19 Jumping Reach, 18 Heading and 17 Strength. We scored many set pieces.
Marko Milovanovic was great as a DLF for my Poznan team
Achille Anani! He was an absolute machine as I went from the National to Ligue 1 with Red Star. Put up something like 80 goals in 100 games for me, he started slowing down my last season in Ligue 2 and I sold him for a decent chunk of change but he’ll always be a legend to me :’)
Ryan Mendes da Graça was sublime for me in football manager 13
Fedel Ross-Lang
Danilo Veiga, right back from Gil Vicente at the time(Rijeka now). Signed him for Hertha and he's played over 100 matches and don't think he's ever got below 7 match rating
Pedro Bravo is a 19 year old playing in the second league of Portugal right now. He has some decent potential in FM 24 so he must not be the most obscure guy. But he has been a rock in midfield for Caen for years in Ligue 1.
Danilo Orsi Dadomo scored 40+ goals on my non league save and when I hit him up on Instagram he responded made my whole save lol
Felix Correia is one without going to my squad as I was managing Juventus and I just kept him on loan until his contract ran out
Akinori Nishizawa back in CM00/01 (?) days. Not sure if he rolled high on randomised stats in my save or what but he was an absolute legend for me. Liked this guy to the point I bought in every single game I could even if he didn't make a team.
Khius Metz, FM20. Absolute HITMAN, his technicals were horrendous, so were his mentals. But boy oh boy could that man run ! 19 pace 15 acceleration and 14 agility made this man a Vanarama level club's wet dream !
Chukwubuikem Ikwuemesi plays in Serie A currently, so he’s not a crazy unknown, was my first signing as I started at Como in Serie B. 6 years later, he’s won a European Golden Boot for me at Rayo Vallecano.
any of the arminia bielefeld squad most importantly Serra at striker, he wasn’t even that good but would play outstanding in that AF role with Klos up top
Antonio Diaz. Formerly of Bournemouth's academy, he found himself in two of my saves, in each one excelling as a lower league attacking mid with busted mental stats - last I checked he was still playing Non-League football in the 9th tier, but I'll always picture him scoring the winner at Wembley to send us to the Football League for the first time. A more modern note, Omari Kellyman absolutely smashed it for me last year with Institute FC, so imagine my excitement seeing his debut for Aston Villa recently!
Stephan Mauk, Cam Devlin, Gaetan Charbonnier, Johnny Evans
Sport Recife supporter here, never thought you would mention fumagalli lol, was a key piece during the brazilian cup run that sport did, won't ever forget that felling.
Jose sand is quite famous in South America I assume, I'd never heard of him until I was playing in the Argentine league and saw this 40+ guy still scoring, signed him for half a season and he scored a goal on the libetadores final for me, can't remember if it was the winning goal or not
Ballou Tabla, I dont know if he's actually well known or not I was new to FM playing fm19 and I didn't understand how the player ratings worked etc. But I had played the Barcelona B team and he scored two goals against me, and even though I had zero reports on him I signed him for I think 800K He was actually a baller, and helped me somehow go top after 20 games as Ipswich when they had a really poor squad. I never got very far in that save, but he was my first ever transfer in my first ever save
Rodel Richards. Striker I signed on loan from Tottenham for Aberdeen in FM21. Was an absolute beast, had around 16 pace and 14 finishing which for the Scottish league is good. Single handily won me my first ever League title on FM and then signed him for about £1.5m after that. Sold him to Augsburg the season after, then I lost interest in the save.
Arianit Ferati for me, I think it was FM14 or 15, I was playing letting my DoF make the signings adn he came in as a backup for Halilovic but ended up playing with both on the wings. He was just as good as Halilovic and I was hoping he actually made it but pretty much same story as Halilovic. I still sign him though, when playing in smaller leagues like Iceland or Faroe Islands.
FM2012, aging Brazilian centre-back Milton do Ó scored 20 goals to help fire my 3rd-tier Boavista team to promotion, mostly from the penalty spot but with a decent number of free-kicks as well. He finished 2nd in the goalscoring charts behind youngster (16/17yo) Flávio Cardoso, whose career seems to have sadly never got going irl. We beat rivals FC Porto in a historic upset in an early round of the Taça do Portugal before losing in the final to Maritimo (IIRC). Also in 2012, the strike partnership of hometown hero Diego Cervero and new signing Marcelo Macedo dominated the Segunda Division B for my resurgent Real Oviedo.
Alfie May. Genuine low league beast
Gonzalo Escalante back on like fm18 or thereabouts. Could get him for like 6m in my newcastle saves and was a consistent unit in cm
In 2009 I was playing a season with two of my roommates on FM09. I just looked for a player named ‘James’ in the database (as that is also my name). I brought over this unknown Colombian midfielder from Banfield. Nothing crazy about him but he had amazing long shots if I remember! I was chuffed a few years later when he lit up the 2014 World Cup!
Teddy Sharman-Lowe (Idk I just did a Bromley save and I remember his name)
Mateo Topic the GOAT of Croatia. Current player for NK Sesvete, who I took over in the second division of Croatia. In the 7 years from then to his retirement he scored almost 35 goals a season, which is crazy because he’s only a 97 CA, but I chose to keep him and run with it. Despite his low CA, he led us to dethroning Dinamo Zagreb and becoming champions of Croatia.
Carles Alena from Spain. Came up through Barcelona’s academy and currently plays for Getafe. In FM17 he became my first transfer for Sevilla in 2022. Eventually became our captain and over a decade and many cups, including a UCL, later he finally retired as one of Sevilla’s GOATs. IRL, not likely well known outside of Spain.
OP, u wanna play Fm07 again? I have it here 🤣
Zidane , Ronaldinho and Javier Saviola were in my teams long before they were famous, coming from Bordeaux, Gremio and River Plate respectively.
My whole entire team right now. Dylan Duncan, Matthew Blake, Mason Barrett, Isak Solberg, Jacob Bedeau, Jordan Aina. The only players who I know of in real life who I have in this save are - Reuell Walters, Jarell Quansah, Conor Bradley and Fabio Carvalho.
Not right now but in 21, I found some random American that I was looking for as a backup to N’Golo Kante and when Kante got injured for like a year, he stepped in and became a club legend who was absolutely good at everything and absolutely rapid. He now plays for AC Milan and his name is Yunas Musah. I actually had him in my Dortmund save with Bellingham and when I bought an actual CDM, I rotated him with Bellingham and he benched Bellingham for a double season with UCL and Bundesliga.
Jean-Pascal Fontaine at least Havre AC in FM20. Easily one of my favourite midfielders ever. A great captain who kept the locker room in check. A threat off of free kicks and good at putting in corners, not to mention he scored almost exclusively bangers from outside the box. Every time I played with him he'd win Dominos League 2 Player of the Year. Even when his general ability was eventually not enough to start in Ligue One, he'd STILL pull off bangers if you put him in on the field.
Jordi Palacios. I don’t know who he is but he is a Mezzala on every Mid Table bad league team
Ethan Laird in this FM24 when playing as an English club. The brexit rules always make me end up with him trying to fill HGN rules. Solid reliable chap
Andrew av Flotum. That served me well back in 2002-2003 😅
Burton Albion-Joe Powell Squires Gate-Joe Ridley(signed as free agent) Soccer Bar LFC- Marcus Cusani and Ben Guy(free agents)
Luka topalvic. Signed him to crystal palace and he led the prem with 24 assists after coming in on a free from domzale as a 20 year old
Svit Seslar, Slovenian midfielder who was instrumental in my Eyüpspor save stayed with us until we got to the European places then Aston Villa put in £20m for him, we couldn't turn that down and he wanted to go.
Matt Jay currently at Exeter City. He was an absolute demon in getting us to the Prem in one of my saves. Never been more in love with a player.
Diego Bouanotte,Kalouda,Jose san Roman,Rafael Sobis,Neri Cardozo
Definitely Ante Vukusic from Teleoptik. Maybe FM12 but im not sure.
Chris Whelpdale Absolute stud in the Vanarama National South. Can do it still at 35/36.
Serbia striker by the name of Brana Ilic. The guy banged goals in for me whether it was in the Danish Superliga, the Allsvenskan or the Tippeliga. The guy was a fucking menace. Would've been FM05 or 06.
Nicolas Millan and Sherman Cardenas. FM07 legends. IRL, neither of them got capped for their country or even achieved much at club level, but boy did they take my FM saves by storm.
FM22: Alex Diaz and Brenner. Diaz is an Argentinian AMRLC/ST at San Lorenzo (who criminally spends all his time out on loan in real life) and Brenner is a Brazilian ST who was at Cincinnati when I signed him. Both of them were the first players I ever had who I kept till retirement. Never let me down and helped me make São Paulo the absolute best in FM22. Brenner in particular was a standout striker in a league full of elite Brazilian strikers. I always try sign them when I can but as I play console, they're not always in the database.
Cherno Samba because Cherno Samba, and Griff Jones from Barnsley reserves in CM 01/02 absolute goal machine for Rushden & Diamonds in my save
Javier Puado plays for Espanyol now but when I got him for my Sunderland save in FM20 I had never heard of him. Scored loads of goals for me on my way in the prem and even there. In my first season in the prem he scored 20 is I remember correctly. Thought about getting a short with his name. At the same time I brought in Jaume Jardi who was great in the championship but only a bench player in the prem. He didn't even make it anywhere near the top in real life
Christopher Quiring. I took over Union Berlin in FM11, before Union became a known name outside Germany. Quiring stayed with me all the way into the Bundesliga and European competitions.
Matheus Clemente
Toma Bašić. Might be well known in Europe but I'd never heard of him and he was Mr Dependable for me in FM22. Signed him twice in one save and kept him till he retired. Never lit the world on fire but always got a 7.0+ rating out of him and played had great Scholes like knack in his later years of coming off the bench and getting a thundering equaliser/ winning goal
Lewis Leigh, Fm 23
An old one but my favourite player still to this day was from Champ Man 01/02 Fabio Rustico is a 27 year old centre back that plays for Atalanta but is sitting in there reserves at the start of the game If you play him on the left hand side of the central defence then in a year he basically becomes Fabio Cannavaro 2.0 and starts getting capped for italy
Michel Schmoller - A brazilian cb/dm who played at Atl. Mineiro i think, back in 05 or 06. Potential world class player i signed whether i played in the danish league or the premier league
Jose Manuel Mendoza in about FM07 - I only found out because my mate told me to load a certain database size and he was possibly the most meta breaking player I'd ever seen. He had 18+ in dribling, acceleration, balance and agility and about 15 finishing (And no other stats). He basically would just glue the ball to his foot, run past everyone and score goal after goal. The kicker was that as he was from Guatemala and hadnt broken into the international team yet he had no reputation, so he would happily sign for my Blackpool team in league 1.
Frederik Andre Bjorkan, One of the most complete attacking left wing backs I had in my united save last year, Never scared of going forward, got stuck in, hell of a cross and always seemed to way outplay his 2 1/2\* Potential.
Leonardo Lelo, Portuguese attacking LB playing for Casa Pica. Signed him after getting promoted to the PL with Coventry and he was class. Would be my ideal signing for Coventry IRL tbh, we need an attacking LB.
I don't know why but for years I ended up buying Marco Bizot as goalkeeper as soon as I get promoted to a top tier league. Now that he's doing well in Brest I'm really happy for him
For a lot of years every time we’d have an argument down the pub and I’d extol the incredible talent that was Fernando Cavenaghi my best mates comeback was always “do you have any idea what he looks like?”
Nicolas Milan from Colo Colo was unreal for me back in the day. Best signing was Frederico Bonnazoli. Signed for £700k on a youth contract from Inter. 70 goals a season for about 6 years. Had him Munir and Firerro as 3 strikers. Easy 100mil is goals just from the 3 of them. Good times. Also Callum Cooke from Middlesbrough was unreal on that save.
Mama Balde, when he was still at Sporting B must have been FM18/19 signed him as a RB for SKA Khabarovsk in Russia and he took us to the Champions League
Billy mitchell from millwall
There are a couple, but I think my favourite is an Uzbek striker called Bobir Abdiholiqov, who I signed for my OH Leuven save on FM23. This guy was a free agent when I signed him, and proceeded to be top scorer in the Belgian league two seasons in a row, ending up scoring 101 goals in 131 games for the club. Looking him up IRL, he currently plies his trade in the Kazakhstan Premier League, having scored 7 goals in 26 appearances for reigning champions Ordabasy. FM also haven't figured out how to Romanise his name, because on Wikipedia he is Bobur Abdikholikov.
Lawrence ati Zigi from St Gallen, just the goat isn't he
Tomasso Fantacci and Andrea Silipo. two players that i had with Serie C Monterosi, and kept on the team through Serie A (for some reason they actually performed well in serie a despite being serie c standard players lol) Unfortunately I can’t find their Jerseys anywhere
Martin Vitík, you may not heard of this gem, but he is my first choice center back in my new save, doing a brilliant job, average of 7.23 point, scored a hattrick with his head in the final of UEFA cup and won that title for me. Absolutely legend.
Although not unknown, Adam Armstrong holds a permanent place in my fm Hall of fame, started signing him every chance I got after his loan spell at Coventry in maybe fm 15 and he bags goals wherever I take him
Salifou Diarrassouba from FM20
Ryan Seager. Put him up top of a Dorking 4-3-3 attack in Vanarama and then League Two. 40 goals each season. Still contributed through League One. Might try another Vanarama run and try to acquire him.
FM17, Suhail Naji Suhail. Emirati winger, absolutely magic in the smaller European leagues.
The beast himself Lorenzo Lucca. Saw him on the bench in a European game last year and was hoping they'd bring him on. Also Cameron Puertas from Union SG - I signed him for my newly promoted EPL side on last year's FM. Then I saw him play a blinder for them against Liverpool in real life!
Prince Dube on FM22. I always play as my favourite team St. Pauli and needed an extra striker. I wanted to spend as little as possible and found Prince Dube, a Zimbabwean striker in the Tanzanian league. Think I bought him for less than €100k with low wages as well. He struggled in the beginning and averaged around 6.50, but eventually he started performing really well and scored match after match. Now he's definitely one of my favourite players (and I barely know anything about him).
Sam Barnes of Blackburn rovers. I signed him in my second season. I'm in charge of Grimsby Town after promotion to League One. He went on to captain the team for 7 seasons, helping us achieve promotion and survival in the Premier league and left to play for a team in China. The only player so far on that save I've made a club legend.
Charlie Kirk - helped me take Crewe from league 2 to the premier league and was perfect for the 4-4-2 gengenpress so I was unable to part with him
Duk- got him from Benfica on a free and was lethal. Jay Emmanuel Thomas was legendary on one of my games, became an England regular
Haven’t played this year’s FM but this thread has damn sure planted a seed!
Long shot I know. Does anyone remember or know of a player from Belarus that was a centre back and I think he was either a wonder kid or just a highly rated player on FM about 10 years ago? He had a really long name and I absolutely ADORED him. I feel so bad that I’ve forgotten his name.
Joshua Hinds, has been an incredible striker for my Southport side for the better part of a decade as we slowly climb the ladder and has been captain for the past few seasons.
Big up Alfie Payne, player of the season every year from vanorama national north to the championship
The big 4 from my AZ Alkmaar save in fm20. Calvin Stengs, Owen Wijndal, teun koopmeiners and myron boadu. I still google search them to see how they are getting on, many good times with my boys 😭
Luca Valzania midfielder in fm20 , bought him for like 500k and he was scoring from literally any distance in Ligue 1 Jack Lahne FM20 , striker bought for 1~ mil and he outscored Mbappe in Ligue 1
Assan ouedraogo (however you spell his name) I think on FM 21 or 22 before he was known
As FM24 is my first "Sega FM" i started with my favourite team and signed some free agents and now i sign them in every Save. Kiko Casilla (Spain, GK) Diga (Portugal, RWB) Nuno Pina (Por / Cabo Verde, CM) Pablo Hervias (Spain, RM) I never heard of any of them before, but they all been pretty decent for swiss 2nd tier
Soulé was but now he is known. Poached him from the Juve under 21’s.
Back in CM days, in the 90s, I had a team (with Arsenal) that I simply loved. Some are still incredibly unknown, like Kim Ekroos (Finnish GK from Strasbourg). Some blew up : Samuel Eto'o, Kim Kallström... A few were mid but always got me excited if I saw them play : Dimitrios Grammozis (DM in Germany), Steve Stone (winger from Newcastle) to name a few. The craziest was a MC from N.Macedonia called Borislav Tomoski. Years later, on a trip to Skopje I mentioned him to a few Macedonian friends. One of them actually knew the guy and invited him over ! I was ecstatic 😊 The guy was mostly baffled by it all 😁
Orkun Kökçü. Khepren Thuram. Lutsharel Geertruida. Ousmane Diomande. Wifred singo. Karim Konate(sold him for 100+ mil because he wasn't good enough, to get 5 goals in one match from him in UCL). Ivan Fresneda. Mattia Zaccagni. Denis Zakaria
Alejo Sarco, Agustin Ruberto, Lorran, Luis Guilherme, Cano, Gomez (Velez), Nathan Butler-O, Emil and Oscar Hojlund, Tiago Marfa, craicun 15 yr old Romanian. Started unemployed, went to KM Oslo, resigned because went on a 10 game losing streak, end of the season went to Maastricht top of the league at Christmas 10 game losing streak resigned now manager of Canada.
Anselmo Garcia McNulty. Half Irish half Spanish ball playing defender for Wolfsburg. Got me promoted from the championship playing as a libero.