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Damn, thats my dream! I’m playing fm24 in second season with Birmingham trying to reunite the bellinghams. I got jobe but Jude has an asking price of 233 million which I try to finance by building up a loan army…
Rivaldo in FM 08, after getting let go by some Aserbajdsjani team, technique outta this world 18-19s on all offensive stats, physicals were horrendous. But man he did wonders on my AC Horsens team in the danish league.
Yeah I am an AEK fan and he was in our real life roster back then. I not so fondly remember how you could see his physicals collapsing halfway through that first season. 08 did that often with 35+ players I think.
Toni Kroos in terms of star quality and was great in first season I had him. Jurrien Timber in terms of performance level and was only 24/25. Signing him also meant his brother joined me on a free a year later too , two Timbers for the price of none
On the console version of 23 before the first patch. Mbappe would never sign a contract at psg when it expired.
I had him at Rangers once and ruined my wage budget and finances for 4 years but what a 4 years it was with him and Messi running around up top.
He would go too some weird places including ending up at conference north Chester and I wasn't managing them at the time. He was 2 years older than he starts and was on 2 grand a week.
I got a Serbian regen CB, who was 20 years old. He ended up being my captain a few years later and stayed with me until he retired. At his peak he was one of the best in the world
30-31 y.o. Kimich ending a Saudi contract. Almost every top team save in FM24. The guy's a beast and has full 4-5 years left on top of his game. I guess Bayern sell him because his contract expires in 2025 and he signs a short-term deal in Saudi
Not to pick on you, the words you got wrong were
Sing should be sign
Sommar should be summer
The last sentence should be 'they were my best players'
Just helping you with your English
Rayan Cherki for Carlisle in the championship on fm23, had no idea who he was. Got him on low wages and Bayern bought him for 100m a year a later, signed him on a free again in the prem 2 years later
Elyesse Ben Seghir. Instantly 70m+ value, after half a season of great form his value is 120m+. Crazy that there was zero interest at all when January came and I approached to sign him.
Smaller level to anyone else here, but I got Rhian Brewster for Toronto FC in MLS and he’s been amazing. High determination, ‘perfectionist’ and he can play in literally any role across all three forward and wing positions.
I've signed a lot of free transfer players in my saves but usually young regens that I can loan out and eventually sell for profit, i rarely sign known or older players for free because the type of saves I do start at the very bottom and take years before I can sign good players and I always focus on youth.
However on my save in Gibraltar I've been happy to sign older players on free transfers including Adnan Januzaj, Deli Ali, Harry Winks, Richarlson and a few others I can't remember at the moment but the best one was a guy called Ondrej Lingr who was 31 and played as an attacking midfielder, he was way too good for the Gibraltar league and ended up scoring over 40 goals in around 20 games including several hattricks, probably the best free transfer in all my saves and the most goals I've had from an attacking midfielder in a season, of course its relative to the save and club I'm at as he wouldn't have been as good in another league but for us he was a beast.
My no1 trick for fm is to sell my 3rd choice keeper, midfielders, defenders and strikers every season. I replace them with whatever new set of free agents I can get my hands on. Usually after a few years and you’ve reached champions league you’ll get a load of top championship/low prem 2* players interested in being your backup. Each usually hold a value between 15-20m so you just sell them at the end of the season for a guaranteed 70ish mil bonus to the budget. It’s literally like printing free money as they’re all happy to leave due to lack of playing time.
Yeah that's one trick on how you build up budget, but for it to work well it usually means that you need to manage a club in England so that you get inflated player values. Another trick once you have raised your reputation is to buy high potential free(or bargain price, less than a million) players from big clubs whose careers have stagnated due to poor AI management and they haven't reached their potential, ages anything between 21 and 24. You don't actually give them games but instead you loan them out to clubs with good facilities who play in a decent league and guarantee game time. Often, they will have growth spurts. If they reach 135-150 ability and you are lucky enough to not need them in your first team, you can easily be getting 2-3 million per year for every player that you loan out. Repeat the process every year, keeping the best ones around with new contracts and selling the rest after a couple of years that they been on loan already but don't seem to develop well enough.
Sell the best ones once they reach their prime, at around 28-29. This method most often pays you anything between 10-100 million £ from just loaning out and then selling one player you got for free and you literally never paid a penny for in wages.
Downside is that you will have to work on finding the right loan deals for all of them (and then keep an eye at their progress and game time) every year but if they are good enough it's easy peasy
Yeah when a team agrees to pay the mega loan fees it’s super satisfying 🤣 I spend most of my time managing Nottingham Forest, doing various different challenges so I forgot that the free agent trick might not work as well elsewhere lol. At least in England it always nets me enough to buy one or two wonderkids each year
Yessir you caught me😅 when it comes to Mr M the fan base is mixed, and incredibly bipolar. When he is spending a load of money on us he is the second coming of Christ but the second something comes out that slightly goes against Forest ,which could be managements fault, the majority switch up and act like he’s actively trying to ruin the club🙄. In my opinion, we are very lucky to have someone who is willing to put up with the fan base lol. No one is perfect but he is better than many owners.
He's a very controversial figure even amongst Olympiacos fans, some adore him and others absolutely despise him. Guy is gangsta af, just Google "Marinakis Noor 1" and get ready to have your jaw drop to the floor.
Steffen Iversen FM06 for my team Hull. Got us promoted with him as top scorer in the Championship and then was top scorer in the prem in the following 2 seasons, getting world player of the year
Got Diogo Costa at 28/29 yo after he played out a contract in Saudi on a £120k a week(initially asked for 650k). Fortunate since at the time I was Scunthorpe one season into PL and had shit reputation.
Wasn't a great player but had an incredible influence. I was managing blyth Spartans, i signed a regen striker on a free from Manchester city, i was in the vanarama national league at the time. He ended up being my striker all the way to the prem scoring around 20 -25 goals a season. Some seasons were even 30
Adeyemi got him on a free and ended up having a worth of 98 million, he was still at Salzburg at the time, he was absolutely amazing in game as well,
I am always looking out for free transfers, I am a fan of getting big players and retiring them at my clubs too, I signed Sergio Ramos and Wayne rooney for the team I support, (Hearts)
I’m Maidenhead so my team is freebies and I’ve got some beasts!! I know you want the most world class but this may resonate with someone. Rafferty Pedder released by QPR and Taylor Foran released by Arsenal - absolutely incredible signings!
Two in my current FM22 save. One was Preslav Borukov who I had on loan for the 2nd half of the season and his goals pretty much single handedly kept me up. He was released that summer and I was surprised I was able to get him on quite a good deal. He's still fairly free scoring to. The second was a regen I was surprisingly able to pick up as I thought there would have been more competition. 18yrs old straight into my premiership first team and he's now got interest from most of the big European clubs. Hoping not to sell but if the money is good enough he's out the door.
Bryan Gill
, absolute monster of a winger he was in my barca save
Won everything with barca
4 ucls
5 league
5 cdr
5 spanish super Cup
3 UEFA super Cup
2 club world cup
On my Fulham Save, Messi. I can confirm he CAN do it in the Prem. Two years and he absolutely slapped!
On my Malaga save, three seasons in, Osimhen on £250k per week. Won best player in the world in his first two seasons with us. Baller.
A Portuguese regen when I was bottom half of prem about 27 when he signed instantly best player in dream XI. Couldn’t really believe it was a canon up and down the left flank sold him to psg in last year if contract for £83 million. Couple seasons later bringing him back for a free.
31 yo milankovic savic in like fm20. he was like 180CA, and still had 4-5 seasons in him with 20 natural fitness etc.
i was playing Hereford and that was like 2nd or 3rd season in prem, so to catch player like that was insane
I got Baldanzi in my 3rd season at Chelsea. I sold him like 3 or 4 seasons later for 100m. And of course everyone got upset because he was a superstar in great form. he stayed longer than I had intended as I didn't use an AMC. But he became an elite striker and was great in a 2 striker formation.
A 18 years old newgen wonderkids GK. Already a decent shotstopper at 18 years old and then he grow into my starting keepers for around 20 years.
It's not excatly free because I still paid academy fee to Sampdoria. It's honestly shocking Sampdoria didn't even offer him a pro contracts despite being their starting goalkeeper for a season.
Haaland in his mid-30s. Beasted the Eredivisie and was the missing piece for my team to finally be able to win the Champions League. Then that summer Saudi paid us a 25 million transfer fee for him and gave him a contract that I think was more money than my entire wage budget ($111 million per year)
Willy Kambwala in my current save on fm23. Halfway through my season and the end of Uniteds. They release him and I just happened to see him when looking for academy releases.
Made an offer and ended up having him as the best centre back in the league for 5 seasons Montreal made a big offer by our league standards.
He ended up scoring a header against us in the Canadian championship finals the year he was sold. It was a little bittersweet
Got the wonderkid Essugo at Feyenoord and had him close to 10 years starting most matches and never had a complaint about playing time or a problem with contracts
krisztofer horvath. signed him for free when i got promoted to second league in spain. he instantly was best player and carried the team till we were competing for la ligas. then i kept resigning his contracts so he could win lots of trophies even tho he wasn’t good enough anymore
Tomas Estevas in FM20. Signed him from Porto's B squad in my main Fulham save in my 3rd season (2nd in the PL), and he was a rock at RB for 5 or 6 seasons. Eventually I found an upgrade, he became a rotation option, and I sold him for £60 million to a Chinese team where he still plays 7 or 8 seasons later.
Signed Jude Bellingham for free from the Vancouver Whitecaps a season later. He wasn't as an integral part of the team, but was a great squad player filling a homegrown slot for years. I probably wasted him because I was stubborn with my midfield 3, but he could play a number of positions to fill in and was a valuable squad member. I'm now in 2035 and he just left after 8 or 9 seasons.
https://preview.redd.it/tc7uz7krxc5d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4114e157fb4bb77b8c3124d561d55bf711786d62
Sebastiano esposito was a pretty good one, inter let him go for free, he DID not let that go 😂
The season I won the EFL Championship in my current Barrow Town save I picked up a brazilian dude called Luis Enriqué. Wolves released him and I snapped him up on a free.
He was my main playmaker and my player of the season as I racked up 107 points on my way to running away with the league and getting promoted to the Premier League.
We're in Europe now and he's still the beating heart of my midfield.
On my current save, Sverre Halseth Nypan on a free from Rosenborg to AGF.
Ever? I had Sergio Ramos and Brahim Diaz on my AZ team on FM 22, I think. I don't really remember specific players from many years before that.
36 year old Ruben Dias in my Hillerød career. My defense got better, and all of my young central defenders improved in professionalism. He only lasted two seasons, as he refused to be extended as a squad player for the third, and the young players simply improved past him (not helped by his decline)
Probably not the best ever but I signed Ismail Coulibally for a free for Aberdeen FC in my current save on FM24.
3 great seasons later we have had group stages of the champions league and he’s sold for 25 million to China.
He’s allowed us to overtake Celtic + Rangers and start signing wonder kids to develop.
I'm currently doing a save where I'm trying to rebuild Manchester United, and somehow I picked up Victor Osimhen on a free transfer! Guys been tearing up for me the last couple of seasons and he's currently worth £130 million. Not sure how I manged to blag him on a free, but I'm not complaining lol
Mikkel Damsgaard for Huddersfield town in 2028/2029 helped us promoted from league One to championship then to premier league very next season. Sold him after those two seasons. I always check up on him to see how he’s doing, if he’s unhappy, if his contract is coming to an end. I’ll be glad to have him back on the team.
Samardzic for Sunderland. Kept him in the team for 1.5 seasons, AC offered 52m in January then accepted my first negotiation to match his release clause of 94m.
He was 3rd choice CAM by that point anyway
FM24 - Rosen Krastev at Nesebar in the Bulgarian 3rd Division, came through all the leagues with us up to the Bulgarian 1st Division. Over my 4 year tenure with Nesebar he had 125 appearances with 115 goals.
Stats are completely unspectacular but he's tall and for some reason turned out to be a goal machine for me.
Reyna in FM21
Several 7.8 average ratings, countless assists and goals, became a Legend of Real Sociedad, and winner of nearly every single award despite only being 3 star rated
I loaned Konrad Laimer from Bayern in my first season with Arsenal and managed to drag the loan out until his contract ran out and got him on a free. I did the same with a previous version with Odegaard. It's a formula that seems to work quite well for me.
I don't usually manage top division football often but in my most recent save I picked up Benjamin Cremaschi on a free from Inter Miami and he is currently getting offers for 60-70 million.
Laminne Yamel aged 30 with Man Utd when his obscene £850k per week contract ended at Barcelona. This after I previously signed him 4 or 5 years ago at Freiburg on transfer deadline day paying half wages (which still made him my highest paid player by far) and no fee and making it onto his favoured personal which is probably the only reason I could sign him on a free all that time later before Saudi snatched him.
Olivier Giroud.
First season with Chelsea on FM24 - no good striker, injury crisis, fuck all finances.
Reunite with Giroud and what follows is utter magic; 33 G/A in all comps, top 3 finish and FA Cup winners. Kept him in for depth for the next two seasons after signing Gimenez before he retired with us.
Absolute don.
At every season I try to get some free signings which I dont need then never use them to the point they frustrated with the situation and agree to move after 6 months. Those 20-30 mils each really helps a lot lol.
Current save: Taylor Harwood-Bellis.
Signed for free for Werder Bremen and is now, roughly two seasons later, worth almost 100.000.000€ in the Bundesliga.
He wasn't immediately amazing, but I signed an either footed LB newgen on a free after he randomly got released from Norwich academy on FM19. He ended up playing first team football for us from age 19 to age 35 (where he retired). Fr9m about 26 years old onwards we won the league every year, and got several champions leagues to add to that.
Vazquez to Chelsea FM24, 2025, I took him in as a back up winger and he ended up scoring a debut hatrick. 3 seasons later he’s started most games and has roughly 60 g+a 105 games. Not bad for his age!
Currently Van den Berg in my Bremen save.
Though Newcastle save a few years ago I signed a 16yo model citizen AM. A white guy from the Ivory Coast. The guy was already 3.5 stars. Incredible. Never played much more of the save though after that.
A regen striker named Javier Acosta from Villarreal. Automatically raised my reputation with Telford. Won golden boot in first two seasons. Went conference league qualification, champions league, and won the Prem in his third season.
FM22: Neymar at Nottingham Forest -
Signed him in his late 30s, physicals were done but his technical abilities were still incredible. Scored an incredible hattrick in his first game, then got injured for 9 months and never was useful ever after.
FM23: De Bruyne at Paris FC -
Signed him also in his late 30s, still was incredible and helped me finally dethrone PSG. Got like 3-4 seasons with 20 goals and 20 assists in a row, was still incredibly good and fit at his age.
FM24: Iniesta at Millwall -
Signed at above 40 years old, was absolutely horrible. Would get bullied by all physical Championship midfielders, but like once every 5 games would give that magnificent Iniesta through ball. Went from starter to sub to reserve rather fast.
Got to love betting on signing free 35+ legends and see if they actually deliver or fail 😉
About 15 years into my save I got a 17 year old Cameroonian winger/striker named Cedric Nembot on a free who, 6-7 years later is a leading Ligue 1 player with my Paris FC squad. He's an awesome rotation option for me and usually goes crazy in the coupe de France and in continental competitions. Really the only time a free transfer turned into a wonderkid for me.
It was 20 y.o. Russian regen AF from Dynamo. Got him for CSKA after ours first championship and he was so good that i downloaded genie scout only to check his CA and PA. It was like 180-185 CA and 189 PA, the guy was top-10 PA players in my save or even top-10 CA.
Unfortunately, after 2 seasons Newcastle came for him with 90+ millions at winter and since i play realistically, he left us. He won EPL and FA for them in his next season in England.
Signed 26 year old kvaratskhelia and 24 year old Xavi Simons in the same window for Liverpool once
Iirc kvara stayed there for the rest of his career even after I left the club
I signed a newgen Anderson Gabriel at 33 years old after he was top scorer for Marseille and Ligue 1 for several years and always a thorn in my side. He played for my VfB Stuttgart side for 2 seasons and had one year where he had 20 goals and 20 assists and got a one year extension clause where he would be a big factor in a more limited role before retiring and finally getting himself a league title and a europa league title in his last season.
Messi a few years in in FM20 :). Messi at Kaiserslautern, who would have thought :D. He retired after that one season, though.
I also wanted to get C. Ronaldo, but he had too high wage demands and eventually resigned at Juventus at the time. I got him as a very good youth coach a bit later, though. So I basically had Messi and C. Ronaldo at my club :D.
Mbappe and then Haaland like 2 seasons after lol. Back in fm22 when Mbappe was immediately available for free and for some reason nobody coughed up the cash for Haaland.
Gareth Barry in my FM14 save. He was 33 when I signed him for Atalanta, but his mental stats were of the scale. He played a few games in 1 and 1/2 seasons at the base of midfield (Serie A so slower pace), but was invaluable coaching and mentoring my young midfielders
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. He moved to United in the first year of the save, and pretty much immediately got unbelievably angry with just about everyone there, and left at the end of his contract. He was valued at 130 million at the time, so that was nice.
Had a world class CB/RB/DM (he played DM for me) called Thomas Weiß in FM21. He was frankly unbelievable, decided to sign for my York team (we were UCL contenders at this stage) after not managing to negotiate a contract with Leverkusen. Ended up checking him PA/CA after the save, and an old save from when I found him. 185 CA, 197 PA, which he fulfilled at York. Ridiculous player.
Signed a released played from Man United with South Shields when in NLN/going up into NL.
Went on to become club top scorer by 24, took me all the way to the Prem then I called him up to the England side when I got the job... Scored in injury time to win my first 2 group games on the way to winning a Euros. I'd only called him up for my own benefit
I got Haaland on a free on FM21 or FM22, I was managing Everton and got a free run on the ‘approach to sign’ in the January because he had a serious injury, it was probably a bit buggy that no other teams were interested because of this but I broke the bank to get him. Only time I’ve ever managed him and he did not disappoint.
Picked up a 24yo newgen that Arsenal released on my current save, wanted to sign him when he was first bought by Arsenal but didn’t have the rep, got him on like 40k a week and his value is 45-53mil 😍
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Bellingham at something like 25 years old in FM23
Damn, thats my dream! I’m playing fm24 in second season with Birmingham trying to reunite the bellinghams. I got jobe but Jude has an asking price of 233 million which I try to finance by building up a loan army…
plot twist: it was Jobe
Lol same but couple of years ago when he was unknown at Birmingham. Came to Rapid Wien and after 3 season record transfer to liverpool
I don't think he was ever unknown at birmingham
Just curious with which team?
with Everton
Rivaldo in FM 08, after getting let go by some Aserbajdsjani team, technique outta this world 18-19s on all offensive stats, physicals were horrendous. But man he did wonders on my AC Horsens team in the danish league.
that must be the worst spelling of "Azerbaijani" I have seen in my life.
https://no.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aserbajdsjan Or it could just be how you spell it in Norwegian.
Wait, what's Norwegian? Is that some weird dialect of American they speak in the Midwest?
Yes. The midwest of Norway.
Chill my guy, danish autocorrect and I just added the i 🤷🏼♂️
You understood it no? 😉
Yeah I am an AEK fan and he was in our real life roster back then. I not so fondly remember how you could see his physicals collapsing halfway through that first season. 08 did that often with 35+ players I think.
Toni Kroos in terms of star quality and was great in first season I had him. Jurrien Timber in terms of performance level and was only 24/25. Signing him also meant his brother joined me on a free a year later too , two Timbers for the price of none
mbappe hehe
he is 34 but still lol
On the console version of 23 before the first patch. Mbappe would never sign a contract at psg when it expired. I had him at Rangers once and ruined my wage budget and finances for 4 years but what a 4 years it was with him and Messi running around up top. He would go too some weird places including ending up at conference north Chester and I wasn't managing them at the time. He was 2 years older than he starts and was on 2 grand a week.
Was the same with Haaland at Dortmund for console, always would leave on a free.
World class Rodrygo. Won finals MOTM in UCL. Also scored in 3 matches vs Madrid. Perfect Revenge
I don’t know why, but I always seemed to get Rodrygo on a free on FM 23
I got a Serbian regen CB, who was 20 years old. He ended up being my captain a few years later and stayed with me until he retired. At his peak he was one of the best in the world
30-31 y.o. Kimich ending a Saudi contract. Almost every top team save in FM24. The guy's a beast and has full 4-5 years left on top of his game. I guess Bayern sell him because his contract expires in 2025 and he signs a short-term deal in Saudi
I did a Bayern save and basically he refuses a contract extension every time.
This makes sense! So they just sell him to the highest bidder and he chooses the best personal terms. And in an year he's a Henderson "GET ME OUT!!!!"
I think is was on fm19 I sing Gareth bale for free and got isca for only 5m € the same sommar total bargin. The wear my best player that season
Are you dyslexic? Not dissing, just curious
Yes and English's is not my first language.
It's fine bro, I am just stoned so I had to ask 😂
No problem
Not to pick on you, the words you got wrong were Sing should be sign Sommar should be summer The last sentence should be 'they were my best players' Just helping you with your English
Rayan Cherki for Carlisle in the championship on fm23, had no idea who he was. Got him on low wages and Bayern bought him for 100m a year a later, signed him on a free again in the prem 2 years later
Neymer on fm24
we have Neymar at home:
Newcastle got him on a free on my save, then got relegated same season.
I swear neymar and Newcastle is an fm24 memory happened on every save so far for me
He was awful for me
gotta be djed spence on a free transfer. some how became my go to wing back and inverted forward
Jobe Bellingham at 22 for AZ, he took to the league like a duck to water and played like a beast wherever I played him from DM to striker
Rasford FM15. Sign for Liverpool hahaha.
Modric at 39 for my team in French league 2, guy was an starter and with an avg rating of 7.2 he was our best player
Elyesse Ben Seghir. Instantly 70m+ value, after half a season of great form his value is 120m+. Crazy that there was zero interest at all when January came and I approached to sign him.
Osimhen and Kvara in FM24
Smaller level to anyone else here, but I got Rhian Brewster for Toronto FC in MLS and he’s been amazing. High determination, ‘perfectionist’ and he can play in literally any role across all three forward and wing positions.
I've signed a lot of free transfer players in my saves but usually young regens that I can loan out and eventually sell for profit, i rarely sign known or older players for free because the type of saves I do start at the very bottom and take years before I can sign good players and I always focus on youth. However on my save in Gibraltar I've been happy to sign older players on free transfers including Adnan Januzaj, Deli Ali, Harry Winks, Richarlson and a few others I can't remember at the moment but the best one was a guy called Ondrej Lingr who was 31 and played as an attacking midfielder, he was way too good for the Gibraltar league and ended up scoring over 40 goals in around 20 games including several hattricks, probably the best free transfer in all my saves and the most goals I've had from an attacking midfielder in a season, of course its relative to the save and club I'm at as he wouldn't have been as good in another league but for us he was a beast.
My no1 trick for fm is to sell my 3rd choice keeper, midfielders, defenders and strikers every season. I replace them with whatever new set of free agents I can get my hands on. Usually after a few years and you’ve reached champions league you’ll get a load of top championship/low prem 2* players interested in being your backup. Each usually hold a value between 15-20m so you just sell them at the end of the season for a guaranteed 70ish mil bonus to the budget. It’s literally like printing free money as they’re all happy to leave due to lack of playing time.
Yeah that's one trick on how you build up budget, but for it to work well it usually means that you need to manage a club in England so that you get inflated player values. Another trick once you have raised your reputation is to buy high potential free(or bargain price, less than a million) players from big clubs whose careers have stagnated due to poor AI management and they haven't reached their potential, ages anything between 21 and 24. You don't actually give them games but instead you loan them out to clubs with good facilities who play in a decent league and guarantee game time. Often, they will have growth spurts. If they reach 135-150 ability and you are lucky enough to not need them in your first team, you can easily be getting 2-3 million per year for every player that you loan out. Repeat the process every year, keeping the best ones around with new contracts and selling the rest after a couple of years that they been on loan already but don't seem to develop well enough. Sell the best ones once they reach their prime, at around 28-29. This method most often pays you anything between 10-100 million £ from just loaning out and then selling one player you got for free and you literally never paid a penny for in wages. Downside is that you will have to work on finding the right loan deals for all of them (and then keep an eye at their progress and game time) every year but if they are good enough it's easy peasy
Yeah when a team agrees to pay the mega loan fees it’s super satisfying 🤣 I spend most of my time managing Nottingham Forest, doing various different challenges so I forgot that the free agent trick might not work as well elsewhere lol. At least in England it always nets me enough to buy one or two wonderkids each year
Oh shit, are you a Forest fan? I always play as Olympiacos with Forest as my affiliate hahah What's the opinion of the fan base for Marinakis?
Yessir you caught me😅 when it comes to Mr M the fan base is mixed, and incredibly bipolar. When he is spending a load of money on us he is the second coming of Christ but the second something comes out that slightly goes against Forest ,which could be managements fault, the majority switch up and act like he’s actively trying to ruin the club🙄. In my opinion, we are very lucky to have someone who is willing to put up with the fan base lol. No one is perfect but he is better than many owners.
He's a very controversial figure even amongst Olympiacos fans, some adore him and others absolutely despise him. Guy is gangsta af, just Google "Marinakis Noor 1" and get ready to have your jaw drop to the floor.
Osimhen from Napoli 26/27 summer before season. [polish language alert](https://i.imgur.com/32n0e54.png)
Mendieta in CM, those were the days
Steffen Iversen FM06 for my team Hull. Got us promoted with him as top scorer in the Championship and then was top scorer in the prem in the following 2 seasons, getting world player of the year
https://preview.redd.it/e4kxlbls1c5d1.png?width=1704&format=png&auto=webp&s=6cd9bf9463dca401784d1e2062e00c910a729f68 This guy
https://preview.redd.it/t8k8934u1c5d1.png?width=1687&format=png&auto=webp&s=67e79c6ec08a6f8c7637b9a79f8eda51fa8c65da
Luka Jovic. Became a solid backup striker. Eventually sold him for 50 mil and he’s revived his career.
Mbappe with Ajax, when he was 27. Was a nice save ;-)
In my current Wrexham save (6th season) I just got Restes and Ruben Van Bommel on frees and both are worth 80 million
Maitland-niles fm20 He became an club legend, he could play everywhere when i needed. He was such a joker
Hector Fort
Watching him. I might pony up and just buy him.
Florian Wirtz in FM23 Jeremy Doku in FM 24
Wirtz is mine this year.
Florian Wirtz was an absolute bargain on a free. Built my whole team around him bossing the midfield.
Pablo Mari for my Dynamo Dresden team back in tier 3 that guy was a machine for 3 seasons then sold him for 8 mil. Thank you for your service Senor
Taribo West, with Walter Zenga as an honourable mention.
Got Diogo Costa at 28/29 yo after he played out a contract in Saudi on a £120k a week(initially asked for 650k). Fortunate since at the time I was Scunthorpe one season into PL and had shit reputation.
Greenwood.
Wasn't a great player but had an incredible influence. I was managing blyth Spartans, i signed a regen striker on a free from Manchester city, i was in the vanarama national league at the time. He ended up being my striker all the way to the prem scoring around 20 -25 goals a season. Some seasons were even 30
Adeyemi got him on a free and ended up having a worth of 98 million, he was still at Salzburg at the time, he was absolutely amazing in game as well, I am always looking out for free transfers, I am a fan of getting big players and retiring them at my clubs too, I signed Sergio Ramos and Wayne rooney for the team I support, (Hearts)
Pedri to oldham in like 2036
I’m Maidenhead so my team is freebies and I’ve got some beasts!! I know you want the most world class but this may resonate with someone. Rafferty Pedder released by QPR and Taylor Foran released by Arsenal - absolutely incredible signings!
Two in my current FM22 save. One was Preslav Borukov who I had on loan for the 2nd half of the season and his goals pretty much single handedly kept me up. He was released that summer and I was surprised I was able to get him on quite a good deal. He's still fairly free scoring to. The second was a regen I was surprisingly able to pick up as I thought there would have been more competition. 18yrs old straight into my premiership first team and he's now got interest from most of the big European clubs. Hoping not to sell but if the money is good enough he's out the door.
Donny Van De Beek, 27, then left the following season for £34.5m that the board accepted from Feyenoord as it was too good to turn down
Bryan Gill , absolute monster of a winger he was in my barca save Won everything with barca 4 ucls 5 league 5 cdr 5 spanish super Cup 3 UEFA super Cup 2 club world cup
Lukaku. As Plymouth.
Messi when he was out of contract
On my Fulham Save, Messi. I can confirm he CAN do it in the Prem. Two years and he absolutely slapped! On my Malaga save, three seasons in, Osimhen on £250k per week. Won best player in the world in his first two seasons with us. Baller.
A Portuguese regen when I was bottom half of prem about 27 when he signed instantly best player in dream XI. Couldn’t really believe it was a canon up and down the left flank sold him to psg in last year if contract for £83 million. Couple seasons later bringing him back for a free.
Victor Gyokeres. Don't say how.
Neymar for Ibiza in Spanish 2nd Division
31 yo milankovic savic in like fm20. he was like 180CA, and still had 4-5 seasons in him with 20 natural fitness etc. i was playing Hereford and that was like 2nd or 3rd season in prem, so to catch player like that was insane
FM 17, Raheem Sterling to Partizan Belgrade, sold him after one season for 45 mil. Season 2019 or 2020, don't remember...
Neymar to Sevilla in the second season on FM21, had to allocate a lot of my salary budget to him but he absolutely tore up the league.
I got Baldanzi in my 3rd season at Chelsea. I sold him like 3 or 4 seasons later for 100m. And of course everyone got upset because he was a superstar in great form. he stayed longer than I had intended as I didn't use an AMC. But he became an elite striker and was great in a 2 striker formation.
just signed, salah, saul, rudiger and e.mendy on a free to roma in 25/26
Donnaruma to BVB, when he was like 25 yrs
A 18 years old newgen wonderkids GK. Already a decent shotstopper at 18 years old and then he grow into my starting keepers for around 20 years. It's not excatly free because I still paid academy fee to Sampdoria. It's honestly shocking Sampdoria didn't even offer him a pro contracts despite being their starting goalkeeper for a season.
Iniesta on a free for PSV, just before he broke through at Barca. Became instrumental in that midfield.
Haaland in his mid-30s. Beasted the Eredivisie and was the missing piece for my team to finally be able to win the Champions League. Then that summer Saudi paid us a 25 million transfer fee for him and gave him a contract that I think was more money than my entire wage budget ($111 million per year)
I hot Dier on a free for Luton. I don't usually play in tip leagues, so it was nice to sign a name I recognised.
Mbappe on FM 22
Rivaldo back in the day
Willy Kambwala in my current save on fm23. Halfway through my season and the end of Uniteds. They release him and I just happened to see him when looking for academy releases. Made an offer and ended up having him as the best centre back in the league for 5 seasons Montreal made a big offer by our league standards. He ended up scoring a header against us in the Canadian championship finals the year he was sold. It was a little bittersweet
Got the wonderkid Essugo at Feyenoord and had him close to 10 years starting most matches and never had a complaint about playing time or a problem with contracts
De Gea. I just started the game.
skriniar
krisztofer horvath. signed him for free when i got promoted to second league in spain. he instantly was best player and carried the team till we were competing for la ligas. then i kept resigning his contracts so he could win lots of trophies even tho he wasn’t good enough anymore
Tomas Estevas in FM20. Signed him from Porto's B squad in my main Fulham save in my 3rd season (2nd in the PL), and he was a rock at RB for 5 or 6 seasons. Eventually I found an upgrade, he became a rotation option, and I sold him for £60 million to a Chinese team where he still plays 7 or 8 seasons later. Signed Jude Bellingham for free from the Vancouver Whitecaps a season later. He wasn't as an integral part of the team, but was a great squad player filling a homegrown slot for years. I probably wasted him because I was stubborn with my midfield 3, but he could play a number of positions to fill in and was a valuable squad member. I'm now in 2035 and he just left after 8 or 9 seasons.
https://preview.redd.it/tc7uz7krxc5d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4114e157fb4bb77b8c3124d561d55bf711786d62 Sebastiano esposito was a pretty good one, inter let him go for free, he DID not let that go 😂
The season I won the EFL Championship in my current Barrow Town save I picked up a brazilian dude called Luis Enriqué. Wolves released him and I snapped him up on a free. He was my main playmaker and my player of the season as I racked up 107 points on my way to running away with the league and getting promoted to the Premier League. We're in Europe now and he's still the beating heart of my midfield.
On this year's I got Joey Veerman on a free for Saudi and he was one of my best players for 6 seasons before I sold him for 50m. Back to Saudi
Nico Williams, was worth about 80mil.
A newgen that didn’t spawn at any club, so was free to anyone
Mason Greenwood in fm24
Probably Mitoma or Julian Alvarez
Right now, probably Ethan Laird from United U21s.
Managed to get Kimmich, Kvara and Gabri Veiga on a free in my Man Utd save.
On my current save, Sverre Halseth Nypan on a free from Rosenborg to AGF. Ever? I had Sergio Ramos and Brahim Diaz on my AZ team on FM 22, I think. I don't really remember specific players from many years before that.
Nypan the 🐐
My first save when 24 just launched I got Iniesta from Kobe to my MLS team. And it was my DOF that found him. I had no clue he was even available lol.
36 year old Ruben Dias in my Hillerød career. My defense got better, and all of my young central defenders improved in professionalism. He only lasted two seasons, as he refused to be extended as a squad player for the third, and the young players simply improved past him (not helped by his decline)
Probably not the best ever but I signed Ismail Coulibally for a free for Aberdeen FC in my current save on FM24. 3 great seasons later we have had group stages of the champions league and he’s sold for 25 million to China. He’s allowed us to overtake Celtic + Rangers and start signing wonder kids to develop.
An argentinian target man from Mantova to Real Madrid. destroyed the opponent virtually every match but had his final 2 years plagued by injuries.
On 03/04 I signed Henry on a free and he was still absolutely a beast with a good few years left in him. I don't think I've ever topped that.
I'm currently doing a save where I'm trying to rebuild Manchester United, and somehow I picked up Victor Osimhen on a free transfer! Guys been tearing up for me the last couple of seasons and he's currently worth £130 million. Not sure how I manged to blag him on a free, but I'm not complaining lol
Mikkel Damsgaard for Huddersfield town in 2028/2029 helped us promoted from league One to championship then to premier league very next season. Sold him after those two seasons. I always check up on him to see how he’s doing, if he’s unhappy, if his contract is coming to an end. I’ll be glad to have him back on the team.
Samardzic for Sunderland. Kept him in the team for 1.5 seasons, AC offered 52m in January then accepted my first negotiation to match his release clause of 94m. He was 3rd choice CAM by that point anyway
Wayne Rooney at my dons in fm15 was shit so I released home 6 months later 😂😂
OGs will remember Oliver Neuville on a free at the start of the game on the early FMs
Old man Mbappe
FM24 - Rosen Krastev at Nesebar in the Bulgarian 3rd Division, came through all the leagues with us up to the Bulgarian 1st Division. Over my 4 year tenure with Nesebar he had 125 appearances with 115 goals. Stats are completely unspectacular but he's tall and for some reason turned out to be a goal machine for me.
Prime Oshimen for free in my Liverpool save.
Estevao, a few years into the save. Ended up becoming my main AF next to Guirassy in a 4-1-2-1-2. Absolute club legend.
I signed james Rodriguez for free in fm20, he signed a contact worth £5 a week, he was only 29 at the time
Reyna in FM21 Several 7.8 average ratings, countless assists and goals, became a Legend of Real Sociedad, and winner of nearly every single award despite only being 3 star rated
Tino livramento, desire doue and mason greenwood on my fiorentina save fm24
Phil Foden at age of 31 on FM24 ..genuinely incredible player
I loaned Konrad Laimer from Bayern in my first season with Arsenal and managed to drag the loan out until his contract ran out and got him on a free. I did the same with a previous version with Odegaard. It's a formula that seems to work quite well for me.
I don't usually manage top division football often but in my most recent save I picked up Benjamin Cremaschi on a free from Inter Miami and he is currently getting offers for 60-70 million.
Signed Pirlo from AC Milan on a free when I was Celtic on fm 08
Dennis Rufo scores 20+ a season for me in serie A. Great in the air
Tim Weah
Messi
Laminne Yamel aged 30 with Man Utd when his obscene £850k per week contract ended at Barcelona. This after I previously signed him 4 or 5 years ago at Freiburg on transfer deadline day paying half wages (which still made him my highest paid player by far) and no fee and making it onto his favoured personal which is probably the only reason I could sign him on a free all that time later before Saudi snatched him.
FM24 so far has to be Toni Kroos - spent his last year as a pro in my double winning Schalke team
Olivier Giroud. First season with Chelsea on FM24 - no good striker, injury crisis, fuck all finances. Reunite with Giroud and what follows is utter magic; 33 G/A in all comps, top 3 finish and FA Cup winners. Kept him in for depth for the next two seasons after signing Gimenez before he retired with us. Absolute don.
At every season I try to get some free signings which I dont need then never use them to the point they frustrated with the situation and agree to move after 6 months. Those 20-30 mils each really helps a lot lol.
Current save: Taylor Harwood-Bellis. Signed for free for Werder Bremen and is now, roughly two seasons later, worth almost 100.000.000€ in the Bundesliga.
Greenwood in my wrexham save in league 1 (not played much of fm so i dont have many examples)
Super Saint Max!
Not me but my brother got a 29-yr old tchoumani directly from Real Madrid on a free, as stuttgart. No clue how he got that one
He wasn't immediately amazing, but I signed an either footed LB newgen on a free after he randomly got released from Norwich academy on FM19. He ended up playing first team football for us from age 19 to age 35 (where he retired). Fr9m about 26 years old onwards we won the league every year, and got several champions leagues to add to that.
Vazquez to Chelsea FM24, 2025, I took him in as a back up winger and he ended up scoring a debut hatrick. 3 seasons later he’s started most games and has roughly 60 g+a 105 games. Not bad for his age!
Mbappe at 25 years old, I tried going for him before for around 150 million but PSG kept him, and after a couple of years he just left them for free
Currently Van den Berg in my Bremen save. Though Newcastle save a few years ago I signed a 16yo model citizen AM. A white guy from the Ivory Coast. The guy was already 3.5 stars. Incredible. Never played much more of the save though after that.
After year 3, I was able to get players who had signed with Saudi teams and been released to come to Dortmund: Neves, Rudiger, Gundogan all on frees.
A regen striker named Javier Acosta from Villarreal. Automatically raised my reputation with Telford. Won golden boot in first two seasons. Went conference league qualification, champions league, and won the Prem in his third season.
Youssoufa Moukoko in fm 21, to my Schalke team, no less. Had him for 6 years before selling to Paris for 100+ mil
[Cheick Koffi](https://i.imgur.com/y8BKTgb.png). Absolute goalscoring monster.
Michael Olise FM24
Tsygankov when I was managing TOP Oss and just got promoted 4 years in the game. He's been admired by almost every player in the squad since.
FM22: Neymar at Nottingham Forest - Signed him in his late 30s, physicals were done but his technical abilities were still incredible. Scored an incredible hattrick in his first game, then got injured for 9 months and never was useful ever after. FM23: De Bruyne at Paris FC - Signed him also in his late 30s, still was incredible and helped me finally dethrone PSG. Got like 3-4 seasons with 20 goals and 20 assists in a row, was still incredibly good and fit at his age. FM24: Iniesta at Millwall - Signed at above 40 years old, was absolutely horrible. Would get bullied by all physical Championship midfielders, but like once every 5 games would give that magnificent Iniesta through ball. Went from starter to sub to reserve rather fast. Got to love betting on signing free 35+ legends and see if they actually deliver or fail 😉
I got xabi alonso from real in like 2011/12. Built my team around him and won me the double with As Roma
A 26yr old Arda Guler for Wrexham in my 3rd season in the prem 31/32
Mbappe this year at 33
About 15 years into my save I got a 17 year old Cameroonian winger/striker named Cedric Nembot on a free who, 6-7 years later is a leading Ligue 1 player with my Paris FC squad. He's an awesome rotation option for me and usually goes crazy in the coupe de France and in continental competitions. Really the only time a free transfer turned into a wonderkid for me.
It was 20 y.o. Russian regen AF from Dynamo. Got him for CSKA after ours first championship and he was so good that i downloaded genie scout only to check his CA and PA. It was like 180-185 CA and 189 PA, the guy was top-10 PA players in my save or even top-10 CA. Unfortunately, after 2 seasons Newcastle came for him with 90+ millions at winter and since i play realistically, he left us. He won EPL and FA for them in his next season in England.
Signed 26 year old kvaratskhelia and 24 year old Xavi Simons in the same window for Liverpool once Iirc kvara stayed there for the rest of his career even after I left the club
I signed a newgen Anderson Gabriel at 33 years old after he was top scorer for Marseille and Ligue 1 for several years and always a thorn in my side. He played for my VfB Stuttgart side for 2 seasons and had one year where he had 20 goals and 20 assists and got a one year extension clause where he would be a big factor in a more limited role before retiring and finally getting himself a league title and a europa league title in his last season.
Messi a few years in in FM20 :). Messi at Kaiserslautern, who would have thought :D. He retired after that one season, though. I also wanted to get C. Ronaldo, but he had too high wage demands and eventually resigned at Juventus at the time. I got him as a very good youth coach a bit later, though. So I basically had Messi and C. Ronaldo at my club :D.
I'm a new player so I'd say Troy Parrott, got him for free and sold for $60 million while I was in the championship
Mbappe and then Haaland like 2 seasons after lol. Back in fm22 when Mbappe was immediately available for free and for some reason nobody coughed up the cash for Haaland.
Gareth Barry in my FM14 save. He was 33 when I signed him for Atalanta, but his mental stats were of the scale. He played a few games in 1 and 1/2 seasons at the base of midfield (Serie A so slower pace), but was invaluable coaching and mentoring my young midfielders
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. He moved to United in the first year of the save, and pretty much immediately got unbelievably angry with just about everyone there, and left at the end of his contract. He was valued at 130 million at the time, so that was nice.
Neymar on FM23 third season
Had a world class CB/RB/DM (he played DM for me) called Thomas Weiß in FM21. He was frankly unbelievable, decided to sign for my York team (we were UCL contenders at this stage) after not managing to negotiate a contract with Leverkusen. Ended up checking him PA/CA after the save, and an old save from when I found him. 185 CA, 197 PA, which he fulfilled at York. Ridiculous player.
Yeremy Pino from Man City to Liverpool
Signed a released played from Man United with South Shields when in NLN/going up into NL. Went on to become club top scorer by 24, took me all the way to the Prem then I called him up to the England side when I got the job... Scored in injury time to win my first 2 group games on the way to winning a Euros. I'd only called him up for my own benefit
18 year old Moukoko on a free
Neymar on my norwich save fm23
mbappe
I got Haaland on a free on FM21 or FM22, I was managing Everton and got a free run on the ‘approach to sign’ in the January because he had a serious injury, it was probably a bit buggy that no other teams were interested because of this but I broke the bank to get him. Only time I’ve ever managed him and he did not disappoint.
Picked up a 24yo newgen that Arsenal released on my current save, wanted to sign him when he was first bought by Arsenal but didn’t have the rep, got him on like 40k a week and his value is 45-53mil 😍
Osimhen, milinklvic, vininjr