Six long-term save ideas for Football Manager 2024

The save game compatibility feature introduced in Football Manager 2024 allows players to transfer careers from one version of FM to another. 

It’s been a welcome addition for a lot of players, with many continuing long-term journeys that they started more than a year ago in Football Manager 2023. 

With this feature also confirmed in next year’s Football Manager 2025 release, FM Grasshopper is here to present you with six ‘evergreen’ save challenges that will keep you occupied for some time to come. 

The Pentagon Challenge

A fan favourite on the Sports Interactive forums, the Pentagon Challenge has been played since the dawn of Football Manager. 

Put simply, the challenge comprises of managing in all five playable continents in Football Manager and winning each continent’s top club trophy. 

If that wasn’t tricky enough, many people like to make it a bit tougher by starting their career as an unemployed manager with no badges and the lowest possible playing experience. 

However you choose to approach it, select which continent you want to start in and then the world’s your oyster. It might seem a way off but winning that UEFA Champions League to cap off a remarkable journey will feel absolutely worth it. 

Multi-owned clubs

Multi-club ownership has become increasingly commonplace across world football in recent years and that’s sparked a different type of save game in FM. 

With this challenge, you would become manager of several clubs concurrently and move players between them. A good real-life example would be the City Group that includes the likes of Manchester City, Yokohama F. Marinos and New York City FC and shares scouting and resources.

Can you create a conveyor belt of players between the clubs and compete for multiple titles across the globe at the same time? 

The Fallen Giant

Sometimes, clubs that have typically been fighting for titles and competing in the game’s biggest competitions fall on hard times and suffer one or more relegations. That tends to earn them the moniker of a ‘fallen giant’.

While you could select a side with a big reputation that’s in a division where they probably don’t belong at the start of your FM24 journey, the best way to do it is to simulate 25 years into the future to see how things have evolved in your game world. 

Find a team that’s fallen on hard times and step into the managerial hotseat. Your goal is simple, nurture the team’s finances and get them back up the leagues again. If you get it right and return to the promised land, this is the sort of save story you’ll be regaling your friends and family with for years to come. 

British Steel

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is made up of four playable nations in FM24: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The combined total of trophies in these four nations comes to 31. Can you win them all?

You probably can but the British Steel challenge makes it even more difficult than simply winning everything. Like the Pentagon Challenge, start with no coaching badges and have the reputation of a Sunday League footballer. Still too easy? Ok, try only fielding British players and any foreign players should be sold as soon as you possibly can.

Note - some players choose to include the Republic of Ireland as well here, meaning the challenge becomes the British & Irish Steel challenge and takes you to 38 trophies until you can call it a day.

Youth Development Policy

Setting out a defined geographical area to recruit from is a nice way to build a save narrative to last a cycle of Football Manager. You can either take some of the existing ones that exist in the game, such as one in the Basque region of Spain, or you can devise your own cunning parameters. 

Alternatively, you can choose to not make any signings at all and instead just use the players that come through in your annual intake. 

You might hit some speed bumps along the way but as long as you ask your Board to regularly make improvements to your youth setup and junior coaching, the goal of winning the UEFA Champions League with an entirely homegrown XI will be in reach.

Build A Nation

This challenge is for the long haul, and one that will make full use of the save game compatibility feature. 

The basic premise is that you take a team from a small, obscure nation and build both the club you’re managing and the nation itself.

To do this, you’ll need to develop and cultivate your youth system in a similar way to the challenge outlined above. Here, however, you’ll have to be willing to sell your players domestically to keep the calibre of players in your nation high. 

As you and your rivals achieve more on a continental stage, the nation should grow in competitiveness and develop better youth ratings for those shiny Newgens to enter your game world. 

This challenge may take some dedication but can you eventually see your nation win a previously unthinkable international title?

This list of six evergreen challenges should have given you all the incentive to kick-off a long-term journey to glory in FM24 that you can carry forward to FM25 when the time comes. 

Happy managing, 

FM Grasshopper