After the 2025 edition was canned, Football Manager has returned. With FM26 Beta now out, we’ve identified 10 challenges that’ll make leaving the house a thing of the past.
At long last, Football Manager is back.
For the uninitiated or the newcomers, the popular computer game series had its 2025 edition cancelled earlier this year having been delayed from late 2024 due to developers Sports Interactive feeling it was “too far away from the standards [players] deserve”.
The beta version of Football Manager 26 became available on Thursday, with the game boasting a considerable graphical and technical leap from the 2024 edition, plus a fully licensed Premier League and FIFA World Cup – though more on that a bit later.
For many, the most important thing is that there’s a new, up-to-date game to delve into, and that means picking a save to get cracking with.
Whether you like to ease yourself into a new game with short-term aims or get thrown right into a 10-season “project”, we’ve a few ideas of saves and challenges to give you some inspiration for your first FM26 adventure.
Pentagon Challenge Worldwide – Winning All Over the Globe
Firstly, we aren’t going to win any originality prizes with this one as it’s probably the most famous Football Manager challenge going. But by the same token, we couldn’t not include it.
If you aren’t familiar with it, the premise is simple: win the Champions League (or equivalent) in each continent in a single save.
Now, some people add additional criteria to the challenge, such as starting unemployed with minimal player experience and no coaching qualifications. That’s up to you, but the key thing is winning the UEFA Champions League, Copa Libertadores, AFC Champions League, CAF Champions League and the CONCACAF Champions Cup (formerly the Champions League) in the same save file.
This is an accomplishment no one in the real world of football management has achieved. In fact, winning the most important trophy on two continents is incredibly rare.
Marcello Lippi did so thanks to UEFA Champions League success in 1996 with Juventus and AFC Champions League glory in 2013 with Guangzhou Evergrande.
Luiz Felipe Scolari also won the biggest club competition on two continents. Like Lippi, he took Guangzhou Evergrande to AFC Champions League victory in 2015, 30 years on from his first Copa Libertadores triumph with Gremio (he also won it in 1999 with Palmeiras).
This is a challenge for the hardcore.
The Mourinho +1UEFA Competitions – Go Back-to-Back-to-Back
José Mourinho’s Porto were probably the last truly surprising Champions League winners. Sure, Liverpool caused a shock in the manner of their comeback success in 2005, and Chelsea were rather out-of-sorts despite seeing off Bayern Munich in 2012, but Porto were by no means regarded among the favourites at the start of 2003-04.
Nevertheless, they weren’t strangers to success. The season before, they’d beaten Celtic 3-2 at Estadio La Cartuja de Sevilla to win the UEFA Europa League’s predecessor, the UEFA Cup.
To this day, Mourinho remains the only manager in the Champions League era to win the UEFA Cup/Europa League and then the Champions League in successive seasons with the same club.
Rafa Benítez won each competition a year after Mourinho, but his UEFA Cup success was with Valencia before taking Liverpool to the Champions League crown.
Of course, European football looks a bit different these days. There’s not only the Europa League and Champions League, there’s also the Conference League.
So, our challenge to you is to do ‘The Mourinho’ – but go one better. Win the Conference League, Europa League and Champions League in successive seasons with the same club.
Obviously, it’s not been done before in real life, although Mourinho himself did go pretty close to being two-thirds of the way there. He guided Roma to glory in the inaugural Conference League and then took them to the Europa League final a year later in 2023, only to lose 4-1 on penalties to Sevilla after a 1-1 draw.
Independent SuccessDurham – Women’s Super League 2
FM26 will be the first edition of the game to include women’s teams. Long overdue perhaps, but better late than never.
It’d be remiss of us, then, to not identify a potentially rewarding challenge from the women’s game, and one stands out for us right away: establish Durham as a leading force.
London City Lionesses made history earlier this year by becoming the first club with no affiliation to a men’s team to be promoted to the Women’s Super League (WSL); the only other such club in the top two divisions are Durham.
Durham have competed in the WSL2 ever since 2014. They finished as high as second in 2020-21 and came fourth last term, but promotion to the WSL has eluded them.
That’s where you come in.
What makes them different to the London City Lionesses is the latter are backed by Michele Kang, a billionaire venture capitalist, while Durham – who started as an off-shoot from Durham University – have more modest resources.
If you fancy more of a typical Football Manager playthrough in the women’s game, it’s hard to think of a potentially more rewarding journey than one with Durham.
The Phoenix ClubUnion Brescia – Serie C
Ah yes, a truly classic variety of Football Manager save: starting at the bottom (well, close enough) and working your way back up. In this scenario, you can add ‘phoenix club of former top-flight team’ to the checklist as well. Sort of, anyway.
Now, we can’t say for sure, but we’re going to assume Union Brescia are technically the newest club available to play on FM26 because they were only founded in July 2025.
The original Brescia – Brescia Calcio – were relegated from Serie B last season essentially due to financial and administrative issues. They had actually done enough to take part in the relegation play-off, but they were then docked four points and that pushed them over the edge.
Subsequently, Brescia were excluded from participating in Serie C for 2025-26, effectively wiping out a club who counted the likes of Andrea Pirlo, Pep Guardiola and Roberto Baggio among its alumni.
But, controversially, the board of nearby Feralpisalò – who played in Serie B as recently as 2023-24 – voted to relocate their club to Brescia and change its name, with their move supported by local politicians and industrialists.
It’s understandably still a touchy subject for some, but Union Brescia are flying high in Serie C. Getting this recognisable name back into Serie A certainly looks achievable for a medium-term FM26 file.
“asked my landlord to increase my rent. thats how much I believe in my grind/hustle”Triestina – Serie C
A second challenge idea for Serie C? Honestly, we didn’t expect it, but this one is too quirky to ignore.
Would you back yourself to manage your way out of practically any situation in Football Manager? Then you need to try this one on for size.
Triestina are a historic club and were among the founding members of Serie A in 1929, but since the 1950s they’ve spent all of their time outside the top flight and even folded on multiple occasions. What makes them an especially interesting prospect for a Football Manager player is the fact they’ve been deducted 20 points this season due to vast financial problems.
And, curiously, they were recently bought by the commercial arm of the Dogecoin Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation that provides “support for the Dogecoin cryptocurrency through development and advocacy”.
Now, we aren’t trying to wallow in Triestina’s despair here; their plight will have been bitter for supporters.
But if these aren’t the hallmarks of a vintage Football Manager save file, we don’t know what are.
It’s been 14 years already since they last competed in Serie B, and you have to go all the way back to 1958-59 for their most recent campaign in Serie A. Furthermore, a return to Serie D looks all but certain with the points deductions.
Enter stage right: [Insert your go-to Football Manager name here].
Repeating the ImpossibleMjällby – Allsvenskan
This time last year, there’s a reasonable possibility you’d not heard of Mjällby AIF, unless you’re Swedish.
Playing their football in an actual village, Mjällby certainly aren’t one of the more traditionally popular Swedish clubs, with most of their history spent confined to lower leagues.
But, as we covered in some depth earlier this week, Monday saw them win the Swedish Allsvenskan for the first time in their history.
Frankly, it’s a success that defied all logic. Our expected points model suggests they’ve overperformed to the tune of 23 points, meaning they ‘should’ be fourth in the Swedish top flight based on xG data.
And yet, this unfashionable club with one of the most modest budgets in the Allsvenskan succeeded in securing the title. It’s one of the most unlikely title wins seen in Europe for a long, long time.
Furthermore, they are on course to set a new points record for the Allsvenskan as well.
Do you think you could match the accomplishments of manager Anders Torstensson? Then walk the walk and take up the reins at Strandvallen.
The Youth Development ObsessionStrasbourg – Ligue 1
The situation that’s developed at Strasbourg is a controversial one. Bought in 2023 by the same consortium who control Chelsea, the club have become very closely linked to their BlueCo sister club.
Players have moved between them at a remarkable rate and look likely to continue doing so, with Strasbourg captain Emanuel Emegha already set to join Chelsea next year.
Under BlueCo ownership, Strasbourg’s youth-driven policies have very much mirrored those of Chelsea, with the people in charge determined to hoover up as much young talent as possible in the hope of guaranteeing future success or big transfer fees.
The fanbase has been divided. The club’s ultras have routinely protested against the ownership group, while there are plenty who see BlueCo as temporary custodians who they’ll survive, so why not enjoy the relative success their methods have brought?
In some ways, though, BlueCo represent what many Football Manager players have probably seen as the dream scenario. You have a primary club bloated with young talent who you then use to boost the profile of a feeder club via loans that simultaneously develop your own youngsters for the first-team or big sales. Yes, in reality the ethics of this are questionable, do ethics matter in Football Manager?
In this scenario you’d be Strasbourg rather than Chelsea, of course, so your resources won’t be quite as impressive. But still, the Ligue 1 side have really leaned into youth development, so much so that last season their starting XIs had an average age of 21 years, 106 days. That’s almost a full year younger than the next youngest on record in the top 10 European leagues (PSV in 2013-14 – 22y, 84d).
If you’ve ever wanted to try only buying players under the age of 23, Strasbourg might be the one club who’ll actually hold you to that.
Romance in Paris France – Anyone But PSG
Now, this is similar to what’s become a fairly popular Football Manager challenge in recent years, which was to topple Paris Saint-Germain with Paris FC.
For years, the thinking here was pretty obvious. Paris is such a massive city but has been underrepresented at the top of French football, with PSG the only club to gain much recognition beyond French borders.
Paris FC still have a way to go, of course, having only just been promoted to Ligue 1, so they could still satisfy some Football Manager players. However, they have considerable financial backing these days, so that might not be one for the purists. Instead, you may opt to look down a division or two.
Red Star are the fourth-oldest club in France having been founded by Jules Rimet – of FIFA presidency and World Cup trophy fame – in 1897 and have been absent from Ligue 1 since 1975.
Or, in National 1, the third tier, Fleury, Paris 13 Atletico and Versailles are all from Parisian suburbs. They’d all offer the combination of a lower-league start and fascinating long-term target of overthrowing neighbours PSG.
(Red) Bull FightingSV Austria Salzburg – Austrian Second League
Admittedly, this challenge would probably be better if Red Bull Salzburg were still dominant in the Austrian Bundesliga; they aren’t as Sturm Graz have won the last two titles.
Nevertheless, there is a nice narrative here, and there’s no denying Red Bull Salzburg’s influence (and the disdain many have for them and their sister clubs).
So, if you’re a purist who was unimpressed by us suggesting a challenge with BlueCo’s Strasbourg, hopefully this will redeem us.
The story here is quite simple: Red Bull Salzburg came into existence because Red Bull acquired SV Austria Salzburg in 2005. They rebranded the club from top to bottom, including completely changing their badge and traditional colours, which had been purple and white.
Some supporters of the original SV Austria Salzburg decided to reform the club soon after, and most of their existence has been spent in Austria’s third tier or lower with the exception of 2015-16, when they played in – and were relegated from – the second tier.
This season, however, they are back in the Second League. While it’s not the first time they’ve been playable on Football Manager, as the second tier – known as Erste Liga back then – was available on FM2016. But that was a decade ago.
The only way you’d have been able to play them since was by downloading an unofficial expansion pack or using the editor to painstakingly recreate them manually. Now, you can do it properly.
The aim for this challenge is fairly self-explanatory: topple Red Bull Salzburg to become the dominant power in your city, and domestic success will likely come with it. If you really want to commit to the bit, then the target should be bettering the 14 Bundesliga titles Red Bull Salzburg have won since the rebranding. We accept that would be quite the undertaking, though.
El TriersMexico – 2026 World Cup
We’ll stop you there – we know international management isn’t going to be available during the Beta period or at launch. However, the game’s developers have secured a licensing agreement for FIFA tournaments for the first time ever, and it’s already been confirmed that international management will be added via a free update down the line.
So, the situation isn’t perfect, but a fully licensed men’s World Cup for the first time will be a pleasant novelty.
When it lands, there’s only one international challenge in our sights: winning the 2026 World Cup with co-hosts Mexico.
To be fair, you could pick any of the three co-hosts and it’d be a challenge, but there’s something a little more alluring about Mexico, and there’s a notable stat attached to them.
Mexico are the nation who’ve participated most often in the men’s World Cup without ever reaching the semi-finals, having played in 16 editions and only getting as far as the quarter-finals (1970 and 1986, both as hosts).
So, even reaching the semi-finals would be an achievement. But, pushing the boat out, the ideal target for a genius Football Manager player should be winning the whole thing.
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Football Manager 26: 10 FM26 Challenges That Will Consume Your Life Opta Analyst.
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