Summary
This is a really nice one as it works as an ‘add-on’ to your existing game. From your position of influence as a club manager, you’ve been asked to help a country improve their national team.
Developing Nations Challenge Rules
- Career mode as normal, pick whatever club you like
- No international management – you’re just there to scout and develop players.
- You can ‘assist’ up to three countries.
- Financial takeover is allowed as ‘funding’ from the country you’re going to help.
Aim
The aim of the Developing Nations Challenge is to significantly improve the national team of a given country. Ideally that country will be successful in a future international tournament.
Because of the time taken to grow youth players to maturity, this is a long term challenge. Because of this, it is recommended that you sim your games.
Realistically, you’re unlikely to notice a significant change until at least the 2022 World Cup.
Teams
In terms of the club you manage, pick whoever you like. However, this challenge will be easier if that club has enough budget to afford:
- 1-3 decent youth scouts and regular scouting trips
- transfer fees of pre-existing players with high potential from the nation you’re assisting
Alternatively, you could simply activate the financial takeover option and pretend that it is ‘funding’ from the country you’ll be supporting.
When picking a country (or three) to work for, I’ve pulled together a list that you can choose from. These teams made the list because they met three criteria:
- International team exists in FIFA 18
- International team is relatively poor in FIFA 18
- The country can be visited by youth scouts
My Shortlist
Here are the teams I recommend you choose from. I’ve also included the name of a promising player for each country in brackets.
- Canada (Alphonso Davies)
- Bolivia (Bruno Miranda)
- China (Zhang Yuning)
- New Zealand (Myer Bevan)
- Ecuador (Jose Cevallos Enriquez)
- Peru (Andy Polo)
- Venezuela (Wuilker Farinez)
- Cameroon (Thomas Olivier Amang)
- South Africa (Phakamani Mahlambi)
- Saudi Arabia (Ayman Al Khulaif)
- Australia (Aiden O’Neill)
- Finland (Fredrik Jensen)
- Northern Ireland (Jake Dunwoody)
- Norway (Sander Berge)
- Romania (Andrei Ivan)
- Slovenia (Jan Repas)
Tips
- Although you’ll want to keep hold of your best talent, continually selling players is a good idea. This means that other clubs will develop those players for you, increasing the number of potential future internationals.
- You should also be using every slot in your squad to train and develop a player.
Remember to check out the rest of our challenges!