How to Always Pick the Perfect Career Mode Save!

FIFA 23 has over 700 teams you can choose from in career mode, which leads to the problem, which one is right for your next save. It can be one of the toughest parts of the game, picking a team that you’ll find fun, but that will also be challenging enough for you to play multiple seasons. Today i’ll be sharing my guide on how i pick my teams, and hopefully by the end of the video, you’ll always be picking the best team for the save you want to do.
So firstly, what is the save you want to do? This is the thing that makes the biggest difference to which type of team you can pick. If you’re into rebuilding teams, you might need a team with a massive budget. If you like the road to glory side of career mode, you’re really limited to only Germany’s 3. Liga and England's League Two.
You can usually separate every team in every league into one of 4 categories:
Championship Contenders
These teams are Instantly fighting for the title in season 1
Best teams in the league usually full of the best players
This would be a team like Atletico Madrid or Liverpool.
Historic Teams
They might have been contenders 20 years ago
Usually have lots of fans & big stadiums but average players
Some good examples of teams in this tier are Nottingham Forest and Valencia
Middle of the road
3 or 4 signings away from being title winners
Might have a couple of top players, but usually not enough to compete
Teams like Crystal Palace and Bayer Leverkusen would fit in here.
Road to Glory
A longer save where you have to rebuild the entire squad
Usually newly promoted teams
A team like Bochum or Monza in Italy.
So, once you’ve decided the type of team you’d like to use, let's narrow it down even further. Not only does the team's league have an impact on how fun the career mode is, but so does the team's continent.
For example, if you play in Europe, you’ll be enjoying 3 Fully Licensed Continental Cup Competitions and have the most leagues to choose from. North America only has one league and has no continental cup competitions. This can make it a bit more boring for long term saves, but can still be very fun for shorter career modes.
South America is like a combination of Europe and North America. There arent too many leagues to choose from, in fact only Argentina is fully licensed and playable from South America. You do however get fully licensed cup competitions with real teams from all the other South American nations.
Finally Asia is surprisingly under rated for continental competitions. There is an unlicensed continental competition from season 2, and quite a few leagues including Indian, korean, saudi, australian and chinese leagues to chose from.
So by now we know where the club we want to play is, and we know what type of save we’re interested in playing. Now its time to look decide on the star ratings. Theres no point looking through the Premier League for your save if you’re more interested in bringing a 1 star team up to 5 stars, because all of the teams there will be way too good.
Star ratings roughly increase by half a star for each 2.5 points of overall. A team where every player is 80 rated will be 5 stars, where a team where every player is 75 overall will be 4 stars.
There are some really awful sides in strong leagues, so you dont have to tiny leagues to get the teams you want. The opposite is also true, leagues like Denmark have 4 star teams and 1 star teams playing at the same time.
Once you’ve decided this, have a look through the menus on career mode, compare the board expectations, budget, kits and stadiums and eventually you’ll find the exact right team. I’ve done this for basically every save i’ve started for the past 2 years and now my saves last a lot longer, and I enjoy them way more.
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#fifa23 #careermode

[@joecroydon89]

Started a journeyman save in Korea, moved to Denmark then Italy then onto premier league. Playing in Korea was the most fun I've had in career mode in a while

[@thug_nose5519]

Try the irish leauge mate always a good starter

[@scorpiocanuck6321]

I am going to do a Korean save for one reason. No Korean manager has ever coached a team in Europe. So real manager. Dominate Korea and become the most successful Korean manager of all time

[@garrylewis1868]

You could be the national team manager too since korea has a licensed national team

[@yani674]

@@garrylewis1868 also in career mode?

[@garrylewis1868]

@@yani674 yeah, I farmed the Scottish national team job offer (with Alan McGregor's face) and did a st.johnston rebuild. Made the nation of Scotland a stronger one with 5 star scouts and sent the prospects across the country to other scottish clubs in the hope I could build 2-3 Scottish champions league teams without running them all. Oddly enough I was able to get aberdeen to win a champions league by just sending them 85-90 potential scottish players. Got Scotland to the quarter finals twice in the world cup and won a euro as well. By far and away the most fun save I've done. I'd recommend trying something like running a bottom table Austrian team and then running the austrian national team as well. Once you've spent the first few years making your club strong try to help improve the quality of the other teams in the league in the Hope's you can create a worthy rival

[@MW92.]

Nice idea 👌

[@Creees]

Probably because there is no diving or cheating in Korea. They tackle and just get up like proper men

[@martinsloan3972]

A cracking video, really helpful. Thanks for all the work. While watching I had the idea of inserting continent, star rating, and career mode style into a decision wheel app, so that any time I start a new career, I’ve got no idea what’s coming up next.

[@soihavetoplay]

Great topics in this channel! I started with AFC Wimbledon on the EFL2 because it was rated very low and could grow it all the way to Premier league. It was fun because you get to play Carabao, EFL Cup, for example against top teams from Premier or EFL while you try to get promoted through. I made a point to ONLY use Youth Squad players and grow them. I just got promoted to Premier and my kids are in the mid-upper 70's. Several are "High Potential to be Special" so I am looking forward to see how high they get. Cheers!

[@gtavpodiumvehicle8165]

What I like to do every fifa is to put Derry city (the team I support in real life) from the Irish league into the English football league 2. It makes for a good save because Derry city is a fairly young team with room to grow. This fifa I actually put in some other Irish teams such as shamrock rovers into league 2 and added some Scottish league teams such as Celtic and rangers into the championship to make a mega league. Update: Just got into the Champions League and I still play some original Derry city players.

[@theexpertbc1175]

I started a Journeyman career first time. I used a website to pick a random team between 1 star and 2.5 stars and got Jagiellonia Białystok in the Polish league. Team had only one sorta promising young player the rest were sub par to below average players. Built the team up through the youth academy and some decent free transfers. Finished top 5 in the League 2 years in a row while getting a top 8 finish in the UEFA Conference League. I also found two world class talent young player with the Youth Squad. I moved from Poland to Southhampton who had be relegated to the Championship after selling off basically their entire defense and young talent (When i got there they only had 4 CBs highest one rated was 75 and the full backs were at most 70). I was able to get a couple of decent defenders with their limited budget and go from 7th and middle of the table in the championship to winning the league in my first season as manager. Now it's our first season in the Premier League. We're currently 10th in the Prem as I'm still trying to find some better defenders (I added Thiago Silva on a free for leadership and he's 81 overall. 40 years old so expecting him to retire soon) and improve the midfield. Expecting to stay in with Southhampton for at least 2 more seasons. Never done a Journeyman Career before but this is fun. Usually stick to a RTG but joining a club and having to solve the problems left by the former manager is better than i thought it would be.

[@tobyhellewell5981]

Today agree man. I started at my local club Adelaide United in Australia, won consecutive league’s then moved to Groningen. Won a domestic cup and finished in Europa league before moving to Basel, a CL club. Won another league double with them and made the CL knockouts before getting a Prem job at Villa. So much fun

[@declangaming24]

These are great suggestions I'm thinking of doing another lower league or Asian team

[@kebo2cold]

I play with a team every couple seasons, still 1 save…did 3 years in the MLS with Atlanta United….browsed jobs and took a gig at SL Benfica, starting my 3rd year with them…next i might tackle Germany…I’m very youth focused so i try to improve that aspect of whatever team I take over while also bringing in players from South America. I try to win the league before browsing for a new gig.

[@juznapticatb8242]

I choose Strasbourg from ligue 1. They are currently 19th in that league with a solid team. It has variety of young and old player and you must think how to use 11m budget

[@aidenmilburn6727]

Currently doing a Bolton Wandererers Career mode using some former youth players (Aaron Mooy and Nat Phillips) as signings to make it more real and interesting really puts fun in career mode if you play like that.

[@platonicriot]

I did a Bolton save on 21, it was probably one of my favourite saves. No big signings at all. I turned a 67 rated striker with no potential into a 93 rated beast by the time he was 30. Also got an insane youth academy talent CAM. Ive never managed to find a club as fun to play with.

[@lexxdestiny]

keep up the good work

[@johnnyfreespeech5815]

I’d imagine loads of other people have done this too but one of the more interesting career modes that I’ve played was back on FIFA 20 when I made some European super leagues by putting the very best teams from England, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Holland, Scotland and other European sides into the English leagues. The best rated teams went into the premier league with the next best going into the championship and then league one and so on... The weakest side in League 2 were Aberdeen so I picked them and worked my way up through the divisions and winning the premier league title. I specifically remember signing Adam Idah from Norwich (I believe that he was 65 rated at the time) and building him into the best striker in the world. However, if you qualify for Europe you’ll definitely end up skimming those games as the other teams that qualify from the french league, Spanish league etc... will now be a load of rubbish EFL teams that you’ll easily demolish.

[@Deez19377]

i’m a sad toffees supporter so you best believe every year i do a semi realistic rebuild getting everton back to where we used to be. and then i usually do some sort of road to glory one 😎💙

[@ign_alpha]

I always pick borussia dortmund or rb leipzig and put all top teams into the same league. Then I fill league 2 and 3 with all the other popular / top teams that couldn't make it. Play on legendary with strict and its always a lot of fun. Good decent budget. Good players to sell / swap. And good potential players that I can grow. I will say this year I played 4 seasons with Bournemouth. Probably the hardest seasons I experienced but when you are winning the stadium noise is so worth it. Absolutly love it.

[@alvingardsback7115]

Used Northampton and was purely based on youth talents (No youth academy only real players), took them from league 2 up to premier league top and right now I am in champions league final against PSG. Most fun journey I have ever has

[@platonicriot]

For some reason on 23 none of the teams felt right before. Hope I can start a good save after this video.

[@Madvillany718]

Actually having one of my best saves with a realistic Everton save.

[@yjcontent]

I got my save as One of my fav south korean footballer Cho Gue Sung. Played as a player for 1 season and then retires him. Got a job from Gimcheon Sangmu, won the K league on the 3rd season there. Next got a job from Jeonbuk Hyundai, won the K league again for them on the 2nd season. Then went to RB Salzburg, won the title on the 1st try and winning the europa league. Then got an offer to brighton, got them promoted on the 1st try (unfortunately they are on league 2 when i got there). Then won the premiere league and the champions league on the 3rd try. Now i'm in AC Milan, trying to won the Serie A. And i got 1 player from all the way from Gimcheon (my youth scout found him and he's so good), a CB who was following me every where i go because he can made a huge difference.

[@Geografifa]

yo that sounds like such a sick CM, if you have any screenshots make sure to post them on our discord because i promise loads of people want to know about it!

[@yjcontent]

@@Geografifa unfortunately, something happened in that save. For some reason my players are always tired even tho i rest them well. Anyway, the update was i can't won the Serie A because of that glitch? I guess. I decided to change teams to PSG, had the same problem (but still won the Ligue 1 because all teams sucked, their best players just went to either england or spain and i still had mbappe lol) and then delete that save file because the problem was still there.

[@lowencraft1404]

I havent started it yet but I watched this and chose Anderlecht. They are already good for their league but I will take them to new heights.

[@paninoconmortadella9618]

Is it a good start for a journeyman career starting from Cosenza? (They're like bottom of the league in Serie B at the moment)

[@phillippereira955]

I did a Sporting CP squad in Portugal using only Portuguese speakers and youth players

[@_itsjustfigo_4788]

Heerenveen SC is a great save!

[@afsoc4life]

I did Grimsby first time. After that I have stuck to 'Create a Club' and then selecting a country where all my players would originate from (different from the top 9).

[@hamedparayil9010]

i had a journeyman save, started in india, went to switzerland then netherlands and finally inter milan in italy

[@Creees]

Wow that is so awesome tjat asia finally has the asia continental cup. I did a Japan save and was frustrated there was no continental cup. Asia is on the rise. Japan and Saudi did so well as did Australia

[@nadafixe8830]

I know I'm late, but I hope someone sees this comment. I don't know if this is already a bit popular, but if you'd like a more realistic save, you could play with Famalicão, which has one of the best youth academys in Portugal. So, you could invest on the youth, sell to the big clubs in Portugal, like they do in real life, and eventually have enough budget to overtake the three big clubs in Portugal.

[@eloth177]

I saw it and it is a good idea

[@Creees]

Hoping more asian leagues come into the game. Vietnam are doing so well in asian competitions. And guess, what in Vietnam admission to games is free! Also Indonesia has some passionate fans. Second division in Japan would be cool.

[@yani674]

What happens after the loanees return? Can you buy players or will you not be allowed and just loanees are allowed?

[@MichaelLomm]

I’m still finding my Paris FC career is fun. Trying to dethrone PSG and win the CL. So far in season 1 I came 4th, then in S2 I won the league and promoted. S3 embarrassing I just survived. S4 ongoing currently 11th

[@AT9EN]

Do you play the games or sim the season?

[@rorycorrigan4223]

Potter thumbnail 10/10

[@fchonkafan23]

Can u do one for germany

[@zulnasrishark982]

just asking are the teams in world cup usable in career mode?

[@arlenkamara]

i started a create a club with a team in brasilia and it’s going to be a youth squad legends

[@haltuaketti420]

i always pick a team that i like in real life and there is few, wolfsburg. fiorentina, burnley, qpr, villareal, boca junior, with mods i also love the brazilian leauge

[@Konstantinos_Varakliotis]

Sorry for the indescretion but I am curious, why is the camera tilted at the start of the vid

[@independencefootball3086]

I decided to do a Florentina save, they were supposed to become the best of the best but ended up being 9-12th place season after season, so my goal is to take them to Europe

[@zwish7125]

I used Bayer leverkusen and shine Adeyemi,geertruida,goncalo ramos, heparin Thuram

[@StaledHotCheetoh]

Parma would be a nice rebuild they were really good in the 90s

[@PumpkinBread2]

And have Buffon.

[@RoaringPhilosopher]

I would love some advice on doing a journeyman save. I’m doing my first ever right now, but I don’t see how I’m supposed to know what team to apply/move to. Should there not be the option to see how many stars their current team is, now several years into a save this might have changed. And what about the board expectations? You only get one goal presented when browsing jobs, like “win the league” or “qualify for X cup”.

[@aidenmilburn6727]

When I do this save I tend to look at teams your manager has previously played for. Like if he played for arsenal you could be a manager in the prem but exclude spurs for example. If your using a custom manager you could move based on your own support in real life or a team you find interesting yourself idk that’s just some ideas.

[@Jlevens]

Some advise its the dutch side vitesse they were good contanders but have fallen off

[@degradedanimationandgaming6722]

im doing a sheffield wed career mode.

[@Tom17140]

I prefere to Start a my Player career sim to November and retire to make it more a fm style manager career.

[@DiegoAGdb]

I pick the coolest badge

[@mcrbenj]

Hi I am a city fan and everytime I decide to do another city career mode I find it boring because of how easy it is, I have tried selling my first team so I can play with my second team but tht makes it a lot more unrealistic, so have u got any suggestions on what I could do

[@jamesquigley1449]

Why not be one of the other teams from City group and work your way up, Melbourne/Mumbai or NYC Try and move from there to Troyes, Palermo or Girona and then end up at City after….

[@randomguy1401]

I am going to create an Argentina U-21 National Team squad in the Argentine league. I will send my scout to Argentina, scouting the best Argentine talent, possibly creating the next Messi. I will sell every player who turns 22 and start with a full Argentine squad. Soon enough I will become the best Argentine feeder club. Or I might do a Brazil U-21 National Team in the Portuguese league, France/Germany in their respective worst leagues. Or I'll put them in England and see how they go. Time to spin the wheel!

[@icvp906rajaso9]

Do a video on the Indian league, I am sure you must have a fair few followers from India. I am currently playing as Mumbai City but the difference is I took Mumbai City to Premier League

[@scorpiocanuck6321]

I'm playing as FC Goa. Spanish coach and they speak Portuguese so I'm adding Brazilians and Portuguese speaking nations to team

[@FOOTYXEDITZ_12]

You should Try gif Sundsvall karrier mode in Sweden they are the worst team in Sweden on FIFA

[@Madis.T.]

I can't even buy ps5 here in estonia, it costs 1000 euros for person and games as fifa23 or any new game is like 100 euros.

[@user-gi8cm2sc8t]

question you a forest fan ?

[@db7ty]

W video

[@markfoster7646]

I want a team in the lower division in England with a young squad not sure who yet though!

[@shohruhkodirov521]

Try Forest Green Rovers They are the youngest team in league 1.

[@kswiss4216]

What's some good historic teams that are struggling now

[@shohruhkodirov521]

Nottingham Forest Valencia Steaua Bucaresti

[@yoboinicossman]

Seeing Gimcheon Sangmu’s situation got me thinking… What happens on FIFA Career Mode when you don’t have enough players for the next season?

[@androidgamingking630]

Random players will enter your team(i think)

[@LincolnLFC]

The game fills your squad up to 18 players with free agents

[@garrylewis1868]

Actually this happend to my opponent in a preseason tournament final, they sold a ton of players but then a few guys got injured and I assume somebody got a red card so they didnt have enough players. They sent me an email telling they had to forfeit the game lol. Was the wackiest thing I've seen in a career mode

[@declangaming24]

@@LincolnLFC they could be good free agents I remember once did a Mumbai city save loads of players retired and it gave me like loads of old players with high ratings

[@LincolnLFC]

@@declangaming24 Yeah and it can give you some great regens too, it's actually quite good tbf

[@harryahmed6878]

what career mode should i do?

[@irish_mcrae1892]

I wish the Chilean league was still in fifa, unfortunately we suck at the moment

[@yoboinicossman]

I literally reinstalled FIFA 20 just to have the South American leagues again. I miss my Atletico Bucaramanga so much 😢

[@serhumanocomunycorriente6284]

I like to put Argentine clubs in Europe and play as them for some reason

[@MW92.]

The Japanese league was a brilliant career mode. Why did they get rid of it does anyone know?

[@declangaming24]

Licensing

[@Joshua-qc1li]

Here I am

[@stefangummesson8367]

I have chosen the poorest club in Belgium. A financial takeover.

[@Armo1998]

Portsmouth is the best career mode side

[@BoothToHigh]

Sunderland is the goat of career mode saves in my opinion, great youth, amazing history, the perfect save in my opinion

[@Dunkelzeitgeist]

Portsmouth too

[@BoothToHigh]

@@Dunkelzeitgeist Portsmouth is good but I do still stick to my claim

[@andrewgraham6339]

Fallen giants? Saint Etienne, sir. Le Verts

[@DeeEditor1]

Migrate an MLS team to England and role play an MLS expansion to Europe. Or just move the whole league and swap with league 2

[@shohruhkodirov521]

That is not realistic. Logistics issues

[@vladsandu5412]

Yo, which clubs are the best for a youth academy career mode?

[@shohruhkodirov521]

Crewe Alexandra, AFC Wimbledon

[@vladsandu5412]

@@shohruhkodirov521 wow thanks

[@rorybanta515]

I'm doing a fun one right now with Dortmund 2. My goal is to embrace the youth academy to find my star players and then find role players in the transfer market that are in the same overall range as the current league, for the ultimate goal of getting the club into the 2nd league. I'm hoping for an offer to manage the 1st team to simulate getting promoted within the organization. If they don't hire me though I'll ditch the realism and try to make Dortmund 2 even better than the 1st team out of spite.

[@Malvorik]

My hometown club is in the Lebanese 3rd Division, if it was in FIFA I would grind the shit out of it

[@GatherYeRosebudsWhileYeMay]

How crazy is it reading everyone’s career mode saves 😂 they need an online career mode I’d love to see my youth players finally play against other people

[@SBYT-jr1bh]

1:40 aged like milk

[@Creees]

Quite rude to say Asian teams are bad. Its nonsense the rating They are rated so low but a move to Europe they get bumped up super high

[@_aashton]

Asian teams are bad.

[@cChampen]

For me its always the same :D and i love it! As a dane and in love with english football i always do the same 4-8 career saves. A player career from my home town city with 2 goals. 1. Goal is to be the first ever player to win all 5 big league plus champions league at least one time. Goal 2. End my career in liverpool as that is the english club thats i love. A career mode with my home town team and only use scandinavian players (AGF) A career mode with Liverpool no ristrictions A career mode with create a club road to glory in england league 2 only use acadamy players Then i do my favorites team across europa. Spain, Italy, Germany and France. And this time in fifa 23 im gonna have fun with the real managers! So between 8-15 saves im gonna have this year :)