The Great San Marino Challenge

Update Time!

Club

Now starting the 2023/24 season. Have won Serie A quite comfortably the last 2 seasons, and have been made favorites for this season as well. Have won the champions league last year at the second time of asking, and am now finally getting SM players challenging for first team slots, which I feel immensely proud about.
Have thrown as much money into youth intakes as possible, building up a state-of-the-art youth facility, exceptional junior coaching, top training facilities and above average youth recruitment in the process (Largely due to a board takeover putting a very easily influenced chairman in charge). Just moved into a new 23732-seater stadium that's been 3 years in the making.

Decided to change transfer policy a bit as well, will focus on developing SM players but will fill in gaps within the U20s with players bought (Poached tbf) from clubs such as Real Madrid, Velez and Arsenal.

Youth intakes are generally good now, and get a potential world class prospect seemingly every other year at least which has surprised me. Would love to know if other people taking the challenge have noticed steady streams of great potential players when you get to this point, or if I've just been really lucky.

Highlight players are these 3:

Cristiano Di Stefano

19 year old striker who's consistently fantastic performances for the NT has added the Beat the King achievement to the ones already gained. Described as a wonderkid, he has developed rapidly and I'm trying to give him a larger role in the first team as of this season.

At 16:
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Now:
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Mimmo Petrone

A quality Cb who has spent time on loan at AS Roma and Cesena in the last 2 seasons, he has been an ever present in the NT since the age of 16.
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Alessio Proia

An up and coming CM who nearly gave me a heart attack when I found him in my youth candidates, he has been brilliant for the NT (Marred by a red card in one of his first games). His only let down is he cannot play 90 minutes at the minute, as he loses condition quickly during matches. Thankfully due to higher fitness coaching, his physical attributes have shot up in the last year already.
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NT
Having taken over as NT manager, early on, as expected we struggled majorly. We still do in most competitive matches, but have achieved a few standout results. This includes our first competitive win, a 3-0 win over Azerbaijan in 2018.
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Other results include a 2-2 draw against Iceland, a 0-0 draw against Iceland again and a 2-2 draw against Bosnia.
 
One tip, because SM soon become hugely dominant in world football, the SM players aren't always going to get in the team.

Develop Sm youth at the club for a bit, give them some 1st team time, maybe loan them out when a little older etc, get them to their potential or close to it and then sell them to a club where they will play regular football, i.e 1st choice for their club.
 
One tip, because SM soon become hugely dominant in world football, the SM players aren't always going to get in the team.

Develop Sm youth at the club for a bit, give them some 1st team time, maybe loan them out when a little older etc, get them to their potential or close to it and then sell them to a club where they will play regular football, i.e 1st choice for their club.

I was thinking about that, and I have already sold a few of the earlier youth players to teams where they are playing a lot more often. I think the problem was gauging when to start doing that because for the first few years if I released an SM player, they tended to drift for a while then retire.
 
Season four (first in serie b)
after promotion to the second tier, i was able to add some depth, however the result was a complete shock, ending up a comfortable second behind lazio, who were always going to coast the division, why did they get relegated i still dont know, the longer the season went on i wondered if i would drop off but the lads kept going on

from the youth team, out came D'Urso who offers me a big help in the middle but the NT are still really poor, regular thumpings still occuring

Serie A is a different kettle of fish, attached the transfers for the new season but it could be a long slog, played well v genoa but lost 2-1, drew 3-3 with torino and probably should have won, then a 3-0 home defeat to AC Milan, though in better news training and youth facilities are being worked on, maybe the NT can turn the corner soon
 
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ARGH! Lost to Czech in the Euro 2024 FINAL, 2-1. My star striker was out (suspension).

Gutted. Had a fairly easy run other than beatng Germany 3-2, but we had to play 2 knockout games into extra time.
 
ARGH! Lost to Czech in the Euro 2024 FINAL, 2-1. My star striker was out (suspension).

Gutted. Had a fairly easy run other than beatng Germany 3-2, but we had to play 2 knockout games into extra time.

still a fantastic achievement though! would like to see some of your players maybe you can post a couple of your best?

also I'm afraid I couldn't keep up with everyone's progress in the hall of fame (been away for most of the summer) so feel free to give me a reminder :)
 
Got promoted from Serie C1/A in my second season.

Also won against Juventus in 3rd Qualifying round of the Italian Cup.

=> Finished The Great Escape and Giant Killer challenges. :D
 
Hi guys, have SI fixed the TV contract glitch yet?
 
few tips ive found that may help:

1. French academy club - clairefontaine (BEST FOR GETTING YOUTH PLAYERS
2. dont sign youth from your academy. for at least the first 3-4 seasons not worth it. save all the money you can get.
3. LITTLE HELP i used from another game i was doing (MY OWN CHEAT I FOUND)

BRENTFORD 2nd Season
Having got in the championship I kept a lot of my first season players. I manage to get Kadlec for 2m.
but after a great 6months lots of teams become interested (P23 G25) and I had an offer accepted by the board but I knew I had to keep him.
so I offered him to other clubs and got an offer from Newcastle for 8.75m
Knowing I wanted to keep him I made sure that Newcastle got him first
January 1st 2012
Kadlec set to sign to Newcastle (accept or decline)
decline
After doing that no more offers came in and manage to get prem with kadlec getting (P50 G61)
now valued at 13m
 
Right, so that gives me a month to achieve something meaningful with SM then!

Moved up to 138th in the world following a 1-0 Euro quals victory over Hungary, which my Assistant masterminded while I holidayed!

Tre Fiori had their best striker poached by a Turkish club, so having got into the CL groups, we're going no further. Best chance for a point (home vs CSKA) was a 0-3 loss. Schalke and Barca won't be so kind.
 
Got promoted to Serie A in my third season.

Hence, completed the Straight A's challenge. :D
 
Is it just me or Serie A really is very difficult. I've only managed to get 4 points from my first 4 matches. :/
 
Will this be possible in FM13? Or has San Marino been relegated?
 
Won Serie A and Champions League 2026 only using Sammarinese Players, thus completing the Cantera Policy mini-challenges :)

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I have now accomplished all of the 'extra-challenges' except ONE: I still need a World Cup title with the NT to achieve the Great SM Double, so far Choices is the only one who made it!


more details of the Cantera Treble season in the story thread http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/foot...-another-san-marino-story-29.html#post1605143
 
I still need to do like 5 of them but that means I would have to get San Marino relegated to do that. Which I don't want to do.
 
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