San Marino Challenge

[Mitch]

I read about this challenge on another forum and decided to give it a go. You have to win the World Cup/Euros or become #1 in the world rankings with the San Marino national squad.

As you can tell, it's gonna be fucking hard and take a long time.

When you set up the game settings, make sure you load all players from San Marino.

The way I went about it is to manager both the national team and a San Marinese club team. Luckily there is a San Marinese team in the Italian league system. They're called San Marino as well and they're in the Serie C2/B league. This team brings San Marinese nationals through its Youth academy.

You need to build up the club team to a competitive Serie A side, reason being you need to build this club up enough to fully upgrade the Youth system, resulting in much better quality youngsters for the San Marinese national team.

To take control over both national team and club team, create the manager you want to use as the National team manager. Then create a new manager and take over the club team, then retire them, leaving the club team management position open.

Should keep you occupied until FM09. ;)

[Mitch]

So far on my attempt, i've gotten to December 2008.

Finished my first season in 1st place in Serie C2/B on 79 points, with Teramo 2nd on 76 points. 3rd being way back on 56 points. You start off with Cesena as a parent club, so there's a good opportunity for some free season-long loans there. You only get about 50k transfer budget to spend, and a few k wage budget. I was negative on my wage budget for the majority of the season. Just gotta keep a relatively small, but quality squad.

Currently i'm 5th in the Serie C1/A with 17 games gone(18 teams in the comp), 6 points off first place. I have the best GD, but just having too many draws at the moment.

Also picked up a few Bulgarian regens for free who are starting already. Main shit thing about managing this side is you can only sign 1 non-EU player per season.



The best result i've managed with the national team was a 1-1 draw with Wales, which was also my only point in Euro 2008 qualifying.

San marino started off ranked 191st in the world and at the moment we're sitting on 183rd. Thank god for teams shiter than mine.

[wats_up]

Sounds like an awesome challenge. I might try it :P

[Mitch]

1st season screenshot:

http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/2033/sanmar2kr5.jpg

Finished the 2nd season, once again in first place. Those lower leagues are easy because you can work off free transfers and loans and still have an awesome squad.

http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/6727/sanmarvc0.jpg

Finished the season with a game against 2nd placed Verona, if they'd won, they would've won the league.

This was the score:

http://img391.imageshack.us/img391/4167/sanmar3df6.jpg

Not bad going eh.

Currently in Serie B i'm 10th out of 22, 11 points off top spot and 18 off the relegation zone. At the moment it's the 3rd of December and we're on a 5 game unbeaten streak.

http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/4626/sanmar5if3.jpg
http://img391.imageshack.us/img391/4451/sanmar4xp5.jpg

Had a complete makeover of my tactics late October and it's paid off big time, winning 6-0 against Messina straight away.

[Mitch]

Had a great end to the season, finishing 6th and claiming a playoff spot.

Beat Brescia 1-0 at home in the Semi First Leg, then a 2-2 draw in the 2nd leg. Then went on to beat Empoli in both legs of the Final, 2-0 at home and 3-1 away.

I'm amazed at how this team managed promotion. When asked by the board about my expectations I was only hoping for a mid-table finish really.

http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/3489/sanmar6kn9.jpg

I have a feeling i'm going to get smashed to bits in Serie A, I've still got a relatively small stadium (11500 seater) and poor training and youth facilities.

[Asshole]

Nice, my brother has also been doing this, he has already completed the serie A with that team and is now doing it with another san marinese team, ill get the name for you later, apparently there is three in the italian league, hes using the one he got up as a feeder, and hopes to establish them all as top serie a teams to help his national team, which is currently 86th in the rankings

[Mitch]

That sounds pretty fun, thanks man.

[steff]

I couldn't even get the San Marino as club and country lol. I would take the national job then apply for the league side and not get it. :(

If I was playing this I would purposefully not promote for as long as possible. The more time to build up the easier it should be in Serie A but great job nevertheless.

[Mitch]

There's not really much point in managing the national team straight away anyways. I'm 4 season in and still getting the shite kicked out of me every game. Did you set your managers reputation to an International player? Also helps if your manager is San Marinese nationality. I think when I tried to become club manager first then national (or other way around? can't remember), it failed the first time, so I started the game again and tried it the other way around and it worked fine.


I'm still in my first Serie A season, around December. Took a break for a few days.

Hovering around 13th-17th. Not looking too bad. Flogged 4-1 by Inter, then beat Juve and AC Milan surprisingly. My lone striker who i've used since Serie C1 just can't score enough in Serie A. Needs to be replaced in the January transfer window. I think he's got about 5 in 16. It's alright, but not enough to keep us up.

[Mitch]

Whoops..I completely forgot about this.

I got the sack the next season anyways.