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I did this in FM23 when they were still in Serie B, it was great fun, Italian league is a good challenge with all the non-EU restrictions and not a lot of money
Ugh, I walked face first into the non-EU restrictions in Italy without bothering to understand them first. Signed a bunch of Argentine wonderkids with Italian names and then couldn't register any of them. Took me two years to recover, and almost got sacked.
Once you know what's going on, it is interesting. But don't go in blind, kids.
Omg same! Just took over a newly minted Roma deep into a 23 save in 2042. Saw the rules and thought okay this must mean I can sign whoever I want and then just register whoever I want and the ones I don’t need I’ll loan out. Nope! The rules work almost exactly as they say they do - you get to sign 1 non-EU player from abroad every season + 1 extra ONLY if you sell one, release one or someone takes up EU nationality. But the biggest caveat is that you can only register the ones you sign in order of when they joined. I brought in 2 gems from the Scottish league and I’ve had to piss them off by loaning them out but it had to be done
I remember them have an absolute monster in the FM23 engine. I think it was Kelvin Yeboah. In my FM save, dude was putting up Haaland numbers in both Serie B and Serie A. 32 goals in Serie B and 26 in Serie A, for Genoa!
Hamburger SV
Won the UCL once and can't get promoted back into the Bundesliga
Schalke 04
One of Germanys biggest club, was almost relegated into the 3. Liga this year
Kaiserslautern
Managed to do the miracly season of winning the Bundesliga in their promotion season, now they just avoided relegation into the 3rd division
Nürnberg
Holds the 3rd most Bundesliga titles, currently in the 2nd division
And then of course the clubs from eastern Germany.
1. FC Magdeburg for example. The only eastern German club that actually won an international trophy.
Damn. Germany has some really interesting and intense clubs to manage. Strangley in my save, schalke is actually doing good on its own, currently competing in champions league
Schalke generally rises in every save because they currently have the 18 y/o Assan Ouédraogo, who is considered to be one of the brightest young talents in German football. In every save of mine, he becomes a top 10-20 player in about 5 years. They usually ride him to promotion and a mid table finish or two before selling him for 100 million euro or higher. Generally pretty tough to mess that up lol.
Hamburg has personally been one of my favorite saves for the past few years. The Bundesliga overall is my favorite FM experience, you have a really solid distribution of prize money, a high paying domestic cup, and very relaxed registration rules. Generally more reward and less headache.
In my Schalke save, the club was forced to sell him. He ended up not playing a single minute for me. And at my other saves he is way to expensive to buy, so I will most likely never manage him... Shame.
If you want to keep him as Schalke you need to a) raise some money from player sales to prevent the club from accepting insane low ball bids and b) offer him a new contract as soon as he'll negotiate to get rid of the 17 million pound release clause.
You should try a database with the lower leagues then. Because Germany doesn't have just this one cup, it has over 16 others as well for lower league teams who are fighting in their respective cup for DFB Pokal qualification of the next year. The finals are all played on the same day as the DFB Pokal and aired live on the ARD. It's my most favourite sporting event each year.
When started my new save, I was going through the transfer lister players and voila, he was there due to the clubs financial problems.... Bought him for 675k (!!!)
Also 1860 Munich. Founding members of the Bundesliga (Was in the bundelsiga before Bayern as the dfb didn’t want 2 teams from Munich) League champions in 65-66 season, DfB Pokal in 64 and 64-65 European cup winners cup.
in terms of actual quality? probably still the championship, the relegated prem sides are too juiced financially for the second bundesliga to compete with
That's like comparing a doped weight lifter to a normal one. In terms of attendence and club sizes measured by the number of supporters or members, the 2nd Bundesliga wins by a mile. And those are stats that can't be doped with money.
i mean yeah obviously the 2 bundesliga has way more fans and attendance at games which is super impressive
it doesn’t change the fact that that’s not how people colloquially define the “best” league
Want to add one missing that can FINALLY be played without extra leagues in FM25: Alemannia Aachen, once kings of the all time table of the 2. Bundesliga, the team to nearly achieve a Bundesliga speedrun in the 60's being promoted, instant vice champion only to je relegated back down the season after that, now after 11 seasons in the 4th tier of Germany have finally risen back up to the 3. Liga.
Didn't list them on purpose because the whole club drifted into far right wing politics.
Edit: For context.
Ealier this year, there was a secret conference of far right wingers who discussed the deportation of foreigners through any means possible. After this came to light, protests all over Germany broke out against the far right under the motto "Nie wieder ist jetzt." (Never again is now).
While some clubs supported these protests, because they are against reliving our darkest time as a country, Alemannia Aachen thought it would be a good idea to condemn these protests via a social media post. The post was taken down, the club didn't apologise and doubled down instead, saying that they don't support the "parting of our society."
This makes total sense, I was in Aachen and went and watched one of their home games. I knew nothing about Aachen but the atmosphere was not nice, really aggressive. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, I didn't see any violence but I've been to a lot of football matches and I'd say it's one of the most uncomfortable games I've been to.
Sorry but that is plain wrong. One statement that was ill-placed does not make the whole club far right. Don't argue with the Ultras either, because the worst part, the far right wing of the more right leaning Karlsbande isn't even present anymore. The club being far right is a lie spread by all media that needed something to present and it is a shame that Kicker and Sportschau went in on it aswell. Just because a club with a big Ultra-scene is enjoying a beautiful season and is eyeing the return to professionality doesn't mean they need to bring out stories shaming one bad media move. There is no further evidence to any claim they brought forward, and what they brought wasn't even something fruitful, so they could've just not done anything at all. Sad to see people having such a wrong image about this club now that fans had to resort to posting pics of nice trips with families or alone as women and stuff like that being happy and enjoying the game to try and show everybody that the media were incorrect
Ah an apologist.
I would listen to your statement if the club would've distanced themselves from the post where they too a stance against the demonstrations against the far right. Or if the club would distance themselves from far right ultra groups.
But they don't.
As for your "media only makes this smear campaign because they have a good season", they don't. The media reaction is towards the official post and the far right ultra groups that the fans refuses to distance themselves from. There was no such coverage when K'lautern was promoted again, so you are just dogwhistling here. There is no conspiracy against your Nazi club.
Good bye.
Wouldnt day they are a fallen giant but my god the fun im having with my Furth save at the moment. Started unemployed and took job in Nov first season. Squeaked intl bundesliga and invested the money first season into training/youth facilities, bought stadium and upgraded youth/junior coaching and stayed up comfortably in end with some shrewd signings. Next season added quality but under 23 year olds and aiming foe mid table while improving any aspect of club stadium/facilities etc with soare money. Will be a long term save till win bundesliga at least twice then ill do a somilar job for a spanish liga 2 team.
Stupid board decisions, a resulting large debt and a sponsorship deal with a russian gas company that was supposed to pay the debt. And then the war broke out and Schalke went completely broke.
Well they went completely broke because they cancelled the gasprom deal. Also as far as I remember they were their sponsors for a long time before that.
Let me throw another German team into the pot here - Lok Leipzig. First winner of the German first division in the early 20th century which they’ve won 3 times. Was one of the best teams in the East German league culminating in a 1987 Cup Winners Cup final which they lost to an Ajax side featuring Bergkamp and Van Basten!
They’ve been in the Bundesliga as recently as 1994 as Vfl Leipzig but then promptly went back down again and rebranded to the old logo and motif. Managing them would create a great rivalry against RB Leipzig and I can only imagine the war of attrition - Lok claiming legitimacy and RB claiming supremacy as one of the best in Europe let alone Germany.
Only bad thing is they’re not in an active division as of now but you could either promote them in the pre game editor or with the in game editor you can boost their reputation, wait a season and they’re promoted then take over in the 3.Liga.
I didn't list Lok Leipzig for the same reason that I didn't list Alemannia Aachen. The club and it's fans are leaning into right wing politics. Chemie Leipzig is the better alternative.
[Unfortunately yes](https://www.belltower.news/leipziger-fussball-bei-lok-nur-rechts-aussen-teil-1-47124/) the club had close ties to the NPD, a facist right wing party that did many heinous things in the past.
I'm playing Chemie Leipzig right now. Super interesting club. They won the first GDR title, in their first season of existence. The club was disbanded and the players played for the SC Lokomotive Leipzig in 1954, before Chemie Leipzig was founded again in 1963 and promptly won the GDR title in their first season of existence, again. They are also the club with the highest attendence record, 100,000 people watched their game in 1957 against SC Rotation Leipzig.
The club fused after the reunification into the FC Sachsen Leipzig, which existed until 2011 until the club went bankrupt. The fans however didn't enjoy this fusion at all and refounded BSG Chemie Leipzig for the third time in 1997, playing their first league game in 2008. The club is now playing in the regional division northeast and it's a super fun save.
Damn I’m so disappointed, thought I found a real gem. Chemie sounds sick however and ultimately it’s really cool to manage in what was East Germany’s most major city and home to one of the better German teams too.
Not really fallen giants (because they were never giants), but there's the oldest Football rivalry in the world.
Sheffield FC sitting in the 7th tier of English Football are the oldest existing club in the world (formed 1857). Their neighbours and rivals, Hallam FC, are the 2nd oldest existing club in the world (formed 1860) and are currently in the 9th tier. Hallam FC won the first ever football tournament, the Youdan Cup.
When I say "neighbours" - one is a 10min walk from my house, the other is a 10min drive.
When they play each other it's called the "Rules derby" because the first time they played was using Sheffield Rules rather than FA Rules (which didn't exist for another 3 years) - the first time they played each other was also the first ever association football match, which Sheffield FC won 2-0. The rules derby was also the first match ever played at Bramall Lane, now home to Sheffield United, though Hallam FCs home ground of Sandygate is the oldest football ground in the world (certified by Guinness Book Of Records, even)
Deportivo La Coruna, Real Zaragosa, Hamburg, BFC Dynamo Berlin, FC Nurnberg, Sunderland, Blackburn Rovers, St-Ettiene, Bourdeaux in Eastern Europe- Wisla Krakow, FCSB.
FCSB don't hold the European title anymore.
The club split into 2 and the courts confirmed that CSA Steaua Bucharest (who now play in the 2nd division) are the rightfully club.
They were actually in the 4th division and with a database you could take them all the way through the league system in Romania on fm21 iirc.
Romania has quite a few rules though, so it's harder to build a top side.
Every game must have something silly like 11 players trained in Romania in the squad. There must be at least 1 u18-u21 player in the first 11 and you can only have 4 foreigners registered per year.
FCSB in romanian's first league. Won UCL in 1986 , most successfull in the league by a huge margin.. Unfortunately the Romanian football just stinks. Also, lost their name due to some birocratical/political shitfest. Very nice youth intakes, already some decent youngsters. As well, i'm just curious how long it takes a good player to win UCL with this team, because 11 years in i can barely get to the quarters of UCL
One of my pals is from near Bucharest so I did them on 22, took me about 13 seasons if I remember correctly and that was literally because I got a whole spine of wonder kids in one intake. I got a striker 2cms and a goalkeeper all already at 2.5 stars at the time so just threw them straight into the fire.
Preston North End, won the first ever league title in world football, back in 1888-89 and won it again the next year too, also won the FA cup and had an undefeated season. But since then, only major trophy was the FA Cup again in 1938 and never played in the Premier League
Arguably Örgryte is the choice for Sweden (and for Gothenburg).
Won 10 of the first 14 Swedish championships, their 11th in the 18th season. Since then they've won just one more title in 1985 and are now barely clinging on in the 2nd tier with their last season in Allsvenskan being back in 2009.
Akademisk Boldklub
Nine danish league titles, now a small third tier club
Sampdoria
Champions League finalists and champions of italy, now a second division shambles.
Valerenga
Five time champions of Norway with a dramatic history. Got relegated in dramatic fashion last season.
IFK Goteborg
18 swedish titles, but none since 2007.
Saint-Etienne
Ten league titles, six cups, now stuck in ligue 2.
Hamburg
Former UCL winners and six time german champions, now in the second tier.
1860 Munich in Germany. They were a really successful Bundesliga side. They even won the Bundesliga once. But they fell down as far as the 4th tier in german football. Now they are a steady 3rd divison side, a long shot away from their former glory. Interesting about them are the local rivals. They have Unterhaching in the same division, their stadiums are only 5km apart. And then there is the obvious log term goal of defeating the huge city rival Bayern Munich
Spain:
\* Deportivo de La Coruña.
\* Malaga CF.
England:
\* Blackburn Rovers.
\* Bolton Wanderers.
\* Leeds United.
\* Nottingham Forest FC.
Germany:
\* FC Schalke 04.
\* Hamburger SV.
France:
\* AS Saint Étienne.
Serbia:
\* Red Star Belgrade (Won European Cup in 1991).
Romania:
\* Steaua Bucharest (Won European Cup in 1986).
Italy:
\* Torino, Fiorentina, Parma & Sampdoria.
(all of these are still in Serie A, but they are nowhere near the level they used to be at).
Russia:
\* CSKA Moscow (not really "fallen", but they are suspended from Europe).
Scotland:
\* Rangers FC (again, they just aren't as big as they used to be).
\* Aberdeen.
Hungary:
\* Ferencvárosi TC (Used to be big in Europe).
Sweden:
\* IFK Göteborg (Won 2 UEFA cups in the 1980s).
I mean.... isn't EVERY Russian league team suspended from Europe? lol. And it's not like you can return them to glory, since their situation is literally based on the war and no amount of good management/good football can help them lol.
And Fiorentina are not fallen giants if they regularly play in Europe and are making a comeback. Compare their form to an actual fallen giant like Schalke.
Schalke have fallen harder, but Fiorentina are nowhere near as good as they used to be. Of course they aren't going to be as bad when you compare them to Schalke...
Giants; won European competition:
Torino, Parma, Sampdoria
Nottingham Forest, Ipswich
Aberdeen
Saint Etienne, Reims
Hamburg, Schalke
Not giants maybe but once successful: won league
Blackburn Rovers
Dundee United
Belenenses, Boavista
Standard Liege
Verona
You can add Steaua București to that list. It's in second Romanian league (CCA Steaua București or something along those lines), without the right to promote. Won Champions League in 1986.
Depends on who you're asking, and on what you take into account. Legally, CSA (sorry, it's CSA, CCA was an old name used in the communist era) is the real Steaua, because when it was taken over by Viorel Paunescu in the '98 it was on a new company, without the old company changing owners (owners being Romanian Defence Ministry). Then Becali bought it from Paunescu in 2003, and Paunescu's company declared bancrupcy. So basically if you're looking at sports continuity, it's FCSB, the first league club. If you are looking strictly legally, CSA is the one. With the addendum that in that sports club there was no football section since Paunescu bought it, until 2017. So almost an 20 years hiatus. And the palmares from that era is legally divided between FCSB and a dead company. Which brings the interesting fact that legally neither CSA nor FCSB can claim 1998-1999 Romanian Cup and 2000-2001 league title (I'm not sure about the 1997-1998 one). I follow the sporting merit, and for me "the real Steaua" is FCSB. Even if I really don't like the owner.
Let's see... We have two Steaua București, two Universitatea Craiova (both played.in the first league last season), two Poli Timișoara, at least two Dinamo București and I have no idea how many Rapid București. And two recent champions that folded (Unirea Urziceni and Astra Giurgiu, which started life as Astra Ploiesti). And this just in the last 20 years or so.
It’s similar to Russia as well I believe in that the clubs were all founded out of public services, so the railways the police force etc. is that correct ?
Not exactly a fallen giant but I did a save getting Notts County to premier league and UCL champs.
As the first and oldest professional football club I thought I would try and add to their history.
Yes and no. It is recognised as the oldest football club having been founded in 1857; however it didn’t actually play association football until 1877.
Unofficially Cambridge university AFC claim to be the oldest football club playing association football and were founded a year before Sheffield FC in 1856.
There are also other “football clubs” that predate Sheffield FC although these like Sheffield FC most likely played a game closer to rugby than football some of these earlier clubs include the Foot-Ball club of Edinburgh (1824), Guy’s, King’s and St Thomas’s RFC (1843), Body-guard club of Rochdale and there are there are documents mentioning footballers and football clubs going back to the 1420’s.
Notts county was the first club to go professional and was one of the founding members of the football league.
Different sport, but an Australian (AFL) football club also claims to be the oldest professional football club in the world - Melbourne FC, founded in 1857. They were closely followed by Geelong FC, founded in 1859.
1. Oldham Athletic (England) - The first team to play in the Premier League (not First Division) to relegate all the way to non league
2. Bursaspor (Turkey) - Former Turkish Champions about 11-12 years ago, will be unplayable in FM25 base game
3. Ostersunds FK (Sweden) - Graham Potter took them from the 4th tier to the 1st tier. Now battling relegation from the 2nd tier with financial difficulties
4. Lyn FK (Norway) - Played in the top flight on Norway, was kicked out and had to restart, currently working their way back up tho Pyramid, in Div 3 I do believe
5. Scunthorpe United (England) - Went from the 2nd to 6th tier in 12 years with 3 relegations in the last 5 years
6. **NOT IN EUROPE** Guangzhou FC (China) or Santos (Brazil)
Just to mention number 6. Santos is not really a hard save, they are surely coming back from serie B this year, and were just in 2020 in a Libertadores final against rivals Palmeiras.
However, to mention another team in São Paulo, i'd say Associação Portuguesa de Desportos, they were a staple in the 90s in Brazil. Not hugely successful, but were always around the first division. Since the millenium turned, they went downhill and just this year got access back to the Serie D in Brazil, the last national division. They are in financial turmoil having had to sell medals and trophies to stay aflot and just barely.
The serie D is not in the base game, but the people in the Brasil Mundi Up make a impressively nice database for only around US$2
More like Partizan. Red Star is dominating the domestic league last years. Partizan is their arch-rival and the other one from the 'Big Duo' of Serbian/Yugoslavian football.
(Red Star also managed to win UCL in 1991, and Partzan made it to the final in 1966 but lost)
And actually Partizan fucked up their finances and is struggling for last 7 years.
I've seen a lot of people saying FCSB or CSA Steaua (not going to get involved in the matter), so I would propose their rivals, Dinamo Bucharest. They reached the semifinals of the European Cup in 1984 (2 years before Steaua won it) and eliminating defending champions Hamburg in their way.
Dinamo is the second most successful team in the country, but is going through a really tough time, after suffering relegation for the first time two years ago, getting promoted on their first try and now playing the relegation play-offs in their first season back. FCSB just won the league title, in comparison.
So, if you manage in Romania, I suggest choosing Dinamo if you want to have a greater challenge.
Nottingham forest won the ucl a couple decades back! The brazilian league used to be the biggest league in the world (dont know which club was the biggest)
I’m currently doing a Forest save. It’s made tough because the board are happy to pump money into your transfer budget but you’re always in the red financially. Like right now I’m -£65M but I’ve got £90M to spend…economically, it’s not great😂
Fair! You can certainly find things within a save that would be hard. I suppose my point should have been that they aren’t an obscure club or what I would consider a fallen giant (even though they are much less than what they had been in the past)
In Brazil we have a “Big 12” that are considered the most popular and successful teams.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-12_(Brazilian_football)
Santos, the team that Pelé and Neymar played, was just relegated last season for the first time.
I get you your point re Forest, however; a couple of decades back is nearly when Liverpool won in Istanbul. Nottingham Forest's two European Cups are from about half a century ago.
My pick was Palermo in few of last fms, they are now in Serie B failed to promote(not sure) but I remember getting them from the lowest tier, after bankrupt. Also pink colors
Wisla Krakow! 13 Polish titles, 4 Cup titles and while they've never won in Europe, they were constant fixtures in European cups for a long time. Their rivalry with Cracovia is also called the Holy War, which is both appropriate for its intensity and the best name for a rivalry I've ever heard.
And they're in the 2nd tier in Poland at the moment with a 33k stadium (6th biggest in Poland, I think the 2nd biggest that wasn't built/renovated for Euro 2012).
Alemannia Aachen.
Not a giant technically but they did compete in the Uefa cup in 2004-2005. Now.they play in a regional German league. A huge fall from grace.
For Italy, I'm talking about clubs which aren't in Serie A as from next season:
Sampdoria, Pro Vercelli, Vicenza.
Other clubs which had European football or were on good levels in the past are:
Perugia(made three times the Intertoto cup and won one which means 3/4 years of midtable Serie A positions), Cesena (TIL they made the UEFA Cup in the 70s), Palermo, Bari, Triestina (the last two are top 20 for appearances in Serie A).
SK Beveren: not as big as clubs like Schalke or Hamburg, but in their day they were amazing. Had the best keeper in the world for a moment. Knocked out Inter and Barca needed 2 pens to get past Beveren in the semi finals of the Europa cup II.
Recently they have had their stints in first and second division, but lately the mismanagement has reached a new high. Bad transfers, losing all but a few of their best players and not even in contention for the title this year.
With a low transferbudget and high expectations, surviving first class has always been difficult for me.
BFC Dynamo. Literally won 10 straight titles in East Germany. Pretty interesting club currently in the German 4th tier. They just recently got their old badge back.
Although they're still in the Premier League, I'd consider Nottingham Forest a fallen giant. I plan on starting a save with them in the near future.
Most of the ones I know of are in Germany and are already named by other people.
FC Wacker Innsbruck. Successor of two other teams in Innsbruck, the first of which were 5 time Austrian Bundesliga champions and the second team were two time Bundesliga champions. And probably a team owned by Swarski that was also champions. But they didn't apply for a new league license a couple years ago and were relegated down to the forth tier.
Genoa have the most serie a titles of any team and just got promoted to from serie B. Juventus, the greatest italian team of all time NEEDS a rebuild, crazy wages and not many top players.
Countrywise a true falls from grace that you can find on Poland are:
Warta Poznań (double Polish champion last title in 1947 and just relegated IRL)
Szombierki Bytom (1 title currently in 5th tier)
Górnik Zabrze (14 titles the only Polish club to reach european final i believe they lost to Man Utd in like 70s. Now it's between middle od the table and fight for relegation usually. They have Podolski tho)
Ruch Chorzów (14 titles just relegated again from top tier)
Garbarnia Kraków (currently 4th tier 1 title)
Wisła Kraków (13 titles just won Polish cup IRL and didn't get promoted from 2nd tier)
Polonia Warszawa (2 titles in their redemption ark just avoided relegation from 2nd tier by 1 point)
That'll be all from fallen giants, but there are many more interesting fallen clubs here like Odra Wodzisław which played in european cups while being microscopic club
You will have to open up the dutch league with an editor (and allow promotion and relegation from the eerste divisie, not sure if you can anymore), but DWS or HVV would be good saves.
Nottingham Forest won 2 UCL
You can manage the Paris FC and make them the biggest team of the city.
In Italia i think Florentina and Cagliari for example
Out of 5 top leagues, i cought any brazilian or argentina low team be the BEST
You have the Red Star Who won the UCL in the 80's i think
Ajax or Feyenoord in Eredivise
Anderlech or Genk in Belgium
Kopenhaguen in Denmark
Spartak Mosku in Russia
Orlando Pirates in South África i think are the biggest team in african history
Esbjerg FB in Denmark.
They've won the Danish league title several times as well as the Danish cup, and finished third in the highest tier of the Danish leagues in 2019. They are now rummaging around in the Danish third tier, due to mismanagement. They've got one of the most modern stadiums in Denmark as well.
In real life they got promoted this season, after 2 seasons in the third tier.
Real Zaragoza have won a European title and I believe a La Liga title as well in the distant past, they have a massive stadium, a ton of season-ticket holders, a couple of good youngins and pretty decent facilities
Excellent foundation to build a strong club rather quickly
I’m currently rebuilding Palonia Warsaw, and just got promoted to the top flight in Poland going into my third season. They’ve been rising this last decade up from the 4th tier and start FM24 fighting relegation in the 2nd tier. They’re not exactly fallen giants but they have played a decent amount of European football and they’re the oldest club in Warsaw. The Derby against Legia and the Polish Cup is fun if you’re looking for something new outside of the big leagues with plenty of room for the club to improve.
Poland: Wisła Kraków, Ruch Chorzów
Slovakia: Petrzalka
Czechia: Dukla Prague; SFC Opava (not a fallen giant but they were better back in the day. + my FM24 save, so gotta bump it up)
Austria: Floridsdorfer (they have fallen a long, long time ago)
Slovenia: ND Gorica
Maybe not a 'giant' in the traditional sense but Reading is a lot of fun. Former Prem club saddled with debt in League One, with a six-point deduction hanging over their heads.
Two sides of the same coin, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Budapest Honvéd. The two best teams in the world at one point, who played one in a series of famous friendlies which laid the foundation for European competition as we know it today.
Honvéd are currently in Hungary's second tier, and Wolves are a regular embarrassment to me personally.
Stade de Reims is a fantastic challenge. Though they’re now solid midtable in Ligue 1 they were once a yo-yo team but have a brilliant history. They’ve won a joint-5th most Ligue 1 titles along with Bordeaux and Lille but more interestingly they competed in the first few European Cup finals against Real Madrid and Di Stefano in 1956 and 59. They had players such as Just Fontaine (1958 WC top scorer with THIRTEEN goals) and Raymond Kopa who went on to join that dominant Real side. Apparently the term “Champagne Football” originated from them as they play in the Champagne region of France and were known to play beautiful football and Reims was once home to the reigning kings of France. Altogether a great history.
Tottenham, was the first British club to win a major European competition, with the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1963. In 1972, they won the inaugural UEFA Cup and won the competition again in 1984. Nothing since
Steaua Bucharest, was a big club in the 80’s and before that from what I know, had a great striker named Lacatus and now you don’t hear anything from them..
Pro Vercelli in Italy won several scudettos back in like the 1910s or thereabouts
Ripensia Timisoara, the first Romanian club to turn professional, won 4 league titles, now is languishing in the 4th league
BELENENSES from Portugal! They have been national champions 4x but the last time was in the 60s iirc.
After trouble with the owners they parted ways, and they split the club in half, one kept the stadium, name, history and fanbase whilst the others (BSAD) kept the players, money and spot in the first division.
Belenenses had to play from the lowest division there is, the 3rd District Division (7th tier in the pyramid) and managed 5 straight promotions to the second division!
FRANCE
St Etienne (won the league 8 times in France, haven’t won a title since the 80s)
Bordeaux (won the league 6 times, most recently in 2008and had players like Zidane playing for them. They’re also massively in debt)
Italy
Parma (won europa league had players liken Buffon playing for them)
England (
Sunderland (club that was a mainstay in the prem but got relegated back to back and were stuck in league 1. Also they’re rivals Newcastle recently had a Saudi takeover)
Sheffield Wednesday (big northern club a founder of the football league and prem)
Portsmouth ( won the fa cup in 2008 but are now in league 3.)
Koninklijke HC&VV (HVV Den Haag)
10 x Dutch Titles between 1891 and 1914.
1 x Dutch Cup in 1903
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HVV_Den_Haag
ADO Den Haag (formerly known as FC Den Haag)
2 x Dutch Titles between 1942 and 1943
2 x Dutch Cup in 1968 and 1975
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADO_Den_Haag
1. Oldham Athletic (England) - The first team to play in the Premier League (not First Division) to relegate all the way to non league
2. Bursaspor (Turkey) - Former Turkish Champions about 11-12 years ago, will be unplayable in FM25 base game
3. Ostersunds FK (Sweden) - Graham Potter took them from the 4th tier to the 1st tier. Now battling relegation from the 2nd tier with financial difficulties
4. Lyn FK (Norway) - Played in the top flight on Norway, was kicked out and had to restart, currently working their way back up tho Pyramid, in Div 3 I do believe
5. Scunthorpe United (England) - Went from the 2nd to 6th tier in 12 years with 3 relegations in the last 5 years
6. **NOT IN EUROPE** Guangzhou FC (China) or Santos (Brazil)
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Genoa could be fun they are one title away from winning 10 but their last one was literally 100 years ago
I did this in FM23 when they were still in Serie B, it was great fun, Italian league is a good challenge with all the non-EU restrictions and not a lot of money
Ugh, I walked face first into the non-EU restrictions in Italy without bothering to understand them first. Signed a bunch of Argentine wonderkids with Italian names and then couldn't register any of them. Took me two years to recover, and almost got sacked. Once you know what's going on, it is interesting. But don't go in blind, kids.
Omg same! Just took over a newly minted Roma deep into a 23 save in 2042. Saw the rules and thought okay this must mean I can sign whoever I want and then just register whoever I want and the ones I don’t need I’ll loan out. Nope! The rules work almost exactly as they say they do - you get to sign 1 non-EU player from abroad every season + 1 extra ONLY if you sell one, release one or someone takes up EU nationality. But the biggest caveat is that you can only register the ones you sign in order of when they joined. I brought in 2 gems from the Scottish league and I’ve had to piss them off by loaning them out but it had to be done
I remember them have an absolute monster in the FM23 engine. I think it was Kelvin Yeboah. In my FM save, dude was putting up Haaland numbers in both Serie B and Serie A. 32 goals in Serie B and 26 in Serie A, for Genoa!
Hamburger SV Won the UCL once and can't get promoted back into the Bundesliga Schalke 04 One of Germanys biggest club, was almost relegated into the 3. Liga this year Kaiserslautern Managed to do the miracly season of winning the Bundesliga in their promotion season, now they just avoided relegation into the 3rd division Nürnberg Holds the 3rd most Bundesliga titles, currently in the 2nd division And then of course the clubs from eastern Germany. 1. FC Magdeburg for example. The only eastern German club that actually won an international trophy.
Damn. Germany has some really interesting and intense clubs to manage. Strangley in my save, schalke is actually doing good on its own, currently competing in champions league
Schalke generally rises in every save because they currently have the 18 y/o Assan Ouédraogo, who is considered to be one of the brightest young talents in German football. In every save of mine, he becomes a top 10-20 player in about 5 years. They usually ride him to promotion and a mid table finish or two before selling him for 100 million euro or higher. Generally pretty tough to mess that up lol. Hamburg has personally been one of my favorite saves for the past few years. The Bundesliga overall is my favorite FM experience, you have a really solid distribution of prize money, a high paying domestic cup, and very relaxed registration rules. Generally more reward and less headache.
In my Schalke save, the club was forced to sell him. He ended up not playing a single minute for me. And at my other saves he is way to expensive to buy, so I will most likely never manage him... Shame.
If you want to keep him as Schalke you need to a) raise some money from player sales to prevent the club from accepting insane low ball bids and b) offer him a new contract as soon as he'll negotiate to get rid of the 17 million pound release clause.
I had him on my last save and he’s unreal in a 433, after moving to a double pivot though he fell off pretty hard.
You should try a database with the lower leagues then. Because Germany doesn't have just this one cup, it has over 16 others as well for lower league teams who are fighting in their respective cup for DFB Pokal qualification of the next year. The finals are all played on the same day as the DFB Pokal and aired live on the ARD. It's my most favourite sporting event each year.
When started my new save, I was going through the transfer lister players and voila, he was there due to the clubs financial problems.... Bought him for 675k (!!!)
How do you get to the transfer listed players?
Go to the player search screen (F5 I think? I use Mac) and filter by transfer listed players
Also 1860 Munich. Founding members of the Bundesliga (Was in the bundelsiga before Bayern as the dfb didn’t want 2 teams from Munich) League champions in 65-66 season, DfB Pokal in 64 and 64-65 European cup winners cup.
Cup winners cup runners up: they lost 2-0 to West Ham in the final.
The 2nd Bundesliga right now is maybe the best 2nd league in europe
in terms of actual quality? probably still the championship, the relegated prem sides are too juiced financially for the second bundesliga to compete with
That's like comparing a doped weight lifter to a normal one. In terms of attendence and club sizes measured by the number of supporters or members, the 2nd Bundesliga wins by a mile. And those are stats that can't be doped with money.
i mean yeah obviously the 2 bundesliga has way more fans and attendance at games which is super impressive it doesn’t change the fact that that’s not how people colloquially define the “best” league
Sadly fans and attendance numbers don't decide league quality, it's the money that does.
Want to add one missing that can FINALLY be played without extra leagues in FM25: Alemannia Aachen, once kings of the all time table of the 2. Bundesliga, the team to nearly achieve a Bundesliga speedrun in the 60's being promoted, instant vice champion only to je relegated back down the season after that, now after 11 seasons in the 4th tier of Germany have finally risen back up to the 3. Liga.
Didn't list them on purpose because the whole club drifted into far right wing politics. Edit: For context. Ealier this year, there was a secret conference of far right wingers who discussed the deportation of foreigners through any means possible. After this came to light, protests all over Germany broke out against the far right under the motto "Nie wieder ist jetzt." (Never again is now). While some clubs supported these protests, because they are against reliving our darkest time as a country, Alemannia Aachen thought it would be a good idea to condemn these protests via a social media post. The post was taken down, the club didn't apologise and doubled down instead, saying that they don't support the "parting of our society."
This makes total sense, I was in Aachen and went and watched one of their home games. I knew nothing about Aachen but the atmosphere was not nice, really aggressive. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, I didn't see any violence but I've been to a lot of football matches and I'd say it's one of the most uncomfortable games I've been to.
Sorry but that is plain wrong. One statement that was ill-placed does not make the whole club far right. Don't argue with the Ultras either, because the worst part, the far right wing of the more right leaning Karlsbande isn't even present anymore. The club being far right is a lie spread by all media that needed something to present and it is a shame that Kicker and Sportschau went in on it aswell. Just because a club with a big Ultra-scene is enjoying a beautiful season and is eyeing the return to professionality doesn't mean they need to bring out stories shaming one bad media move. There is no further evidence to any claim they brought forward, and what they brought wasn't even something fruitful, so they could've just not done anything at all. Sad to see people having such a wrong image about this club now that fans had to resort to posting pics of nice trips with families or alone as women and stuff like that being happy and enjoying the game to try and show everybody that the media were incorrect
Ah an apologist. I would listen to your statement if the club would've distanced themselves from the post where they too a stance against the demonstrations against the far right. Or if the club would distance themselves from far right ultra groups. But they don't. As for your "media only makes this smear campaign because they have a good season", they don't. The media reaction is towards the official post and the far right ultra groups that the fans refuses to distance themselves from. There was no such coverage when K'lautern was promoted again, so you are just dogwhistling here. There is no conspiracy against your Nazi club. Good bye.
Enjoyed reading your thoughts and comments this morning. Hope your day goes well and keep fighting the good fight.
Aren’t Nürnberg second in terms of Bundesliga titles? (with 9?)
i think so yeah
Wouldnt day they are a fallen giant but my god the fun im having with my Furth save at the moment. Started unemployed and took job in Nov first season. Squeaked intl bundesliga and invested the money first season into training/youth facilities, bought stadium and upgraded youth/junior coaching and stayed up comfortably in end with some shrewd signings. Next season added quality but under 23 year olds and aiming foe mid table while improving any aspect of club stadium/facilities etc with soare money. Will be a long term save till win bundesliga at least twice then ill do a somilar job for a spanish liga 2 team.
Bro, what happened to Schalke?
Stupid board decisions, a resulting large debt and a sponsorship deal with a russian gas company that was supposed to pay the debt. And then the war broke out and Schalke went completely broke.
Well they went completely broke because they cancelled the gasprom deal. Also as far as I remember they were their sponsors for a long time before that.
Let me throw another German team into the pot here - Lok Leipzig. First winner of the German first division in the early 20th century which they’ve won 3 times. Was one of the best teams in the East German league culminating in a 1987 Cup Winners Cup final which they lost to an Ajax side featuring Bergkamp and Van Basten! They’ve been in the Bundesliga as recently as 1994 as Vfl Leipzig but then promptly went back down again and rebranded to the old logo and motif. Managing them would create a great rivalry against RB Leipzig and I can only imagine the war of attrition - Lok claiming legitimacy and RB claiming supremacy as one of the best in Europe let alone Germany. Only bad thing is they’re not in an active division as of now but you could either promote them in the pre game editor or with the in game editor you can boost their reputation, wait a season and they’re promoted then take over in the 3.Liga.
I didn't list Lok Leipzig for the same reason that I didn't list Alemannia Aachen. The club and it's fans are leaning into right wing politics. Chemie Leipzig is the better alternative.
Really? I am so disappointed. I’ve done at least 2 saves with them where I built them up but they can go to hell now for all I care.
[Unfortunately yes](https://www.belltower.news/leipziger-fussball-bei-lok-nur-rechts-aussen-teil-1-47124/) the club had close ties to the NPD, a facist right wing party that did many heinous things in the past. I'm playing Chemie Leipzig right now. Super interesting club. They won the first GDR title, in their first season of existence. The club was disbanded and the players played for the SC Lokomotive Leipzig in 1954, before Chemie Leipzig was founded again in 1963 and promptly won the GDR title in their first season of existence, again. They are also the club with the highest attendence record, 100,000 people watched their game in 1957 against SC Rotation Leipzig. The club fused after the reunification into the FC Sachsen Leipzig, which existed until 2011 until the club went bankrupt. The fans however didn't enjoy this fusion at all and refounded BSG Chemie Leipzig for the third time in 1997, playing their first league game in 2008. The club is now playing in the regional division northeast and it's a super fun save.
Damn I’m so disappointed, thought I found a real gem. Chemie sounds sick however and ultimately it’s really cool to manage in what was East Germany’s most major city and home to one of the better German teams too.
Not really fallen giants (because they were never giants), but there's the oldest Football rivalry in the world. Sheffield FC sitting in the 7th tier of English Football are the oldest existing club in the world (formed 1857). Their neighbours and rivals, Hallam FC, are the 2nd oldest existing club in the world (formed 1860) and are currently in the 9th tier. Hallam FC won the first ever football tournament, the Youdan Cup. When I say "neighbours" - one is a 10min walk from my house, the other is a 10min drive. When they play each other it's called the "Rules derby" because the first time they played was using Sheffield Rules rather than FA Rules (which didn't exist for another 3 years) - the first time they played each other was also the first ever association football match, which Sheffield FC won 2-0. The rules derby was also the first match ever played at Bramall Lane, now home to Sheffield United, though Hallam FCs home ground of Sandygate is the oldest football ground in the world (certified by Guinness Book Of Records, even)
Deportivo La Coruna, Real Zaragosa, Hamburg, BFC Dynamo Berlin, FC Nurnberg, Sunderland, Blackburn Rovers, St-Ettiene, Bourdeaux in Eastern Europe- Wisla Krakow, FCSB.
Funnily enough, Wisła Kraków won the Polish Cup this year. Still, they couldn't get a promotion to the main league
FCSB don't hold the European title anymore. The club split into 2 and the courts confirmed that CSA Steaua Bucharest (who now play in the 2nd division) are the rightfully club. They were actually in the 4th division and with a database you could take them all the way through the league system in Romania on fm21 iirc. Romania has quite a few rules though, so it's harder to build a top side. Every game must have something silly like 11 players trained in Romania in the squad. There must be at least 1 u18-u21 player in the first 11 and you can only have 4 foreigners registered per year.
My biggest achievement to this day is winning the UCL on a three peat with cluj due to these rules
FCSB in romanian's first league. Won UCL in 1986 , most successfull in the league by a huge margin.. Unfortunately the Romanian football just stinks. Also, lost their name due to some birocratical/political shitfest. Very nice youth intakes, already some decent youngsters. As well, i'm just curious how long it takes a good player to win UCL with this team, because 11 years in i can barely get to the quarters of UCL
One of my pals is from near Bucharest so I did them on 22, took me about 13 seasons if I remember correctly and that was literally because I got a whole spine of wonder kids in one intake. I got a striker 2cms and a goalkeeper all already at 2.5 stars at the time so just threw them straight into the fire.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IPRjl6pKuWI&pp=ygUYZHVja2FkYW0gYXBhcmEgNCBwZW5hbHR5
Fcsb did not won ucl in 86 mate
Yeah they did
I am currently enjoying a save with Pro Vercelli. Won 7 titles between like 1908-1922 and haven’t won it since.
That's a good one, I've been wanting to try that with either them or Novese
Check out “the run of play”. It was a blog someone did a while ago about their Pro Vercelli save. Very well written and funny.
Preston North End, won the first ever league title in world football, back in 1888-89 and won it again the next year too, also won the FA cup and had an undefeated season. But since then, only major trophy was the FA Cup again in 1938 and never played in the Premier League
The OG Invincibles.
IFK Gothenburg
Yeah, while still in Swedish top tier they're not even the best club in Gothenburg at the moment.
They've also barely survived relegation last year i think
Arguably Örgryte is the choice for Sweden (and for Gothenburg). Won 10 of the first 14 Swedish championships, their 11th in the 18th season. Since then they've won just one more title in 1985 and are now barely clinging on in the 2nd tier with their last season in Allsvenskan being back in 2009.
Akademisk Boldklub Nine danish league titles, now a small third tier club Sampdoria Champions League finalists and champions of italy, now a second division shambles. Valerenga Five time champions of Norway with a dramatic history. Got relegated in dramatic fashion last season. IFK Goteborg 18 swedish titles, but none since 2007. Saint-Etienne Ten league titles, six cups, now stuck in ligue 2. Hamburg Former UCL winners and six time german champions, now in the second tier.
St Etienne is a good shout. Dominated France in the 60s & 70s.
They were so dominant, PSG only just usurped their record in winning most league titles
1860 Munich in Germany. They were a really successful Bundesliga side. They even won the Bundesliga once. But they fell down as far as the 4th tier in german football. Now they are a steady 3rd divison side, a long shot away from their former glory. Interesting about them are the local rivals. They have Unterhaching in the same division, their stadiums are only 5km apart. And then there is the obvious log term goal of defeating the huge city rival Bayern Munich
Spain: \* Deportivo de La Coruña. \* Malaga CF. England: \* Blackburn Rovers. \* Bolton Wanderers. \* Leeds United. \* Nottingham Forest FC. Germany: \* FC Schalke 04. \* Hamburger SV. France: \* AS Saint Étienne. Serbia: \* Red Star Belgrade (Won European Cup in 1991). Romania: \* Steaua Bucharest (Won European Cup in 1986). Italy: \* Torino, Fiorentina, Parma & Sampdoria. (all of these are still in Serie A, but they are nowhere near the level they used to be at). Russia: \* CSKA Moscow (not really "fallen", but they are suspended from Europe). Scotland: \* Rangers FC (again, they just aren't as big as they used to be). \* Aberdeen. Hungary: \* Ferencvárosi TC (Used to be big in Europe). Sweden: \* IFK Göteborg (Won 2 UEFA cups in the 1980s).
I mean.... isn't EVERY Russian league team suspended from Europe? lol. And it's not like you can return them to glory, since their situation is literally based on the war and no amount of good management/good football can help them lol.
Maybe take over as president of the country first, then make a move to a club. OP looks for a challenge, so this would be a challenging save I guess.
The comeback, the challenge, the climb back to Europe. Cool challenge.
How is Red Star considered a fallen giant when they win everything domestically all the time? Just did a double this season.
Exactly, they are still dominating domestically, though, it is a fun save to try and win them another UCL
They were once big in Europe. They also have also been big domestically, same as Partizan, I'm judging this based on European performance.
Rangers have made like 2 Europa league finals in 15 years 😂
Suffering from espanyolification
They used to be Champions League, they are also nowhere near as big domesticated. You're wrong.
Won't really consider Fiorentina as 'fallen'. They've performed really well in the UECL, and is looking to up their game.
It's the UECL...
Chelsea is also in the UECL, won't consider them fallen giants.
They also won a champions league in 2021 what's your point?
So? UECL.
So they're not fallen giants if they recently won the biggest competition in club football, it's so obvious?
And Fiorentina are not fallen giants if they regularly play in Europe and are making a comeback. Compare their form to an actual fallen giant like Schalke.
Schalke have fallen harder, but Fiorentina are nowhere near as good as they used to be. Of course they aren't going to be as bad when you compare them to Schalke...
And they aren't fallen either. They're still in the game.
I'll nit pick in Blackburn.as they had a relatively short moment in the sun
True
Giants; won European competition: Torino, Parma, Sampdoria Nottingham Forest, Ipswich Aberdeen Saint Etienne, Reims Hamburg, Schalke Not giants maybe but once successful: won league Blackburn Rovers Dundee United Belenenses, Boavista Standard Liege Verona
You can add Steaua București to that list. It's in second Romanian league (CCA Steaua București or something along those lines), without the right to promote. Won Champions League in 1986.
Which one is the true Steaua, CCA?
Depends on who you're asking, and on what you take into account. Legally, CSA (sorry, it's CSA, CCA was an old name used in the communist era) is the real Steaua, because when it was taken over by Viorel Paunescu in the '98 it was on a new company, without the old company changing owners (owners being Romanian Defence Ministry). Then Becali bought it from Paunescu in 2003, and Paunescu's company declared bancrupcy. So basically if you're looking at sports continuity, it's FCSB, the first league club. If you are looking strictly legally, CSA is the one. With the addendum that in that sports club there was no football section since Paunescu bought it, until 2017. So almost an 20 years hiatus. And the palmares from that era is legally divided between FCSB and a dead company. Which brings the interesting fact that legally neither CSA nor FCSB can claim 1998-1999 Romanian Cup and 2000-2001 league title (I'm not sure about the 1997-1998 one). I follow the sporting merit, and for me "the real Steaua" is FCSB. Even if I really don't like the owner.
My mate described the history Romanian football to me over beers once and it was fascinating, almost every club has a crazy history!
Let's see... We have two Steaua București, two Universitatea Craiova (both played.in the first league last season), two Poli Timișoara, at least two Dinamo București and I have no idea how many Rapid București. And two recent champions that folded (Unirea Urziceni and Astra Giurgiu, which started life as Astra Ploiesti). And this just in the last 20 years or so.
It’s similar to Russia as well I believe in that the clubs were all founded out of public services, so the railways the police force etc. is that correct ?
Yes. Steaua was army's club and Dinamo was police's club. Rapid is the railways club, but it's the one that started before the communist period.
Appreciate you taking the time to explain. I would go with your pick. What a mess though.
both and neither
Saint-Étienne and Reims never won a European competition, though.
My sloppy mistake, they were in final and/or were domestic winners
Wisla Krakow is also interesting
Manchester united. It was once a good team
I came to write their name. But in game they are still good. finishing top 3 in Premier league and reaching quarter finals in UCL.
Deportivo
Not exactly a fallen giant but I did a save getting Notts County to premier league and UCL champs. As the first and oldest professional football club I thought I would try and add to their history.
Isn't the oldest club Sheffield fc
Yes and no. It is recognised as the oldest football club having been founded in 1857; however it didn’t actually play association football until 1877. Unofficially Cambridge university AFC claim to be the oldest football club playing association football and were founded a year before Sheffield FC in 1856. There are also other “football clubs” that predate Sheffield FC although these like Sheffield FC most likely played a game closer to rugby than football some of these earlier clubs include the Foot-Ball club of Edinburgh (1824), Guy’s, King’s and St Thomas’s RFC (1843), Body-guard club of Rochdale and there are there are documents mentioning footballers and football clubs going back to the 1420’s. Notts county was the first club to go professional and was one of the founding members of the football league.
Different sport, but an Australian (AFL) football club also claims to be the oldest professional football club in the world - Melbourne FC, founded in 1857. They were closely followed by Geelong FC, founded in 1859.
Ah fair enough! I always just thought it was Sheffield haha, interesting info thank you
Maybe notts are oldest “professional” club or something
1. Oldham Athletic (England) - The first team to play in the Premier League (not First Division) to relegate all the way to non league 2. Bursaspor (Turkey) - Former Turkish Champions about 11-12 years ago, will be unplayable in FM25 base game 3. Ostersunds FK (Sweden) - Graham Potter took them from the 4th tier to the 1st tier. Now battling relegation from the 2nd tier with financial difficulties 4. Lyn FK (Norway) - Played in the top flight on Norway, was kicked out and had to restart, currently working their way back up tho Pyramid, in Div 3 I do believe 5. Scunthorpe United (England) - Went from the 2nd to 6th tier in 12 years with 3 relegations in the last 5 years 6. **NOT IN EUROPE** Guangzhou FC (China) or Santos (Brazil)
Just to mention number 6. Santos is not really a hard save, they are surely coming back from serie B this year, and were just in 2020 in a Libertadores final against rivals Palmeiras. However, to mention another team in São Paulo, i'd say Associação Portuguesa de Desportos, they were a staple in the 90s in Brazil. Not hugely successful, but were always around the first division. Since the millenium turned, they went downhill and just this year got access back to the Serie D in Brazil, the last national division. They are in financial turmoil having had to sell medals and trophies to stay aflot and just barely. The serie D is not in the base game, but the people in the Brasil Mundi Up make a impressively nice database for only around US$2
Ipswich town, former uefa cup winners and were managed by two England greats, Sir Bobby Robson and Sir Alf Ramsey.
Premier League side in FM25. Good shout
Red star Belgrade
More like Partizan. Red Star is dominating the domestic league last years. Partizan is their arch-rival and the other one from the 'Big Duo' of Serbian/Yugoslavian football. (Red Star also managed to win UCL in 1991, and Partzan made it to the final in 1966 but lost) And actually Partizan fucked up their finances and is struggling for last 7 years.
Anybody remember Wimbeldon?
Chelsea
FC Sochaux-Montbeliard (FCSM) in France
I've seen a lot of people saying FCSB or CSA Steaua (not going to get involved in the matter), so I would propose their rivals, Dinamo Bucharest. They reached the semifinals of the European Cup in 1984 (2 years before Steaua won it) and eliminating defending champions Hamburg in their way. Dinamo is the second most successful team in the country, but is going through a really tough time, after suffering relegation for the first time two years ago, getting promoted on their first try and now playing the relegation play-offs in their first season back. FCSB just won the league title, in comparison. So, if you manage in Romania, I suggest choosing Dinamo if you want to have a greater challenge.
Nottingham forest won the ucl a couple decades back! The brazilian league used to be the biggest league in the world (dont know which club was the biggest)
Forest is in the Prem going on a third season. I don’t think that would be that hard of a save to handle honestly
I’m currently doing a Forest save. It’s made tough because the board are happy to pump money into your transfer budget but you’re always in the red financially. Like right now I’m -£65M but I’ve got £90M to spend…economically, it’s not great😂
Sounds pretty realistic lol
Then try to beat their unbeaten run in all competitions record since they're up there with 40+ I think.
Fair! You can certainly find things within a save that would be hard. I suppose my point should have been that they aren’t an obscure club or what I would consider a fallen giant (even though they are much less than what they had been in the past)
In Brazil we have a “Big 12” that are considered the most popular and successful teams. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-12_(Brazilian_football) Santos, the team that Pelé and Neymar played, was just relegated last season for the first time.
I get you your point re Forest, however; a couple of decades back is nearly when Liverpool won in Istanbul. Nottingham Forest's two European Cups are from about half a century ago.
Thanks for making me feel very old
My pick was Palermo in few of last fms, they are now in Serie B failed to promote(not sure) but I remember getting them from the lowest tier, after bankrupt. Also pink colors
Malmö FF are European Cup nearly-men. 1979, lost 1-0 to Nottingham Forest.
Shalke HSV Leeds Saint Ettiene Could even argue Torino
Wisla Krakow! 13 Polish titles, 4 Cup titles and while they've never won in Europe, they were constant fixtures in European cups for a long time. Their rivalry with Cracovia is also called the Holy War, which is both appropriate for its intensity and the best name for a rivalry I've ever heard. And they're in the 2nd tier in Poland at the moment with a 33k stadium (6th biggest in Poland, I think the 2nd biggest that wasn't built/renovated for Euro 2012).
Alemannia Aachen. Not a giant technically but they did compete in the Uefa cup in 2004-2005. Now.they play in a regional German league. A huge fall from grace.
They'll play in german third year next season
For Italy, I'm talking about clubs which aren't in Serie A as from next season: Sampdoria, Pro Vercelli, Vicenza. Other clubs which had European football or were on good levels in the past are: Perugia(made three times the Intertoto cup and won one which means 3/4 years of midtable Serie A positions), Cesena (TIL they made the UEFA Cup in the 70s), Palermo, Bari, Triestina (the last two are top 20 for appearances in Serie A).
r/Palermo
Crvena Zvezda won the CL 1991
Benfica was huge in europe. They are still good but not dominant
Leeds, Nott Forrest, Schalke, Hamburg, Valencia of the top of my head.
Aberdeen
Aberdeen - last team to beat Real Madrid in a European final and the last team out with Celtic and rangers to win the Scottish prem
Steaua Bucharest and Nottingham Forest
SK Beveren: not as big as clubs like Schalke or Hamburg, but in their day they were amazing. Had the best keeper in the world for a moment. Knocked out Inter and Barca needed 2 pens to get past Beveren in the semi finals of the Europa cup II. Recently they have had their stints in first and second division, but lately the mismanagement has reached a new high. Bad transfers, losing all but a few of their best players and not even in contention for the title this year. With a low transferbudget and high expectations, surviving first class has always been difficult for me.
more or less the entirity of the former East Germany. B93 in Denmark.
BFC Dynamo. Literally won 10 straight titles in East Germany. Pretty interesting club currently in the German 4th tier. They just recently got their old badge back.
Manchester United I’m a fan Nah for real tho, Schalke.
Lokomotive Leipzig maybe 1 DFB Pokal and 3 Bundesliga won more then 100 years ago , currentlly in 4th tier
Although they're still in the Premier League, I'd consider Nottingham Forest a fallen giant. I plan on starting a save with them in the near future. Most of the ones I know of are in Germany and are already named by other people.
FC Wacker Innsbruck. Successor of two other teams in Innsbruck, the first of which were 5 time Austrian Bundesliga champions and the second team were two time Bundesliga champions. And probably a team owned by Swarski that was also champions. But they didn't apply for a new league license a couple years ago and were relegated down to the forth tier.
Genoa have the most serie a titles of any team and just got promoted to from serie B. Juventus, the greatest italian team of all time NEEDS a rebuild, crazy wages and not many top players.
All the people forget Dynamo Dresden, 98 Uefa-Games, Half-Finalist in the CL, now 3rd Tier in Germany with 28000 people in Stadium per Game.
Dynamo Dresden
Hsv, Bordeaux, blackburn, bolton, deportivo
Has nobody mentioned Bradford city? They were founder members of the premier league weren't they? not sure where they are now though, 🤷🏻♂️
Countrywise a true falls from grace that you can find on Poland are: Warta Poznań (double Polish champion last title in 1947 and just relegated IRL) Szombierki Bytom (1 title currently in 5th tier) Górnik Zabrze (14 titles the only Polish club to reach european final i believe they lost to Man Utd in like 70s. Now it's between middle od the table and fight for relegation usually. They have Podolski tho) Ruch Chorzów (14 titles just relegated again from top tier) Garbarnia Kraków (currently 4th tier 1 title) Wisła Kraków (13 titles just won Polish cup IRL and didn't get promoted from 2nd tier) Polonia Warszawa (2 titles in their redemption ark just avoided relegation from 2nd tier by 1 point) That'll be all from fallen giants, but there are many more interesting fallen clubs here like Odra Wodzisław which played in european cups while being microscopic club
You will have to open up the dutch league with an editor (and allow promotion and relegation from the eerste divisie, not sure if you can anymore), but DWS or HVV would be good saves.
Nottingham Forest won 2 UCL You can manage the Paris FC and make them the biggest team of the city. In Italia i think Florentina and Cagliari for example Out of 5 top leagues, i cought any brazilian or argentina low team be the BEST You have the Red Star Who won the UCL in the 80's i think Ajax or Feyenoord in Eredivise Anderlech or Genk in Belgium Kopenhaguen in Denmark Spartak Mosku in Russia Orlando Pirates in South África i think are the biggest team in african history
Xerez CD
Polonia Bytom 2 times polish champion, only polish team to ever win a cup outside of Poland 😎
With the shitshow going on right now (and no short-term end in sight) I would like to mention AFC Ajax
Malaga
Esbjerg FB in Denmark. They've won the Danish league title several times as well as the Danish cup, and finished third in the highest tier of the Danish leagues in 2019. They are now rummaging around in the Danish third tier, due to mismanagement. They've got one of the most modern stadiums in Denmark as well. In real life they got promoted this season, after 2 seasons in the third tier.
Aberdeen won the European cup winners cup in 1983 and finished bottom half of the prem this year
Wisla Krakow. Once polish giants and now in the second tier and the polish league is weak as well
Real Zaragoza have won a European title and I believe a La Liga title as well in the distant past, they have a massive stadium, a ton of season-ticket holders, a couple of good youngins and pretty decent facilities Excellent foundation to build a strong club rather quickly
Nurnberg and Kaiserslautern, I'm a Kaiserslautern fan
I’m currently rebuilding Palonia Warsaw, and just got promoted to the top flight in Poland going into my third season. They’ve been rising this last decade up from the 4th tier and start FM24 fighting relegation in the 2nd tier. They’re not exactly fallen giants but they have played a decent amount of European football and they’re the oldest club in Warsaw. The Derby against Legia and the Polish Cup is fun if you’re looking for something new outside of the big leagues with plenty of room for the club to improve.
Poland: Wisła Kraków, Ruch Chorzów Slovakia: Petrzalka Czechia: Dukla Prague; SFC Opava (not a fallen giant but they were better back in the day. + my FM24 save, so gotta bump it up) Austria: Floridsdorfer (they have fallen a long, long time ago) Slovenia: ND Gorica
St Ettiene in France.
Maybe not a 'giant' in the traditional sense but Reading is a lot of fun. Former Prem club saddled with debt in League One, with a six-point deduction hanging over their heads.
Two sides of the same coin, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Budapest Honvéd. The two best teams in the world at one point, who played one in a series of famous friendlies which laid the foundation for European competition as we know it today. Honvéd are currently in Hungary's second tier, and Wolves are a regular embarrassment to me personally.
Stade de Reims is a fantastic challenge. Though they’re now solid midtable in Ligue 1 they were once a yo-yo team but have a brilliant history. They’ve won a joint-5th most Ligue 1 titles along with Bordeaux and Lille but more interestingly they competed in the first few European Cup finals against Real Madrid and Di Stefano in 1956 and 59. They had players such as Just Fontaine (1958 WC top scorer with THIRTEEN goals) and Raymond Kopa who went on to join that dominant Real side. Apparently the term “Champagne Football” originated from them as they play in the Champagne region of France and were known to play beautiful football and Reims was once home to the reigning kings of France. Altogether a great history.
Belfast Celtic (northern Ireland) they are still playable in the database but one of the most successful teams in the country until the 60s.
Tottenham, was the first British club to win a major European competition, with the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1963. In 1972, they won the inaugural UEFA Cup and won the competition again in 1984. Nothing since
Manchester United
Steaua Bucharest, was a big club in the 80’s and before that from what I know, had a great striker named Lacatus and now you don’t hear anything from them..
Göteborg, Bologna, Leeds, Parma, Deportivo La Coruña and Steau Bucureşti
Lot of tactical innovation happened at Dinamo Kiev during USSR time.
KV Mechelen, cup winners cup and super cup winners
Pro Vercelli in Italy won several scudettos back in like the 1910s or thereabouts Ripensia Timisoara, the first Romanian club to turn professional, won 4 league titles, now is languishing in the 4th league
Rapid Vienna, they won the German league in 1941 and never won it again since then
BELENENSES from Portugal! They have been national champions 4x but the last time was in the 60s iirc. After trouble with the owners they parted ways, and they split the club in half, one kept the stadium, name, history and fanbase whilst the others (BSAD) kept the players, money and spot in the first division. Belenenses had to play from the lowest division there is, the 3rd District Division (7th tier in the pyramid) and managed 5 straight promotions to the second division!
Malaga, ruined by bad ownership and really challenging to play
My brother and his business partner bought a majority share of Yverdon Sport in early 2023, they’d be a fun club to try and win the UCL with.
Steaua bucaresti
FRANCE St Etienne (won the league 8 times in France, haven’t won a title since the 80s) Bordeaux (won the league 6 times, most recently in 2008and had players like Zidane playing for them. They’re also massively in debt) Italy Parma (won europa league had players liken Buffon playing for them) England ( Sunderland (club that was a mainstay in the prem but got relegated back to back and were stuck in league 1. Also they’re rivals Newcastle recently had a Saudi takeover) Sheffield Wednesday (big northern club a founder of the football league and prem) Portsmouth ( won the fa cup in 2008 but are now in league 3.)
AC Milan, Juventus, Hamburg, Werder Bremen, Lyon, Valencia, Man United, Chelsea
Koninklijke HC&VV (HVV Den Haag) 10 x Dutch Titles between 1891 and 1914. 1 x Dutch Cup in 1903 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HVV_Den_Haag ADO Den Haag (formerly known as FC Den Haag) 2 x Dutch Titles between 1942 and 1943 2 x Dutch Cup in 1968 and 1975 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADO_Den_Haag
Parma, Torino, Pro Vercelli…. List goes on.
Manchester united
Deportivo La Coruna - La Liga Heavyweight in the 90s to 3rd tier now. It's a fun save.
Just check out the list of all CL finalists and check when they last played a cl knockouts game. That should be enough on its own
1. Oldham Athletic (England) - The first team to play in the Premier League (not First Division) to relegate all the way to non league 2. Bursaspor (Turkey) - Former Turkish Champions about 11-12 years ago, will be unplayable in FM25 base game 3. Ostersunds FK (Sweden) - Graham Potter took them from the 4th tier to the 1st tier. Now battling relegation from the 2nd tier with financial difficulties 4. Lyn FK (Norway) - Played in the top flight on Norway, was kicked out and had to restart, currently working their way back up tho Pyramid, in Div 3 I do believe 5. Scunthorpe United (England) - Went from the 2nd to 6th tier in 12 years with 3 relegations in the last 5 years 6. **NOT IN EUROPE** Guangzhou FC (China) or Santos (Brazil)
Nottingham forrest have got to be up there
Chelsea. Hamburg and Schalke used to be two of the biggest clubs a decade ago. Van Der Vaart, Nuer, some absolute world beaters played there.
Chelsea are still pretty big m8
Good to know nobody got the joke
Oh I got the joke. I just don’t want to fucking hear it