Fifa 14 Scouting Guide

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Posted on October 13, 2013 by Alex B

FIFA 14 scouting guide Follow @FIFAs @FIFAscouting couting

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are pretty cool. I quite like some of the new animations. But come on, that’s not why we play it – we want to scout. The next Messi isn’t going to find himself. So here it is, the t he FIFA 14 scouting sc outing guide. guide. Contents

1. Choosing a scout 2. Where to look 3. Spotting a great player on your reports 4. Aft After er you’v you’ve e promoted promoted play players ers & the May updat update e 5. Other tips and info 6. Summary

1. Choosing a scout

Once again EA have stuck with what they know and kept the scouting system largely similar to last year’s effort. There are a couple of changes here and there, and I’ll run through them in this article. But first of all, let’s have a look at what you can expect from scouts, as well as the basics of hiring a scout and packing him off to look for emerging youth talent. To hire a scout, go to the Office tab, then click on Youth Staff. There will be three slots available for hiring new scouts, so click on one of these and you will be presented with a list of five scouts to choose from, all of varying prices and abilities. Like last year, you will have a couple of sc outs from the nation in which your team plays (e.g. Spain if you’re doing a Real Madrid career). There will also be a few other scouts, all of which will be from a similar part of the world. If you don’t like the look of any of the scouts,, advance to the next Sunday and they will have changed. scouts However, this is where it’s slightly different to previous years. The scouts will almost always be from your ‘home region’. That is, if your team is from Spain, you will have a selection of scouts from southern Europe – defined in the game as including Croatia, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Turkey. IfIf you hire one of these scouts scouts,, they are replaced by a s cout from the next region in a pre-defined cycle. The regions rotate by a specific order, namely: Northern Europe, Southern Europe, Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia, Oceania, Africa, Afri ca, South South America, America, North North America, America, before before return returning ing to Northe Northern rn Europe. Europe. In In previo previous us versions versions of the game game the regio regions ns would would simply simply

are pretty cool. I quite like some of the new animations. But come on, that’s not why we play it – we want to scout. The next Messi isn’t going to find himself. So here it is, the t he FIFA 14 scouting sc outing guide. guide. Contents

1. Choosing a scout 2. Where to look 3. Spotting a great player on your reports 4. Aft After er you’v you’ve e promoted promoted play players ers & the May updat update e 5. Other tips and info 6. Summary

1. Choosing a scout

Once again EA have stuck with what they know and kept the scouting system largely similar to last year’s effort. There are a couple of changes here and there, and I’ll run through them in this article. But first of all, let’s have a look at what you can expect from scouts, as well as the basics of hiring a scout and packing him off to look for emerging youth talent. To hire a scout, go to the Office tab, then click on Youth Staff. There will be three slots available for hiring new scouts, so click on one of these and you will be presented with a list of five scouts to choose from, all of varying prices and abilities. Like last year, you will have a couple of sc outs from the nation in which your team plays (e.g. Spain if you’re doing a Real Madrid career). There will also be a few other scouts, all of which will be from a similar part of the world. If you don’t like the look of any of the scouts,, advance to the next Sunday and they will have changed. scouts However, this is where it’s slightly different to previous years. The scouts will almost always be from your ‘home region’. That is, if your team is from Spain, you will have a selection of scouts from southern Europe – defined in the game as including Croatia, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Turkey. IfIf you hire one of these scouts scouts,, they are replaced by a s cout from the next region in a pre-defined cycle. The regions rotate by a specific order, namely: Northern Europe, Southern Europe, Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia, Oceania, Africa, Afri ca, South South America, America, North North America, America, before before return returning ing to Northe Northern rn Europe. Europe. In In previo previous us versions versions of the game game the regio regions ns would would simply simply

rotate every week; now you have to buy a scout sc out to make this happen. Furthermore, the process can get reset when you get to a Sunday. If you start with Southern Europe and want to get a scout from North America, you’ll have to have start on Monday and have two scout vacancies to hire and fire scouts. Hire two scouts, then fire them as soon as they arrive and hire the two new scouts who replaced them (they will be from the next two regions in the list). You need to start early in the week because when you get to Sunday the process resets – if you hire a South American scout on Friday, by the time he’s arrived and ready to be fired on the Sunday the order will have been reset, so his replacement will be from Southern Europe (if that’s your home region). Annoying, Annoying, but something som ething to bear in mind. Yet unlike the previous two years, sending a scout to his own country doesn’t seem to give you any tangible bonus (or if it does, it’s so minor as to make no real difference). So if you want to find the next Brazilian superstar, you shouldn’t need to worry about rotating the scouts to get a Brazilian Braz ilian one; a high-rated one from any nation should still be excellent and you’ll save money on hiring scouts . And although you can’t send two scouts to the same country at the same time, because there is no ‘home nation bonus’ you won’t lose out if all your scouts are from the same place. What does matter, however, is the scout’s rating in both experience and judgement. But what do each of these mean? Last year user Lelouch pointed out that a scout’s judgement rating affects his chances of finding the best players in the following way:

S TA R S

BRO N ZE

S I LV E R

G O LD

P L A TI N U M

1

75%

17%

5%

3%

2

67%

22%

7%

4%

3

50%

36%

9%

5%

4

30%

52%

11 %

7%

5

20%

53%

17 %

10%

Here’s what I said about it last year: This table refers to a scout’s odds of finding good players based on his judgement rating (as opposed to the odds of

finding good players in any given region). The first number represents the num ber of stars the scout has for his judgement rating. The nex t four num bers show the percentage of player qualities each scout will find (bronze being the worst players, platinum being the best). So a scout with 1 star for judgement will have a 75% chance of finding bronze players, a 17% chance of finding silver players, a 5% chance of finding gold players and a 3% chance of finding platinum players. I don’t know exactly how good a bronze player is compared to a platinum player (i.e. where the boundaries are set), but platinum players will certainly be m uch, muc h better.

Experience, on the other hand, refers to how likely the scout is to find the type of player you’re looking for. So if you just specify “Any” as the player type then the sc out’s experience rating doesn’t even matter! Another thing to bear in mind is that sending better scouts on trips will now cost you more money than sending lower rated ones out. Here are some example figures for scouts of varying abilities: 5*/5* scout 3 months: £102,000 6 months: £204,000 9 months: £306,000 3*/3* scout 3 months: £82,000 6 months: £163,000 9 months: £245,000 1*/1* scout 3 months: £61,000

— A r an ge of scout s to choose from

6 months: £122,000 9 months: £184,000 So there is a bit of a difference. However, I would definitely advise you to get the best scout you can afford to. The higher the scout rating, the more players he will bring back for you and therefore the better your chances of finding a great player. 1*/1* scouts are not exactly great – that’s not to say that it’s impossible to get good players with them, but you could be waiting a very long time, seeing as they find fewer players (two or three new players per month as opposed to four, five or six for a 5*/5* scout) and those that they do find are, on average, of an inferior quality. It also takes a lot longer for lower-rated sc outs to pin down a player’s type and position.

Ultimately, you could very well find the next Ronaldo with a 1*/1* scout – it is definitely possible – but you have to have a lot of patience.

2. Where to look

One of the first things you’ll notice when deciding where to look for talent is that trips to different regions will cost different amounts. For example, this is how much a three month trip would cost by region: Northern Europe: £48,000 Southern Europe: £97,000 Central Europe: £97,000 Eastern Europe: £48,000 Asia: £16,000 Oceania: £16,000 Africa: £97,000 South America: £97,000 North America: £48,000 However, I wouldn’t necessarily say this simply means that the most expensive places will produce the best talent. In the last two versions there was actually an algorithm the game used to determine this, which user MTGowns pointed out. I’ve posted it below: And about the country output, you can access the file that dictates the chances of finding certain tiers of players – there are four: Br onze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. Naturally, Platinum are the best youngsters out there. Each set of regions have different probabilities for each kind of player. As found in youth_scout.ini the odds are: YOUTH_PLAYER_PLATINUM_0=15 YOUTH_PLAYER_PLATINUM_1=5 YOUTH_PLAYER_PLATINUM_2=2 YOUTH_PLAYER_PLATINUM_3=6 YOUTH_PLAYER_PLATINUM_4=14 YOUTH_PLAYER_PLATINUM_5=8

YOUTH_PLAYER_PLATINUM_6=13 YOUTH_PLAYER_PLATINUM_7=7 YOUTH_PLAYER_PLATINUM_8=3 YOUTH_PLAYER_PLATINUM_9=1 YOUTH_PLAYER_PLATINUM_10=1 YOUTH_PLAYER_PLATINUM_11=6 Where each number is: // 0 = SUBREGI ON _ARGENTI NA_BRAZI L, // 1 = SUBREGIO N_REST_O F_SOUTH_AMERI CA, // 2 = SUBREGI ON _NO RTH_AMERI CA, // 3 = SUBREGI ON _NO RTHERN_ EUROPE, // 4 = SUBREGI ON _I TALY_SPAIN _POR TUGAL, // 5 = SUBREGI ON _REST_O F_SOUTHERN _EURO PE, // 6 = SUBREGI ON _CENTR AL_EUROPE, // 7 = SUBREGIO N_REST_O F_EURO PE, // 8 = SUBREGIO N_JAPAN_ CHIN A, // 9 = SUBREGI ON _REST_O F_ASIA, // 10 = SUBREGIO N_AUSTRALIA, // 11 = SUBREGI ON _AFRI CA, So it can be seen that Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Spain, Portugal and every Central European country (including Switzerland and Austria!) is where you’re the most likely to find elite youngsters. On the other h and, it’s quite unlikely you’ll find an EPL star in Australia, Asia or North America and you’ll be better off looking elsewhere!

So the higher the number after the = sign, the better your c hances of finding top players. Interestingly, even though Southern Europe is one of the most expensive regions to scout, results from Italy, Spain and Portugal should be markedly better than from the rest of that region because those three nations have a rating of 14 on the above chart, whilst Croatia, Greece and Turkey only have a rating of 8 (i.e. “Subregion rest of Southern Europe”). Don’t be put off too much, though – you can get great players from anywhere, but as this list shows, some regions are more likely to produce top talent than others.

Because the scouting system in FIFA 14 is based on the same core as the FIFA 13 scouting system, this should still apply. However, I don’t have direct access to the game code for FIFA 14 so I can’t confirm whether this is still the case, but I suspect it is. Perhaps someone who does have access to it would be able to confirm it – if you do know, be sure to leave a comment below. However, what I am sure of is that, like previous years, certain regions do not specialise in certain player types. I sent three scouts to Spain, a country renowned for its technically gifted players, but the best player I found there was actually a goalkeeper, and I found very promising players with a wide variety of player types. So if you want a good defender, don’t go looking in Italy because you think they traditionally produce good defenders; rather, send your scout to one of the top countries listed above. You may well find good defenders in Italy, but that’s because the game says they will produce good players of any type, not because they ‘specialise’ in defenders. Of course, you can find great players in any country; you just have less of a chance of doing this if you look in, say, Serbia than if you look in Brazil. But it is totally possible to find a real gem in a minnow c ountry, so don’t give up on them totally.

3. Spotting a great player on your reports

When your scout brings back his report, you will see a list of potential players to sign to your academy. They will most likely be 15 or 16; it now seems to be impossible to find 14 year olds. They will have an OVR range (e.g. 44 – 58) and a potential range (e.g. 67 – 89). There are also similar ranges for a few of the player’s stats. These ranges basically mean that your scout is estimating how good the player is, and how good he could potentially grow to become. The same is true for the attribute ranges – if a player’s strength range is 43 – 85, this doesn’t mean it is currently 43 and can grow to become 85; what it means is that your scout thinks the player’s strength value is somewhere between those two numbers. The longer your scout watches a player, the narrower these ranges become. As time goes on your scout is also able to pin down his position and player type, but beware – other teams can move in and sign these players to their own ac ademies. So if you like the look of a player (and have the £21,000 signing fee) then move quickly for them! Anyway, good players will have an upper potential range (e.g. the 89 in 67 – 89) in the late 80s or 90s. The very best players will have a minimum potential value of at least 70 (e.g. 73 – 94). These are the ones you should move for straight away. But if you’re not sure whether a player will be good enough, simply find the m iddle of the potential range – so for this example, the middle of 67 – 89 would

number looks good enough for your team, sign the player. Let’s have a look at some examples of players I would and would not sign to show you what I mean:

See full image This player’s OVR doesn’t look very good (especially compared to FIFA 13), but look at his potential. We can take a rough guess that his actual potential is around 83, which is very good. What I would do in this c ase is sign the player and then wait until the May update; chances are his OVR will go right up and he will be well worth the investment. Now let’s have a look at a player who I probably wouldn’t sign:

See full image His OVR range is actually higher than the last player, but his potential range is nowhere near as good – we can assume his actual potential is around 74. Come May he may not actually grow that much (at least, compared to the last player) because his potential is probably lower. Of course, you may find that this player would fit in well with your team and could make a real difference; if that’s the case, definitely go ahead and sign him. But you can expect to (hopefully) find better players than this.

See full image Now I don’t think I need to tell you whether to sign this beast or not! When you find a player like this and the minimum potential value is already so high, it quite often goes higher. So while we could guess his potential is around 85, in next month’s scout report his potential range may have changed to 81 – 94 or something similar. These are the very best players out there and are not to be missed. If you want to find players like this, it’s actually fairly straightforward: as with the past two years, you can still reload scouting reports. Just save the day before the s couting report is due to arrive, then advance to the next day. Open up the s couting report, and if there’s no one there that looks good enough, just quit the c areer and reload it. Advance again and the players on your s couting report will be different. You may not want to do this, and that’s fair enough. You will still be able to find great players w ithout doing this, it will just save time. Last year there were five or six ‘sets’ of scouting reports, so if you reloaded enough you would get the same set of players come up more than once. This year (I’m almost certain) this no longer happens, and that scouting reports are random (or if there are sets, there are a lot more than five or six).

As with FIFA 13, youth players only grow once per year (1st May), so it is vital that you wait until then in order to maximise your youth players’ growth. If you promote a youth player in April then you essentially lose an entire year’s worth of growth. If you wait until May, he often ends up growing a massive amount. Whilst this was true for FIFA 13, it is even more the case this year because it seems to be much, much harder to find youth players with 65 OVR or higher right off the bat – you usually have to wait until May for them to reach this sort of OVR. For example, in my test career I had three particularly promising players (the first was found by a 3*/3* scout, the second two with a 4*/5* scout). Below are their stats when they were first scouted: One was rated 52-70, potential 76-94 One was rated 47-63, potential 77-94 One was rated 47-63, potential 72-94 As a test I promoted them as soon as possible, and they came out rated 54, 54 and 51 respectively, which was pretty disappointing to be honest. However, I then went back to before they were promoted and this time waited until the May update. I promoted them straight after, and this time they came out rated 67, 65 and 65, which was an incredible jump. So if you find a player with a great looking potential but weak OVR range, don’t discard him. Keep him in the academy until May and you could find that he grows phenomenally well. What does this mean for your scouting reports? Look for good potential ranges, not OVR. I can’t stress that enough. Funnily enough this is actually the opposite of how I did it in FIFA 12 – back then I would look for OVR instead of potential, purely because player growth was so poor. Now that EA seem to have fixed that, you need to start focussing on potential, as that’s what will matter in the long run. Once you’ve promoted your players, there are three key statuses to look out for that give an indication of how good your player might become. Go to the Squad Report page (under the Squad tab) and look to s ee if your players have one of the following: “Showing great potential” – potential 80 – 85 “An exciting prospect” – potential 86 – 90 “Has potential to be special” – potential 91+

Note that some players have “Has that special something” as their status, which is different to “Has potential to be special”; the former means a player has the flair trait and can do extra flicks and passes, it doesn’t relate to his potential. It should also be noted that you won’t see these statuses if your player’s OVR is less than 60 (but he could, of course, get one of these statuses once he reaches 60 OVR), nor will you see it once your player reaches age 22. However, here’s some big news – youth player potentials can change if you reload around the May update. For example, save the day before the May update. Advance, promote a youth player and his s tatus may be “An exciting prospect”. Reload and do it again and this time it might be “Has potential to be special”. I’ve actually had a player who had “Showing great potential” one time, “Has potential to be special” another and then nothing at all on a third attempt. Usually it’s only going to be a s mall change – his potential going up or down by one point, most likely – but it’s interesting that it can be manipulated. —

Now y ou see it…

The impact of all this may not be massive – players can exceed their potential, after all, so he could reach amazing heights regardless of what his status is – but still, it’s something I’ve never seen before and is a fascinating thing to see. Youth player values have also changed and there is potential for c onfusion. They are, generally, much lower than on FIFA 13. So if you go to promote a player and his value is only £50,000, for example, don’t despair. It doesn’t mean he’ll turn out to be us eless, EA just seem to have toned it down a little this year. Here’s a good example. In my test career I found a GK who came out of the academy rated 62 at age 16. Whilst in the academy he had a very promising potential range, yet when I went to offer him a contract he was only worth £110,000. However, I then went to the s quad report page and, lo and behold, he had the ‘Has potential to be special’ status, meaning he could reach OVR 91+. On FIFA 13 players with that kind of potential would be valued at several m illion pounds when promoted, s o EA have clearly reined that in a bit. So as I said, if you played FIFA 13 last year, forget everything about youth player valuations. This year it’s clearly different, so don’t release a load of youth products if their

—

…now y ou don’t

Interestingly, I found that goalkeeper with a 4*/5* scout whilst searching for playmakers! So you can get some nice surprises from time to time.

5. Other tips and info

Scout a Future Star: user Patrick W pointed out that I had forgotten to mention the Scout a Future Star feature which you can buy from the EASFC catalogue. This basically sends out a sc out to automatically bring back a player with extremely high potential, the type of player you only occasionally find in scouting trips. Patric k gave some great information so I’ll post what he s aid below: When y ou use a Scout Fu ture Star catalogue item, you will absolutely h ave to wait until 1 M ay of that season. The first one I used, I got a German ST, 55-59 O VR, 89-94 POT, who “wanted out” almost imm ediately. I signed him to the first team, and of course he was pretty bad, 58 OVR and extremely slow. Several seasons of loans later, and he’s still only a 68. My second Scout Future Star, however, I got a German RB, 42-44 OVR , 89-94 POT, who I kept in the youth squad all year. Come 1 May, he leapt up to 69-73 OVR. When signed to the first team, he was 72 OVR with 95+ sprint speed, accel, agility, and crossing. Three seasons later, he’s an 82 OVR complete forward who would be rated much higher if his position weren’t listed incorrectly (his low defending stats and high attacking stats suggest he definitely should be a RW or RM). So while it’s important for most you th players to keep them in th e youth squad for as long as possible, it’s absolutely VITAL if you use Scout Future Star.

So it seems like a good idea to purchase the Scout a Future Star option sometime after January so that there’s not much time between the scout finding the player and 1st May. This means there’s less time for your future star to demand to be promoted early and therefore miss the May update! Now here’s a roundup of s ome other useful information and ideas when sc outing in FIFA 14: Regens do still exist, but of course you can’t see their OVR until you’ve sent a Global Transfer Network scout to go and have a look at them. This means it’s much harder to decide whether or not to sign a player; you can’t instantly see their OVR and know that they are worth signing. What I’d recommend is that you sort the free agents by position, then get your

If you get a message saying a youth player wants out of the academy, quit and reload (this is one reason why it’s important to save regularly). Next time, advance one day at a time (saving each time you advance and don’t get the m essage), and after an in-game week of doing this he may not ask to be promoted. This can require a lot of patience – sometimes it will take several goes – but eventually there will be a time when you don’t get the m essage and so shouldn’t risk losing him Playmakers can still have amazing mental stats and poor technical stats, but this seems to be rarer than in FIFA 13 (although it still happens annoyingly often) Youth players have different birthdays – I scouted one player who w as 16 in the first report, then by the second report he was already 17. No other players my scout was looking at had increased in age. Not massively important, but it’s better than last year, when every youth player ever found would coincidentally be born on exactly the same day. EA seem to have finally addressed the ‘wrong-footed’ issue with scouted players (hallelujah!). In FIFA 13 you would very often find that your left-sided scouted players would be right-footed, and vice versa. This was extremely common and very annoying, especially when their weak foot was also poor. Thankfully EA seem to have cleared this up now – you can still get right-footed left-wingers, for example, which may be a good thing if that’s your playing style – but it’s much less common, making things much more

—

See? Didn’t believe m e, did y ou?

realistic EA also seem to have sorted out the weight/height matching. I used to regularly find 6’5” beanpoles who weighed 145lbs, or 5’5” 200lb players who had clearly been fed too muc h ice cream. That’s pretty much non-existent now Finally, youth players can now have multiple positions. I know, it doesn’t mean much in practice (look at his stats to work out where he’s best, not his listed positions), but it’s a nice touch. The only slight hiccup is that goalkeepers can have multiple positions. Yep. Goalkeepers. I have one whose listed positions are GK/LM/ST. Good one, EA

6. Summary

Let’s have a look at what all this means to scouting in FIFA 14:

Get the best scout you can. All scouts can find good players, but there is a noticeable difference between a 1*/1* scout and a 5*/5* one Some countries will give you a better chance of success than others, but all are capable of producing world-beaters. Bear in mind, though, that c ountries still don’t ‘specialise’ in player types It is now absolutely essential to look at player potential before OVR when reviewing your scouting reports . Players can grow enormous amounts in May, and if you have a player with a great potential range but poor OVR then you could be pleasantly surprised Reloading still works, so don’t despair if a scouting report brings back no notable players. Of course, you may feel this is cheating, so don’t do it if you don’t want to Wait until the May youth squad report to promote your youth players, otherwise you risk losing a year’s worth of growth If you have any useful tips or want to share some of your scouting experiences, don’t forget to leave a comment below. Thanks for all your support and happy scouting! Like

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116 THOUGHTS ON “FIFA 14 SCOUTING GUIDE”

Patrick W on October 13, 2013 at 8:24 pm said:

didn’t see here is that when you use a Scout Future Star catalogue item, you will absolutely have to wait until 1 May of that season. The first one I used, I got a German ST, 55-59 OVR, 89-94 POT, who “wanted out” almost immediately. I signed him to the first team, and of course he was pretty bad, 58 OVR and extremely slow. Several seasons of loans later, and he’s still only a 68. My second Scout Future Star, however, I got a German RB, 42-44 OVR, 89-94 PO T, who I kept in the youth squad all year. Come 1 May, he leapt up to 69-73 OVR. When signed to the first team, he was 72 OVR with 95+ sprint speed, accel, agility, and crossing. Three seasons later, he’s an 82 OVR complete forward who would be rated much higher if his position weren’t listed incorrectly (his low defending stats and high attacking stats suggest he definitely should be a RW or RM). So while it’s important for most youth players to keep them in the youth squad for as long as possible, it’s absolutely VITAL if you use Sc out Future Star. Reply ↓

Alex B on October 13, 2013 a t 8:43 pm said:

I knew I’d forgotten something haha

Excellent point, I’ll add it to the guide

(with credit of course), thanks for letting us know about it Reply ↓

Andres on October 13, 2013 a t 8:39 pm said:

Fantastic guide, Alex. I’ve been waiting for this article for a while and it is obviously the best guide out there. I found the differences between the trip costs especially

intriguing. There are some counter-intuitive relative costs. It is still a little disappointing that May 1 is still growth day, but I suppose that tames the tem ptation of promoting a prospect too early. Thanks for the write-up. Reply ↓


Thanks man, that means a lot

it’s funny you mentioned that, because I

realised I’d actually missed som ething out and put a table in the wrong place! So it’s all sorted now I agree about the trip costs though. It’s interesting that Southern Europe is one of the most expensive scouting regions but half of Southern Europe’s nations (Spain, Italy and Portugal) have a muc h better chance of producing the best talent than the other three nations (Croatia, Greece and Turkey). I also agree about the May 1st growth update. To be honest I’m not sure why EA have decided to do it this way – a few years ago you would get player growth after each game (not necessarily OVR increases, but small growth). Then they changed it so it happened on the first of every month (this effected both youth and real players). Now they’ve kept that the same for real/promoted players but youth players in the academy have to w ait until May for an increase. It’s like they’re moving it backwards. Reply ↓

Andres

Glad I could help a little bit. I am glad you finally had to to write it with your busy schedule. sc hedule. The relative percentage increase is what really surprised me. I could understand a small percentage difference between regions where more talent appears, but it does seem to provide an incentive for scouting certain countries/regions if on a stringent budget. What I would really love to see is a bit more realism in the game (ways to interact with players besides just increasing wages). For example, an option of offering an older player a coaching position if he keeps playing for decreased wages to prevent him from retiring; or a way to promise prom ise younger players playing time in the future when they say they want out; or even a way to bribe academy players to stay in longer to prevent having to reload when they want out. One last thing I’ve always always wanted w anted is a way to have a club partnership – could be anything from what Udinese has with Granada to Barca and Barca B or even Sporting KC and Orlando O rlando City (if you follow MLS). I think this system could be implement in place of the national team managing screen (instead of going to a national team menu, it could take you to the affiliate club menu where you would have limited control of that team’s management). Reply ↓

Alex B on January 25, 2014 at 10:32 pm said:

Sorry it’s taken so long to respond! Yeah I’d I’d definitely love love

should be able to explain to them what’s going on or promise them more time soon, etc. I like the idea of affiliated clubs and I think it would work really well as a way of guaranteeing your players players get loaned out. ItIt seems like people people are having a lot of trouble with that s o there should be a simpler way of making sure your players get loaned, and this could be it. Reply ↓

Gustavo on October 14, 2013 at 10:17 am said:

Does anybody know which youths have commentators names and which don’t? On FIFA 13, the Spanish names had many commentator names and this year they seem to have been removed. Names like Sanchez, Alvarez and Gonzalez for youth no longer are commentator names. English names seem to have the majority that I have seem so far. Reply ↓


Sorry it’s taken so long to respond! I don’t actually know. When you create a pro you can choose his commentary name from a list, but I don’t know if that

corresponds to the list of names that can be read out in career mode. You’d think it’d be the same, but I’m not sure, but it’s probably worth having a look at that name list to see what names are (probably) read out. Reply ↓

Mads on October 14, 2013 a t 5:44 pm said:

Very helpful helpful stuff! Will there be a guide about the new ‘Global ‘Global Transfer Network’? Reply ↓


Sorry it’s taken so long to respond! And thanks I did intend to but I’ve I’ve been so busy that there just hasn’t been time. I’m doing a postgrad course at the moment and could try to make a guide after I finish, but that’s not until early June and I don’t know if people would still be interested then. I’ve just got so much m uch work on that I don’t have enough enough time at the moment (hence why it’s taken me so long to get back to you!). If anyone anyone else feels like this is something s omething they’d like like to have a look at then I would be hugely grateful, but unfortunately I’m struggling to r espond to comments at the moment, never mind get research and writing done for a

GTN article

sorry.

Reply ↓

Luke M on October 15, 2013 at 2:51 am said:

also i noticed when using the scout future star that you can reload before the end of the month that you buy the option, and get a different one each time, i s ettled for a 62 ovr potential to be special LM from argentina Reply ↓

Stuart Graves on October 15, 2013 at 8 :08 pm said:

Thank you so much Alex – regardless of whether I’m coaching my beloved Leicester City FC with their pretty decent budget, or Morecombe, I go for the scouts and free agents with my wonga. (I am yet to commence a CM with LCFC – was waiting on you). My Morecombe 1 Star found a “Has Potential To Be Special” in Season 2, but since then absolute bobbins. Hey, he’s earned his money for life that man…the player in question is developing quickly. Regens – at the start of Season 3 I discovered 2 “Showing Great Potential”‘s and an “Exciting Prospect” – defenders and midfielders, no attackers.

considerably. I pick up so much great information from you and the posters on the comments section – really makes Career Mode that much m ore enjoyable. Once again, my gratitude and I hope the studies are going well. (ps – from s ofifa I picked up Tyler Harvey from Plymouth, an apparent hotbed of young and potentially great strikers – he is not listed as “Showing Great Potential”, despite sofifa rating his potential as 81. And he is developing as a player rated that highly would.) Reply ↓

Kay on October 22, 2013 at 8:05 am said:

Great scoutingtips, thank you so much for these guides, it has helped me a lot (been following them since FIFA 12). I just have one question. Do you know how the EASFC catalogue works? I’ve purchased one “scout future star” item and it worked. But when starting over with a new career I’m unable to use it again. Shouldn’t it be possible, since it’s possible to use it once every season? Many thanks! Reply ↓


different ‘scout a future star’ options that you can purchase from the EASFC catalogue, all at different levels, and all say they can be purc hased ‘once per season’. But what this actually means is that you can only purchase each one once, and that’s it. It’s not once per season, but once total, so you only get four chances at it throughout the entire time you have FIFA 14. So you won’t be able to purchase that scout a future star option again, but if you level up you should eventually unlock another one. Like I said, it’s really badly worded – it shouldn’t say ‘once per s eason’ because it’s not correct! Hope that makes it a bit clearer Reply ↓

Bubba on November 4, 20 13 at 3:52 pm said:

Hey Alex, are you sure? When I purchase this catalogue item it displays a number in ‘tick’ block, just like it did in FIFA 13. I assumed it meant once per season, I never really tried to buy the same ‘scout future star’ item again though. But its different from purchasing another item in the catalogue which simply gets a ‘tick’. Reply ↓

benjiwade

Alex is correct. You get one crack at each of these Scout A Future Star items until the next year’s FIFA. Reply ↓

benjiwade on October 23, 2013 a t 7:42 pm said:

Excellent work on this article, thanks Alex. Great to see this site alive and well! Reply ↓


Thanks! The first So You Want A article should be out by the end of the week/weekend, so keep checking back for that Reply ↓

Lelouch on October 29, 2013 at 2 :20 pm said:

Hello Alex, great guide this year again, really impressed by your will to share all these

I’m here to provide some updated info on FIFA 14. You have noticed that really good youth players are fewer this year, there is a simple reason found by datamining this year’s game code. The knowledge matrix have been modified by EA to reduce the rate at which scouts can find good players. Knowledge Modifier Matrix by Player Tier : (in percentage %) Stars|Bronze|Silver|Gold|Platinum 1|82|15|2|1 2|70|25|3|2 3|60|33|4|3 4|40|50|6|4 5|23|63|8|6 The repartition of players by tier in countries is still the same as last year. Reply ↓

Lelouch on October 30, 2013 a t 3:55 pm said:

Bytheway, the player type (Physically Gifted, Attacker, WInger…) differs with countries. YOUTH_SCOUT_PLAYER_TYPE_ATTACK_MINDED] PLAYER_TYPE_ATTACK_MINDED_0=20 PLAYER_TYPE_ATTACK_MINDED_1=10

PLAYER_TYPE_ATTACK_MINDED_3=14 PLAYER_TYPE_ATTACK_MINDED_4=5 PLAYER_TYPE_ATTACK_MINDED_5=5 PLAYER_TYPE_ATTACK_MINDED_6=5 PLAYER_TYPE_ATTACK_MINDED_7=14 PLAYER_TYPE_ATTACK_MINDED_8=15 PLAYER_TYPE_ATTACK_MINDED_9=15 PLAYER_TYPE_ATTACK_MINDED_10=14 PLAYER_TYPE_ATTACK_MINDED_11=10 [YOUTH_SCOUT_PLAYER_TYPE_DEFFENSIVE_MINDED] PLAYER_TYPE_DEFFENSIVE_MINDED_0=5 PLAYER_TYPE_DEFFENSIVE_MINDED_1=15 PLAYER_TYPE_DEFFENSIVE_MINDED_2=14 PLAYER_TYPE_DEFFENSIVE_MINDED_3=14 PLAYER_TYPE_DEFFENSIVE_MINDED_4=5 PLAYER_TYPE_DEFFENSIVE_MINDED_5=5 PLAYER_TYPE_DEFFENSIVE_MINDED_6=10 PLAYER_TYPE_DEFFENSIVE_MINDED_7=14 PLAYER_TYPE_DEFFENSIVE_MINDED_8=10 PLAYER_TYPE_DEFFENSIVE_MINDED_9=10 PLAYER_TYPE_DEFFENSIVE_MINDED_10=14 PLAYER_TYPE_DEFFENSIVE_MINDED_11=10 [YOUTH_SCOUT_PLAYER_TYPE_GOOD_HANDS] PLAYER_TYPE_GOOD_HANDS_0=100 PLAYER_TYPE_GOOD_HANDS_1=100 PLAYER_TYPE_GOOD_HANDS_2=100 PLAYER_TYPE_GOOD_HANDS_3=100 PLAYER_TYPE_GOOD_HANDS_4=100 PLAYER_TYPE_GOOD_HANDS_5=100

PLAYER_TYPE_GOOD_HANDS_6=100 PLAYER_TYPE_GOOD_HANDS_7=100 PLAYER_TYPE_GOOD_HANDS_8=100 PLAYER_TYPE_GOOD_HANDS_9=100 PLAYER_TYPE_GOOD_HANDS_10=100 PLAYER_TYPE_GOOD_HANDS_11=100 [YOUTH_SCOUT_PLAYER_TYPE_MENTALLY_STRONG] PLAYER_TYPE_MENTALLY_STRONG_0=5 PLAYER_TYPE_MENTALLY_STRONG_1=5 PLAYER_TYPE_MENTALLY_STRONG_2=14 PLAYER_TYPE_MENTALLY_STRONG_3=14 PLAYER_TYPE_MENTALLY_STRONG_4=15 PLAYER_TYPE_MENTALLY_STRONG_5=15 PLAYER_TYPE_MENTALLY_STRONG_6=25 PLAYER_TYPE_MENTALLY_STRONG_7=14 PLAYER_TYPE_MENTALLY_STRONG_8=20 PLAYER_TYPE_MENTALLY_STRONG_9=20 PLAYER_TYPE_MENTALLY_STRONG_10=14 PLAYER_TYPE_MENTALLY_STRONG_11=0 [YOUTH_SCOUT_PLAYER_TYPE_PHYSICAL_POWER] PLAYER_TYPE_PHYSICAL_POWER_0=5 PLAYER_TYPE_PHYSICAL_POWER_1=10 PLAYER_TYPE_PHYSICAL_POWER_2=14 PLAYER_TYPE_PHYSICAL_POWER_3=14 PLAYER_TYPE_PHYSICAL_POWER_4=5 PLAYER_TYPE_PHYSICAL_POWER_5=5 PLAYER_TYPE_PHYSICAL_POWER_6=10 PLAYER_TYPE_PHYSICAL_POWER_7=14 PLAYER_TYPE_PHYSICAL_POWER_8=5

PLAYER_TYPE_PHYSICAL_POWER_9=5 PLAYER_TYPE_PHYSICAL_POWER_10=14 PLAYER_TYPE_PHYSICAL_POWER_11=35 [YOUTH_SCOUT_PLAYER_TYPE_PHYSICAL_SPEED] PLAYER_TYPE_PHYSICAL_SPEED_0=30 PLAYER_TYPE_PHYSICAL_SPEED_1=20 PLAYER_TYPE_PHYSICAL_SPEED_2=14 PLAYER_TYPE_PHYSICAL_SPEED_3=14 PLAYER_TYPE_PHYSICAL_SPEED_4=30 PLAYER_TYPE_PHYSICAL_SPEED_5=30 PLAYER_TYPE_PHYSICAL_SPEED_6=10 PLAYER_TYPE_PHYSICAL_SPEED_7=14 PLAYER_TYPE_PHYSICAL_SPEED_8=40 PLAYER_TYPE_PHYSICAL_SPEED_9=40 PLAYER_TYPE_PHYSICAL_SPEED_10=14 PLAYER_TYPE_PHYSICAL_SPEED_11=35 [YOUTH_SCOUT_PLAYER_TYPE_SKILLED] PLAYER_TYPE_SKILLED_0=30 PLAYER_TYPE_SKILLED_1=30 PLAYER_TYPE_SKILLED_2=14 PLAYER_TYPE_SKILLED_3=14 PLAYER_TYPE_SKILLED_4=25 PLAYER_TYPE_SKILLED_5=25 PLAYER_TYPE_SKILLED_6=20 PLAYER_TYPE_SKILLED_7=14 PLAYER_TYPE_SKILLED_8=5 PLAYER_TYPE_SKILLED_9=5 PLAYER_TYPE_SKILLED_10=14 PLAYER_TYPE_SKILLED_11=10

0 to 11 corresponds to countries id, each value is the percentage. You see that Africa (id 11) has 35% players with Winger type (PHYSICAL_SPEED) and 35% players with Physically Strong type (PHYSICAL_POWER). (Sorry my game is in French so i don’t have correct names for player types) GOOD HANDS = Goalkeeper ATTACK_MINDED = Attacker DEFENSIVE_MINDED = Defender MENTALLY_STRONG = Organisator PHYSICAL_POWER = Physically Strong PHYSICAL_SPEED = Winger SKILLED = Skilled Reply ↓

benjiwade

on October 30, 2013 a t 4:00 pm said:

Excellent information, thanks for that. So I’m lead to believe EA are rather racist by s aying that Mentally Strong players basically don’t exist in Africa?! They also seem to think the fastest players in the world come from Asia. Fascinating. Reply ↓

Juan on November 2, 20 13 at 9:18 pm said:

Are you entirely sure about this? It is excellent information but where did you get it from? Reply ↓

Lelouch on November 4, 2013 at 12:07 am said:

Yes, i’m sure about this, i extracted these data from FIFA 14 PC version ‘s .big (database) files. It’s been the same file data structure for years. Simply updated by EA since their devs are too lazy to redo the game. Reply ↓

Cereberto on November 4, 2013 at 8:57 am said:

@Lelouch Is it really the knowledge rating of the scout, that affects the quality of found youth players or is it, like before, the judgement rating?

Dee on November 4, 20 13 at 8:29 pm said:

@Lelouch – Can you provide the a list of r egions for

0-11? is this the same as FIFA 13? In which case am i reading it correctly when you say the fastest players are from Asia and the Southern Europe region (Italy) has only a 5% chance of producing a defensive minded player?

Stuart Graves on November 4, 201 3 at 12:11 am said:

My god…this is great info! Reply ↓

Lelouch on November 4, 201 3 at 12:29 pm said:

EA names judgement as knowlegde in game files but it’s effectively knowledge which affects players quality. Reply ↓


Great guide dude. Always helps, I just wanted to throw this out there…what is the

I almost got a youth up to age 19 before he wanted out… Reply ↓

benjiwade

on November 4, 201 3 at 10:29 pm said:

Thanks, Bubba. I’ve been waiting for som ebody to mention this because I hadn’t any data to support one way or the other. I thought all youth would automatically leave before their 18th birthday. However, I’m also interested to know if a player can still progress in the academy past their 17th birthday. From m emory of FIFA ’12 and ’13, you might be able to keep them past 17 but they’d stop developing. Reply ↓


Sorry dude I meant to say 18 not 19. But it w ould be interesting to know if that were possible. It would also mean if your youth was going to turn 18 during a s eason and that this would happen before May, its advisable to promote them? Reply ↓

interwebme on November 6, 2013 at 3:04 am said:

Amazing guide yet again! I do have a question: I had a goalkeeper in my youth team with POT of 85-94. I promoted him and he has not got the “potential to be special” it only says “At the club since 2015″. He’s 18 with an OVR of 63 but hasn’t progressed in half a season. So what is his real potential? The thing is I have two other keepers both that had potentials in the youth team of up to 89 which have the messages “showing great potential” (AGE 17 OVR 61 +1 this season) and “an exciting prospect” (AGE 18 OVR 61 +2 this season). I’d appreciate any thoughts. Sorry for the repost but it didn’t seem to get through. Reply ↓

Luuk on November 6, 2013 at 7:28 am said:

Hey Alex, I need some help. I never can find any good players this year, while I found the best of the best previous year. Reply ↓

TS on November 6, 20 13 at 7:33 pm said:

he actually leaves. Just got 2 at the end of March and I’m wondering if I can hold out until May 2nd. Reply ↓

Alex B on November 6, 201 3 at 8:31 pm said:

I think it’s unlikely, it’s usually only a week or two. Can you reload to a slightly earlier save and try advancing again? The message m ay not come up if you do that. Reply ↓


Just simmed it through 4 times. 3 out of 4 times they were still on the roster on May 2nd. Reply ↓

interwebme on November 6, 201 3 at 11:12 pm said:

I’ve had a player stay for a year. I’ve had a player stay for two weeks.

Reply ↓

TS on November 6, 2013 at 11:57 pm said:

Yea I’m sure its just a gamble. Thanks guys for replying. Ill report back when Ive played it through. Reply ↓

TS on November 7, 201 3 at 12:18 am said:

This is a great resourceful site btw. Thanks for putting it together. This may be one here somewhere, but are you aware of the roster/ objectives exploit? You can essentially dictate what your objectives will be for the next season. Reply ↓

Alex B on November 7, 201 3 at 10:42 am said:

Possibly – is that where you change your starting lineup at the end of the season so that it’s full of all your worst players, then your board thinks your team is worse than it is and gives you easier objectives? That’s one thing I’ve heard about anyway!

Reply ↓


Yup, thats it. Great for stocking up your lower division teams with Youth Squad guys before the c ompetition gets oppressive. Also, regarding Free Agents- I’ve noticed that some of the good and great free agents start to show up in years 2 and 3. Easy trick to figure out, any time I see an FA with anything that’s dark green I approach to sign and their value is already in there, so if his salary is over 10,000 you’ll know you most likely have a decent player. Saves a scout slot and some time. You’ll still have to do some scouting if you are trying to determine which mid 60′s players you want, but at least this helps with the easy ones. P.S. Update today finally fixes the roster screen lag! Reply ↓

Nato on November 7, 2013 at 9:32 am said:

I’ve found it very easy to get 5 star s couts this year compared to FIFA 13. Like 2 within two months, it’s crazy last year I would have to reload for ages. Also my first scout report gave me a 71 – 94 rated player, found this odd but very cool as well. Need to play more and will check your guide out though.

Reply ↓

deshine on November 7, 20 13 at 7:31 pm said:

hey Alex the greatest guide i ever found really nice

i have only one question… i

search a player ala ibrahimovic or crouch tall strong and striker

how i can find him

the best way? Reply ↓


Thanks very much! In terms of scouting it’s quite difficult. You can search for “physically strong” players and that would find the type of player you want, but the problem is that the players your sc out finds could be in any position. You may end up finding lots of strong centre backs but no strong strikers. The other option is to search for players with the “attacker” type, but most of these players are the more standard type of striker that you get through scouting – great finishing and heading, but not amaz ing strength. You can find physically strong strikers this way, but like the other method, it’s hard! Alternatively, I’ll be publishing an article either tomorrow or on Saturday detailing promising young target men (that is, strong strikers like Crouch and Ibrahimovic) who don’t cost very much, so if you wanted a real player instead

Reply ↓

deshine


thanks alex! i hope i will find a good one:) oh yes i s ee great guide again;) really nice! Reply ↓

Shashank Venugopal Koppuravuri on November 8, 201 3 at 4:57 am said:

Hey Alex, Thanks again for an amazing guide. Your blog is literally my bread and butter w hen it comes to FIFA 14 CM! ^_^ That being said, I call upon you once more regarding confusion with respect to “player status” in the Squad Report page. Some of the players’ statuses changed after season one. Pogba from “Exciting…” to “…to be special” Veratti from “Exciting…” to “…great potential” Goretzka who grew like an “Exciting” has “Great potential” and Nick Powell who grew like an “Exciting” has “At the club…”

Why did their statuses change? I’m always welcoming of progressive changes, but despite Veratti growing +2 since joining in Jan, he got “demoted”?? Reply ↓


Thanks very much! Regarding player statuses, it seems to be really flexible this year. If a player has a particularly good (or bad) season then their potential can easily change, which is what you’ve been seeing. The problem is that sometimes you can have a player growing well but having his potential go down. I honestly don’t know why this happen, as it seems quite illogical. The only thing I can really say is that, because potentials seem to change so readily, they may very well regain the status that they lost. I’ll put a tweet out this evening to see if anyone else has experienced this and if they have any advice, so hopefully someone else may be able to s hed some more light on this. If anyone else knows more about this issue, please feel free to leave a comment Reply ↓


What does scouting for Mentally Strong players get you? Is it w orth it? Reply ↓

Andrew Mertig on November 19, 20 13 at 10 :22 pm said:

Thanks for this incredible guide. I just thought I’d offer a couple tips regarding youth academy players and other thoughts in general. First, I echo your sentiments regarding leaving players in the youth academy until after May 1. Some naysayers say to get them out of your squad ASAP and play them. I still don’t think they grow as fast as they would post-May 1. I would go one step further and say to leave them in there as long as possible. If you can wait until July 1, they’ll advance a year and are more likely to be loaned out. I’ve had players make it through TWO May 1 periods. They come out with 70-75 OVR and 90-94 POT at times. The May 1 time period is also amazing for boosting their ratings. I jotted down my players’ overall ratings before and after May 1, and they were vastly different. Some went from 39-51 OVR to 67-71 OVR! It isn’t that uncommon for a players rating to go up 10-20 points after May 1. You want to get players who have a high potential. Don’t even worry about their overall rating range before May 1. Be careful not to send out a scout on the 28, 29, 30 or 31st of the month. You’ll get screwed for a few months especially February. Another thing I’ve noticed regarding GK lack of growth is that there’s a way to speed it up a bit. During the games, if you are dominating your competition your GK will have a lackluster rating. Try lob passing the ball from your GK to a defender and heading it back to the GK. This give the GK a “s ave”. Do this 10-20 times, and your

GK Rating will be 9.0+ typically. This is a way to make them grow faster. If you get five star perfect scouts and scout hard in good countries (Spain, Brazil, etc.) at the start of your third season you should have an absolutely incredible youth academy. It takes time for them to grow and increase in ratings. At the start of my third season, I had a full youth academy squad with guys rated from 65-75 all potentials over 90. It’s a pain to constantly s ave so they don’t “terminate” their contracts but well worth it in the end. These are just some ideas I had mulling around in my head. Reply ↓

Andrew Mertig on November 19, 20 13 at 10 :28 pm said:

One more thing… As for: Showing Good Potential, An Exciting Prospect and Has Potential to Be Special, I think sometimes they are inverted or incorrect. I always write down what my youth players Potential rating ranges are. I have lots of players who have 90-94, but periodically they come out with the title of “ Showing Good Potential”. On the other hand, I’ll get a player rated 81-87 potential that says “Has Potential to be Special”. Has anyone else noticed this? I’m not sure if I should go by their Potential rating OR this phrase.

Paul Gunslinger Smith


Yes I’ve noticed this. I’m tempted to go by their desc ription after being promoted. I’ve found they tend to grow according to this and not according to what their overall potential was in youth academy. I could be wrong of course. Nice tip on the keepers! Reply ↓

herbski on December 20, 2013 at 6:48 pm said:

Yeah I believe that is correct, the description is more important as far as growth. I’m not 100% certain but it seemed that way in my experience. You can just save before you promote the player, and reload the player until he gets “potential to be special” though. Reply ↓

just want beas t players on November 21, 20 13 at 7:31 pm said:

regarding the GK rating every match, do you lob through pass to a defender then regular lob to gk? i tried it but i tend to have an own goal Reply ↓

Andrew Mertig on December 2, 2013 at 4:31 pm said:

What I do is hold LB (xbox) and press Square to do a subtle lob pass to my defender. Then I Hold LB and press X or Square to head it back to the keeper. This counts as a save. It takes a while to get good at it, but once you do, your keeper will have a very high rating. Occasionally I’ll get an “own goal”, but you can still get a very high rating. Doing this in c onjunction with loaning your GK for a day or two during the winter transfer period then getting him back will help expedite his growth. I’ve noticed that GK still progress much slower than any other position. If I can get a GK to go up 3-4 points a year, that’s a success. In year 2023, all of my guys were rated 90 and my GK was around an 82. Reply ↓

jus t want beast players on November 21, 201 3 at 9:57 am said:

has anyone manage to get good young players with potential to be special us ing the global transfer network? as in getting these players from other team’s youth squad

Reply ↓

Gustavo on November 21, 20 13 at 5:17 pm said:

I have not and I also have not read about anybody being able to do it. The exact opposite actually. Many people complaining about this problem that the GSN is broken on the EA forums. Reply ↓

Dustin on December 7, 2013 at 9:44 pm said:

I have found some “exciting prospects” but not potential to be special. I personally love the gsn as it ads a lot to the depth of the mode. I use it most the first two seasons to kick start young player growth until my youth squad develops. It’s also nice to use if you have specific needs. Reply ↓


I don’t think there aren’t any potential to be special players in the game other than Neymar or Gotze from the start. All the 91+ potential players are over 21

a CPU scouted player (not even sure if CPU “scouts” or just uses regens) that could have that status. Although you can get a player and improve him to that status. The first season the status is always “player just arrived”. The potential of that player can go up/down the following season. Or you can loan a player out and when he returns his status can change. Reply ↓


As for the May update whether to wait or not, I tend to think that you absolutely need one May update. Especially for the mispositioned players. If they are showing a really low OVR, they will jump huge after their first May update. But any more than that? I would say would depend upon whether you plan on playing them as a starter or not. I have yet to find any ridiculous growth from a player in a 2nd May update. I’d say if they are good enough to start pull them out after the firs t May update. This will also help you keep a bit more room in your academy for sc outing other players if you have a full academy. If you don’t plan on playing them a ton, I’d say leave them in. Reply ↓

jus t want beast players on November 22, 201 3 at 7:09 pm said:

hey guys what are some ways of finding regen players? i know you could keep track of their retirement but most of the time you cant really tell. should i just put age 17-23 on global transfer network and with promising checked? Reply ↓

Löuis Taglianetti (@Lou_Taglianetti)

on December 19, 2013 at 9:00 pm said:

do ages 17-20 then check the promising, and first team quality boxes… then sign whatever players your sc out brings back. they will definitely be good. scout places like spain italy germany england and brazil. the players turn out to be really good… and most cases are fast. they only cost 2 to 3 mill… got a spanish striker that was 71 or 72, after 2 years he was 80 and has 87 speed… Reply ↓

Unknown on November 24, 201 3 at 2:16 am said:

“However, here’s some big news – youth player potentials can change if you reload around the May update. For example, save the day before the May update. Advance, promote a youth player and his status may be “An exciting prospect”. Reload and do it again and this time it might be “Has potential to be special”. I’ve actually had a player who had “Showing great potential” one time, “Has potential to be special”

another and then nothing at all on a third attempt. Usually it’s only going to be a s mall change – his potential going up or down by one point, m ost likely – but it’s interesting that it can be manipulated.” You don’t need to wait till May to try to change their potentials, I just tried in February and his potential changed from “an exciting prospect” to “has potential to be special”.

Reply ↓


I also had a GK who came out as “An Exciting Prospect” w hen I initially signed him to the first team. He had excellent form, and I loaned him out. When he came back to my team his new status was “Has Potential to be Special”. I wonder if potentials can fluctuate based on how the player is performing/form? Reply ↓

jymz on November 29, 201 3 at 5:46 am said:

ANY IDEA: does playing a scouted youth squad player ON YOUR NATIONAL TEAM before signing them to your first team screw with their potential? Reply ↓

on November 29, 2013 at 10:52 am said:

I don’t think so. As I recall, on FIFA 13 you could actually sign 15 year olds to the national squad and make them grow even though they were still in your youth squad. So as far as I know, playing them in your youth squad before promoting them essentially just gives them a boost Reply ↓


Somebody should try this. Heck, m aybe I’ll try it. On Fifa 13 I’d always put my 15 year olds still in my Youth Team on the national team. I can’t recall if this makes them grow faster?! That’s a great question. If they do grow, I wonder if their OVR range or POT range fluctuates? I’ll look into this. Reply ↓


Two other things I’ve noticed. A good way to get better youth players is to save the game a day before your scout comes back with the youth players. Then if you get a bad crop of players, simply quit and reload until you get a good batch of guys. Also, and I don’t know if there’s any merit to this, but I’ve noticed that when I have a match the day before my scout comes back with his list of players, if I do very well and

absolutely dominate the match, I’ll get better players. For instanc e, I only had a 2-star scout, and I was getting garbage. A few times, I blew out the competition 5-0, 6-0 the day before the scout came back with the report. When I did this I had abnormally good youth players. Not sure if this is something, but it looked like a trend. Reply ↓

Reed on December 3, 2013 at 2:49 am said:

Awesome guide you have here! But I do have a question regarding players being sent out on loans and their potentials. I have a youth player I promoted in May and I sent him out on a loan. He’s rated a 78 and age 17, and his potential was 90-94! It said he had a “potential to be special” before he left for the loan. Once he returned from his short loan, it now says that he is a “exciting prospect”. Does this mean he no longer has the superstar potential? Reply ↓

Alex B on December 3, 2013 at 1:48 pm said:

Thanks Potentials are very strange this year. They can change very easily – if you promote a player, then reload and promote him again, he could have different potentials each time. So the fact that they can change so much probably means you don’t need to worr y – his potential has gone down, but it could just as easily go up with good playing time.

And bear in mind that he is already almost 80 OVR at just 17 – he’s got loads of years of growth and will only need to grow 1-2 points per year to get to 90! So I’d stick with him if I were you. Reply ↓

Andric on December 6, 2013 at 2:59 am said:

This helped me a lot. I was quite shocked to why the players overall are quite lower than what it was during FIFA 13. I didn’t knew FIFA 14 made it quite harder and that Potential is now more important. Thank you so much. Reply ↓

Alex B on December 7, 2013 at 8:56 pm said:

No problem Reply ↓

interwebme on December 15, 2013 at 8:44 am said:

I have a defender that came through my academy. Rated as ‘Potential to be Special’ and is now 22 with an ovr of 81, Most of his stats are good but not in the key areas for a CB. He is really slow 54 has fantastic heading 95 but is average at jumping 68

and 5’11″. Good stand tackle at 88 but marking is only 71. I would employ him as a defensive mid but his attacking stats are average, short pass 75 and long pass 61 but his vision and att positioning are in the 80s. Any thoughts? Should I just sell him on and get someone more suitable or move him to defensive mid? I do have a defensive mid that would fit in at CB very well only he’s not so good a heading and his passing is too good. What a dilema! Reply ↓

Alex B on December 15, 2013 at 11:27 am said:

Sounds like that guy would be better at CDM. With CBs you really want them to be good in the air. If they aren’t tall then they need to have a good jumping stat, otherwise opposition strikers are going to be having a field day when crosses come in. So I’d take him out of the danger and put him at CDM. He’s got potential to be special so he could turn out am azing, and the good bit is that if you don’t want him his high potential means you’ll be able to get loads for him. Reply ↓

interwebme on December 17, 2013 at 1:03 pm said:

Thanks Alex. I’ve taken him out of C B and got som e others playing

potential to be specials and 1 exciting prospect!) so I’ll probably have to move him on. As a defender he’s not work a huge amount. Reply ↓


Generally speaking I find that “Defensive m inded” or “physically strong” CDMs actually make better CBs than scouting for CBs. Reply ↓

Fireman on January 1, 2014 at 4:29 pm said:

I’d like to point out that the physical stats of new Youth Players is typically lower than in previous games, I got youth players s tuck at 88 with 90-94 Potential because their physical stats didn’t grow enough the first 5 years (around 21-22 the physical stat grow VERY slowly, or not at all). If you’re still stuck on 70-80 in physical stats by that age you can say goodbye to your 90+ players. Reply ↓

Kshitij (@KronSeptim) on January 3, 2014 at 4 :57 pm said:

Nice guide mate. You forgot one thing though which is new in FIFA 14 – the precontract. When less than 6 months are remaining on a player’s contract [usually in January], you can contact that player, give him a nice contract and then he will join your club for fr ee the next season. Very useful – I got Pogba for fr ee from Juve. Reply ↓

Alex B on January 6, 2014 at 1 1:31 pm said:

Yes, precontract deals are awesome, I got a few players that way

This

article was just about youth scouting though, and you can only do precontract deals on players aged 23+. Although of course you could do a deal on a youth player who has grown to that age, but mainly I was focusing on scouting and promoting youth players. Reply ↓

DEGOSLIVE on January 3, 2014 at 1 0:15 pm said:

what happens on player potenthial if I miss May report? a player with 91+ won t grhow his entire potenthial? Reply ↓

Alex B on January 6, 2014 at 1 1:30 pm said:

Hopefully he will grow lots once you promote him. FIFA 14′s growth system seems to be a bit buggy though, so really you need to get the May update growth if you can. But like I say, I expect he should grow well in the first team providing he gets game time and performs well. Let us know how the player does and whether he grows quickly once he’s promoted Reply ↓

Paul Gunslinger Smith on January 7, 2014 at 12:22 am said:

Hi Guys, I have a slightly off topic question that I can’t seem to find an answer to anywhere else. I’ve brought up Fleetwood Town from league 2 to now Eur opean Champions. I’ve assem bled the best squad in the w orld through youth development. Only thing is is that it’s a little dull now. My team, Norwich City, were relegated from the BPL in the year 2021 and I want to take them over and do a rescue job (and maybe take a couple of my young stars with me

) Anyway any time I look at the potential jobs it’s the same 5 or 6 clubs

over and over after each game. Does anyone have any ideas as to how I can get the Norwich job? The only idea I have is simming through my current season and seeing if the clubs change. Reply ↓

Wayne 'Flick' Forrest

on January 10, 2014 a t 4:10 pm said:

What I can say is they usually are randomised, however it can be the same few over and over again. However As Norwich were already relegated, their seasonal objectives would have changed, therefore, no high risk. However if their objective was to acheive promotion, but they’re sitting 10th at the halfway stage, then you should be able to apply for the job. Kudos f or getting Fleetwood to be European Champions, I’m doing a career with Crawley Town, currently 1st in Prem, just lost to Brighton (my team) in Semis of FA Cup. Reply ↓

interwebme on January 12, 2014 at 1:07 am said:

Is there a way to apply for the job if it isn’t in the potential job openings? I’ve looked around and can’t find a way to do it. Reply ↓

Wayne 'Flick' Forrest

on January 12, 2014 at 11:40 am said:

No sadly not. As I said, you would have to hope that Norwich are failing their objectives, then look in the Browse Jobs section like every 2 weeks or something like that. There’s no actual way of being able to make it happen. W ell without starting a whole new career with Norwich anyway.

Reply ↓

Wayne 'Flick' Forrest on January 10, 2014 a t 4:06 pm said:

I had no idea about this “May Update”. So do I literally promote my youth players on 1st May? Reply ↓

Alex B on January 11, 2014 at 12:55 am said:

No, what it means is that all the players in your academy will only grow once per year (whereas people in your first team grow on the 1st of every month). So what you can do is save your game on 30th April and have a look at your youth player potential and OVR ranges (e.g. 55-59 OVR, 80-86 potential). Then, advance one day to the 1st May and check on their OVR and potential ranges again. You’ll notice that they’re now different. That’s because 1st May is the one day in the entire year that players in your youth academy will improve. This is important because it’s usually not just one or two points of growth. They have their entire year’s worth of growth on that one day. I’ve had players go up 14 points before. You don’t have to promote your players on 1st May at all, I just meant that this is the day that they grow.

What it does mean, though, is that you really don’t want your youth players agitating to be promoted before 1st May otherwise you will lose that entire year’s worth of growth

So what I usually do is wait until the players have

had the 1st May update, then promote them at the end of the season. Hope that clears it up for you Reply ↓

Jim on January 12, 2014 at 12:23 pm said:

Is there any point leaving them in there for two or more seasons, or should I just wait until after the first May that they’ve been with me? Basically, how m any years should they spend in the academy? Reply ↓

Alex B on January 12, 2014 a t 5:59 pm said:

I basically leave them in there until they are 17 and have had a May update for that year (i.e. had a May update while they are 17), then I promote them. This usually gives me two about May updates for each player. The first update always seems to be the biggest, with players often growing 10+ points. The second update is usually smaller, around the 4-5 point mark. So while it’s essential that you keep them in the academy for the first update, if you feel they could get more than 4-5 points of growth if you promoted them, then go ahead and promote them.

Of course, it all depends if you can give them enough time in the first team yet. If not, it may be worth keeping them in the academy for another year. Oh, and I don’t usually keep them in beyond 17 because after that they s tart agitating to be promoted far more often. Once they get passed their 18th birthday they can actually quit without even telling you (it seems to be a glitch). So instead of risking that, I just promote them at 17 (usually at the end of a season). Reply ↓

Nino rasta on January 15, 2014 at 10:30 am said:

I bought vilhena and he had “Great potential” And he became has that special something. Did he loose his potential? Does a random player loose his potential? How can you locate regents easily? Nice guide and website! Reply ↓

Bryan on March 26, 2014 at 11:27 am said:

If Your player is 22 years old, it would not show his potential.

Sean E on January 20, 2014 at 2:28 am said:

Great guide! However i find it a bit ridiculous that EA still have yet to put out regen faces which is something that they have done in madden since like madden 10 Reply ↓

Alex B on January 20, 2014 a t 3:47 pm said:

I know, even just a graphical face would be better than the silhouettes :/ Reply ↓

Sean E on January 21, 2014 at 2:54 am said:

Yeah in my career with chesterfield I’m in 2018 and about 75% of my players are players i s couted and have just a silhouette its annoying and I start to lose interest in the game Reply ↓

Matt on January 28, 2014 at 4:26 am said:

Not youth scouting…but not sure where to ask. Got Wycombe to the BPL… obviously many seasons in…when I use the gtn to scout they still return nothing bu crappy league 2 caliber players…even w/first team quality checked. Any ideas? Reply ↓

Alex B on January 28, 2014 at 10:02 am said:

Unfortunately it seems to be a glitch. A lot of people have said that the GTN doesn’t update the quality of the players it returns, even when you improve the team. Combined with the removal of player OVRs, it makes it extremely difficult to find new players after a few seasons. Yet another “improvement” from EA that doesn’t actually work :/ Reply ↓

Swindon Fan. on January 30, 2014 at 2 :04 pm said:

“”Finally, youth players can now have multiple positions. I know, it doesn’t mean much in practice (look at his stats to work out where he’s best, not his listed positions), but it’s a nice touch. The only slight hiccup is that goalkeepers can have multiple positions. Yep. Goalkeepers. I have one whose listed positions are GK/LM/ST. Good one, EA””

standard. oh hello the goalkeepers off on holidays here. you know he might never come back. Reply ↓

Brendan Walsh on March 14, 2014 at 10:23 pm said:

I have a 77-82 Overall and 90-94 potential RM from Ec uador should I keep him in the youth academy until may 1st or should I put him on loan Reply ↓

Alex B on March 15, 2014 at 3:33 pm said:

Wow, how old is he? Generally I keep players in the academy until they the May update after their 17th birthday (if that m akes sense). From the s ound of it you may not even need to put him up for loan! Can you post a picture of him and his stats when you promote him? Sounds like he’s going to be insane. Reply ↓

HRG on April 20, 2014 at 9:42 am said:

I also found Ronaldo’s regen a few days after he retired.Man!!! what a beast!!!age 18 and overall 84,got him for

control=86,agility=95,balance=98,dribbling=90.No,I’m not kidding! I also found 2 “gk”s,one Manolo Reina with GK/RB/RM/CDM and a Pedro Reyes with GK/CF.Asst.Manager puts Reina at RB always!Ovrs. 69 and 67 resp. at ages 21.What to do with them? Reply ↓

Alex B on April 20, 2014 at 12:49 pm said:

Yeah you can find some cr azy regens on FIFA! That guy sounds amaz ing, do you plan on keeping him or selling him on for profit? Haha GKs can have some weird positions. As you can see in the guide, I found one who can play at LM at ST! Do they have any potential-related statuses, e.g. “Showing great potential”? Also, it depends what you want to do with them. If you need some backups GKs then I’d keep them – GKs often don’t start growing properly around age 22/23 (though there are always exceptions), so they should start going up within a year or so if you want to start playing them. The problem with trying to grow GKs is there’s limited space. You can’t put two out on the field at one time in the way you can with CBs (although given your GKs’ secondary positions, maybe you can!), so I’d probably one keep one of those GKs unless they’re your best to keepers. Reply ↓


Anyone knows if a player’s overall rating(not potential) from the youth academy will continue to grow after the May 1st update even if he is 17years old? Also, is it possible to get m y bakkali from exciting prospect to had potential to be s pecial? It’s weird that Bruma(has potential to be special) in my career mode has higher potential than bakkali(exciting prospect). Reply ↓


If you loan him out his potential can change. Send him out for a s hort loan then save the game. Recall him and see what his status is, as sometimes it changes. If it’s not back to “Has potential to be special”, reload the save and try again. Regarding OVR growing after that time, I think it will grow. The first May update a player gets, however, is always the largest, often around 10-14 points. The next year it is only around 4 points, so I expect it will be 4 points or so a year later. The problem is that once a youth player in the academy hits 18 they can actually quit the academy without a warning (happened to me). If you didn’t notice and then saved your game, it means they’re gone forever, so I always prom ote my youth players once they’re 17 (and have had that year’s May update) just to be safe.

Reply ↓

Bryan on March 27, 2014 at 3:14 pm said:

Hi thx for the quick reply. Do you know if a player, for example bakkali, can outgrow his 90 potential and show that he ha potential to be special? I know that players from the youth academy can outgrow their potential. I had a youth player who had a potential of under 89 who had “has potential to be special” when I promoted him. And, is it possible for players w ho didn’t have any potential (been in the clud since 2012) to get to has potential to be special? Reply ↓


I think they can, yes. If Bakkali plays well enough and grows a lot then I can’t see why he couldn’t exceed his potential. For your second question, I’d recommend you do the loaning trick that I mentioned before. Going from having no potential status ( in other words, having potential under 80) to having “Potential to be special” (which means potential 91+) is a big jump and you may not be able to do it just by keeping the player in your squad and playing him. However, here’s what you can do with the loaning trick to achieve it: loan him out and recall him until his status becomes “showing great

until his status goes up to “an exciting prospect”. Do this again until you have “has potential to be special”. I haven’t tried this myself yet but I have heard that it works, so it’s definitely worth a try! Reply ↓


Will a player continue to grow properly if he is not playing in his preferred position? I played bakkali in LW and he is 79rated at 19yrs old Reply ↓


Yep they should do, I have a RW playing at LM or RM and he’s been growing really well. I think potential matters more than preferred position. Reply ↓

Anyone knows why I find it difficult to loan my players? I’ve tried season loans and short loans but during the transfer window, if I get two loan offers I’m considered lucky. Reply ↓


Unfortunately loaning is tricky in FIFA. Here’s what I do (it’s boring but it works) – put your players up for loan, save, then advance a week. If you get no offers in that week, reload. Every time you get a new loan offer, accept it and save the game, then advance another week. I’d aim to get 1-3 loans a week depending on how many players you have on your loan list. This method takes a long time but it’s guaranteed to work because you won’t continue until you’ve got some loans sorted. Good luck! Reply ↓


Is it possible to loan players at the age of 21? I’m currently trying to loan this player but no team wants to loan him. Reply ↓


If anyone needs to know how to heed your players happy if they feel that the management is bad, you simply just need to praise that specific player before matches. Reply ↓

Papah Jahat on April 4, 2014 a t 6:59 am said:

Now I know where to find promising youngsters thx a lot dude Reply ↓

Alex B on April 4, 2014 a t 8:16 am said:

No problem, glad it was useful Reply ↓

Aidan Watre t on April 13, 2014 at 10:56 pm said:

I am so glad i looked at this, I lost out on so many good players due to the fac t i didn’t wait til’ may and they were all to awful to play. BTW I also feel like youth players threatening to leave is kind of an empty threat I’ve had multiple requests from different players (sometimes from the same player) and they never seem to leave). Reply ↓

Matias on April 19, 201 4 at 9 :21 pm said:

I want a center back. Do i select defensive minded or physically strong???? Reply ↓

Alex B on April 20, 2014 at 12:41 pm said:

That depends really. As you might expect, defensive minded defenders have better technical stats, while physically strong defenders have better physical stats. Realistically, though, there’s not a huge amount of difference. If you find a high potential defender in either category, wait until the May update, where they usually get a massive stat boost which often evens out their stats. For example, I found a physically strong striker, but after the May update he had great physical and technical stats. Defensive minded often finds you full backs (but they won’t be attacking fullbacks), while physically strong often finds you CDMs and, occasionally, strikers. Reply ↓

Jared on April 25, 2014 at 5:49 pm said:

Thanks for this guide. I’ve now been using it for two years and the CM is so much more fun as a result. I’ve started with Accrington Stanley with the aim of creating an all youth academy team. I cheated a bit, putting Aguero on the squad so I could sell him in the tr ansfer window in sum mer. I did, to Bayern, for 85 million USD. (they overpaid a lot IMO) This gave me the budget to scout like a big club. My best prospect was (notice, was) a CM with 90+ potential. I got him to 83 OVR at 20 years old. Then Barca came calling. I ended up selling him for 65 million USD, but I wish I had held onto him. Its funny how I was kind of attached to a virtual player like that. Does anyone have any information on how to get youth players that s tart with decent overall speed and acceleration? Most of my guys are in the 50s to begin. Is there a player type I should look for or an area I should focus on? Thanks again, this is far and away the best FIFA site if you are interested in youth development. Reply ↓


Although the potential status change could be entirely random (like it is when promoting youth players) when it does change. I really don’t know for s ure whether

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