Which team should you take charge of in career mode and guide you to the top? Goal examines the best options
Career mode is one of the most popular parts of FIFA 21, but choosing which team to manage is sometimes a difficult proposition.
Are you starting with a “super club” and aiming for immediate success and long-term domination?
Are you starting in a lower division or outside one of Europe’s five big leagues to create a new world order?
Which team should you take charge of in career mode and guide you to the top? Goal examines the best options.
- Transfer budget: £ 33.3m
- Key players: Sandro Tonali, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Gianluigi Donnarumma
One team has dominated Serie A for the past decade, but in FIFA 21 Juventus aren’t even known by their name. Playing with Cristiano Ronaldo in FIFA is a lot of fun, but no one wants to lift trophies as “Piemonte Calcio”.
Ending their domestic dominance in FIFA 21 seems like an enticing challenge and there are plenty of Serie A teams capable of winning the league.
AC Milan are one of the best options in Italy, especially since the recent signing of Sandro Tonali is one of the best young midfielders in FIFA 21.
They have an initial transfer budget of over £ 30million which means you should be able to add to your squad in the first transfer window and perhaps consider signing a wonderful striker to replace Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
- Transfer budget: £ 26.5m
- Key players: Ryan Gravenberch, Dusan Tadic, Andre Onana
Ajax have been the best team in the Netherlands for many years but haven’t seen any European success since the 1990s.
Winning the Eredivisie should be easy with their team, but winning the Champions League is the real challenge.
The board also expect you to develop young players, which has long been a tradition of the club.
Their starting squad is already filled with young talent, including Ryan Gravenberch and Lassina Traoré, while goalkeeper Andre Onana and winger Antony both have potential odds of 88.
- Transfer budget: £ 162.4m
- Key players: Lionel Messi, Ansu Fati, Frenkie de Jong
Success is expected in Barcelona, both in La Liga and the Champions League. As a result, managing the “super club” can be a big challenge in FIFA 21.
Lionel Messi is the best player in the game, but is nearing the end of his career and sometimes even retires at the end of the first season.
Thankfully there are a few young players waiting to take the plunge, including attacking duo Ansu Fati and Trincao, while Pedri has a potential rating of 88, despite starting with an overall score of 72.
Balancing playing time between old and young players will be difficult at first, but the club’s huge budget should help ease the transition from the old guard to the new one.
- Transfer budget: £ 22.8m
- Key players: Grimaldo, Everton, Tomas Tavares
Like Ajax, Benfica’s requirement for youth development is “critical”.
At the start of the match, they have two of the best young defenders in FIFA 21 career mode: Nuno Tavares and Tomas Tavares.
Neither player got such a high rating initially, but both have the potential to become superstars.
Most of their squad are relatively young, which means you can call on experienced names to improve the squad while keeping the same base players year after year.
- Transfer budget: £ 54m
- Key players: Jadon Sancho, Erling Haaland, Mats Hummels
Borussia Dortmund have the best young midfielder in FIFA 21 with Jadon Sancho and one of the best young forwards with Erling Haaland.
Additionally, Jude Bellingham and Giovanni Reyna are also two of FIFA 21’s best wonders, making them one of the youngest teams in Europe.
With a transfer budget of £ 54million, they will also be able to attract more young talent to help end Bayern Munich’s long run at the top of the Bundesliga table.
- Transfer budget: £ 133.8m
- Key players: Kylian Mbappe, Neymar, Marquinhos
Unlike many other clubs across Europe, Paris Saint-Germain don’t care about the development of young people in career mode.
Instead, spending money is their path to success, and they have a huge transfer budget early in the game to help recruit more talent.
Both Kylian Mbappe and Neymar are among the top 10 highest rated players in FIFA 21, but they have talent in every position.
Winning Ligue 1 shouldn’t be a challenge, but PSG have never won the Champions League in real life, so you can make history with them in FIFA 21.
- Transfer budget: £ 169.6m
- Key players: Eden Hazard, Vinicius Jr, Rodrygo
Four of Real Madrid’s players have the potential to reach over 90 players in total, making Los Blancos one of Europe’s elites for the foreseeable future.
It may mean that career mode isn’t as hard as taking control of a small team with low-rated players, but some people just want to win and picking Real Madrid is the perfect team for it.
They already have excellent players at Eden Hazard, Karim Benzema and Toni Kroos, while Martin Odegaard, Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo are the next generation of stars at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Red Bull Salzburg
- Transfer budget: £ 18.6m
- Key players: Dominik Szoboszlai, Patson Daka, Karim Adeyemi
Red Bull Salzburg has been a driving force for talent in recent years, with Sadio Mane and Erling Haaland coming off their production line.
They don’t have players rated over 76 at the start of the game, but have plenty of players capable of reaching the top level.
A transfer budget of £ 18million also gives some leeway to sign more young players, while success is usually not measured by achievements in Europe, which means you can take a few years to build your empire in Austria.
City of Salford
- Transfer budget: £ 1.4m
- Key players: Di’Shon Bernard, Brandon Thomas-Asante, Bruno Andrade
Managing in the elite or taking charge of a “super club” is not for everyone.
For longer careers, many people take over a lower league club and gradually progress to the top.
Salford City are a perfect choice if you want to start in Ligue 2 as they have a pretty good squad to compete and be promoted, while most of their board expectations are set to “Very low”, allowing you to do so. things your way without any interference from the board.
wolves
- Transfer budget: £ 40.5m
- Key players: Fabio Silva, Ruben Neves, Adama Traoré
Getting into the top four in the Premier League is a tough task, although some teams are well placed to do so in the first year.
Wolves have a decent squad as well as a £ 40million transfer budget when you start career mode, while their board expectations are either ‘medium’ or ‘low’.
This means that initial success is not expected, giving you some leeway to improve your squad and move up the ranks of young stars like Fabio Silva.
