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Close to impossible

Top 5 hardest Football Manager 2022 challenges




Everyone loves a challenge. Football Manager 2022 players are no different. Here is our top 5 list of the hardest challenge saves.

The SAF challenge

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Kicking off our list of Football Manager 2022 challenge saves is the SAF challenge or Sir Alex Ferguson challenge. The challenge is simple. Take over the team that’s 19th in the Premier League on the 6th of November and replicate the legend’s career.

In case you’re unfamiliar with what that means, let’s break it down. You’ll need to remain at the club for 26 years, aiming to bring through youth players to aid you in finding success, long term players will also need to become part of your backroom team.

Still, need more? Okay, then here’s a list of the trophies you’ll need to win in those 26 years: 13 Premier Leagues, five FA Cups, four Carabao Cups, 10 Community Shields, and two Champions Leagues, one Europa League, one UEFA Super Cup, and two Club World Cups.

So, not much then? Do you have what it takes to become the next greatest manager of all time? This is the Football Manager 2022 challenge for you.

Capital cities challenge

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This is a Football Manager 2022 Challenge with several difficulty levels. The base of it, though, is to win leagues with teams from the capital city of the country you’re playing in. 

The easiest way to do it is to win Europe’s top five leagues (Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1) with a team from the capital city already in those leagues. This isn’t too difficult, as it opens you up to the likes of Chelsea, Real Madrid, and PSG. 

However, you can make this harder with a couple of added elements. You could choose to win EVERY European league in this fashion, starting in a smaller nation and working your way up to the big boys.

Alternatively, you could keep the top five leagues as the challenge but make it, so you have to use some lesser teams from the nation’s capital. Your choices may include Millwall, Getafe, or Paris FC.

This Football Manager 2022 challenge can be as long or as short as you make it. You’ve just got to win. Seems easy enough.

Director of Football Challenge

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This Football Manager 2022 challenge is well known for frustrating its players, but that’s why it’s so fun.

Modern football has seen managers become coaches, with more and more things taken out of their control so they can focus on matters on the pitch and those matters alone. Doing transfer dealings might be fun, but you’ll have to let them go in this challenge.

Let your Director of Football deal with any incomings, outgoings, and contract renewals. Do you need a striker? Well, good luck because your DOF has signed Phil Jones.

You can set transfer targets, but that doesn’t mean they’ll listen. You’ll probably end up with a bloated central midfield. That being said, if you can make their signings work, you might bring the success you need not to get sacked.

The Basque challenge

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A legendary challenge with a legendary team. This is one of the hardest challenges you can undertake in Football Manager 2022.

Athletic Bilbao plays in Spain’s top league, La Liga, a league they have never been relegated from. They’ve come first eight times. What makes this most impressive? They’re only allowed to sign players from the Basque region.

Fortunately, they start with an impressive squad. Even better yet, they consistently produce top talent, which you’ll need as the team ages. Nico Williams is the most obvious future star, someone you’ll need to keep hold of if you want to win anything.

They haven’t won La Liga since 1984. Your job is to take them to the summit once more, a hard ask against the might of Barcelona and Real Madrid. Can you take them even further and deliver European glory for the first time?

The Pentagon Challenge

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The Pentagon challenge is the most brutal and infamous of any challenge you could embark on in Football Manager 2022.

The challenge sounds simple at first. You must win each of the five Continental trophies. That’s the AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, Copa Libertadores, and the Champions League. A quintuple of trophies that will take you all across the globe.

But that’s not all. You’ll have to start from the very bottom. As a retired Sunday League footballer with zero coaching badges. Your reputation will be just as low as whichever club is desperate enough to hire you first.

Work your way up, gain your coaching badges, and boost your reputation. Without that, you’ll struggle to win in one of the less reputable continents.

There’s no challenge in Football Manager 2022 as hard as this one.

Sam McKenzie covers a variety of competitive first-person shooters, with an emphasis on Valorant and Counter-Strike esports. He also has a passion for football in both the real and virtual worlds, and contributes his expertise in FIFA esports.