FIFA 22 Career Mode Youth Academy Tips | OneFootball

“In Youth We Trust”, a youth academy is integral for every football club as it plays a vital role in uncovering the next world stars.

Many of these best young footballers are nurtured and sooner or later become significant players worldwide. The youth system is essential for every club irregardless of size, the children are the future and most clubs are in agreement and even forthright declare this as a board objective.

Discovering the next Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo is just as important in real life as it is in Career Mode, it is always exciting to bring a youngster from the academy and watch him over a couple of seasons develop into “One of the World’s Best”. But how can I ideally discover the next Messi? Does it matter where I send my scouts? The following are important facts and tips on how to become an expert of your own youth academy:

Tip #1

“Leaving players in the Academy longer will not only gradually increase their overall but will also give an accurate potential range”.

It is important to practice patience when attempting to discover the next world’s star. Everything is not very clear in the first scout report but by being patient, ultimately everything else will come to you at the right time. Reports in the beginning only give you a friction of what their potential range may be and where your prospect might play. However, after a few months in the academy, your youth prospect’s overall and value will increase.

Their fixed potential range will also be revealed. Once you have recruited a player to your youth academy, you will also know exactly which position they play. Potential ranges in Career Mode fall in the following categories (N.B: Players must be aged 21 or less and be rated at least 60+ in order for you to see their potential status):

In other words, do not quickly sign your youth prospects from the scout report and quickly throw them into the senior team. More on this later!

Tip #2

“It is more expensive to send scouts to certain regions than it is others”.

You might have asked yourself this question “Are some countries better than others when it comes to scouting youth players?” The answer is “Yes” and that is why it is more expensive to send scouts to certain regions than it is others. In other words, where you send your scouts affects the chances of finding better youth prospects. But that is not to say, you will only find high potential prospects in certain regions, you can find best prospects in all regions. However, scouting in more expensive countries such as Argentina and Brazil will return a larger percentage of finding better prospects compared to cheap countries like China and India.

This tip is most helpful for Road to Glory Career Mode saves due to lack of funds, you can save 6x more by scouting in continents like Asia compared for example to South America.

The probability of finding great talent varies from region to region. Here is an overview of how high it is in the individual regions of the world:

Tip #3

“You can send a Scout to find Player Type, WINGER yet he comes back with Player Type, PLAYMAKER”.

The third tip stresses the significance of your scout’s Judgement and Experience. What do these two terms mean in Career Mode? Judgement influences not only the quality of players your scout finds but also the Player Type he is instructed to find (e.g. Physically Strong), Experience on the other hand, determines the number of players your scout will present to you monthly (e.g. A 1 star Experience scout will return 1 to 2 players, 5 star Experience scout on the other hand, 5 to 7 players a month).

Therefore, when evaluating potential scouts, do not hesitate to splash all your money on scouts with better judgement and experience because a scout with better judgment and experience will improve the likelihood of not only finding higher quality players, the player type he is instructed to find but also a wide range of players to choose from.

It is important to note that better scouts increases chances of finding better youth prospects, it doesn’t guarantee that you will always find platinum players (91+ Potential youth stars) every month. In other words, no matter the quality of your scouts, there is no guaranteed method to unearth platinum players every month.

Tip #4

“Leaving players in the Scout Report longer will reveal the type of player they actually are, that is, Winger, Physically Strong etc”.

Here is another tip where patience pays off, when scouting, you will find that first scout reports come with youth players deemed “Unknown” but few more months into the scouting process, their actual Player Type will be revealed. It is important to wait until a prospect’s player type is revealed before signing them to the academy because player types come with specific growth perks.

It affects and shapes how players naturally grow without training and also come with certain positions. For example, a Physically Strong player starts with decent physical attributes and mental attribute, aggression and will see the best growth in these areas throughout, when scouting physically strong players, these are the only positions you are likely to find, CB, RB, LB, CDM, CF and ST.

Player Types in Career Mode are as follows:

You can find learn more about Player Types in this guide.

Tip #5

“If a player is aged 16 or older & is lured away by another club, you can find him in their squad”.

Yes, you read that right, don’t be quick to sign players from scout reports out of fear that they will be picked by another team and you will then lose them forever. Youth players that are aged 16 years or older lured away by other teams while in the scout reports can always be found in that particular team’s senior squad. However, if a player is aged 15 years old and is picked by another club, they disappear forever, you won’t be able to find them in their senior squad.

This is due to the fact that other clubs do not have youth academies to hold on to 15 year olds since you can only promote youth players to the senior squad if they are aged 16 years or older. It is therefore advisable to sign 15 year old youth prospects to your youth squad sooner to avoid them from disappearing.

If your player is aged 16 or older, avoid promoting them to your youth squad so you can be able to apply other tips already discussed in this article. Personally, I deliberately leave my youth players aged 16 or older in the scout reports as much as possible, allowing me enough time to study them further but also for other teams to sign them. Why? To avoid the battle of struggling to get loan offers for them while they are in the senior squad or worse, dynamic potential ruining their potentials when they are in the senior squad due to lack of game time.

Those clubs will nurture those youth players on my behalf and I can choose to sign them in the future when they are well established or not sign them at all creating an influx of wonderkids from the academy so I can have better competition in the future.

While in the youth squad, players usually start asking for contract when aged 17 and 18 but if a season ends with a player still stuck in the Academy, he will be less likely to threaten to leave in the following season. He can then be kept there for up to 8 months or more in the new season.

Now that you have learned couple of important and interesting tips about the youth academy, it is time to go out there and apply. Happy Youth Scouting!