Metropolitan Man

The Metropolitan Man:

An alternative to the Pentagon challenge

An interesting tread has appeared in European football for decades involving the geographical size of successful football clubs, as unearthed by sports economists Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski. Whilst provincial clubs in the likes of Glasgow, Nottingham and Rotterdam have all claimed Europe’s greatest football prize, the UEFA Champion’s League has never once been in the hands of any real metropolitan club. In fact, no club from within the seven largest metropolitan areas in Europe have won the Champion’s League- it is time for a managerial journeyman to step forward, put his pride on the line and assume the role of the Metropolitan Man.



This picture is from Berlin, one of the cities needed to complete this challenge

The rules are simple, and the difficulty of the challenge is up to you. Whether you start as a small club from a big city and work your way up or whether you start at a big club and try to flick between cities, it’s all about the way you play your FM game. But the difficult part is simple as to complete the challenge you have to win the UEFA Champion’s League…seven times.



Start at any club that is based in Istanbul, Paris, Moscow, St Petersburg, Berlin, Athens or the new metropolitan area on the list, Naples, and win the Champion’s League. Rinse and repeat until you have seven Champion’s Leagues on your managerial CV. There are little restrictions to the challenge; although just like with the Pentagon challenge, there are aspects that one can add to make this challenge more/less difficult.

City Slicker- start as a club in one of these seven geographical locations, and try to win all seven Champion’s Leagues without managing a club outside of those geographical constraints. This becomes harder and harder if you start to amass blots on your CV, because you’ll find that when you limit the job market to specific geographical zones, it becomes nearly impossible to be recruited.

No Dynasties- it can be tempting after you’ve won your first Champion’s League to start building a dynasty within your city, especially if you’re in one of the lesser divisions and have had to work especially hard to conquer Europe. The ‘No Dynasty’ rule means that once you won the Champion’s League with a club, you have to enjoy those news messages about how awesome you are, pack up your things and immediately resign.

List of clubs you can manage:

Paris- Paris FC, Paris Saint-Germain, Red Star, Racing Club

Istanbul- Kasimpasa SK, Kartal SK, Gungoren BS, Istanbul BB, Galatasaray AS, Fenerbahce SK, Besiktas JK

Athens- Ilioupoli, Kallithea, Ethnikos Asteras, Panionios, Atromitos, AEK Athens, Panathinaikos, Olympiakos

Berlin- FC Union Berlin, Hertha Berlin

Moscow- FC Spartak Moscow, Lokomotiv Moscow, Dynamo Moscow, CSKA Moscow, Torpedo Moscow

St Petersburg- FC Zenit St Petersburg, Petrotest, Dynamo St Petersburg

Rome- Roma, Lazio

* Please tell me if there are any mistakes here. I remember, when Chelsea won the CL, people said that Naples wasn't a metropolitan area, According to wikipedia, it is, and it also says that it is larger Athens, by population. Many people said that Rome should be there instead, and if people want me to alter this, just tell me on this thread, doesn't take much effort. Just don't have a go at me for getting it wrong

Can you use additional leagues? I wouldn't mind a bash with Dynamo Berlin.

+ Petrotrest (they now play in 1st division)

I think Red Star should be in the Paris clubs too mate.

Rome is definitely bigger than Naples.



Racing Club de France should probably be there as well.

Larger Urban Zone I think the Metropolitan sections in Europe can be found on this page.

Okay, gonna change this. Should Rome or Ankara be there then. I got Naples of wikipedia of largest Metropolitan areas, but then Benniewijs' thing looks better. Anyway, there is already a turkish theme to the challenge with Istanbul, so I reckon i should add Rom in their.