[FM24] Another shot at redemption

We all have those moments of uncertainty, or those moments of what if I did this differently, or what if I did that in a different way. Heartbreaking moments that stick with us forever.

What if Ronaldo (Brazilian) never got so many injuries. Why didn't Kane pass to Sterling against Croatia? Peschisolido against Arsenal, anywhere else and Seaman wouldn’t have pulled off that worldie of a save. Too many other moments of what if in football, but you get the point.

== == == == ==

I take absolutely zero credit for the idea behind this save but it’s a challenge I’ve always wanted to do. The idea came from some threads over at the SI forum and on the site I used to be a blogger for before it shut down. Manutd1, the user over on the SI boards, made this his yearly thing and posted long successful stories on the boards and on his site, but he mainly stuck to the European version of the challenge.

Currently TheLutterworthfox is doing this on his own site, but again the European version of it. I am not going to be able to replicate Ian’s (Manutd1) epic tales, I may never even finish it. But I will be giving it a good go and just like my current save, The Journeyman Jock (which is still going) I am going to be adding some narrative to this one.

This thread is about the 'nearly men' of football, as in the runners up of the Champions Leagues and the respective continents national trophy and trying to win the competition they got to the final of and failed to win.

== == == == ==

The CAF Champions League is the African version of our own Champions League, and since the first final in 1965, then known as the African Cup of Champions, changed to it’s current format and name in 1997,  there have been 46 different teams getting to a final, with 20 of them getting there and losing, and not winning it since. This is my story of these 20 unlucky teams. 

At the start of the game (FM24) the following 20 teams have reached the final of the African Champions League and lost:

Africa Sports (1986)

Al-Hilal (1987, 1992)

AS Dragons (Known then as - AS Bilima; 1980, 1985)

Ashanti Gold (1997)

Coton Sport (2008)

CS Sfaxien (2006)

Dynamos (1998)

Enugu Rangers (1975)

Étoile Filante (1968)

Ghazl Al-Mehalla (1974)

Heartland (1988, 2009)

Kaiser Chiefs (2021)

MC Oran (1989)

Nkana Red Devils (1990)

Real Bamako (1966)

SC Villa (1991)

Shooting Stars (1984, 1996)

Simba FC (1972)

Stade Malien (1965)

USM Alger (2015)

Also, there have been 5 nations that have gotten to the African Cup of Nations final, only to fall at that hurdle and have not got back there and won. These are:

Burkina Faso (2013)

Guinea (1976)

Libya (1982)

Mali (1972)

Uganda (1978)

The aim for this save is to win the competition the above teams failed to win. If any of the above teams win the African Champions League or African Cup of Nations by the computer in game they are removed from the challenge. Likewise if any other team, as in not listed above, gets to the final of the Champions League or African Nations cup and fails to win it and hasn't won it previously, they become eligible. I had intended to include the Confederations Cup as well, however that would bring the eligible teams at the start up to 29, and no way I'd manage to get all those in. Also in the unlikely event an African nation gets to the World Cup final and loses, I may add them to the list purely for the World Cup.

There are a couple of rules I must follow though. First is no save scumming. I hate this! When you see people posting or blogging and you know they’ve been save scumming or adding / removing managers. I play FM for realism. Also until I get myself either to a 2.5 star team or my own rep gets to 2.5, the director of football at each club is going to be in charge of player signings. I won’t lie, I don’t know many players currently playing in Africa, so having the game scout players in positions I say we need is probably the best thing to do, realism!

Second is once I have won the Champions League, IF I win it, I must leave that club. No getting attached to my shiny African wonderkids or my ageing free transfers that won it for me, no building a dynasty, I must go. Another rule is I don’t have to stay at the club until I win the Champions League. As a couple of the eligible teams start in the second or even third division of their respective country it could take some time to become a Champions League winning quality team. I can come and go as I please if needed but if I get sacked from an eligible team, they’re not discarded, I must go back and win it with them, unless of course the AI does that in game, then they are removed from the challenge.

Manutd1 tended to sim a few years at the start to get a unique game world, but I’m not doing that. The reason is on FM24 a handful of the eligible teams (Etoile Filante, Simba FC, Ashanti Gold, Africa Sport to name a few) find themselves lower down the leagues at the start, so starting at a low rep team (again, realism innit!) and building both myself and the first club up seems the right way to go to me.

I might get sacked plenty of times before I get anywhere near qualifying for the Champions League, which is a big possibility, but we’ll see. Updates will be at the very least once a week.

With that out of the way, let’s get into it shall we.

== == == == ==

Another shot at redemption - When in Lomé

The story starts in July 2023. The flight finally, after a 3 hour delay, leaves Cape Town airport. The flight itself, a whopping 100 hours all in, via Ethiopia, then Cameroon before finally, mercifully landing at Gnassingbé Eyadéma International Airport. I would have driven it, but felt going through multiple borders, security, hotels, stopovers and what not, that a flight lasting the best part of a week was my best bet. Where is this airport I hear you ask? Well it’s in Togo, the city of Lomé to be precise, which is the country’s capital and most populous city.

Lomé sits on the south coast of Togo, the airport is a short 15 minute drive in the capital city to the Stade Oscar Anthony, our hero’s new home for the foreseeable.

The capital of Togo, a country not really known for it’s football, well apart from Emmanuel Adebayor, but a country with something to prove. Well, the 1 football club on my current list of 20 will have a thing to prove once I get my feet through the door.

When the plane landed there was no entourage, no limo waiting, no fanfare. Nothing. The subsequent taxi ride went from the airport for what seemed an eternity, but by the time it made it's way to the stadium the reality of what was happening started kicking in. ‘Shit’ was all I could think.

‘Huh?’ the taxi driver replied

‘Oh, nothing’ I said before adding ‘actually, remember the name won’t you’ and I got out and walked across the road.

‘I’m doing this, I’m actually going to do this. No one knows who I am, not yet’ was what I said to no one in particular. ‘I’m African, but in Africa I am still a no one, a Billy no mates, I'm not quite a never-was but I am also not a has been, not like the clubs on my list. But somehow I managed to convince the board that I am something else, something Africa doesn’t have and they went and believed me. More fool them eh!’ again, to no one in particular, but I did get a few curious looks from the couple of people standing by the turnstile as I made my way into the reception area of the stadium.

I was finally here, after a long trip, and I’m about to take training at a club that has won it’s fair share of trophies, but is now residing in the 2éme league, the second division. On my notepad I’d jotted down - We’re only going to have 1 objective, and that is to win the Champions League! that I would be putting on a wall in the home dressing room. However, the Champions League is a quite some way away just yet. I’ve got to get this team out of the second division, survive in the top division, improve the playing squad, actually qualify for the Champions League, but then we win it. Simple right.

But that’s the plan, and I’ll be taking one step at a time, I’ve not even met the players of the current squad yet.

‘Name?’ the receptionist asked

‘My name is Jean D’Arre, from Cape Town, South Africa. And I am on a mission’.

== == == == ==

== == == == ==

Étoile Filante du Togo, runners up in the 1968 Champions League final against TP Englebert of DR Congo, now known as TP Mazembe, over 2 legs suffering a 6-4 aggregate defeat, despite winning the second leg at home 4-1. That 5-0 first leg drubbing pretty much winning the final for TP Englebert / Mazembe.

As clubs in demise go, these are pretty much the definition of. As you can see they’ve won the top division in Togo a decent enough 18 times, although the last came way back in 1992. The clubs last proper trophy came in 1994, winning the Togo version of the FA cup. They did manage to win the Togolese Second Division Pool A last year, which is the division and group we’re in this, although the club weren’t promoted, not sure why.

The club finds itself in the 2éme league, which to us English speakers is the second division, aka the Togolese version of the SkyBet Championship. The Stade Oscar Anthony, presumably named after a former player called Oscar Anthony (maybe, possibly?) is in terrible condition, but I’m not concerned, I intend this to be a whistle stop tour of the second division, as me and Etoile Filante rise up the ranks and conquer Togo and the Champions League in record time. 

That may or may not be hyperbole, you be the judge.

== == == == ==