FM22 Save ideas - Italy

So you've probably experienced the frustration of loading up a game of Football Manager and not progressing past the first screen, not even sure what leagues to load nevermind what club you might take charge of. Well in this new series we're gonna have a look at some of the stories that might tempt you to start a save in FM22. If videos are more your thing you can follow along on the FM LLama Youtube Channel instead or simply scroll down for the embedded video. Thanks alot to FM Llama for sharing this create content with us 🙂

Welcome to fm 22 save ideas where we give you inspiration for your next Football Manager adventure. We've got three clubs in Italy this time with a story that might just inspire your next FM save.

Club 1) The Italian Leicester City

Italian football has long been dominated by teams from the north. The cities of Turin and Milan have 80 scudettos between them. It's rare for a Serie A title to go to a team from the south of the country, even Napoli have only won the title twice. But off the west coast of Italy on the island of Sardinia lies the city of Cagliari.

In the 1969-70 season Cagliari pulled off an achievement similar to Leicester City's Premier League triumph. An accomplishment that has given the Sardinians a special place in the hearts of Italian football fans. The club were only promoted to Serie A for the first time in 1964 but led by national team striker Gigi Riva the club were champions of Italy just six years later. The first Scudetto claimed by a club lying to the south of Rome, fans of Cagliari may also remember the Cagliari team of the 90s that contained international stars such as Daniel Fonseca, Julio Dely Valdés and Luís Oliveira. The 1993 side finished six in Serie A qualifying the club for continental football the following year, where Cagliari progressed to the semi-finals of the Uefa Cup beating Juve in the quarterfinals before letting a first leg advantage over Internazionale slip. Cagliari are a club boasting an impressive alumni of former staff Claudio Ranieri and Massimiliano Allegri both coached the club with Allegri being a player during that Uefa Cup run in the 90s.

But the island's most famous son is arguably Gianfranco Zola and the diminutive forward finished his playing career with the club helping them to promotion in 2004 before going on to coach the club a decade later. Fast forward to the present day and Cagliari are a team that has spent the last few seasons in the bottom half of Serie A. Last season they finished two places above the drop zone in 16th place and this campaign will be their first with former interim Watford coach Walter Mazzarri at the helm. Unless of course you replace him for FM22, tasked with the job of improving the Sardinians league standing before launching an assault on Italy's seven sisters and taking Cagliari back into European Competition.

Club 2) A club with a torrid past rebuilding its reputation

For option number two we're heading from Serie A out down to Serie C for a lower league adventure, but we're staying on the islands. On the eastern coast of Sicily lies Calcio Catania a city of some 300,000 residents but home to a football club boasting 600,000 members making them Italy's 12th most popular club. The elephants may not have quite as much top flight experience as their northern rivals but they finished eighth in Serie A as recently as 2013. However their history is punctuated by financial hardship, courtroom dramas and fan violence that the club has had to overcome. In 1993 catania were demoted to Italy Six Tier because of their financial irregularities and in 2003 the club delayed the start of the season whilst they mounted a legal challenge to the relegation they'd suffered the previous campaign and in 2014 they were demoted two divisions and awarded a points deduction having been found guilty of match fixing. The club's darkest period came in 2007, rioting at the derby match with Palermo led to the death of a police officer, football across italy was suspended and since then Catania have been a club that is trying to rebuild its reputation and re-establish a more positive legacy. These seem to be more optimistic times for the club though as an investment group took ownership of Catania in 2020 with the ambition of taking them from Serie C outsiders back to Serie A. Famous managers have attempted to turn Catania into a formidable outfit over recent years such as Walter Zenga, Siniša Mihajlović, Vincenzo Montella and Diego Simeone. But is the stage set for a new managerial appointment? Are you the coach that can rise through the leagues with Catania, qualify for European Football and ultimately build a club capable of winning Sicily's first major domestic trophy?

Club 3) A club that's had to reform 3 times

So maybe Catania’s not the right club for you but you still fancy starting out in the lowest playable division of Italy for FM22? Well don't worry because we've got one more club with a story that might just inspire your next save. It’s another club to grace Serie A during their heyday in the 1990s. Calcio Foggia the little satans were formed in 1920 and the last two decades have been turbulent with the club going through bankruptcy and reformation three times, most recently in 2019 when the club was demoted to Serie D. But life was better for Foggia in the early 90s, after spending much of its existence in the lower leagues, Foggia's golden era coincided with the appointment of Czech coach Zdeněk Zeman. Having been fired by Foggia during an early spell in the mid-80s Zeman was reappointed in 1989 and he immediately set about revolutionizing the club. He took Foggia from Serie C to Serie A playing a captivating brand of aggressive and attacking football possessing talent such as Giuseppe Signori, Francesco Baiano, Brian Boy, Dan Petrescu, Igor Kolyvanov, Igor Shalimov, Luigi Di Baggio. The minnows from Puglia narrowly missed out on European qualification in three successive seasons before Zeman departed for Lazio. A return to the lower leagues and two decades of financial mismanagement ensued but the club has now been promoted back to Serie C and Zeman is back at the helm for a third time. Foggia are a well-supported club with a 25,000 capacity stadium and at 93 years old and having attended his first game in 1937
Nonno Ciccio is said to be Italy's oldest ultra. But Zeman is now 74 and maybe the time is right for a younger coach to take the helm for FM22. Taking charge of a cash strapped club in Serie C would be a challenge but could you claw your way back to Serie A on a shoestring before finally qualifying Foggia for continental competition.

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