Current Ability, Potential Ability and Star Ratings in Football Manager

Player Ability in FM is represented by two numerical ratings:

• Current Ability (CA): reflects the player’s ability level at the present moment.
• Potential Ability (PA): denotes the maximum ability level the player can achieve in their career.

Both values range between 0 and 200, with 200 being the highest i.e. Lionel Messi.

Current Ability in Football Manager

CA represents a player’s present performance level, with most players having a fixed CA value determined by Sports Interactive’s researchers. However CA may be randomised in each new save for lesser known players who are either very young or in more obscure leagues.

CA can both increase and decrease throughout a save. Proper training and development cause it to increase while it can decrease with age, injuries, or lack of playing time.

Potential Ability in Football Manager

PA represents the upper limit of a player’s ability, defining their theoretical maximum. A players CA can never exceed their PA and, unlike CA, a player’s PA is a fixed number and does not change during the game.

Achieving full PA depends on:

• Age: younger players have more time to develop.
• Personality and Mental Attributes: traits like determination and professionalism are crucial.
• Hidden Attributes: attributes such as ambition and consistency.
• Playing Time: regular match experience is essential.
• Training: Provide tailored training plans.
• Mentorship: Use experienced players to mentor young talents.
• Facilities: Invest in top-notch training and youth facilities.

For more on this check out our guide on When Players Peak in FM24.

Random Potential Ability in Football Manager

To add variability and challenge, FM employs a random PA system for players under 21. Instead of a fixed PA in every new save game, these players receive an ability range, indicated by negative values (e.g., -10 to -1). In each new save you make that player will have a unique potential ability thus ensuring unpredictability of player development like in real life, whilst maintaining realism by keeping within a fixed range.

Negative PA Ranges in Football Manager

Here’s the completed table for the negative PA values and their corresponding ranges:

• 10: 170-200
• 95: 160-190
• 9: 150-180
• 85: 140-170
• 8: 130-160
• 75: 120-150
• 7: 110-140
• 65: 100-130
• 6: 90-120
• 55: 80-110
• 5: 70-100
• 45: 60-90
• 4: 50-80
• 35: 40-70
• 3: 30-60
• 25: 20-50
• 2: 10-40
• 15: 0-30
• 1: 0-20

Rarely, players receive the coveted -10 rating, reserved for world-class talents like Endrick or Yamal in FM24.

Can players over 21 have random potential in Football Manager?

In the default database SI never assign random potential to players over 21. However, if you use the Pre Game Editor yourself, you can assign random potential to any player you like no matter their age.

The Star Rating System in Football Manager

FM does not directly show CA or PA values unless you use a custom skin or external tools. Instead, the game provides star ratings to give an approximate idea of a player’s ability and potential, showing up to 5 stars always in relation to your own squad.

Stars offer a visual representation of CA and PA, assessed by your backroom staff, which means that they are subjective and influenced by:

• the quality of the staff member to judge potential and ability
• the context (competition, squad level, etc.)

Silver/Grey Stars in Football Manager

If you see a player with stars but they’re silver or grey instead of gold that indicates the player is very low quality, usually you’ll only see youth players with these stars. 5 silver stars is less than half a gold star.

Why did a players star rating drop in Football Manager?

If one of your players star rating for either CA or PA has dropped that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The ratings are relative to your squad so if you sign a new star player, or if one of your players has increased in ability, other players ratings might then drop because they’re worse relative to the rest of your team, not because their actual ability has dropped.

For example if your star player is rated 5 stars and is 150 CA and then you sign a new player with a CA of 160, your 150 CA player might drop to 4.5 stars and the new player will be rated 5 stars. Don’t worry, the player who dropped to 4.5 stars has not gotten any worse.

The same would be true if an existing player in your team increased to 160 CA to become the new star player.

Players stars can also drop if you hire new coaches. For example if your Assistant Manager has Judging Player Potential of 10/20 and then you replace them with a new Assistant with Judging Player Potential of 18/20 the star rating for potential you see on your squad list will change because your new Assistant is better at judging their Potential.

How attributes affect CA

A players CA is calculated based on their attributes. However it’s not just a case of adding up all the attributes to get a total, each attribute has a weighting which defines how much it impacts the CA and each weighting is dependent on the position the player plays in. We’ll go into this in another guide, but if you want some insight here’s the weightings for each attribute and position.