5 fun challenges to refresh FIFA 18 career mode

This is a guest post by Harrison Hawe. If you want to write for FIFA Scouting Tips, just get in touch! I’m always on the lookout for new writers.

FIFA 18’s career mode can become a little stale if you’ve played it non-stop this year, so this guide is aimed at giving career mode a new lease of life. With these challenges you should be able to enjoy FIFA 18 for a long time to come!

Rebuilding a team to glory

This particular challenge has increased in popularity in the last year or two. It involves picking a team who were previously successful and rebuilding them back to where they once were. My personal goal of this challenge would be to win the Champions League; however, you can take it as far as you’re willing to go.

A good team to use would be Nottingham Forest, back-to-back European Cup winners, or Preston North End, back-to-back England First Division champions. If you’re only looking for a shorter rebuild, Parma from Serie B is also a good choice.

5 fun challenges to refresh FIFA 18 career mode

Can you return Nottingham Forest to glory? Image credit: Organic Publicity

You can personalise this challenge depending on your style of play. I tend to make signings which are unrealistic and try to fast track my way to the higher divisions. Or, if you are wanting a real challenge, you can play this career mode with as much realism as possible, using as few pre-contract signings as you can and relying heavily on your youth academy. This is quite a long-winded challenge and might take you a while to achieve your goals, but if you like that sort of thing, this challenge is definitely for you.


The youth academy challenge

Now this one is tough. Pick a team in the lowest division of its country with an average amount of funds for its league. Maybe a Forest Green Rovers or Karlsruher SC in Germany. Again, the goal is similar to the previous challenge (although you can set yourself whatever goal you like), but winning the Champions League is a good place to start.

In the first season, hire one or two youth scouts and send them away for the season and recruit as many youth players as you can. While you are doing this, simulate through the first season, selling as many of the club’s original players as the game will allow. The challenge starts from the second season, where you’ll be trying to build a successful club from a group of youth players.

5 fun challenges to refresh FIFA 18 career mode

Build your team’s future with a youth-only challege

To make it even more challenging, send a scout out for a few months and sign every single scouted player he suggests, even (or especially) the terrible ones. Then try to win some silverware using your rag-tag bunch of 30-45 rated players.

Whichever way you want to play this challenge, it’s guaranteed to be tough but very rewarding.


The division reversal

Reversing the English divisions on their head takes some time to set up, but it yields some interesting results.

There are several ways to approach this one. You can either start at the bottom with an ex-Premier League team and work your way up the leagues, or the more interesting way to take on this challenge is to start at the top with a lower rated team.

5 fun challenges to refresh FIFA 18 career mode

Can you strengthen the minnows before the giants return to the top flight?

If you pick this path, the toughest part is to see if you can build a team which is good enough to fight against the bigger clubs when they inevitably arrive back into the top division. What makes this challenge interesting is the time limit it introduces, in which you have to build a team that’s good enough not to be relegated in the time it takes for the best teams to arrive back in the top flight.


The journeyman

This one is pretty self-explanatory. This challenge involves spending every season with a different club, signing with a new one at the end of each season. This puts an unusual twist on career mode as it eliminates the need to build a club for the future, meaning you can sign good players for cheaper because of their age, such as your Iniestas or Ibrahimovics.

5 fun challenges to refresh FIFA 18 career mode

Moving from team to team limits how long you have to achieve success

Your first league should be from a nation you have never played before and a job you are unlikely to be offered in the future, such as team from the MLS or South America. This is because once you finish a season in a certain league, you can never return to that league – that’s just part of the challenge.

The aim is to build up as many domestic and continental titles in the manager review screen while moving around every season. If you want to mix it up a little you could use the youth academy to develop a protégé and take him to every team you go to, maybe even taking over his national team and making him into the GOAT.


The super league

I’m sure at some point everybody has wondered what it would be like if Europe’s greatest teams were all part of one huge league system. If you move the greatest teams from across Europe into the English Divisions, that is exactly what you get.

This video from Sparring DK shows how to set it up. It takes a little while to finalise, but it is super rewarding. If you want to go even further, you could bring all the teams in the world into Europe, not just the English Leagues – here is a link to the FIFA reddit page with an image of how to set up a Super League all the way across Europe.

5 fun challenges to refresh FIFA 18 career mode

Creating a super league has you competing against the best teams around. Image credit: Arkarillian on Reddit

Whichever league and team you go for, it is always going to be a challenge as every team in your league will be of a similar skill level and will all be fighting for promotion and silverware, just as you are.

Moreover, in the second half of the season your funds will become very tight if you’re using a side with average resources such as Hoffenheim or Malaga CF, due to the travel costs of having to travel all across the world every game day.


So there you have it, 5 more ways for you to keep playing career mode. Have you found a great challenge to try in career mode? Let us know in the comments!