The quick trick to boosting player potentials

status


With a few short loans you can get that coveted “Has potential to be special” status for your FIFA 14 players – even with those who had no potential status at all

Sometimes, no matter how hard we try, we just can’t scout that world beater we’re looking for. We reload and reload until we’re tearing our hair out, but the next Messi just doesn’t want to show up.

Or maybe you’ve found a player who perfectly fits your future plans, except their potential is on the disappointing side.

Fortunately, there’s a simple way to turn your scouted players from good to amazing, so you can get the most from every player you scout in FIFA 14.

If you’ve read my scouting guide you’ll know that you can alter a youth player’s potential when you promote them from the youth squad. With a bit of luck you can end up with a whole team full of players with the “Has potential to be special” status (i.e. potential 91+), if you so desire.

Well it turns out there are other ways to change a youth player’s potential and turn them into 91+ potential beasts.

Loaning players

The core idea to this trick is that a potential can change any time a player is added to your team. The game considers promoting youth players to come under this remit, hence the potential changes there. But buying players and even having players return from loan can yield similar results.

This player's potential has gone up by at least 10 points with this trick

This player’s potential has gone up by at least 10 points with this trick

For example, I have a player whose potential range in the youth academy was 72-78, leaving him with a potential of around 75. However, with a little bit of reloading I managed to get him to have the “Showing great potential” status once I promoted him (i.e. potential 80-85). I just saved before I got the message saying he’d been promoted, then reloaded until the status appeared.

I then loaned him out for a season, then when he came back he had “An exciting prospect” as his status (i.e. potential 86-90). If I loan him out again it would be totally possible to raise his potential until he gets “Has the potential to be special” as his status.

Of course, potentials can go down as well as up, so be careful that you save before any loaned out players come back so that you can reload if necessary.

The quickest way to boost a player’s potential is to send him out on a short loan, then recall him after a day. This way you could hypothetically raise a young player from having no potential status at all to obtaining the “Has potential to be special” status in three short loans, and it would only take a matter of days.

Short loans are also preferable to full-season loans because with the latter you won’t find out if a player’s potential has changed until the start of the next season. That means waiting for the new season to load up, which could be a waste of time if a player’s potential ends up going down.

Buying players

This trick also affects players you buy in – presumably it works for all players, but you’ll only know for sure with players aged 21 or under, because once they hit 22 they lose any status indicating their potential.

Try it yourself. When you finish a season, advance through to the next one and browse the free agents. If you find any with a potential status message, send them a contract offer and save when you get the message saying they’ve accepted it.

Once you’ve done this, press accept to sign them, then view their status in the squad report and note it down. Reload, re-sign them and look again. Chances are it will be different, just like if you promote a player from the academy. Just keep trying until you get the best potential status you can.

It’s therefore a good idea to stagger any signings so that you can get the best possible results and to maintain more control. Get a player to have the status you want, save, then work on the next player.

Pretty simple! Use this trick to give your scouted players a nice little boost without the hassle of reloading scouting reports and hoping for the best.

Thanks to Postagain and Steve Pitts for the heads up on this.


Have you tried this trick yourself? If you have, what was the best result you had? Be sure to let us know in the comments!

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