FIFA 13 | Good teams for career mode


Unsure of who to start a new career with? Or maybe you’re bored of using the best teams in the game and want more of a challenge? This article aims to help you pick a team that will be both fun to play with and a challenge to succeed with (because where’s the fun in using Manchester City?).

*NOTE* All this data applies to the default squads on FIFA 13. Shortly after the game was released, EA updated the squads in the game and changed some players’ OVRs and potentials. The data I have used for this article comes from the FIFA Fanatic website, which doesn’t have the information for this update, only for the default squads. Thus if you start a new career and download the latest squads, you may find your information is slightly different to the information in this article. I wouldn’t recommend downloading the latest squads anyway because you can’t check your players’ potentials against the FIFA Fanatic website – the squad update may have changed player potentials, but there’s no way of knowing for sure. So to know exactly where you stand, make sure you start a career with the default squads.

Anyway, the teams in this article only come from five nations – England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. This is because only these nations have (at least) two divisions of teams. This is good for three reasons. Firstly, it means that your young players will have a chance to develop and play against weaker teams for at least a season before encountering tough opposition. Secondly, it adds an element of variety – you won’t be playing the same teams every year, which can get boring. Finally, in the game these nations’ leagues are regarded as the best in the world. Therefore if you can make it to the top division then it will be a lot easier to attract top talent from around the globe than if you were a team in the Swedish league, for example.

I have arranged the teams into five tiers, with Tier 1 being the most attractive teams. Tier 5 is comprised of teams from English Leagues 1 and 2 and are for people who want a real challenge. Within each table the teams are only listed in alphabetical order – different people will rank the teams differently (by budget or by number of young talents, for example), so I felt listing them alphabetically was the simplest thing to do. Finally, I’ve listed how many players with potential 72+ each team has. Seeing as it’s so easy to go over players’ potentials in FIFA 13, many players listed with 72ish potential can actually go much higher, so this bar isn’t actually as low as it may at first seem.

Anyway, here we go:

Tier 1 – highly recommended

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These are the teams that I would thoroughly recommend everyone has a go with. AS Monaco have the best budget of any second division team in the game and are full of talent, so you can mould them to your own tastes. Bolton have 9 players with potential 80+, three times as many as the next highest amount in the Championship, which is amazing. All four of their goalkeepers have potential 75+ – consider that many Championship teams don’t even have one with that potential. This is the only problem though – I’d recommend you only have 2 goalkeepers with good potential (plus maybe one more with low potential as a backup), otherwise there’s not enough time to keep them all happy. Finally, Brescia have some amazing talents who will grow to be some of the best players in the world, Bouy in particular. Their low budget means they’re still a great challenge as well.


Tier 2

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Next step down are these teams. FC Barcelona B and RM Castilla, being youth teams, are absolutely full of great talents, which more than makes up for their low budgets. Villarreal CF and Wolverhampton, meanwhile, have plenty of their own promising players, but also have very good budgets, meaning you’ll also have access to more developed players. These are some of the strongest teams in this article.


Tier 3

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These teams aren’t quite as enticing as the Tier 2 teams, but they are still definitely worth considering, especially if you want more of a challenge. Teams like 1. FC Köln and Hertha BSC are bursting at the seams with talent and won’t be facing very strong opposition in the first season (at least), giving you plenty of opportunities to play your promising youngsters. Cardiff City, meanwhile, will face stronger opposition but have better budgets. They both have plenty of homegrown talents but there is room to improve, which is where the good budgets come in.


Tier 4

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If you want a challenge, consider these teams. AJ Auxerre, FC Nantes and Padua have lots of talented young players but quite lot budgets. You’ll have to be very scrupulous with your transfers, but it also means that there will be plenty of opportunities for your young players to get game time. UD Almería don’t have masses of promising young players, but they do have a decent budget (the second highest in the Spanish second division, behind Villarreal CF). This means you can either bring in cheap, promising young players or spend the budget on scouts – either way, the budget should allow you to make up the shortfall in amazing future talents.


Tier 5 – most challenging

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Finally, here are the teams for players who want a real challenge. Most of these teams have miniscule budgets and only a handful of future talents (plenty with potential below 72, however). I wasn’t completely mean, though – these 7 teams are the only ones in the English Leagues 1 and 2 with at least two players with potential 75+ (I’ve listed them in the ‘Positives’ section), so it’s not all bad! In fact, Plymouth Argyle have Matt Lecointe, who has potential 80 (although he’s the only one on their team with potential 75+). If you’re the type who likes starting at the very bottom and working your way up, these are the teams for you.


There are, of course, other teams worth mentioning. Other leagues from around the world have very good teams; in particular the Brazilian and Russian leagues are chock full of talent. However, you may find yourself getting bored with playing the same teams year in, year out. By all means give other teams a try though – if you have any recommendations, make sure you let us know in the comments!