FIFA 23 Career Mode: A Beginner’s Guide

Start a Career Mode. Head to Modes > Play > New Career. You’ll then choose between Create New Manager or Create New Player. This guide focuses on managing a team, so pick the Create New Manager option to customize your character or select Play As A Real Manager to take on the role of an actual manager from real-world football.

Create or select your club. You can either build a brand-new club from the ground up, customizing everything from its name to its stadium, or pick a real-world team. Choosing a real club brings in its actual name, venue, finances, and board expectations.

Explore different leagues. If you're leaning towards an existing club, check out leagues from across the globe to find your ideal team. You’ll see Board Expectations, which highlight what the club's leadership expects from you. Other info includes a quick club overview, Transfer Budget, overall Club Value, jerseys, and stadium details. Pay close attention to the Transfer Budget—it defines how much you can spend on new signings.

Adjust your career mode settings.

• Match Difficulty: Set the challenge level that suits your playstyle. If you’ve done the initial training, the game might auto-select this based on your performance.
• Half Length: This sets the time per half—double it for the full match duration (e.g., 6 mins per half = 12 mins total).
• Currency: Pick the currency used for player wages and contracts.
• European Competitions: Join continental tournaments alongside domestic leagues.
• Transfer Window: Enables buying and selling players.
• International Job Offers: Lets you manage a national team alongside your club—or only manage internationally.
• Negotiation Strictness: Determines how tough contract and player negotiations will be.
• Financial Takeover: Choose how much transfer money you want at the start.

Choose a pre-season tournament. You’ll get the chance to enter a pre-season tournament—great for testing your squad while the transfer window is open. Use this to figure out who stays and who goes. Just don’t rely on it for big earnings—the prize money isn’t huge.

You're all set! Your first FIFA 23 Career Mode club is ready to go! But the real game begins now. As the manager, expect to spend much more time making decisions, setting tactics, and handling player negotiations than just playing matches. Let’s dive into the heart of team management!

Set up your team management. On the main menu bar, you’ll find various options. Navigate to Squad and you’ll be able to create formations, manage your squad, or oversee your youth academy. Click on Team Management to begin setting up your tactical game plans. Create the ideal formation tailored to your players and style of play.

Go to Tactics and refine your game strategy. There’s no one-size-fits-all tactic. Each player, team, manager, formation, and opponent requires unique strategies. Tailor your tactics to suit your squad's strengths. Then, head to Roles to assign important responsibilities such as Captaincy, Free Kicks, Penalty Taking, and more.

Visit Instructions. This is a key part of squad management. Here, you’ll assign specific tasks to each player depending on their position, playing style, abilities, and the overall team strategy. Adjust instructions to ensure you get the best performance from everyone during both attack and defense.

Check out the Team Sheet options under Squad. This allows you to create multiple team setups with different formations, tactics, and more. You can even adapt team sheets from other clubs if you prefer their setups.

Explore additional options. Under the Squad tab, you’ll find the Squad Hub. This area gives you detailed insights into your players’ skills, traits, abilities, and contract status. We’ll dive deeper into the rest later—right now, let’s focus on the Development section.

Head over to the Development section. Inside the Development tab, assign each player their unique Development Plan to boost their abilities in alignment with your team strategy and the player’s strengths.

Unlock your players’ full potential. Avoid using the default "Balanced" plan unless necessary—for example, with aging players or those who’ve peaked. Under Growth, pick a focused Development Plan. You can also change the player’s Position using the option next to Growth. After choosing the plan, check how long it will take in the Progress bar. To the right, you'll see four core attributes affected by the plan. Focus on enhancing the attributes that align with the player’s position and role. If a stat is already High, switch to a different plan, as players can’t exceed their max potential.

Dive into Youth development. The final option under Squad is Youth Development. Here, manage your youth players—promote the promising ones to your Senior Team or release those who don’t meet expectations. If a player shows potential but isn’t quite ready, assign them a fitting Development Plan. The same development principles apply as with the main squad.

Navigate to the Weekly Schedule. Here, you can set Schedule Rules for your team. The best approach is generally a Rest Day before a match, a Recovery Day after the match, and a weekly plan with intermittent training. This setup helps maintain a balance between your players' Fitness, Sharpness, and Morale.

Focus on training days. During training sessions, ensure you complete the drills and aim for the highest grades possible. After doing drills a few times, you’ll be able to simulate future training sessions. Your players will automatically achieve the highest grade they previously earned.

Keep an eye on team morale. This is a crucial factor, as it significantly influences both player performance and match outcomes. To boost morale, hold positive press conferences and provide encouraging statements, even after a loss. A confident team performs better in both training and matches.

Select Scouts from the Transfer menu. This is option s. Scouts are tasked with finding the best players according to your instructions. A 5-star experienced Scout will scout more players, but fewer will match your specifications. A 5-star Judgement-rated Scout will scout fewer players, but more will align with your requirements. This principle also applies to Youth Scouts.

Set up your scouting network. Deploy a scouting network in any country and specify how long you want your scout to search for players. The longer the duration, the more prospects will be reported—though it will cost you more.

• This also applies to Youth Scouts.

Add players to your shortlist. From the Scout Report, transfer your target players to your Shortlist if you plan to buy or loan them.

• To buy a player, you'll first negotiate with their current club, offering a transfer fee, potentially including a release clause. It’s smart to do your homework on the player—check their value and recent form before bidding. You can also trigger the release clause to skip negotiations, though that’s not usually the best approach.

Start contract talks. Once a transfer fee is agreed upon with the club, begin negotiations with the player. You'll discuss weekly wages, squad role, contract length, and potential bonuses. Their wage demands may vary depending on recent performances.

Sell your players wisely. Selling follows the same steps as buying—just in reverse. If your player is in top form and playing a key position, you might fetch more than market value. Always aim for a deal that benefits both parties.

• If this is your first time diving into Career Mode, it's best to begin with a club that has modest expectations. Even if you’re good at playing FIFA, managing a club is a different challenge. Failing to meet the board’s goals or the club's performance standards—especially with high-tier teams—can quickly get you fired.