A transfer market
for real

One offer, two answers

The same offer includes what you pay the club and the contract you offer the player. The next day or the one after (depending on your sporting director’s stars) the club answers and, if it accepts, the player. They can accept, ask for more or say no, and they always tell you why.

Everything that’s negotiated

• Wage and contract length.
• Release clause: higher protects you; the player likes it low.
• Signing bonus, goal bonus, house and car.
• Transfer fee all at once or in instalments, one per contract season.
• Sell-on percentage for the selling club.
• Loans with part of the wage and a purchase option.

Free agents, renewals and release clauses

Contracts end: renew yours in their last seasons or they’ll leave for free. Free agents cost no transfer fee, but they want a bonus. And if you pay a player’s release clause, his club can’t refuse: he just has to want it.

Windows and a living market

You negotiate all year, but signings arrive in the summer and winter windows. Computer-run clubs also buy, sell and transfer-list players, and they bid for yours: if they make you an offer, it reaches your office.

Signing players worldwide

You can sign players in any country under the same rules: every league is public, and in your own country you start with 70 % of contacts, which your scout raises wherever you send him. A foreign player arrives with a dip in morale that fades matchday by matchday (less if he speaks the language or has compatriots), and one in five youngsters your scout brings you comes from the country where he is posted.