Are you looking to start a new career in FM 26 but you’re out of ideas in which team to pick, or with kind of challenge you should embrace? Well, we will try to give you some good ideas which will surely give a new inspiration to start a new challenging career.
The most interesting teams to manage on FM 2026
Below there are some clubs with interesting details which make them excellent challenges for a Football Manager 2026 career. See in detail why we chose these clubs and in the end make your decision!
Boavista FC
Main Goal: Win Internal Cups (Taça de Portugal, and Taça da Liga)
In Portugal the history is all made by the three giant clubs, no one can win league titles besides those portuguese giants, but Boavista FC managed to win the portuguese league in 2002, that was an impressive victory considering that there is a huge gap in terms of finances between Boavista and the other three giants.
Boavista remains the fourth club in Portugal that more trophies won in the history of portuguese football. They won 5 Taças de Portugal (the main national cup), and 3 Supertaças (the portuguese super cup).
Currently they live a very different scenario… This year they were relegated to the portuguese second division (Segunda Liga) and the reality is that they aren’t the fourth best portuguese team, in fact, they are far from being so…
Could you take Boavista to the old glory days, and go back to fighting to win titles, maybe the internal cups?
Club Brugge
Main Goal: Semi-finals of the Champions League, or win the Europa League
During the last few years this football club is clearly dominant in the Belgian main league, however, internationaly speaking they aren’t successful or with a decent reputation.
Club Brugge has all the conditions to be much better in the international competitions, for example, they have the best training facilities and youth facilities that any club can achieve! This is impresive! Managing this club means you have almost all the tools to achieve success in the european competitions, but we know that will be a huge challenge…
America de Cali
Main Goal: Win the Libertadores
America de Cali is a well known name in the Libertadores, it is one of the most popular clubs in South America, and one of the strongest in Colombia, winning 15 league titles against 16 leagues conquered by Atlético Nacional.
Despite being a popular name in the Libertadores they never managed to win the competition. As incredible as it may seem they managed to reach four finals but lost all those four finals.
In addition to these four finals, they have also played in six other semi-finals.
America de Cali is another club that has already proved that can win many titles internally, but competing against the brazilian and argentine clubs in Libertadores is a much more complicated challenge.
The challenge here is to make the America de Cali a new Libertadores winner!
Hajduk Split
Main Goal: Win the Croatian League
Hajduk Split is the second most successful club in Croatia, however there is a huge gap between Dinamo Zagreb and Hajduk Split. One won the Croatian top league 25 times, and the other (Hajduk Split) won only 6 times.
Dinamo Zagreb has won 18 titles in the last 19 years, this is a completely impressive number, and challenging for anyone who takes on the Hajduk to overthrow this impressive dominance of its main rival.
Can you be a champion with the Hajduk? Can you do it more than once in a row?
Athletic Club
Main Goal: Win the Europa League
Athletic Club is a spanish football club from the Basque region and they have the particularity to only play with basque players! That’s right, it is not a national limitation, but rather a regional one, which makes the challenge of training this team something very complicated and challenging.
Now you are thinking that because of that regional limitation on acquiring only players of this regional birth they can’t succeed, or they have a hard time competing in the difficult La Liga?
We have to tell you that Athletic Club it is one of the best Spanish clubs, the third club with the most titles after Real Madrid and Barcelona, and in a fierce battle with Atletico de Madrid in the competition for the third team with the most titles conquered. All this with players from the Basque region!
Now that you can understand the real power of Athletic Club are you ready to do it better?
There is a con on the brilliant history of Athletic Club, they have never won any european trophy! The challenge here is to win something at the international level, maybe the Europe League?
Chivas de Guadalajara
Main Goal: Win the CONCACAF
The interesting point about Chivas de Guadalajara is that they can only sign mexican players. However, that isn’t a big deal because there are alot of good mexican players and Chivas have a good reputation so you can easily sign some good mexicans for your team.
The challenge here is to compete and be very successful in the CONCACAF Champions Cup that it is the main international competition for teams from North America, Central America and the Caribbean region.
The Mexican league will not be easy either as there are several quality teams that can sign players of all nationalities, unlike Chivas who will have to make a strong and totally Mexican team!
Chivas de Guadalajara’s website
Olympique de Marseille
Main Goal: Win the French Ligue 1
Competing against PSG it’s a very difficult challenge, and the truth is that Marseille’s history forces the club to compete against PSG for the French title.
There are big differences between Marseille and PSG… Paris Saint-Germain has a squad full of world stars and a huge transfer budget and a huge capacity to offer high salaries, unlike Marseille which has a much weaker squad and much more modest finances.
Competing against PSG will be very difficult, and this is a perfect challenge for anyone looking to surpass PSG’s power.
Marseille had its golden age in the late 80s and early 90s, in which they even won a Champions League (the only French club with a Champions League title), and also lost a Champions League final in 1991.
Olympique de Marseille’s website
Saint-Étienne
Main Goal: Win the Internal Cups
If you are young probably you don’t know this club well. But Saint-Étienne is one of the most successful clubs in France, and has won Ligue 1 ten times!
They remained for decades as the most titled club in Ligue 1 and now they are the second most titled club equal with Marseille, both with 10 titles.
It was a club that made his successful history in the 60s and 70s, but after that it never managed to win Ligue 1 again. In fact, they can’t reach the top three of Ligue 1 since 1982.
We could say that Saint-Étienne is the true sleeping giant who longs to have back his glorious years!
The short term goal is to win any internal cup in the first years of Football Manager 2026, and the long term goal is to put them back in the fight among the top three in the French League. Both are difficult goals to achieve considering that Saint-Étienne have a long title drought, and are not even able to compete for the top spots in the French League. However, it is important to note that in 2020 they reached the final of the French Cup and lost only 1-0 against the powerful PSG.
These are ours suggestions on the best teams to manage in Football Manager 2026. Each club has its own particularities, and they are all clubs that have won titles but have been very quiet in recent years. Whichever club you choose, you will have a long challenge to win titles again, and you will hardly be able to do so in the first season.