FC 26 Career Mode: Must-Try Challenges and Best Teams From Relegation Escapes to Fairytale Titles

If you are already knee-deep in pack openings and sweaty formations in Ultimate Team, fair enough. But Career Mode in FC 26 quietly got a lot beefier this year, and it is the part I cannot stop thinking about. It finally feels like a proper sandbox for tinkering, rebuilding, and occasionally burning a superclub to the ground just to see if you can put it back together.

What is actually new in Career Mode this year

The sim engine goes wider now. Instead of feeling like your league exists in a vacuum, the game runs multiple leagues side by side, so the wider football world moves with you. That alone makes long saves feel less canned. There is also a livelier manager carousel, so big jobs change hands and create new storylines, not just for your club but across the map.

On top of that, the new Live Start Points let you jump into a club with a set of short, medium, or long-term targets. Think: win a preseason trophy in about six weeks, or try to pull off back-to-back promotions. Hit goals, tick boxes, earn rewards. Yes, there are retro kits for doing it. No, I am not above grinding for them.

If you just want the best teams

Here are the top-rated squads if you want to drop straight into the fast lane. The 5-star clubs: Paris Saint-Germain (Ligue 1), Real Madrid (La Liga), FC Barcelona (La Liga), Manchester City (Premier League), Liverpool (Premier League), Arsenal (Premier League), Bayern Munich (Bundesliga). The 4.5-star tier: Atletico Madrid (La Liga), Newcastle United (Premier League), Tottenham Hotspur (Premier League), Chelsea (Premier League), Aston Villa (Premier League), Manchester United (Premier League), Napoli (Serie A), Borussia Dortmund (Bundesliga), Bayer Leverkusen (Bundesliga). Of course, waking a sleeping giant or dragging a lower-league side up the mountain is where the fun really is.

Career Mode challenges worth your time

• Oldham Athletic — Transfer budget: £0.88m. Back in the EFL and begging for a long save. The job: climb the divisions and make it to the Premier League again with pennies and patience. It is a slow burn, but it has that dozens-of-hours pull.
• Real Oviedo — Transfer budget: £1.8m. One of the best real-life turnaround stories: supporters bought shares to keep the club alive, it is largely fan-owned now, and they have made it to La Liga with hometown legend Santi Cazorla pulling strings. He is not 25 anymore, but he can shepherd you through year one survival. After that, you write the fairytale.
• Sunderland — Transfer budget: £35m. The Black Cats nicked promotion via the playoffs and already look comfortable throwing elbows with Premier League regulars. Keep them up, build them out, and see if you can take them from nervy survival to steady mid-table and maybe a European trip. Replacing Regis Le Bris on the touchline is not a gimme.
• Arsenal — Transfer budget: £131m. Three straight second-place finishes in the league and a very spendy summer. You get a stingy back line, a much sharper attack, and one very obvious question: can you finally get the Gunners over the line for the title?
• Schalke 04 — Transfer budget: £5.12m. A fallen force: relegated two seasons back, missed promotion at the first try, and recently sacked the technical director in real life. There is genuine talent to work with, but the mission has two parts: get back to the Bundesliga, then make sure you actually stay there.
• Sampdoria — Transfer budget: £6.91m. Another storied club stuck in the elevator. Solid money for Serie B, but the headache is squad churn: a lot of key minutes come from loanees who are scheduled to return to their parent clubs at season’s end. Plan ahead or pay for it.
• MSV Duisburg — Transfer budget: £1.29m. Top flight in 2008, third tier now, fresh off promotion last year and already ticking along nicely. The climb back to the Bundesliga is a project, but if you like underdog rebuilds, this is pure catnip.
• Cardiff City — Transfer budget: £4.99m. While Wrexham hoovers up the spotlight, Cardiff slipped into League One. The upside: a big stadium and the second-largest budget in the division. With Chris Willock and Calum Chambers on the books, you have the pieces to punch back to the Championship.
• Inter Miami — Transfer budget: £31.15m. Not exactly a hardship posting. You inherit Lionel Messi being Lionel Messi, plus Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba, and Luis Suarez. Your real job is succession planning: build the next wave and see which big names you can convince to come stateside.
• Manchester United — Transfer budget: £152m. Messy start to the season, messy squad makeup, and a summer that brought in Benjamin Sesko, Matheus Cunha, and Bryan Mbeumo. The attack has options; the midfield needs surgery. You may need to sell smart before you can buy big, but a proper reset could actually stick.

Final thought

FC 26 Career Mode finally feels less like playing in a snow globe and more like sharing a universe with everyone else. Whether you are hunting trophies with a 5-star monster or trying to stitch together back-to-back promotions via Live Start Points, there is more to do, more to break, and more to brag about. Retro kits help, too.