The Ultimate Guide to Starting a New Career Mode in FIFA 22

As a FIFA gaming enthusiast and content creator, one of my favorite parts of each new FIFA title is kicking off a brand new career mode save. Getting to take charge of a club from the bottom leagues and lead them to continental and global glory over many seasons is an addicting challenge that never gets old.

After already logging 100+ hours into FIFA 22‘s career mode, I‘ve put together this definitive guide on how to start a new career for success.

Step 1: Survey the Job Market and Pick a Team

The first step when starting a new FIFA 22 career mode is browsing the job listings and picking which club you want to take charge of. There are over 700 playable teams across 31 leagues to choose from.

Based on my experience, I typically recommend new players avoid 5 star teams at first. Managing expectations at an elite club like Manchester City or PSG is difficult. Instead, go for an underperforming 3 or 4 star team in a top league, or start from a low division. This allows more room to improve and experiment.

When surveilling potential teams, pay close attention to job security level, transfer/wage budget, squad quality, youth academy rating, training facilities level, and injury severity. These all impact the challenge level and long term trajectory of your save.

Personally, I‘m eyeing Leeds United for my next career mode. Their passionate fanbase expect attacking football and domestic success, but their thin squad presents risks. It‘s a great project.

Step 2: Craft Your Manager Profile

After picking your club, the next step is creating your own unique manager avatar and profile settings. This is a more minor detail, but personalizing your virtual manager always keeps me more invested in my save over multiple seasons.

In FIFA 22 you can customize tons of physical attributes like gender, body type, skin tone, facial features, hair style, and clothing. Make sure to define your preferred formation, philosophy tag, and manager nationality as well.

For my Leeds United save, I crafted a manager named Erik Johansson – a 45 year old Swedish tactician known for playing swashbuckling 4-3-3 attacking football in the mold of Marcelo Bielsa. Time to ruffle some feathers in the Prem!

Step 3: Immediately Scout Youth Talent

Every FIFA career stalwart knows one of the keys to long term success is investing in youth development from day one. As soon as you join a new club, hire some scouts and get them traveling to different countries searching for promising young talent.

I typically send my scouts to varying nations for 3-6 month assignments to uncover hidden wonderkids. Some of the best countries to scout youth prospects in FIFA 22 are Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Serbia. But keep scouting diverse areas.

Once you have a few exciting prospects identified, sign them to your youth academy quickly. Then regularly check in on their progress and give your top talents sporadic playing time with the senior squad to boost growth. This builds the foundation of your team‘s future.

Step 4: Evaluate Current Squad and Transfer Targets

Upon accepting a new managerial job, conduct a thorough assessment of your new club‘s current senior roster quality, play style fit, contract status, potentials, etc. This analysis will reveal ideal areas to target upgrades.

Pay attention to team leaders, positional weak spots, depth issues, declining veterans, underrated youngsters, contracts expiring soon, and team chemistry. For example, Leeds United clearly needs CB and CM reinforcements in my initial audit.

From there, shortlist realistic transfer targets to strengthen problematic areas, using your scouting network and transfer budget funds wisely. I plan on trying to sign quality ball-playing center back Evan Ndicka and well-rounded midfielder Alexis Mac Allister as top targets.

Step 5: Establish Preferred Tactics and Style

Getting familiar with FIFA 22‘s deep tactical tools is vital for career mode. Start configuring your preferred formation, defensive/attacking strategies, player roles and custom tactics from the outset to impose your managerial vision.

I like to set up quick, aggressive passing with plenty of off ball runs to break lines. Things like overlapping wingbacks, inverted wingers cutting inside, a pressing defending style, and a high back line fall right in line with my positive style.

Just keep in mind player familiarity and comfort level with your chosen tactics. Drastically shifting tactics or using players out of position often negatively impacts player growth and consistency. So be prudent and patient introducing changes.

Step 6: Guide Development and Maintain Morale

As matches, transfer windows and seasons fly by in career mode, stay attentive regarding squad morale, roster depth, player growth needs, and contract renewals. Juggling all these elements keeps teams progressing.

I rotate my Starting XI frequently and utilize the squad hub to monitor which positions need reinforcements or has deadweight to sell off. Consistently play well performing youngsters to accelerate their development arcs too.

Positivity mentoring young players and reacting calmly whenever squad issues arise also keeps the locker room atmosphere healthy and productive. Taking good care of your players pays off big picture.

Step 7: Closely Manage Finances Over Time

While winning matches and collecting silverware are the flashy fun parts of career mode, responsibly balancing the club finances behind the scenes is equally vital for prosperity.

Keep tabs on rising transfer/wage budgets as annual profits increase, be prudent offering contacts to preserve salary cap flexibility, make tough calls selling fan favorites when necessary, and avoid overpaying for transfer fees/wages that ties up too much funds.

Installing quality free agents, loaning in veterans short term, and promoting top youth prospects are great supplementary squad building methods when money gets tight. Just like in real life, even little financial edges make a difference assembling teams and facilitating sustained success across seasons.

Final Thoughts

That covers the major steps I would recommend when starting a new career mode journey in FIFA 22. If you follow even some of this guidance, you‘ll give yourself a fantastic chance of guiding your chosen club to glory.

The most important things are choosing a club realistically aligned with your experience level, emphasizing youth development projects early on, clearly defining your tactical identity, taking good care of squad harmony/morale, and keeping your club financially sound.

Let me know if this guide helps you achieve newfound career mode prosperity or if you have any other FIFA questions arise! I‘m always happy to offer more specific tips.