Career Mode is one of the most popular game modes of the FIFA (now FC) franchise. Every year, EA makes a few changes to reflect real-world events, and these changes affect decisions such as which teams are the most fun to manage.
On that note, this guide discusses ten of the best teams to manage in FC 24, detailing reasons why each one is a challenge that you might be interested in taking on. Let’s get on with it!
Al Ahli Saudi FC
The rationale behind using this team in Career Mode on FC 24 is fairly obvious. The summer of 2023 was the biggest in the history of the Saudi Pro League due to the sheer number of global superstars that different clubs brought in.
Now, you might argue that the biggest player in the league, Cristiano Ronaldo, plays for Al Nassr and that should be the team to use, but Al Ahli has nearly a full starting eleven of European talent!
Players like Edouard Mendy, Ibanez, Merih Demiral, and Franck Kessie all played for giant European clubs. But, the most exciting thing about using this team in Career Mode is their attack.
They have a brand new frontline that includes Liverpool legend Roberto Firmino, former Manchester City star Riyad Mahrez, and former Newcastle trickster Allan Saint-Maximin.
That front line is guaranteed to entertain and you should have a lot of fun competing with other Saudi Arabian clubs that have also brought in exciting talent from overseas, including Ronaldo’s Al Nassr.
Continental domination should be the goal!
Chelsea
The best thing about using Chelsea in Career Mode saves in the past was the deep pockets of the board and consistently large transfer kitty.
While they are still very much a rich club, my reasoning behind choosing them as one of the best teams to manage in your FC 24 career is different.
Chelsea has signed a bunch of young players in recent transfer windows for a lot of money. This means that the club is stacked with youth talent, but not very many options that start out as very high-rated players in the game.
The idea behind this save is to use the talent that is already at your disposal to achieve your goals. Don’t touch the transfer funds and simply work with what you have to take the team back to Europe and the top of football.
It should be fairly easy, but it should also be a lot of fun seeing how much you can help the young players develop.
Newcastle
Newcastle is finally back in the big time after a top-4 league finish in the 2022/23 English Premier League season.
The smart (and heavy) investment from the Public Investment Fund of the Saudi Arabian Government is starting to yield dividends, and this is the best time in a long time to be a Newcastle supporter.
Taking on the job at Newcastle in FC 24 means that the club has to let go of the manager who brought them to this point, so you have a major task on your hands to show that you can keep up and surpass the amount of success that Eddie Howe achieved in his relatively short time with the club.
The first major trial will be your run in the UEFA Champions League, but you also have to try and make sure that the team can consistently challenge the big boys in the league going forward.
Leicester
It seems like such a long time now since Leicester completed the miracle of winning the English Premier League, but it was only seven years ago!
At the time, the club was fairly new to the Premier League, having been a Championship team just a couple of years earlier.
Now, following a horrid 2022/23 season, they’re back in the Championship after years of establishing themselves as a good Premier League team. Do you see where I’m going with this?
Your job as the manager of Leicester City in FC 24 is not only to bring the team back to the Premier League but also to try and recreate the miracle that happened in the 2015/16 season.
If you manage to achieve your goal, maybe you can even take things a step further by doing better than the UCL quarter-final exit of that 2016 team!
Schalke
Schalke was a fun save in FIFA 23 for managers looking for a “sleeping giant” type of challenge. They’d just earned promotion to the Bundesliga by winning the Bundesliga 2 in the 2021/22 season, and it seemed like they were on the up once again.
Unfortunately, the club got relegated back to the Bundesliga 2 and will be playing there in FC 24.
The challenge to wake this sleeping giant is that much more difficult than it was previously since you’re starting a tier below, but it’s still a very interesting proposition.
It does not help that the club is struggling terribly financially, so you’ll have to make the most of every budget squeeze and mini windfall that you earn as you progress and develop players to sell.
If you can get the club back into the Champions League spots within a couple of years, you can pat yourself on the back for a job well done.
Ajax
The idea behind managing Ajax in FC 24 Career Mode is similar to that of Chelsea’s in the sense that you’ll be dealing heavily with young players.
However, the difference here is that Ajax does not have the financial muscle of Chelsea, so they’re not buying these players for huge amounts of money. Instead, they’re cultivating them from very young ages through their famed youth system.
So, to complete this challenge, I don’t expect you to splash the cash on youngsters. Invest heavily in building the club’s youth academy and recruitment and use the products of that system to turn Ajax into a global powerhouse that consistently wins European trophies.
The good thing is that since you know you’re not going to be buying players until the challenge is completed, you should not feel pressured into selling your best talent for profit like the real Ajax.
Inter Miami
Yes, he is still one of the highest-rated players in the game, but I promise that this recommendation goes way beyond the fact that Lionel Messi plays for Inter Miami.
You see, Inter Miami is the youngest club in this list. The club was founded in 2018 and only started playing in the Eastern Conference of Major League Soccer.
Understandably, they struggled to compete with the best teams in the MLS until Messi joined the club, but fortunes are now looking up.
Another interesting fact is that Inter Miami is co-owned by football legend, David Beckham, and the club has since also signed more ex-Barcelona players Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba. But what does this mean for your career mode in FC 24?
These three players are near the end of their playing years, so the challenge will be for you to milk as much as you can from them to help make Inter Miami perennial contenders for trophies in the league.
That foundation can be used as a springboard to make the club the best in the U.S.A. even after the retirements of the Barcelona trio. So, let’s see how quickly you can make a 5-year-old club the best in the country.
Parma
In a similar manner to Schalke in the Bundesliga, Parma is one of the sleeping giants of Serie A. The club used to be an Italian powerhouse in the 90s but has since been relegated to the lower leagues in Italy.
The most capped goalkeeper of all time, Gianluigi Buffon, is one of the most notable products of the club’s youth system, and he even went back to play for the club before retirement.
Since gaining promotion to the Serie B in the 2021/22 season, Parma has steadily improved. A 12th-placed finish that year was followed by a 4th-placed finish in 2022/23.
The next natural step up for the team is promotion back to the Serie A, which makes this a perfect time to take over the reins as their manager in FC 24. However, promotion should be the barest minimum for you. The main goal is to bring European glory to the club once again.
Paris FC
Paris St. Germain has been a dominant force in the Ligue 1 for a good number of years now, mostly due to the fact that the financial backing of the club easily blows the opposition out of the water.
Thus, their noisy neighbors, Paris FC, have very little going for them in the way of PR. In fact, the club is not even in the Ligue 1. They are Ligue 2 regulars whose best finish in the league in recent times was 4th place in 2019.
Now, with the departure of Neymar and Lionel Messi, other clubs have the best chance in a long time to topple P.S.Gs dominance. It’s still a small chance, but it’s there.
The first challenge is to gain promotion to the Ligue 1, which should be fairly easy if you’re a good player. Once you do, you can set about building a dynasty that involves taking over as the new best club in Paris and the whole of France.
RC Lens
If you’re looking for a club that’s progressed significantly more in the race to topple PSG in the Ligue 1, look no further than Lens.
The club has been on an incredibly impressive run since gaining promotion back to the Ligue 1 in the 2020/21 season. They finished 7th in back-to-back seasons before narrowly losing out to PSG on the league title with a single point in the 2022/23 season.
The club’s single Ligue 1 title win was in 1998, so your first objective is to win the league. They’ve also never won a European trophy, so it would be quite something if you also manage to win the Champions League at the first time of asking.
There you go, ten of the best teams to manage in FC 24 Career Mode! If you’re undecided about which edition of the game to buy, especially if you only play Career Mode, we’ve written a guide that should help you make that decision.
