Best Teams to Manage in Football Manager 26

Football Manager 26 redesigns and redefines Sports Interactive’s hit franchise for a new era. Now equipped with a sleek UI makeover and an overhauled matchday experience, the game offers plenty of reasons to dive back into the managerial ruckus. And as always, your journey will begin on the team selection screen.

With so many options to pick from and so many factors to consider, landing on the best side for your first save can be a confusing affair. Whether you’re looking to 180 a club’s present-day misfortunes or establish an empire with a top team, the choices are endless. To help you make the right decisions, we’ve picked out the best teams to manage in FM26 in this guide.

1. RC Strasbourg

• League: Ligue 1
• Transfer Budget: €7M

RC Strasbourg has all the ingredients for a compelling FM26 save. The French side is packed with exciting young talent, giving them the platform to go toe-to-toe against the likes of PSG and Marseille. Their youth facilities are quite decent, although the transfer budget leaves more to be desired. Player incomings are largely in the form of loans from parent club, Chelsea, and there’s a chance your standout players could be convinced to make that upward switch.

Given the circumstances, it can be tricky to extract consistent performances from this inexperienced side while also contending with the chopping and changing of your squad every season. Pleasing the passionate home support, which is constantly at odds with the administration, is another significant challenge, meaning the job isn’t a cakewalk by any means.

What makes this save so alluring are the bona fide FM wonderkids that you’ll get to manage and develop. Examples include Valentin Barco, Mike Penders, Julio Enciso, Diego Moreira, and more. Getting a tune out of these youngsters will result in some symphonic football on the pitch, putting you in a solid position for a Champions League qualification spot.

2. Crystal Palace

• League: Premier League
• Transfer Budget: €46M

They say winning is addictive, and Crystal Palace can certainly concur. The Eagles went from never lifting a domestic trophy to picking up the FA Cup and the Community Shield in the same year, all while displaying a tantalizing brand of football. Unfortunately, that winning squad is being taken apart bit by bit, starting with talisman Eberechi Eze departing for Arsenal and Marc Guehi set to follow suit next season.

This puts Palace in a precarious position, as they have a solid enough squad to juggle cup aspirations and European football during this campaign, but come next summer, they’ll be in dire need of reinforcements.

Handling this transition and delivering immediate success will be your primary objective in a Crystal Palace save. Alongside this, you’ll have to manage the development of key players such as Adam Wharton, Yeremy Pino, and Chadi Riad. Scouting a successor for Guehi should also be on your list of priorities. Ultimately, you’ll need to lead Palace to a memorable run through Europe, while ensuring that the standards never return to their mid-table days.

3. Blackburn Rovers

• League: EFL Championship
• Transfer Budget: €347K

Former Premier League regulars, Blackburn are now a shadow of the side that once tasted glory with Kenny Dalglish at the helm. The Rovers have descended to new lows in the past decade, including relegation to the third tier of English football. Even after climbing back into the Championship, they’ve been flirting with the drop, causing fan morale to sink to an all-time low.

While they managed a respectable 7th-placed finish last season, their stadium attendance remained the lowest in the league. Their squad is lacking promising talent, and reinforcements are an unlikely prospect due to a transfer budget that looks more like a wage bill. This is a damning scenario for a club with ample prestige, which is why Blackburn is among the best projects you can pick up in FM26.

The razor-thin squad has a few bright spots – Todd Cantwell being the chief among them. But for sustained success, you’ll need to erect a resolute defence that can maintain stalemates and close out games when required. Seeking promotion during your first season might be too big a task, so the best place to start is by restoring some hope within a fanbase that desperately needs it.

4. FC Schalke 04

• League: 2. Bundesliga
• Transfer Budget: €500K

FC Schalke was among the first German clubs to transform into a modern footballing organization that balanced commercial interests with sporting ambitions. The administrative direction brought them plenty of success during the 2000s as they picked up multiple domestic honours and finished Bundesliga runners-up on four separate occasions. During this spell, the club was a mainstay in the German top flight, while also being UCL regulars.

Unfortunately, it all came crumbling down after COVID, as a lack of matchday revenue, coupled with crippling debt, put the club near bankruptcy. Perils off the pitch affected performances on it, as Schalke went on the biggest losing streak in their history. Long story short, the side currently sits in the second tier, where it simply doesn’t belong.

Your goal is simple: bring the Royal Blues back to the Bundesliga. The players at your disposal don’t offer any cause for excitement, so you’ll have to rely on the club’s robust scouting department and youth facilities instead. Schalke were known for churning out elite talents on the regular, with Manuel Neuer, Julian Draxler, Leroy Sane, and Mesut Ozil being instant examples. If you manage to unearth and hone youngsters of that calibre, promotion will become significantly easier.

5. Galatasaray

• League: Super Lig
• Transfer Budget: €53M

Picking Galatasaray for an FM26 save is all about setting lofty goals for your managerial career. Domestic glory is almost a given, considering the quality of the squad, so your eyes should be on the Champions League instead. That’s easier said than done, of course, but a cursory glance at the lineup does show plenty of potential.

You’ve got a marauding forward with a knack for finding the back of the net in Victor Osimhen. A talented winger, who, despite being past his prime, has plenty of tricks up his sleeve in Leroy Sane. And a solid midfield base made up of Lucas Torriera and Ilkay Gundogan. The backline is slightly uneven, but that’s where your pragmatism comes in.

UCL nights against Europe’s bigwigs aren’t for the faint of heart, so drop that line, defend doggedly, and do whatever it takes to clinch the win. You’ve certainly got the players for clutch moments, and all that’s needed is for someone to put the pieces together – just like Jose did with Porto back in 2004.

6. Bayer Leverkusen

• League: Bundesliga
• Transfer Budget: €20M

Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen is eternally etched into the annals of ‘Streets Won’t Forget.’ Boniface offering hustle and bustle up top, Wirtz weaving magic alongside him, while Granit Xhaka blossoms into the authoritative midfield general he was always meant to be. Grimaldo and Frimpong running rampant on the wings, Tah and Tapsoba holding it down at the back. Every element in that team functioned like a well-oiled cog in a world-beating machine, but in football, cycles always come to an end.

Once the vultures were done picking apart Leverkusen, the remainder was almost unrecognisable. The current squad is composed of a few members from that iconic Bundesliga-winning side, along with a dash of young talent, in need of the right guidance. Erik ten Hag wasn’t up to the job, so now the onus falls on you.

Can you find the right balance between experience and youth, and put together a solid starting XI? Can you chart the development of exciting young players such as Claudio Echeverri, Malik Tillman, and Jarell Quansah? Can you bring glory back to the BayArena? Saves don’t get any more compelling than this.

7. Edinburgh City

• League: cinch League 2
• Transfer Budget: €2K

If you’re looking to properly test your mettle, may I present arguably the most difficult challenge in FM 26: Edinburgh City. The semi-professional side is currently competing in the fourth tier of Scottish football, but matters weren’t always so dire. Back in 2022, the club was promoted to League One for the first time in its history, with a new ownership group eager to amp up the team’s popularity.

Unfortunately, the takeover was marred by financial turmoil, which meant that many of their first-team players went unpaid. Most of them moved as a result, while Edinburgh were slapped with a six-point deduction. Like clockwork, they dropped back into the fourth tier, and after assembling a makeshift first-team in the span of three days, they were coined as relegation favorites. Despite the odds, City finished third last season, exemplifying their resilience, but things were only about to get worse.

The earlier insolvency event has now been charged with a 15-point deduction, meaning Edinburgh start the season with minus points. This also happens to be the biggest deduction in the Football Manager 26 database, so the odds can’t get any worse. Given the circumstances, managing to stay in the league is in itself an incredible accomplishment, but securing promotion? Now, that would be the stuff of legend.

8. Paris FC

• League: Ligue 1
• Transfer Budget: €10M

Briefly a part of the juggernaut that is PSG, Paris FC spun off into its own entity back in 1972. Unlike their Parisian counterparts, Les Bleus failed to establish themselves domestically, let alone in Europe. In fact, the 2025/2026 campaign marks their first appearance in the Ligue 1 after a 46-year absence.

In the spirit of being the new kid on the block, your job is to kick the hornet’s nest and gain some recognition. The players at your disposal include veterans such as Kevin Trapp and Pierre Lees-Melou, and a bit of youth in Obed Nkambadio, Nhoa Sangui, and Lohann Doucet. The transfer budget isn’t anything to marvel at, but it still offers room for smart recruitment. Ultimately, it’ll take some managerial wizardry to keep Paris FC in Ligue 1. And even if you can’t manage that, a positive result against PSG is sure to cement your place in the club’s folklore.

And that wraps up our pick for the best teams to manage in Football Manager 26. Which save idea are you going with? Be sure to let us know in the comments.