← Back to overview Development

Upgrades & Downgrades (PSD)

Twice per season every player is re-evaluated – stronger or weaker. The PSD is the reckoning for everything you invested in training, form and match practice. This chapter shows how it really does the maths, which numbers are realistic and how you get the most out of it.

When & what happens

The PSD runs overnight before season day 1 and before season day 28. Each one evaluates a fixed period:

PSD	evaluates
Season day 28 (mid-season)	season days 1 to 27
Season day 1 (start of the season)	the last 22 days of the previous season (days 29 to 50)

Every attribute is evaluated on its own – seven for outfield players, five for goalkeepers. The overall strength is then the new average.

The three pillars

Pillar	Share	What is measured	Realistic
Training	50%	the average training value of that attribute over the period	usually +0.5 to +2, at the top end +6
Fitness	20%	the average of stamina, freshness and morale	usually +0.2 to +0.5, at most around +1
Appearances	30%	competitive matches played out of those possible, plus a bonus for young regulars	usually +0.3 to +2, at the top end +5

What really comes out of it

Average per attribute in one PSD, evaluated for all outfield players of the manager-run clubs in World 1 (September 2026). The overall strength changes by the same amount.

Age	Training	Fitness	Appearances	Total	Top value
18–19	+1.8	+0.5	+1.8	+4.1	+11.4
20–23	+1.3	+0.3	+1.2	+2.8	+8.8
24–27	+0.7	+0.2	+0.4	+1.3	+4.7
28–29	+0.6	+0.2	+0.3	+1.0	+1.9
30–32	+0.2	−0.2	+0.3	+0.3	+1.6
33 and up	−0.5	−0.7	+0.1	−1.1	+0.1

The range is wide: a 19-year-old can gain eleven points in a single PSD or almost nothing. The difference is down to you.

Pillar 1: Training

What's measured is the average training value of each attribute over the whole period – that is, the values from 1 to 100 that you see in training. Pulling them up shortly before the PSD therefore achieves little; what counts is what was held over weeks. And: pace grows via the Pace training value, technique via the Technique training value. If you want to develop an attribute, you have to train exactly that one.

Average training value	Effect
below about 47	The training upgrade is cut noticeably – the lower, the more.
about 47 to 55	Normal range. At 55 you get the full base score.
above 55	Bonus: up to age 23, an average of 60 yields around 70% more than 55, an average of 63 a little more than double. From 24 to 29 the bonus is smaller – around 50% more at an average of 60.

The limits are guide values: the upper one is fixed at 55, the lower one depends on the weakest training value of all players in the world.

Two special cases: if an attribute is less than 10 points below its talent, the bonus above 55 no longer applies. And from 30 there is neither bonus nor cut – training then simply counts proportionally, only the growth potential is small.

Pillar 2: Fitness

Fitness is the average of stamina, freshness and morale over the period. Stamina and freshness count twice as much as morale. The comparison is with all players in the world: the weakest form average gets nothing, the best gets the full Fitness score.

Because the pillar carries only 20% of the growth, its yield is limited – around +0.6 for a 20- to 23-year-old with top talent, about +1 for an 18-year-old. It isn't worth sacrificing training just to keep form at the limit. You still shouldn't let it crash, though: the same values decide the line-up strength on matchday.

Pillar 3: Appearances

Every appearance in a competitive match counts – league, cup and international competitions. Friendlies and national-team matches don't count. The comparison is with the number of matches your club played in the period.

• Every appearance counts the same – even a brief one as a substitute. Minutes don't matter.
• No appearance, no yield: a player who doesn't play at all in the period gets zero from this pillar.
• Bonus for young regulars: up to the age of 24 there is a supplement that grows disproportionately with the number of appearances – markedly from the eleventh appearance on. At 18 it applies almost in full, at 22 still to a good third, from 25 not at all.

The same evaluation shows what game time does for the 20- to 23-year-olds:

Share of matches played	Appearances pillar	Total of all pillars
no match	0	+1.0
up to a third	+0.2	+1.6
up to two thirds	+0.8	+2.3
almost all	+1.7	+3.5
all	+2.3	+4.1

Age: the biggest lever

Age determines the growth potential that all three pillars draw on. Relative to a 20- to 23-year-old:

Age	Growth potential	Age penalty per attribute and PSD
18	180%	—
19	160%	—
20–23	100%	—
24–27	70%	—
28–30	60%	at 30: −0.5
31–32	50% / 40%	−0.7 / −1.0
33–34	30% / 20%	−1.5 / −2.1
35 and up	10%	−3.1 and more

The age penalty is applied once each in the Training pillar and in the Fitness pillar; the table shows the total. At 33, players also decide to retire: their contract can then no longer be renewed (see Your team).

Talent: the engine, not the ceiling

Every attribute has its own hidden talent. Above all it determines the pace: an attribute with talent 130 grows twice as fast as one with talent 70, one with talent 30 hardly at all. This applies to all three pillars.

As an attribute approaches its talent, the extras drop away:

Distance to talent	Bonus for young regulars	Training bonus above 55
more than 60 below	slightly boosted (×1.1)	yes
30 to 60 below	full	yes
10 to 30 below	×0.75	yes
less than 10 below	×0.5	no
at the talent or above	×0.1	no

Attributes with a talent below 35 get practically none of the regulars bonus. Talent is not a hard limit, though. Base growth carries on, just without the extras – in World 1 a good one in ten players is above his talent in at least one attribute. Where your players stand is shown by scouting.

Two brakes: league and top class

League brake: every attribute is compared with the average overall strength of all players in your league. Up to 1.2 times that figure it grows unbraked. Above that the pace drops steadily, and from 1.4 times only a tenth remains.

League average	brake starts at	half pace at	a tenth from
50	60	66	70
60	72	79	84
75	90	98	105
90	108	118	126

In lower leagues this bites early: a talent with 80 Pace grows at only 40% of the pace in a league averaging 60 until the club is promoted.

Top-player dampener: from an overall strength above 110, every upgrade is additionally cut – to three quarters at 115, to half at 120, to a quarter at 125, to a tenth from 128. The last points are the most expensive.

When players get weaker

• From 30 the age penalty bites – with little game time and weak values the total slips into the minus.
• Neglected training: if the training value falls below the normal range, the biggest pillar shrinks.
• No appearances: the Appearances pillar drops out completely.

You can hold on to an important veteran for a while by letting him play and keeping his training values in the normal range. The decline can't be stopped.

Youth PSD

Youth players are evaluated independently, three times per season: on season days 1, 17 and 34. Here what counts is talent and the configured development focus – there's no match practice yet. More on this under Youth & Scouting and Development & braking.

Your roadmap for every half-season

1. Pick your development players. Who is 18 to 23 and has talent? These players get the training focus and the appearances.
2. Hold the training values. The target for every important attribute: an average of at least 55 over the whole period. For the youngsters it can be considerably more via individual training.
3. Use every competitive match. Get your talents on the pitch in every match, as substitutes if need be. From the eleventh appearance the bonus picks up.
4. Form stable, not perfect. Don't let stamina and freshness crash – but there's no more than around +1 to be had from Fitness.
5. Check the league brake. If your gem is already too strong for the league, only promotion helps – or selling at the top price.
6. Move veterans on in good time. The market value follows the strength: sell before the first downgrades, not after.
7. Learn from the last PSD. The PSD details from the slush fund show for each player what Training, Fitness and Appearances yielded – the best basis for the next half-season.