← Back to overview Players & Strength

Youth & Scouting

Talent decides how fast and how far a player can develop. It's secret – but with patience, good training and a strong youth setup you raise your own stars.

What is talent?

Every player has a secret talent cap per attribute, in the range 30–100. It sets the development pace: a highly talented attribute grows fast, a low-talent one only slowly. Talent is a rough guideline, not a hard wall – with consistently good coaching a player can grow beyond it, with poor coaching he never reaches it (more under development).

Scouting categories

Scouting gives a rough estimate of overall talent. From weak to strong:

• Recreational player
• Solid player
• First division
• Star player
• Prodigy

… and rumour has it there's an even rarer category. Important: the categories are only for orientation and overlap a lot – a strong "Solid player" can come close to a weak "First division".

The same talent categories apply to your pros: how to scout finished players (your own or from the transfer market) and what fair play and injury proneness mean is covered in Pro players & scouting.

Your own youth

• Scouting: brings new youth players; one scouting takes about 8 days.
• Squad size: depends on your youth academy upgrade (see Stadium & facilities).
• Development support: how many youth players you can actively develop is set by the youth academy. Pick the position each is developed for – he then realises his potential best in the relevant attributes.
• Development: youth PSDs take place three times per season. The more potential, the faster the progress.
• Promotion: from age 18 you can promote a youth player to the first team. At the latest on his 19th birthday he leaves the youth team – if not promoted, he retires.