The streets of Cataluña were once again awash with red and yellow as the heroic young team of Unió Esportiva Sant Andreu paraded the La Liga trophy through the streets of the region. Homegrown stars like newly installed club legend Genar Iglesias, captain Luis Marín and his fellow Spain international Norbert led a wild party as they celebrated with their loving fans, who lifted their former Ultras leader turned manager Oriol Ribas shoulder high through the streets.
Sant Andreu came into Ribas’ 16th season at the helm with a massive £533m in the bank, which was boosted by selling backup striker Rai Barberá to Milan for £14m. Ribas continued to snap up exciting young talent around the world, all of whom went straight into the youth team. And he promoted exciting Swedish 17-year-old Christian Dahl, Portuguese midfielder Cleidimilson Amoco, Swiss striker Nathan Henrion, Slovakian defender Patrick Blazek and homegrown 16-year-old goalkeeper Norbert Dueñas.
Maiden LaLiga Title Defence
The Spanish bookies made Sant Andreu 2nd favourites for LaLiga at 7/2, only behind their Turf Wars rivals Barcelona at 11/10. Real Madrid have dropped off to 9/2, followed by Sevilla and Villarreal (20/1), Athletic Club (25/1) and Atlético (33/1). Their title defence began with Iglesias, Marín and giant striker Sam Docherty earning a 3-1 victory at Espanyol, while Real beat Barcelona 2-1 in an opening-day El Clásico. That was backed up by Marín scoring the only goal at home to Real, in which they had 18 shots to the visitors’ 5, followed by Iglesias scoring the only goal at Atlético and Norbert doing the same at home to Valladolid. The good start continued and got a bit more convincing, including Marín, Iglesias and Docherty all bagging braces in a 7-0 thumping of Mallorca.
Iglesias, in particular, was in inspired form, scoring more goals in the first 13 games (8) than he did all of last season. Heading into 2031, Sant Andreu defeated Villarreal 3-1 and city rivals Barcelona 4-3 after extra time to win their first domestic cup in the Supercopa. Theor domestic domination continued with a 4-3 win at Real in January, before an Iglesias hat trick inspired a 7-1 hammering of Espanyol. A wasteful 0-0 at home to Barcelona left the holders 13 points clear at the end of February and, despite a tricky March, they secured consecutive titles with a 5-0 thumping of Sociedad in early May.
They went on to win the league by 4 points, finishing on 90 points after 28 wins, 6 draws and 4 defeats, scoring 108 and conceding just 34. Iglesias was again the best player in the league with a 7.64 average rating, Norbert led the assists chart with 17, ahead of Iglesias and attacking midfielder Quentin Jansen (16 and 14), and Docherty was 2nd top scorer with 25 in 28 with Iglesias 10th (15 in 35).
Champions League and World Club Cup Exploits
Dueñas impressed on debut as Sant Andreu began their Champions League campaign with a 4-1 win at Saint-Étienne and Amoco scored his first goal in a 2-1 victory at home to Brighton. Defeats at City and Liverpool put them at risk, but big wins over Partizan and Ajax lifted them to 8th on goal difference. They drew Inter in the last 16 and Docherty scored four in a 5-1 aggregate victory, then took on City in the quarters and a 2-0 home win and Norbert’s late goal in the second leg was enough to advance. That set up a huge Turf Wars clash in the semis, and a superb Jansen brace led a 4-2 home win before Ricardo and Docherty finished the job by securing their first-ever win at Camp Nou. A third Final in four years saw them take on Liverpool, and Ribas celebrated 800 games in management with a comfortable victory as Jansen’s volley sandwiched a Marín brace to seal a 3-0 win.
Recent success saw Sant Andreu head to their first Club World Cup in Germany a month later. They started well with Docherty’s hat trick leading a 7-1 hammering of Toronto, before beating Egypt’s Al-Ahly 5-2 and Saudi’s Al-Ahli 2-0. Docherty’s header was enough to see off Leipzig 1-0, Marín and Docherty downed Marseille 2-0 in the quarters and they completely dominated PSG in the semis, having 21 shots to 7, and Jansen’s brace led a 4-0 win. That sent them into the Final against Bayern in their own stadium. The hosts edged a poor first half, but the Spaniards hit the front as Bonacic’s strike took a huge deflection. They completely bossed the game with 64% possession, and that goal was all Sant Andreu needed to become Champions of the World!
Building A Sant Andreu Dynasty
The strong intakes continued, delivering potentially their best graduate yet in centre back Giulio Leonardi, who came through the academy with LaLiga quality and as the 8th best centre back. So he went straight into the first team. And that prompted Ribas to sell stalwart centre back Peter Digha, now 29, to Arsenal for a club record £56m and backup left back Leandrinho to Real for £40m.
The 2041/42 campaign began well, including fullbacks Giorgios Christoforou and Kelechi Suleiman earning a 2-1 win at home to Barcelona. Marín made his 450th league appearance for the club in an 8-2 demolition of Mallorca and, four games later in early December, usurped Óscar Reyes as its record goalscorer as he scored his 165th league goal for Sant Andreu with the opener in a 2-0 win at home to Leganés. The Spanish international had arguably his career-best season, including a superb hat trick earning a famous 4-2 win at Turf Wars rivals Barcelona in February. Even the Sant Andreu backup teams were good enough to beat most LaLiga sides and drew 0-0 at Real (given they had several world-class players on the bench). And they cruised to a third successive Spanish title by 7 points, finishing on 91 points after 29 wins, 4 draws and 5 defeats, scoring 100 and conceding 42. Norbert was the league’s best player with a 7.56 rating, ahead of Jansen and Iglesias (7.51 and 7.39), and led the league with 16 assists in 31 games.
Sant Andreu began the 2042/43 campaign with testimonials for Marín, Iglesias and goalkeeper Roy Álvarez. They began the season well, but not as well as an in-form Villarreal. However, a return to form for Docherty, who struggled with injuries early on but scored 13 in 5 games in March, saw them move 6 points clear. A 3-2 win at Real virtually secured another title, and they wrapped up four in a row with two games remaining, with Marín scoring the winner on his 500th league appearance for his home club. They went on to win the league by 7 points, finishing on 91 points after 28 wins, 7 draws and 3 defeats, scoring 96 and conceding 35. Jansen was the league’s best player with a 7.64 rating, ahead of Docherty and Marín (7.35 and 7.32), Docherty was the top scorer with 25 in 31 and Iglesias led the assists chart with 15.
In the Champions League, Leonardi scored his first senior goal in a 3-0 win over Milan en route to cruising through the group stage in 6th place and as the top scorers (23) in 2041/42. Barcelona lost to Liverpool in the last 16, while Sant Andreu thrashed Sociedad 7-1 on aggregate, then Galatasaray 7-0 thanks to a Norbert hat trick in a 5-0 second leg victory, and Marín and Docherty goals downed Liverpool 2-0 at home before Marín’s brace secured a 2-1 win at Anfield. That sent them into a fourth final in five years, this time against Man City. And they defended the European trophy in style as the homegrown stars Marín, Norbert and Iglesias earned a comfortable 3-1 victory, which they dominated by 25 shots to 7. Furthermore, Sant Andreu’s U19s won the UEFA Youth League for the first time, led by Dahl’s 14 goals.
Sant Andreu snuck into 8th in the group stage a year later, then beat Villarreal 9-5 on aggregate, Norbert and Marín braces downed Chelsea 5-2 at home and were enough to edge a 5-4 success. But their European glory days ended with a 4-3 defeat to Real in the semis.
Celebrating Sant Andreu Dominance
The star of the latest season was very much Jansen, who had an incredible campaign with 31 goals and 23 assists. Docherty scored 29, while Marín scored 23 with 14 assists, Norbert scored 17 with 13 assists and Iglesias got 19 assists with 8 goals.
Sant Andreu’s stars continued to be honoured as Docherty, aged 21, became the club’s first Ballon d’Or winner at the end of 2040, with Jansen in 3rd, and won the FIFA Best U21 Men’s Player ahead of Jansen and Bonacic. Docherty backed that up with another Ballon d’Or in 2041 and finally made it into Goal50, but only in 40th. The striker went to the next level as he won both the FIFA Best Men’s Player and FIFA FIFPro Player of the Year in December. Centre back Marco Liotta became the latest player to win European Golden Boy, before Nikolaidis came 3rd in NxGn 2042, with fellow academy graduate left back Rivaldo Sequeira 10th, striker Achille Agoro 19th, Leonardi 30th (aged 16), Dahl 31st, midfielder Madani Keita 38th and attacker Asey Tewelde 47th. Sant Andreu officially conquered the world in 2042, as Docherty won Ballon d’Or for the third year in a row, with Norbert and Marín 2nd and 3rd, then won Goal50 in November, with Marín 50th, before Marín won FIFA Best Men’s Player and FIFA FIFPro Player of the Year.
The latest league success was the end of the road for Ribas, who’d very much established Sant Andreu as the dominant side in their Turf Wars rivalry with Barcelona. However, he wasn’t a fan of players demanding £400k a week to stay at the club, and felt he’d taken the club as far as he could. The club’s success was predominantly thanks to homegrown stars Marín and Iglesias, both now 31, who ended the save with 188 goals and 134 assists and 82 goals and 173 assists in 502 and 430 league games respectively. Fellow homegrown star Norbert, who’s only 25, has scored 62 goals with 70 assists in 243 games, while Jansen has 78 goals and 97 assists in 166 games and Docherty has 142 goals in 191 games. But this squad has become a pretty unstoppable force, led by superstars like Bonacic and Christoforou, plus a mass of exciting talents like Nikolaidis and Leonardi.
Ribas, who signed a new deal in December 2042 to earn £95k a week with £1m bonuses for winning LaLiga and the Champions League, has become the 10th-best manager of all time. During his 6,530 days in charge, he managed 925 games, of which he won 551, drew 164 and lost 209, scoring 1,958 goals and conceded 1,143, finishing with a win ratio of 59%. He bought 126 players for a total value of £331m and sold 121 for a value of £687m. Amazingly, Docherty remains the club’s record signing for just £16m, while Digha was the record sale for £56m.
That brings an end this latest Football Manager adventure. However, given the state of FM26, which is probably the least enjoyable version of the series I’ve ever played, and my new work schedule (I started running a pub last month!) it’s very likely the end of our series for this cycle.
We may be back with more gaming content soon, including possibly returning to Football Academy Manager, but in the meantime, enjoy your own football management adventures!
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