In four seasons, we’d taken Vélez Sarsfield from the bottom tier through to becoming European Super League champions. The key to this success had undoubtedly been Endrick, who’d scored 126 goals in 121 league games and 161 goals in 157 games in all competitions for the club.
The task now was to defend our Super League crown and win the Super League One league phase. That task was aided by an outrageous transfer kitty of £375m and a £3m wage budget, of which we were using just £1.3m, and a bank balance of £800m. That was boosted by raising £82m in sales, including originals Nicolás Garayalde and Mateo Seoane departing the club.
The key area of the pitch we needed to address was strength in depth on the wings, which I addressed by signing the pacey Mykhaylo Mudryk for £46m from Shakhtar. We also snapped up a couple of exciting youngsters in left-back David Santos, who signed for £34.5m from Farense, and Mexican midfielder Manuel Cárdenas, who came in for £22m from Real Madrid. We then splurged £55m on versatile Bayern midfielder Johannes Schwarz, who looks like a ridiculous player.
With those signings done, here’s a quick update on how the squad looks by position:
GK: Dennis Seimen, Ángel Zaragoza
RB: Devyne Rensch, Nathan Ferrer (Cardenas)
CB: Kaiky, Joao Fonseca (Gvardiol, Ferrer, Rensch)
LB: Josko Gvardiol, David Santos (Schwarz, Pena)
CM: Ilaix Moriba, Eduardo Bauzá, Johannes Schwarz, Assan Ouédraogo, Manuel Cárdenas
RW: Roony Bardghji (Ouédrago, Won)
LW: Mykhaylo Mudryk, Mathys Tel, Jose Luis Pena (Ouédraogo)
ST: Endrick, Youssoufa Moukoko, Jon Goni, Ha-Kwan Soo (Tel)
Super League Defence Begins
We’re predicted to finish 4th in Super League One, with Real Madrid 2/5 favourites followed by Atlético, who nearly got relegated last season, and Juventus. But Moukoko has been named in the dream 11, bizarrely ahead of Endrick.
We again began at home to Flamengo and Endrick and Moukoko goals sealed a 2-0 win. We won 3-1 at Roma and Moukoko nicked a 1-0 at home to Atlético. Then an Endrick double and Bauzá’s injury-time winner nicked a 3-2 at Juventus to send us top of the league for the first time. We kept that going as Endrick and Moukoko scored in a 2-1 win at home to Leeds before finally dropping points at the 7th attempt with a 1-1 at West Ham. However, we responded in the best way possible by going to leaders Real Madrid, who’d won 7 out of 7, and nicking a totally undeserved 2-1 win through Moukoko and Endrick.
The unbeaten start ended in our 14th game with a 2-1 loss at River, but we retained a 4-point lead over them and Madrid. But that was swiftly gone as consecutive draws with Flamengo and at Atlético saw Madrid go above us on goal difference. Endrick then got injured, but his replacement Tel came in and made a point by banging 5 goals in a 7-1 battering of Juventus. Madrid eventually did drop points and an Endrick hat-trick at Lazio sent us back to the top with 5 games remaining.
Next up was a huge clash with Real and we served up a thriller in a 3-3 draw. Endrick returned after a couple of injuries in fine form, scoring 6 in 4 then added to that tally with a hat-trick to defeat 3rd-place River 3-1. That moved us 3 points clear of Real with an equal goal difference going into the final game. We lost 2-1 at Porto but, against all the odds, Real also lost 2-1 at Lazio!
Vélez Sarsfield won European Super League One, ending Real’s 4-year domination!
For the first time, Endrick wasn’t the league’s top scorer but only because he missed 5 matches. He scored 27 in 30 while River’s Pedro scored 30 in 30. But we had the best 3 players as Moukoko led the way with an impressive 7.64 average rating followed by Endrick’s 7.60 and Bardghji’s 7.55.
The playoffs began with another thriller as we edged a 4-3 win over Liverpool, who came 4th in ESL 2. Next was our 5th game of the season against Bayern and Tel’s second-half brace and assist for Moukoko earned a 3-1 win to send us into the semis. There we took on Man UFC and, despite an Endrick brace, we were edged out 3-2 in extra time by a 117th-minute Lukaku goal.
More Cup Carnage
European Super Cup
The European Super Cup started with a rotated team winning 3-1 at Celtic led by a brace from exciting South Korean striker Ha. We won at Brighton and at home to Monaco before rotated sides picked up 4 draws, which were enough to send us through in 2nd.
That took us into the 1st round, in which 2 goals and an assist by Mudryk inspired a 4-2 win at Fiorentina. We defeated Botafogo 2-1, Union Berlin 3-0 and Arsenal 3-1 in the quarter-final to setup a semi against Barcelona. A super tight affair was 0-0 all the way up until the final minute of extra time, when Endrick was brought down in the box. The Brazilian dusted himself, stepped up to coolly convert the spot kick and send us into the Final!
Our opponent in the Final was West Ham and another high-scoring game followed. West Ham twice took the lead in the first 10 minutes but we hit back both times then Endrick gave us the lead after half an hour before West Ham equalised just before half time. But a more sedate second half saw Endrick settle the tie with a 65th-minute strike.
Wonder League
We also entered the Wonder League in a blaze of glory, winning a 5-4 thriller at home to AC Milan then Bardghji nicked a 1-1 at Bayern. And draws proved crucial before a 3-0 win over Leicester snuck us through.
That put us into the 3rd round against Leipzig, in which a Bardghji brace and Tel assist hat-trick inspired a 5-1 victory, then a quarter-final with PSG, who equalised in injury time to take it to extra-time. But Endrick nicked a 3-2 win in the 111th minute. Even more games followed as we went into a semi-final playoff group with Real, Newcastle and Bayern. We started at Real and lost 3-2 but dominated Bayern and beat them 4-2, before a Moukoko hat-trick led a 4-3 win over Newcastle to reach another cup final.
In the Final, we took on Real for the 5th time this season. A wild game saw us share 64 shots, of which 39 were Real’s, but Bauzá and Endrick strikes took us to extra time. And we had too much for them as substitutes Goni and Tel edged a 4-2 victory, in which Moukoko was the hero with an assist hat-trick. And that success bagged us £220m in prize money!
Vélez wrapped up a treble of ESL 1, Super Cup and Wonder League Cup!
Impressive Rise Of Vélez, Endrick And Moukoko
We wrapped up a treble this season, confirming Vélez as one of the best teams in the world. Endrick again finished the campaign as our top scorer with 46 goals and 8 assists in 47 games. But our best player was probably Moukoko, who scored 29 and got 13 assists with a 7.65 average rating compared to Endrick’s 7.54. Bardghji also impressed with 19 goals and a club-high 20 assists, Tel scored 18 and got 12 assists, Mudryk got 8 goals and 16 assists and Bauzá scored 8 and got 7 assists.
Endrick’s rapid rise to becoming the best player in the world was confirmed as he won the 2026 Ballon d’Or and the FIFA Best U21 Men’s Player then defended his Best Player in Europe and GOAL50 awards. He’s scored 155 in 149 league games for Vélez and 161 in 157 in all competitions, as well as 12 in 18 caps for Brazil. Centre-back Fonseca won European Golden Boy and Bauzá coming 2nd in NxGn 2027 with Ferrer 11th, Schwarz 12th and Pereyra 25th.
This experiment with a custom database has been a lot of fun as it offers something a little different to the standard game. Of course, the mad finances on offer have helped, allowing us to turn a pretty weak team into one of the best in the world. And we finished the 2027 campaign with over £1 billion in the bank! But the setup of the database made it a fun little adventure.
However, I think 5 seasons at Vélez is enough of an experiment, so we’ll leave it there for now. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed this different experiment and if you want to test it out for yourself then you can download the European Super League database.
Stay tuned for another FM Experiment using an intriguing custom database, which begins on the blog next Wednesday!
Football Manager Addict 
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