A strong season back in her homeland of Sweden saw Freja Holm tick the Damallsvenskan title off her list with Malmö FF. That wrapped up an eighth top-tier title of the 11 playable women’s leagues in Football Manager 26, leaving Holm with Australia, Denmark and Germany to tick off.
Upon resigning at the end of December 2046, the only jobs available were seven Australian roles that had been vacant for up to 15 years. So we can officially rule that managing in Australia is impossible and struck from the list. Meanwhile, managers had been sacked and replaced in Denmark over the last year without showing up on the managerial vacancies list, so Denmark can also be struck from the list.
Holm’s best bet at her next job came as her former club RB Leipzig won the German job, putting the FC Bayern manager’s job at risk. But, unsurprisingly, Beverly Priestman, who was only appointed last summer after the previous manager stayed for 16 years, held onto their role. That meant Holm spent an entire year unemployed, at which point, the non-existent Australian jobs were still the only ones available. And, with that in mind, it feels like time to bring this Trailblazer adventure to an end.
Holm had a blast navigating her way through women’s football, from the early days in Sweden to establishing herself at Everton and winning her first major trophy at Fiorentina. From there on, she swiftly earned a reputation as a title specialist, going on to win domestic leagues with Urawa Red Diamonds, OL Lyonnes, Bay FC, Wrexham, Madrid FC, Manchester City and Malmö.
That said, there are clear flaws with managing in women’s football in FM26, in addition to the two leagues that are impossible to get a job in. The finances are an absolute mess, with the exception of Sweden, which was the only country where Holm’s made an actual profit and didn’t have money mysteriously disappearing. The women’s game also has a weird glitch with players being way too short, for example, there are countless players – pop real-life players and newgens – popping up as being 4ft 11in, which is ridiculous.
Nevertheless, Holm had enjoyed this 22-year journey through the playable women’s football leagues. She retires after leading teams into battle 667 times, of which she won 432, drew 104 and lost 131 to finish her career with a pretty impressive 64% win ratio. Her teams scored 1,607 goals (2.4 per game) and conceded 853, to finish with a goal difference of 754.
Holm led her clubs one promotion, one relegation, 10 league titles and 8 domestic cup successes. And she retires as women’s football’s second-best Swedish manager ever, 11th best European manager and 13th best manager of all time.
Thank you for reading our Trailblazer adventure and I hope that, like me, you’ve enjoyed finding out a bit more about women’s football and the opportunities as well as challenges of a different type of Football Manager save. In a way, I feel a little sad to bring it to an end, and I will probably pick up from the end of our time at Malmö as an extended save. But the flaws of the women’s game in FM26 – which itself has been far from a perfect game by any stretch of the imagination – are pretty clear.
We’ll be back with more FM26 content very soon, with a new long-term career in men’s football beginning on Monday! That will run alongside our ongoing Wonderkid Factory save at Thespa Gunma, which will now be published every Friday. So stay tuned for more FM26 blogging adventures shortly.
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