Updated version: Os Melhores Desafios de “Sleeping Giants” para o FM 2027
The 5 Best European Challenges and Sul-Americanos don't grab you enough? Want something truly challenging and to start in a league you barely know, but with clearly defined goals that won't be easy to reach? See our picks below to start a save at a team in a non-EU league and so start your career in Football Manager 2020!
ORLANDO PIRATES
ABSA Premiership (First Division): SOUTH AFRICA
Besides Benni McCarthy ending his career there, it is also one of the clubs on the African continent whose name no football fan can miss: Orlando Pirates is a sleeping giant, as it hasn't won the trophy since 2011/2012! Make South African fans smile again and establish a new dominance in South Africa, because this historic club needs to be back in the spotlight.
BEIJING GUOAN
Super League (Primeira Liga) - CHINA
In a country where plenty of money has been invested in developing football, both professional and youth, it is at Beijing Guoan where your big challenge lies: taking the club back to the league title, something that has only happened once, in 2009. In a league dominated by Guangzhou Evergrande, Shanghai SIPG and Shandong Luneng, it's up to you to dethrone these three Chinese powers and bring the title back to the Chinese capital!
LA GALAXY
Major League Soccer (First Division): USA
If you're looking for a challenge completely out of your comfort zone, LA Galaxy is the ideal challenge for you! Although you won't face an international competition as tough as the Libertadores (you'll play in the CONCACAF Champions League), besides the MLS structure/rules being completely different from what we're used to in Europe (even signings will take you out of your comfort zone!), you'll face a domestic competition that is very fierce! Every year you'll have new rivals, so don't expect Atlanta United FC or the New York Red Bulls to be your only worries…!
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is your big attraction: make the most of it now, since he won't be there after the Winter Patch! , so you have everything you need to lift the title that has eluded the Galaxy since 2014.
PACHUCA
Liga MX (First Division): MEXICO
If you want to back your academy kids while having a challenge that excites you, Pachuca is the team you have to manage! With an academy of excellence that produced talents like Héctor Herrera, Hirving 'Chucky' Lozano and Erick Gutierrez, you can expect your mouth to water, as every new season you'll keep producing future stars! On top of that, you can still invest in top level players, because the club has a investidor named Carlos Slim, one of the richest men in the world.
With a high level, very balanced domestic league, your challenge is to win back the title that has eluded Pachuca since 2016 and also win the CONCACAF Champions League, always relying on young talent from your academy as the main source of your eleven.
NEWCASTLE JETS
A-League (First Division): AUSTRALIA
Finally, a very interesting and 'exotic' challenge! (laughs) In a league with a very different format from the usual, Newcastle Jets have won just 1 A-League title, winning the competition for the only time in 2008. Since that triumph they have never managed good results again, nunca finishing above 6th place in the last 10 anos! Makes you think, doesn't it?
Your big goal will be to snatch the title from the current holders, Sydney FC, and then achieve the hardest thing, which only one Australian team has managed (in 2014, Western Sydney Wanderers): beat the strong competition from the other, far more experienced Asian teams and win the AFC Champions League!
