The 5 Best European Challenges, Sul-Americanos and Non-EU don't grab you enough? How about trying an exotic league, one of those secondary championships compared with the main European stages we're all 'tired' of watching?
See our picks below to start a save at a team in an exotic league and so start your career in Football Manager 2020!
GRASSHOPPERS
Challenge League (Second Division): SWITZERLAND
Grasshoppers are a (former) giant in total decline. Record champions of the Swiss top flight (with 27!), desde 2002/03 who have never managed to lift the trophy again, and last season, after more than 130 years of existence, tragedy struck: they went down to the second tier for only the second time in their entire history!
Your big challenge here is to take the club back where it deserves to be, Primeira Liga, and restore the dominance it enjoyed in the 80s/90s, ending the current reign of Basel, Young Boys and Zürich. Finally, go as far as you can in European competition (not to say WIN ONE!), since the best they ever managed was a Europa League semi-final in 1977/1978.
OSTERSUNDS
Allsvenskan (First Division): SWEDEN
Founded in 1996, the club has a string of big achievements in the last 5 years: in 2015/2016 it celebrated the subida to Primeira Liga Sueca! After this historic milestone, the following season, 2016/2017, venceu a Swedish Cup. Good things come in threes, and in 2017/2018 it made a successful debut in the Europa League tendo ficado pelos round of 32.
With so many milestones in the club's history, your goal is to raise the bar and vencer a Allsvenskan, which will be no easy task, since the Swedish league is full of surprises and very balanced among the current TOP 5, and finally, put Ostersunds into international history by winning a European competition!
VALUR
Pepsi-deild (First Division): ICELAND
With more than 100 years of history, Valur is the most successful Icelandic club in sport overall. If you want a challenge in a league where you are completely out of your comfort zone, Valur and in Pepsi-deild is where you should start!
With 22 titles in the club's trophy cabinet, but having won only 4 in the last 20 years, it's up to you to end the current dominance of KR Reykjavík and FH and restore this historic club's supremacy in domestic competitions, and even create some milestone in European competitions, since Icelandic teams are knocked out quickly year after year. A tip? Portuguese players don't mind moving there…
BEITAR JERUSALEM
Ligat Ha´Al (Primeira Liga) - ISRAEL
Controlled by Russian billionaire Arcadi Gaydamak, Beitar Jerusalem is an interesting challenge if you want to turn a mid-sized club into a national and international powerhouse in the short to medium term, though it won't be handed to you on a plate. With an investor behind you so you want for nothing, it is the Israeli club with the 4th most national titles (6), last winning the league in 2007/2008!
End the current dominance of Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Hapoel Be'er and Maccabi Haifa and make Beitar Jerusalem an Israeli force able to make a dent in European competitions! Money "won't be a problem"…
CARDIFF METROPOLITAN UNIV.
Welsh Premier League (First Division): WALES
For last, we left the hardest but also 'unique': a university team playing in the Welsh top flight that historically qualified for this season's Europa League play-off! Being a university team, recruiting players will be a tough task, so it is the ideal way to sharpen your skills in scouting. Once you've sorted the squad, make (even more) history at the club, end The New Saints' current dominance in the country and win the national title! Finally, the hardest part: go as far as you can in the Europa League until one day you win it!
You can already see that your challenge here is enormous and you'll have to battle difficulties in several areas of the club, but it will be super exciting!
