A man who knew the insides of Marilynn Monroe very well once said, “Don’t ask what your country can do to you, but what you can do for your country instead”. This made me wonder… Just how much difference could one club make for a country that isn’t really known as a big football nation. There are multiple factors that influence the quality of NewGens. There are those we can control, which are:
- Youth Facilities
- Junior Coaching (Both impacting the Current Ability of your NewGens – and to some degree the Potential Ability)
- Youth Recruitment (Impacting the Potential Ability mostly in combination with the hidden unchanging attributes)
There are factors that we cant change which are the country Youth Index Rating and Game Importance. I was in a dilemma which country to pick, for my experiment Should I go with Peru, which had a Youth Rating of over 90, with a very high importance, but no perfect youth producing clubs like Ajax or Red Bull Salzburg. Or should I go with a club from a nation that is low both in Youth Rating and Game Importance.
I settled on India a nation with youth rating of 80, which is solid, but has low game importance of Unimportant. The club I selected was Salgaocar and maxed out its Recruitment, Coaching and both types of facilities. The players in the Indian Leagues was around 40-70 Potential Ability btw. And this is what happened.
As you can see above the level of Top Prospects had increased dramatically The worst top prospects created were still almost twice as talented as the ones at the start of the game. Happily enough, the Indian Ajax produced a bunch of players bordering on world class, with one player being an all timer. Sadly, most of them didn’t fulfill their potentials. Probaby due to the low competition level of the Indian league. But some did and here they are.
The edit turned Salgaocar from average club to a dynasty, winning all but 3 titles in the span of 25 years.
The League had its ups and downs, and didn’t improve as steadily as I thought it would, probably due to the poor managerial talent.
The Indian National Team prospered in comparison. Starting at 150 in the FIFA rankings they kept improving their rank fast at first, slower later on. The national team settled around the 90th spot for most of the 25 years, with a few flirts with the top 50 and 60.
Facilities matter. Investing in youth matters, especially in nations with poorer Youth Ratings and Game Importance.
What To Consume 