Women’s Career Mode: A First Impression
The rise of women’s football over the last half decade has been a revelation for many around the world. From the record-breaking attendance at the Nou Camp in 2022 to the Australia-New Zealand World Cup that had so many storylines, it has been quite the incredible rise in recent times for the sport. This exposure led to the implementation of the 2023 Women’s World Cup in EA Sports’ FIFA 23 game, and in the two years after that, two essential additions have been implemented, with women’s players appearing on Ultimate Team on FC 24 and Career Mode having women’s leagues for the first time in FC 25. Over the last three weeks, I have been playing FC 25 to a more enjoyable degree than the 24 edition, and with the new career mode, it was quite interesting to have a go at my favorite women’s team and see if they can be title contenders: Eintracht Frankfurt.
At first glance, it was quite daunting going from the millions of euros to just the thousands. Well, mostly because the last career mode I managed was a road-to-glory of my own club that had 90+ rated players on all fronts and hundreds of millions of euros in the bank. When I took over the Frankfurt job, I think around half the players only had one year left on their contract, which made it quite difficult to sign a player early on in the window. So, when I extended Laura Freigang’s contract to 2028 (in real life, she extended to 2027 but was not implemented in-game), I had essentially no money to extend other players’ contracts.
Probably the most distinct difference between the men’s and women’s leagues is the games played and the tournaments they take part in. In the men’s leagues, you essentially have 30+ league games, a national cup, and a continental cup over the course of the season. The same cannot be said for the women’s leagues. The only competitions you take part in are your domestic league and the Champions League, and outside of the Liga F, you play a 22 league games. In addition to that, the Champions League is at best thirteen games long should you reach the finals, which brings this total to 35 games (pre-season tournaments notwithstanding).
Secondly, one of the most egregious aspects of the women’s career mode is the free agents market. Due to there being only five leagues available, women’s teams outside of the French, German, English, Spanish, and American leagues are unaffiliated with any league and all their players become free agents. But the thing is, right, even players who have transferred to teams within these leagues are there as free agents, such as Delphine Cascarino of San Diego Wave and Jess Carter of NJ/NY Gotham City. These players, as talented as they are, request wages beyond the wage budget of a women’s team and more akin to a men’s one. Because I needed a center-back, I signed Carter with a wage of 11,000 per week, which doubled that of my highest-earners (Laura Freigang, Lara Prasnikar, and Sara Doorsoun). Even those affiliated with non-league clubs (such as Roma and Juventus players) can have these stupidly high wages as well. Might as well sign a player from Bayern or something.
And finally, the transfers. Like the men’s side of the game, the women’s game is not unfamiliar to ridiculous (and useless) transfers. When I saw VfL Wolfsburg selling Svenja Huth to Arsenal and then getting Trinity Rodman from Washington Spirit in the first transfer window, I instantly knew it was going to be a clown show, especially with the so-called bigger clubs. Aside from the Carter free transfer, I only signed two players in the first season and both of them are very Eintracht Frankfurt signings.
All in all, I think adding women’s football to career mode has been quite positive, especially in terms of adding some variety into a game that is almost exactly the same every year, and it definitely helps with the identification of talent your club has to offer.
