Player development

One season is one game year. Between seasons every player gets a year older, and their skills change with age.

Age

Players come into football at 17 and retire after 34.

How skills change over a season

In the off-season each of the six skills changes on its own, by a random amount within the bounds set by age:

Age	Change of each skill per season
up to 23	+1 to +3
24–29	−1 to +1
30–32	−3 to −1
33–34	−5 to −2

Skills never drop below 10 or grow above 99. As each skill changes on its own, a player’s profile shifts a little over a season.

What follows from this

A player up to 23 gains 1 to 3 points in every skill each season: up to +12 over four seasons. After 30 skills fall every season, and after 33 they fall fast. Young players are an investment, experienced ones give you strength here and now.

Form and stamina

At the start of every season they are set afresh:

• form between 40 and 80;
• stamina between 60 and 99.

For now they do not change between rounds, so a player spends the whole season in that condition. How they affect strength: Team strength.

Retiring

In the off-season players older than 34 retire and leave the squad. Their matches and goals stay in the statistics and the records.

In place of each one who leaves, the club gets a young player aged 17–19 for the same position from its own country. So the squad never runs empty, but keep an eye on the age of the side: several veterans leaving at once are replaced by youngsters who may not be ready for the first team yet.

If the saved lineup no longer works after that, the game picks the side itself in your formation until you fix it (see Tactics).

What is not there yet

There is no training and no transfers yet: the squad only changes with the players’ age and the youngsters coming in. Both will come later.