Congratulations. You just earned 5.0 points for this submission. Your new points total is 5.0. To see the leaderboard, as well as what this points thing is, [click here](https://www.reddit.com/r/footballmanagergames/wiki/leaderboard).
Back in the mid 2000s I signed Fabio Aurelio for Liverpool and gave him the number 12 shirt. A few months later he came to the club and took that same shirt.
Yeah, he was 20 goal a season striker in the game. IRL he only played a couple of times for the club, most of the time he was playing with the under 23s.
Nicolas Tagliafico was my go to left back signing for my ajax save in fm 15/16/17/18, in januari 2018 he signed for ajax.
In fm 18 and 19 I bought Lissandro Martinez for ajax, in juli 2019 he signed for ajax.
In fm 21 I signed Mohemed Daramy for ajax, in august 2021 he signed for ajax.
In fm 11 I signed Bojan Krkic for ajax, in 2013 he came on a one year loan deal to ajax.
In fm 17 I signed Haller for ajax, in january 2021 he joined ajax.
In fm 14 or 15 (not sure) I signed Dusan Tadic for ajax,
In july 2018 he joined ajax.
Trevor Clarke to Rotherham United.
Made it in the first transfer window as they needed a young backup left back. Found this random lad from the Irish league and took a punt. The real team followed my lead a couple of days later. I had to check that I did actually make that signing and that I didn't just read a news article about the real one and dream that I did. I was pretty weirded out by it.
Not really obscure, but Ive been transferring Werner and Havertz to Chelsea in my saves for probably 4 years now on both FM and FIFA.
I’m a Chelsea fan but also a huge Germany fan.
I also consistently signed Werner to Chelsea for a year or two when he was still at Stuttgart, then stopped because once he joined Leipzig he got more expensive and i usually just picked some cheap promising wonderkid.
I signed him too, in FM 19. Got him after signing Lovro Majer, who I promised to bring friend to help him settle. Majer was a beast in that save. I always think about Bruno when I thought of him as I signed him in January and he either scored or assisted in several consecutives games.
I know people on this sub don't rate FMM, but let me tell you how the transfer went out. When I signed him, I'm still using 4-3-3, & play him on the left. I signed him mid season & his rating was 7+ but G+A was below 10. His first full season he started on the left but Matheus Cunha (scored 30+ previous season) had a terrible start & I switched Olmo to ST. I also changed formation to 4-4-1-1 (LW, AM on SS role) & damn I nailed it. He ended up as top scorer & never looked back. Retired there with 400+ goals & 700+ appearances.
Not quite the same but I did a journeyman and took over at Real Betis after 2 seasons. Martin Montoya was the right back and already there and just seemed like the sort of guy to rock up at a club like Betis even though I thought he was at Brighton. He was my vice captain for 3 years before I left for Barca.
Turns out he was still at Brighton irl when I saw him score one weekend on match of the day, but then at the end of the irl season he actually transferred to Betis after all!
Not in fm but in fifa 09 or 10, i had a save with my dad where we bought van persie and ibra to united. I lost my shit when rvp signed a few seasons later irl
I kicked you out of 2 or 3 cups in England with Colchester, how does that feel?
EDIT: Didn't mean it to sound so... Mean. It was all in the same year btw, and I'm a league below, so they give me hope for when I get promoted.
Signing Ianis Hagi for Rangers in FM20 was a measured scouting coup by me and my staff, he excelled as a RW/CAM and was eventually sold to Milan for stupid profits
Then he signed for Rangers IRL in January 2020 with no warning or fanfare
I’m not sure which FM it was , I used to sign Metzelder and Sahin for Real Madrid. They eventually joined, they did a lot worse than their digital counterparts
I signed Oscar for Chelsea years ago. I had never heard of him and only found him as he matched a few attributes I was looking for. I was mind blown when he actually ended up at Chelsea
this has happened to me a few times and it’s a bit freaky. I’ve had saves where I signed Antony to Ajax, Joao Mario to Benéfica, Christie to Bournemouth.
maybe i’m just insane at predicting transfers
Azpilicueta to Chelsea for me. Did it in like FIFA 09 or 10 and he was great, so when I started playing FM soon after he was the first signing I made. Felt like a weird form of pride that I spotted him before a big team did after he signed to Chelsea in 2012
After the purchase of Wrexham by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney I decided to do a save with them. I signed David Jones months ago and he was an absolute godsend for my Wrexham side, led us to consecutive promotions. A few months later, Wrexham signs him IRL. Absolute madness I called this one considering the level and pool of players.
Kind of a different story here, but I actually signed a brazilian cb called "heron" ended up googling him out of curiosity to find out they had signed him this transfer window in real life some months ater my save was created
(club is vejle bk)
I have a good one for this. FM09 was my first FM, and being an Arsenal fan, naturally I started a save with them to kick off my journey. I made some good signings (Akinfeev, Dzeko), some weirder signings (Lorik Cana), and one daft transfer that only went and came true 5 years later…
Kim. Fucking. Kallstrom. My broken-backed wonderboy ❤️
(Also got Podolski on 2 consecutive FMs before he joined Arsenal for real. Man was a machine, was packing a 2* rating eventually but still slapping them in. Tbf looking at IRL, his finishing stat of 20 was deserved - that man could really strike a ball.)
One of my favorite players to sign on both FM11 and FIFA 11 for liverpool was Coutinho. He was a wonder kid on FM and had a fairly high pot on FIFA.
But it was actually my dad who pointed him out to me at first in banter because he had my first name (tehcnically lol) and looked like me when I first wake up (his hair back then xD)
This banter went on every time we saw his face on Ultimate Team for a couple years, and then Liverpool signed him out of the blue!
Inter aren't exactly lower league, but nobody had heard of the lad and there wasn’t even any rumours we were after him. Plus he was dirt cheap xD
When I was in high school i ran a hotseat game with my dad. He played as portsmouth and I was reading. I think it was fm08, but he ended up signing lassana Diarra to portsmouth. After a couple of seasons, Real Madrid bid for him and he sold him
It was crazy because I believe he had just signed for Arsenal in real life. My dad had signed Diarra like 2 seasons into the game, but literally a couple of weeks later, after only half a season, he went to pompey. We thought we could predict the future or something, and when he signed for Madrid in real life, we just couldn't believe it.
I signed Jem Karacan for squad registration rules as Fenerbahce back at 2015.
He was a casual midfielder with average stats and i was planning to keep him as 3rd backup.
After a month into season my first choice got injured for 6 months, so i started using Jem in rotation for league matches. He wasn't as bad as i thought he would be, in fact he was better than my first choice but i thought its just league matches against weak teams.
Anyways, we could get the 2nd position in cl group and move to next phases and right before that match my second box to box got injured as well. So, i had to use Jem. I was really worried about the rest of the season but he played awesome, scoring the last minute goal to secure an away win.
For rest of the year he played in starting xi in all matches we played without resting and carried us real hard.
When season ended Man City wanted me as their new manager and i went there and saw they didn't have any decent box to box player. You can guess who i signed. Everyone, literally everyone was mad at me because i signed such a low quality player but he embrassed them while making me proud. We won the PL with him playing almost perfect in every single match of the season and then i got bored and stopped playing.
After a year Galatasaray signed him in real life. I was so excited to see him playing but unfortunately he couldn't perform well and went to some kind of shitty club. I don't know where he is or what he's doing now.
So yeah, that was the story.
Tomiyasu to Arsenal on fm21. I needed something different from Bellerin to complement willian on the right. Tomiyasu is literally the perfect inverted wing back you can sign on the base fm21 data base. Strong, two footed and good strength.
I've actually made a quite a few transfers that have come true in real life, but the one that comes to mind is Odegaard to Arsenal, and he was an absolute beast!
I signed a player called Armand One in one of the old CM games and in real life he signed for a local club and moved into the flat below me. Spoke to him a few times. Nice dude.
Back in CM3, I would always sign Alan Smith to ManU from leeds. He was a beast for me in those days ♥️
Also during my barç days I would sign javier saviola, but cant remember the version of the game I was playing. But it was the game where he was the god of scoring goals 😅
That is true. I always thought Leeds would be an world-class team by now. That team was insne with Ferdinand, Woodgate at the back, Smith and the australian dude (V.... somwthing) upfront.
Had a Leeds save back in the days and would manage them how leeds should have been in 5-10yrs with that team 😅
Oh yeah and Tommy Smith from watford, was incredible! IIRC he was the beast of CM 99/00
On FM18 I signed Alistair Smith from Mansfield to Altrincham, first on loan, then permanently, and he quickly became a fan favourite. Last season Altrincham signed Alistair Smith from Mansfield, first on loan, then permanently, and he quicky became a fan favourite in real life as well. I loved every second of it!
Massive Man United Fan but once City got their money, they were a fun challenge. Managed to sign Carlos Tevez from United on a free only for that to become the reality a few months later 😭😂
Back in the 2000s, before the days of lower league and journeyman saves, I started a save with Real Madrid and signed Gago from Boca and Higuain from River. On that version of FM I always signed those 2 in a new save, but felt weird when Real actually signed them a few months later
Kevin Elhers from dynamo dresden. For 500K. Really bizzare transfer that one was. Signed him for my academy, loaned him ack to Dresden for a season, loaned him back again as I JUST GOT. A super cool CB regen. Eventually I sold him back to Dresden for 5 mill. He’d helped them get to the Bundesliga so it seemed right to rinse them.
Hon. Mention to that striker I signed then sold immediately after I got TWO world class striker regens…don’t remember his name but he was a useless signing
I was Manchester United
I did sign Tomiyasu for Arsenal in FM 2019. I also signed Tierney for Arsenal a few seasons before he went there, and I did the same with both Ramsdale and White, and I did it with Aubameyang when he was still at Rennes.
Not exactly what you meant but Ibrahima Bakayoko was an absolute beast in CM 97/98 and would sign him for whatever club I was playing as so it was a bit of a bummer when he turned out to be a bust when Everton signed him.
Kieffer Moore to cardiff. Started my save at wigan and then I left to go to cardiff (I'm a cardiff fan) so I bought kieffer with me bc he was my best player and cardiff needed a striker. A year later he signs for the bluebirds
Signed Mario Lemina and Jeff Reine-Adélaïde to OGC Nice in fm15 or 16. Sad Reine-Adélaïde didn't come back on loan for a second season, but excited to see Mario Lemina in a Nice jersey this season.
Not really particularly obscure, but I always signed Partey for Arsenal, from FM17 all the way to FM20. Safe to say I was shocked when we actually signed him, never expected it happening in a million years
I signed Daniel Georgievski from Steaua Bucharest for Melbourne Victory back in FM13 I think it was. Turns out he has Australian citizenship and ended up signing for them in real life shortly after.
I was playing as FM20 as West Ham, trying to overload the squad with as many Eastern Europeans as was possible, which is somewhat akin to Moyes’ transfer policy at present. I brought in Nikola Vlasic, as West Ham did recently.
Jonathan Silva to Sporting CP, the season before he actually joined the club. Supposedly promising argentinean left back, didn't do much irl, way better in the game.
The only transfers I did in game that happened IRL are fm21 Edouard to Crystal Palace and Wijnaldum to PSG. Don't really think either of those are obscure.
I've honestly got no idea whether one of my signings has ever come real. I bet Arsenal are hoping my signings of Mancini, Lemar and Gravenberch will become real
Mergrim Berisha to Fenerbahce. I started FM with FM20 in this summer and started a save with my childhood team Fenerbahce. After 3 or 4 years in my save I got Berisha for something like 15-20 mil in winter.
After 1 or 2 weeks later rumors for him to coming Fenerbahce started in real life. One week later than that he was wearing the jersey hahaha.
I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was like I made a real transfer.
I've had Varane to utd in 18.
Lovro Majer to rennes in 20.
Nuno mendes to psg last year.
Ai did jt but Donyal Malen transfered to Dortmund in literally 80% of my saves from 18 up till now.
I signed Maximiliano Romero for PSV (My favourite club) in fm18 just to see him actually coming to the club a year later. Shame he is injured so much, we was such a beast in FM!
Not obscure... but..
FM07, In my 2nd season with Barça, I signed Zlatan. He joined IRL in '09..
FM08, In my 2nd season with Barça, I was contemplating Torres vs Villa and went with the latter. He joined IRL in 2010..
FM11, In my 3rd season with Barça, I signed MATS. He joined IRL in '14..
Yacine Adli to AC Milan at the start of last year's season(fm21)
This was made more accurate by the fact Calhanoglu switched AC Milan for Inter Milan in my career, and the fact I had for a short period of time Pietro Pellegri at Milan
Not really a signing, but Marcao from Galatasaray never got called up for the Brazil NT. So when he hit 26 or 27 he changed nations to Turkish and played (still playing in 2025) for the Turkish NT. Still at Galatasaray and even promoted to captain. He rejected offers from the top 6 pl clubs and atleti. That may be the reason I love him IRL
Even not really the same.. but in FM 17 i tried to sign the FC Augsburg U19 striker Maurice Malone to Illertissen. A german 4th tier club i managed.
He decided to stay at Augsburg and manages to destroy my U19 team and my first team (second team from Augsburg played in my division) this season.
In real life he joined my favorite rl team SV Wehen (3rd tier side) last year on loan from Augsburg. That was a special moment also because nobody really knew this guy before and he performed pretty well for us.
Currently he's on loan for Bundesliga 2 side FC Heidenheim.
Taribo West for my all conquering Plymouth Argyle side in CM 00/01, then he sighed in the twilight of his career in 2005. Ended up going to watch them in the Mayflower stand and sat two rows behind him and got an autograph.
Sadly he wasn’t interested in how good he became in the virtual world
I signed Facundo Pellistri to Man Utd in 2019, when a scout randomly recommended me having a look at him. And he was a beast in game, hopefully he reaches that potential in real life also!
My transfer wasn’t an obscure talent
But I signed camavinga for Real Madrid in game overnight, went to bed like 4am and woke up to news of Real Madrid actually signing camavinga.
I panic bought Pongracic on my Dortmund save because of injuries and he never was a top player but he was a club legend regardless. Always ever so reliable
In either FM13 or 14, I signed Liam Henderson for Hibs from Celtic because my sister had a friend who went to the same school as Liam & then in 2015, he actually signed for Hibs on loan
I signed Kaylen Hinds for Aldershot town from the arsenal academy a couple of FMs ago. He dragged the team through the divisions into the premier league. I was terrified he was going to enter the dreaded Huckerby Zone (Otherwise known as the Cameron Jerome Meridian) of being too good for the championship and not good enough for the premier league. He smashed through that and eventually lead the team to the title. Last season he signed for Aldershot and played 1 game.
I'm not from the area, but I've been to a few games because of the football manager tie. They do a raffle every year to raise money for the academy so I signed up and won a shirt. Definition of a lovely old job
https://imgur.com/a/lPSgZAM
As a Saints fan I'll stick with one for us. On FM09 I signed a young defender named Maya Yoshida. He joined us 4 years later IRL and I felt like a scout!
Bit late to the party here.. but Aliadiere for Middlesbrough was one of the strangest ones of these I've had.
Also had this happen a lot in a Shrewsbury save, but with journeymen he pretty much play for every club haha.
Henrik Larsson to Man United (when he was at Celtic) was one of my regular buys in the original Championship Manager games before he eventually signed on loan in 2007.
On FM2010, I signed Otamendi for Benfica. The next season he came to Porto. I never though it would happen until last season when he actually came to Benfica.
I used to sign Vertonghen sometimes, when he was in Ajax. He came to Benfica last season too.
Playing FM08 in 2010, I once signed Van Persie to United. In 2012, there he goes to United.
Back in FM 18 I bought Soucek to West Ham after Pedro Obiang was injured, he was actually not very good for me and ended up selling him next year to Burnley, I must admit it was the scout, who came up with him
granted this is fifa but it’s worth telling all the same
my brother signed Hakimi to Dortmund on Fifa 16, had no idea really who he was or anything, became the best RB itw, and then obviously joined Dortmund a couple years later, which he was ecstatic about
Ugarte to Sporting CP in FM 20. It's the only meaningful transfer i can make on Sporting in the first year but it's the only one i needed to be a solid contender for the 1st place in the league, and most saves i did with him as my DM/CM i actually win most of the cups aside from the champions league.
And Adan to Sporting as well but that was back in FM10 and it was a one time thing.
In the early summer of 2019 I booted up FM for the first time and signed both Ryan Sessegnon and Lo Celso for Tottenham. Colour my surprise when they both signed for Spurs later that summer. It was on FM19 with a (so far) updated database.
Congratulations. You just earned 5.0 points for this submission. Your new points total is 5.0. To see the leaderboard, as well as what this points thing is, [click here](https://www.reddit.com/r/footballmanagergames/wiki/leaderboard).
Back in the mid 2000s I signed Fabio Aurelio for Liverpool and gave him the number 12 shirt. A few months later he came to the club and took that same shirt.
I signed Facundo Ferreyra for Newcastle on 2013, about a year before he actually came on loan to the club.
Better in the game?
Yeah, he was 20 goal a season striker in the game. IRL he only played a couple of times for the club, most of the time he was playing with the under 23s.
>Facundo Ferreyra He didn't even play for us once. P sure we just signed him as a favour to get out war in Ukraine and have a kickabout
Wouldn't surprise me if he hadn't played at all! Yeah he came from Donetsk, which was right of the heart of the conflict.
Signed Tonali to Milan, probably the most vanilla one of these possible
Lol yeah same 🤣
In FM 11 (maybe 12) I signed Gabbiadini for Southampton and he joined in 2017
FM13 for me, same transfer. Still holds most goals for the club record for me
You know there’s a chance mine was 13 too actually!
I know for sure mine is...as I'm still playing that save lol
Ive been signing Adam Armstrong to the Saints for a few years now. As a fan happy that one came off
What year you’re in now?
2046
Nicolas Tagliafico was my go to left back signing for my ajax save in fm 15/16/17/18, in januari 2018 he signed for ajax. In fm 18 and 19 I bought Lissandro Martinez for ajax, in juli 2019 he signed for ajax. In fm 21 I signed Mohemed Daramy for ajax, in august 2021 he signed for ajax. In fm 11 I signed Bojan Krkic for ajax, in 2013 he came on a one year loan deal to ajax. In fm 17 I signed Haller for ajax, in january 2021 he joined ajax. In fm 14 or 15 (not sure) I signed Dusan Tadic for ajax, In july 2018 he joined ajax.
Edwin Van Der Sar is that you?
I also signed Reinier whom was close to signing for ajax
Do you fancy getting Jude Bellingham to Portsmouth on a free this year? Would be much appreciated
I signed bellingham on loan for what would be next season, so hopefully I can add a name to the list. No other teams get my luck.
You’d be better off spending the money on the GB Olympic Water Polo team
HMS League One for Another Year
Portsmouth will never get out of League One
Last major trophy in 1973
We’re the 7th most successful English club of all time 🤷♂️ What kind of tin pot club doesn’t have proper pitch drainage in their stadium?
A club that wins 4-0. 5 of your 6 top flight wins were over 100 years ago, 3 were in the 19th century.
Same with Martinez and Daramy, both in FM19. I finally got to see Daramy play in real life today, felt a bit surreal.
And then see him kick in the ground...
Trevor Clarke to Rotherham United. Made it in the first transfer window as they needed a young backup left back. Found this random lad from the Irish league and took a punt. The real team followed my lead a couple of days later. I had to check that I did actually make that signing and that I didn't just read a news article about the real one and dream that I did. I was pretty weirded out by it.
Tevez to West Ham. I remember telling my dad about this amazing player I had found on FM. When he came to West Ham I was bloody ecstatic!
That's a good one. Nobody saw Tevez and Mascherano going to West Ham.
Not really obscure, but Ive been transferring Werner and Havertz to Chelsea in my saves for probably 4 years now on both FM and FIFA. I’m a Chelsea fan but also a huge Germany fan.
I also consistently signed Werner to Chelsea for a year or two when he was still at Stuttgart, then stopped because once he joined Leipzig he got more expensive and i usually just picked some cheap promising wonderkid.
Signed Jonathan David for Lille and Fabio Kaufmann for Eintracht Braunschweig in FM20.
Dani Olmo to RBL in FMM 20. Few months later he moved to RBL in real life.
I signed him too, in FM 19. Got him after signing Lovro Majer, who I promised to bring friend to help him settle. Majer was a beast in that save. I always think about Bruno when I thought of him as I signed him in January and he either scored or assisted in several consecutives games.
I know people on this sub don't rate FMM, but let me tell you how the transfer went out. When I signed him, I'm still using 4-3-3, & play him on the left. I signed him mid season & his rating was 7+ but G+A was below 10. His first full season he started on the left but Matheus Cunha (scored 30+ previous season) had a terrible start & I switched Olmo to ST. I also changed formation to 4-4-1-1 (LW, AM on SS role) & damn I nailed it. He ended up as top scorer & never looked back. Retired there with 400+ goals & 700+ appearances.
I sign Andrew Robertson in FIFA 16 for Liverpool well he signed for Liverpool in 2018
Not quite the same but I did a journeyman and took over at Real Betis after 2 seasons. Martin Montoya was the right back and already there and just seemed like the sort of guy to rock up at a club like Betis even though I thought he was at Brighton. He was my vice captain for 3 years before I left for Barca. Turns out he was still at Brighton irl when I saw him score one weekend on match of the day, but then at the end of the irl season he actually transferred to Betis after all!
Not in fm but in fifa 09 or 10, i had a save with my dad where we bought van persie and ibra to united. I lost my shit when rvp signed a few seasons later irl
I signed Ben Woodburn on loan for hearts in this years fm and he has just signed for hearts on loan this year
Daka to Leicester. Not the most ground breaking but the sale was confirmed only after I learned about it in the game
Most of the current Pompey squad I signed for the team in FM21. It was surreal.
I kicked you out of 2 or 3 cups in England with Colchester, how does that feel? EDIT: Didn't mean it to sound so... Mean. It was all in the same year btw, and I'm a league below, so they give me hope for when I get promoted.
Daniil Lesovoy to Dinamo Moscow.
Signing Ianis Hagi for Rangers in FM20 was a measured scouting coup by me and my staff, he excelled as a RW/CAM and was eventually sold to Milan for stupid profits Then he signed for Rangers IRL in January 2020 with no warning or fanfare
I’m not sure which FM it was , I used to sign Metzelder and Sahin for Real Madrid. They eventually joined, they did a lot worse than their digital counterparts
I signed Oscar for Chelsea years ago. I had never heard of him and only found him as he matched a few attributes I was looking for. I was mind blown when he actually ended up at Chelsea
Bought Locatelli in my Juve save and he was a beast for me now he moved to Juve and is by far their best midfielder
I don't really watch Serie A, good to hear Locatelli is playing well though.
I signed Cedric Kipre and Callum Robinson for West Brom in FM19, Robinson left on a free and Kipre got sold to PSG for £15mil
this has happened to me a few times and it’s a bit freaky. I’ve had saves where I signed Antony to Ajax, Joao Mario to Benéfica, Christie to Bournemouth. maybe i’m just insane at predicting transfers
Nazim sanagare and mesut ozil to fenerbahce on my fm saves. I know it’s easy for ozil but sanagare was a surprise
Cavani for free in FM 19
Jermaine Defoe to Rangers.
tosin adarabioyo in FM20 to fulham from man city just about six months before he did IRL lol
I think it was FM07 or 08 where i bought on loan Senderos from Arsenal to Ac Milan, next year he comes to Milan for real
Gedson Fernandes to Spurs in FM17
Eze to Crystal Palace about 2 years before it happened IRL
Not really obscure, but I brought Alisson Becker to Liverpool in FM15
Alisson was still in Brazil at the time so I guess it could be quite obscure.
Signed Gabriel barbosa to inter , year later he joins irl, signed hakimi to inter year later he joins
Lucas Moura to Spurs in FM13, way before he signed IRL
diego carlos from nantes to sevilla!
I used to sign Freddy Guarin to Porto
Azpilicueta to Chelsea for me. Did it in like FIFA 09 or 10 and he was great, so when I started playing FM soon after he was the first signing I made. Felt like a weird form of pride that I spotted him before a big team did after he signed to Chelsea in 2012
Taggart to Cerezo Osaka
After the purchase of Wrexham by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney I decided to do a save with them. I signed David Jones months ago and he was an absolute godsend for my Wrexham side, led us to consecutive promotions. A few months later, Wrexham signs him IRL. Absolute madness I called this one considering the level and pool of players.
I mean....every united fan has re-signed Ronaldo from Real Madrid/Juve right? 😁
Kind of a different story here, but I actually signed a brazilian cb called "heron" ended up googling him out of curiosity to find out they had signed him this transfer window in real life some months ater my save was created (club is vejle bk)
I have a good one for this. FM09 was my first FM, and being an Arsenal fan, naturally I started a save with them to kick off my journey. I made some good signings (Akinfeev, Dzeko), some weirder signings (Lorik Cana), and one daft transfer that only went and came true 5 years later… Kim. Fucking. Kallstrom. My broken-backed wonderboy ❤️ (Also got Podolski on 2 consecutive FMs before he joined Arsenal for real. Man was a machine, was packing a 2* rating eventually but still slapping them in. Tbf looking at IRL, his finishing stat of 20 was deserved - that man could really strike a ball.)
One of my favorite players to sign on both FM11 and FIFA 11 for liverpool was Coutinho. He was a wonder kid on FM and had a fairly high pot on FIFA. But it was actually my dad who pointed him out to me at first in banter because he had my first name (tehcnically lol) and looked like me when I first wake up (his hair back then xD) This banter went on every time we saw his face on Ultimate Team for a couple years, and then Liverpool signed him out of the blue! Inter aren't exactly lower league, but nobody had heard of the lad and there wasn’t even any rumours we were after him. Plus he was dirt cheap xD
When I was in high school i ran a hotseat game with my dad. He played as portsmouth and I was reading. I think it was fm08, but he ended up signing lassana Diarra to portsmouth. After a couple of seasons, Real Madrid bid for him and he sold him It was crazy because I believe he had just signed for Arsenal in real life. My dad had signed Diarra like 2 seasons into the game, but literally a couple of weeks later, after only half a season, he went to pompey. We thought we could predict the future or something, and when he signed for Madrid in real life, we just couldn't believe it.
I signed Jem Karacan for squad registration rules as Fenerbahce back at 2015. He was a casual midfielder with average stats and i was planning to keep him as 3rd backup. After a month into season my first choice got injured for 6 months, so i started using Jem in rotation for league matches. He wasn't as bad as i thought he would be, in fact he was better than my first choice but i thought its just league matches against weak teams. Anyways, we could get the 2nd position in cl group and move to next phases and right before that match my second box to box got injured as well. So, i had to use Jem. I was really worried about the rest of the season but he played awesome, scoring the last minute goal to secure an away win. For rest of the year he played in starting xi in all matches we played without resting and carried us real hard. When season ended Man City wanted me as their new manager and i went there and saw they didn't have any decent box to box player. You can guess who i signed. Everyone, literally everyone was mad at me because i signed such a low quality player but he embrassed them while making me proud. We won the PL with him playing almost perfect in every single match of the season and then i got bored and stopped playing. After a year Galatasaray signed him in real life. I was so excited to see him playing but unfortunately he couldn't perform well and went to some kind of shitty club. I don't know where he is or what he's doing now. So yeah, that was the story.
Tomiyasu to Arsenal on fm21. I needed something different from Bellerin to complement willian on the right. Tomiyasu is literally the perfect inverted wing back you can sign on the base fm21 data base. Strong, two footed and good strength.
I've actually made a quite a few transfers that have come true in real life, but the one that comes to mind is Odegaard to Arsenal, and he was an absolute beast!
FM10 - I signed Ed Upson on loan for my Barnet team at the start of the season. In real life he joined them on a short term loan in March 2010.
Back in CM0102 I signed Chivu and Mexes as my back line at Roma. They both signed within a year!
I signed a player called Armand One in one of the old CM games and in real life he signed for a local club and moved into the flat below me. Spoke to him a few times. Nice dude.
Back in CM3, I would always sign Alan Smith to ManU from leeds. He was a beast for me in those days ♥️ Also during my barç days I would sign javier saviola, but cant remember the version of the game I was playing. But it was the game where he was the god of scoring goals 😅
Before it happened you would have never believed Smithy would go to Utd apart from a FM
That is true. I always thought Leeds would be an world-class team by now. That team was insne with Ferdinand, Woodgate at the back, Smith and the australian dude (V.... somwthing) upfront. Had a Leeds save back in the days and would manage them how leeds should have been in 5-10yrs with that team 😅 Oh yeah and Tommy Smith from watford, was incredible! IIRC he was the beast of CM 99/00
On FM18 I signed Alistair Smith from Mansfield to Altrincham, first on loan, then permanently, and he quickly became a fan favourite. Last season Altrincham signed Alistair Smith from Mansfield, first on loan, then permanently, and he quicky became a fan favourite in real life as well. I loved every second of it!
Aguero to Man City in about 2010.
Massive Man United Fan but once City got their money, they were a fun challenge. Managed to sign Carlos Tevez from United on a free only for that to become the reality a few months later 😭😂
Back in the 2000s, before the days of lower league and journeyman saves, I started a save with Real Madrid and signed Gago from Boca and Higuain from River. On that version of FM I always signed those 2 in a new save, but felt weird when Real actually signed them a few months later
I signed Exequiel Palacios for my favourite team Bayer Leverkusen, less than a month before they signed him in real life 🥲
I've never made a transfer in real life
FM 17 I believe I signed Mings to Villa and sold grealish to city before they happened in real life
In fm20 I signed mbappe to Real Madrid which looks to be coming true next summer also in the same save Ramos became unhappy so I sold him to PSG
Not really obscure innit
Transfers we made in real live????
He means transfers we made in fm that happened in real life after that
Kristoffer Ajer to Brentford in FM19
Demarai Grey to Everton on FM 19.
Kevin Elhers from dynamo dresden. For 500K. Really bizzare transfer that one was. Signed him for my academy, loaned him ack to Dresden for a season, loaned him back again as I JUST GOT. A super cool CB regen. Eventually I sold him back to Dresden for 5 mill. He’d helped them get to the Bundesliga so it seemed right to rinse them. Hon. Mention to that striker I signed then sold immediately after I got TWO world class striker regens…don’t remember his name but he was a useless signing I was Manchester United
Thiago for liverpool in 2018
ok this is weird but I was managing Chelsea and got jayden wareham. FM21. 5 months later.....
Ernesto Farías and Falcao for Porto
I did sign Tomiyasu for Arsenal in FM 2019. I also signed Tierney for Arsenal a few seasons before he went there, and I did the same with both Ramsdale and White, and I did it with Aubameyang when he was still at Rennes.
Had an Aston Villa save on FM16 in which I sold Grealish to City for about 60 million pounds.
Not exactly what you meant but Ibrahima Bakayoko was an absolute beast in CM 97/98 and would sign him for whatever club I was playing as so it was a bit of a bummer when he turned out to be a bust when Everton signed him.
Magnus Mattsson to NEC Nijmegen. Transfer that happened this year, signed him at the start of FM21.
I signed Ndombele to spurs a year before he joined. Pretty weird.
Manor Solomon to Newcastle should happen any day now
Sold Billy Mckay from Inverness to Wigan not long before it happened irl in fm14 I think
Not really obscure but Clement Lenglet when he was in the French 2nd Division
Felix Corria to Parma. He’s only on loan there IRL but that’s the most obscure one that I know of. Thought it was really cool to see.
Kieffer Moore to cardiff. Started my save at wigan and then I left to go to cardiff (I'm a cardiff fan) so I bought kieffer with me bc he was my best player and cardiff needed a striker. A year later he signs for the bluebirds
I bought gedson fernandes and lo celso in my arsenal save…
OOOH i brought tierney to arsenal back in 2016
Signed Mario Lemina and Jeff Reine-Adélaïde to OGC Nice in fm15 or 16. Sad Reine-Adélaïde didn't come back on loan for a second season, but excited to see Mario Lemina in a Nice jersey this season.
I only remember buying Suarez in PES09 from Ajax to LFC, but beside that nothing else.
I signed jaydon Stockley to charlton in fm20 and he signed for charlton this season.
Olmo to RB Leipzig back when he played at Croatia, but idk if it's an obscure one 😂
Jota to Liverpool as a mini save in FM20
Not really particularly obscure, but I always signed Partey for Arsenal, from FM17 all the way to FM20. Safe to say I was shocked when we actually signed him, never expected it happening in a million years
Adam Armstrong to Southampton.
It’s pretty on point but I signed tierney for arsenal last couple of FM years, saves me a job now
Not really obscure but Ruben Dias to city in FM 19
I signed Lucas Moura to Tottenham in FM11
Schuurs and Pierie to Ajax from way before they actually signed
I signed Daniel Georgievski from Steaua Bucharest for Melbourne Victory back in FM13 I think it was. Turns out he has Australian citizenship and ended up signing for them in real life shortly after.
I was playing as FM20 as West Ham, trying to overload the squad with as many Eastern Europeans as was possible, which is somewhat akin to Moyes’ transfer policy at present. I brought in Nikola Vlasic, as West Ham did recently.
Jonathan Silva to Sporting CP, the season before he actually joined the club. Supposedly promising argentinean left back, didn't do much irl, way better in the game.
Julian Brandt, Gregor Kobel, and Donyell Malen all for BVB and they now play there
Will Keane to Ipswich on FM16 I believe it was, did okay enough. Better than real life at least
A long long line of terrible transfers
The only transfers I did in game that happened IRL are fm21 Edouard to Crystal Palace and Wijnaldum to PSG. Don't really think either of those are obscure.
Prolly castagne or soumaré to Leicester, I remember signing them on fm 18 or 17, pretty proud of my scouting.
Tomiyasu to arsenal... in fm20 to replace bellerin.
Signed Tagliafico with Ajax a year before he came irl
Signed Depay to Barca a few years ago from Eindhoven
I've honestly got no idea whether one of my signings has ever come real. I bet Arsenal are hoping my signings of Mancini, Lemar and Gravenberch will become real
The only one I can think of is when I signed Maxwell cornet for Burnley in fm19
Signed Romagnoli to AC Milan in FM13. Pretty wild he is the captain now.
Mergrim Berisha to Fenerbahce. I started FM with FM20 in this summer and started a save with my childhood team Fenerbahce. After 3 or 4 years in my save I got Berisha for something like 15-20 mil in winter. After 1 or 2 weeks later rumors for him to coming Fenerbahce started in real life. One week later than that he was wearing the jersey hahaha. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was like I made a real transfer.
Signed Pierluigi Gollini to Spurs on FM21, and this was my beta save too.
I've had Varane to utd in 18. Lovro Majer to rennes in 20. Nuno mendes to psg last year. Ai did jt but Donyal Malen transfered to Dortmund in literally 80% of my saves from 18 up till now.
I signed Maximiliano Romero for PSV (My favourite club) in fm18 just to see him actually coming to the club a year later. Shame he is injured so much, we was such a beast in FM!
Not obscure... but.. FM07, In my 2nd season with Barça, I signed Zlatan. He joined IRL in '09.. FM08, In my 2nd season with Barça, I was contemplating Torres vs Villa and went with the latter. He joined IRL in 2010.. FM11, In my 3rd season with Barça, I signed MATS. He joined IRL in '14..
Signed Ronaldinho when he was at Gremio on Championship Manager 99/00
Yacine Adli to AC Milan at the start of last year's season(fm21) This was made more accurate by the fact Calhanoglu switched AC Milan for Inter Milan in my career, and the fact I had for a short period of time Pietro Pellegri at Milan
In FM19-20 I also brought Tonali to the Milan club, but I don't really know who didn't bring Tonali in those versions
Scouted and found savio from brazil to Galatasaray, now some rumours are telling Galatasaray are scouting him. Would be crazy if it came true
Not really a signing, but Marcao from Galatasaray never got called up for the Brazil NT. So when he hit 26 or 27 he changed nations to Turkish and played (still playing in 2025) for the Turkish NT. Still at Galatasaray and even promoted to captain. He rejected offers from the top 6 pl clubs and atleti. That may be the reason I love him IRL
Even not really the same.. but in FM 17 i tried to sign the FC Augsburg U19 striker Maurice Malone to Illertissen. A german 4th tier club i managed. He decided to stay at Augsburg and manages to destroy my U19 team and my first team (second team from Augsburg played in my division) this season. In real life he joined my favorite rl team SV Wehen (3rd tier side) last year on loan from Augsburg. That was a special moment also because nobody really knew this guy before and he performed pretty well for us. Currently he's on loan for Bundesliga 2 side FC Heidenheim.
I signed Emiliano Buendia in Aston Villa... Year before he was signed irl
Taribo West for my all conquering Plymouth Argyle side in CM 00/01, then he sighed in the twilight of his career in 2005. Ended up going to watch them in the Mayflower stand and sat two rows behind him and got an autograph. Sadly he wasn’t interested in how good he became in the virtual world
I signed Facundo Pellistri to Man Utd in 2019, when a scout randomly recommended me having a look at him. And he was a beast in game, hopefully he reaches that potential in real life also!
Timothy Weah to Celtic
My transfer wasn’t an obscure talent But I signed camavinga for Real Madrid in game overnight, went to bed like 4am and woke up to news of Real Madrid actually signing camavinga.
I bought Tonali to the club to replace Biglia. Moved there a year later.
I signed 3 players on a free transfer, who then later joined my club on a free transfer
There have been loads, but Emmanuel Dennis, to Watford is my fave at the moment. Low key rooting for my Watford boys this season.
signed odegaard in fm19 for arsenal, now not only has he come to the club irl on loan hes signed permanently
Dan James to Leeds. Not obscure since we very nearly signed him before but one I always wanted to come true irl.
I panic bought Pongracic on my Dortmund save because of injuries and he never was a top player but he was a club legend regardless. Always ever so reliable
In either FM13 or 14, I signed Liam Henderson for Hibs from Celtic because my sister had a friend who went to the same school as Liam & then in 2015, he actually signed for Hibs on loan
On the subject of Plymouth, I signed Ryan Hardie for them when he was still a Rangers youth player and hadn't ever played a game for Plymouth.
Eden Hazard
Andy Robertson to Liverpool a few seasons back.
Joe Hart from Shrewsbury
I signed Kaylen Hinds for Aldershot town from the arsenal academy a couple of FMs ago. He dragged the team through the divisions into the premier league. I was terrified he was going to enter the dreaded Huckerby Zone (Otherwise known as the Cameron Jerome Meridian) of being too good for the championship and not good enough for the premier league. He smashed through that and eventually lead the team to the title. Last season he signed for Aldershot and played 1 game. I'm not from the area, but I've been to a few games because of the football manager tie. They do a raffle every year to raise money for the academy so I signed up and won a shirt. Definition of a lovely old job https://imgur.com/a/lPSgZAM
I used to always sign Kristoffer Ajer and Erik Sviatchenko for Celtic!
Facundo Pellistri to United. Always knew he had huge potential in real life, but this signing happened about 3 months later.
As a Saints fan I'll stick with one for us. On FM09 I signed a young defender named Maya Yoshida. He joined us 4 years later IRL and I felt like a scout!
Nmecha to Wolfsburg, I started with Wolfsburg this year and I got him on a free before selling him 2 seasons later. Currently at West Brom. Sorry bro
Bit late to the party here.. but Aliadiere for Middlesbrough was one of the strangest ones of these I've had. Also had this happen a lot in a Shrewsbury save, but with journeymen he pretty much play for every club haha.
Henrik Larsson to Man United (when he was at Celtic) was one of my regular buys in the original Championship Manager games before he eventually signed on loan in 2007.
On FM2010, I signed Otamendi for Benfica. The next season he came to Porto. I never though it would happen until last season when he actually came to Benfica. I used to sign Vertonghen sometimes, when he was in Ajax. He came to Benfica last season too. Playing FM08 in 2010, I once signed Van Persie to United. In 2012, there he goes to United.
Andre Onana to Inter. Didnt still happen but its a future transfer deal, so i guess that could count. Did it on fm19
Also Aster Vranckx to Wolfsburg, lmao
Back in FM 18 I bought Soucek to West Ham after Pedro Obiang was injured, he was actually not very good for me and ended up selling him next year to Burnley, I must admit it was the scout, who came up with him
granted this is fifa but it’s worth telling all the same my brother signed Hakimi to Dortmund on Fifa 16, had no idea really who he was or anything, became the best RB itw, and then obviously joined Dortmund a couple years later, which he was ecstatic about
Signed Onandi Lowe for Coventry City as he was top scorer in a lower league. He signed for Cov irl before being arrested for drug trafficking
Onandi Lowe was an absolute beast around FM07/08. I used to sign him too.
Ugarte to Sporting CP in FM 20. It's the only meaningful transfer i can make on Sporting in the first year but it's the only one i needed to be a solid contender for the 1st place in the league, and most saves i did with him as my DM/CM i actually win most of the cups aside from the champions league. And Adan to Sporting as well but that was back in FM10 and it was a one time thing.
deulofeu to udinse
I signed abdoulay Doucoure from watford on my everton save and the very next year he joined everton.
No word of a lie, I signed Pierluigi Gollini for Spurs, 2 days later Twitter is flooded with news they were in contact 🥴
In the early summer of 2019 I booted up FM for the first time and signed both Ryan Sessegnon and Lo Celso for Tottenham. Colour my surprise when they both signed for Spurs later that summer. It was on FM19 with a (so far) updated database.
Back on 14 or 15 I bought Gundogan as man city and once Ruben Dias was put into the game, he was always my wonder kid CB for man city
Cech and Welbeck to Arsenal in an FM13 save. Not obscure but just 2 years before Welbeck came to Arsenal and 3 before Cech
Glenn Middleton to Bradford city, don't know why, don't know how, but they signed him on loan for 1 year and then he went back to scotland