Football Manager 26 will feature women’s soccer for the first time
The upcoming Football Manager 26 will include the officially licensed Barclays Women’s Super League and National Women’s Soccer League, among other women's competitions, marking the first time that women’s soccer has featured in the long-running management sim. This means you’ll be able to select a women’s team to manage, complete with accurate player imagery, club logos and kits.
The debut of women’s soccer was actually announced way back in 2021, and was supposed to feature in Football Manager 2025. That game was eventually cancelled, with developer Sports Interactive shifting its attention to Football Manager 26, which arrives on November 4.
When the developer first discussed the prospect of adding the women’s game to its various game modes, it said it would only do so once it was able to offer the same level of depth and authenticity as it does for men’s soccer. Since making that initial statement, the popularity of women’s soccer has grown enormously, and Sports Interactive says in FM26 it has created a "single ecosystem" in which you’re not limited to exclusively managing a men’s or women’s team on a single save. To ensure its virtual recreation of women’s soccer is as realistic as it can be, the studio consulted real-life players, managers, clubs and organizations.
At launch, the latest entry will feature 14 playable leagues that span 11 nations and three continents, with leagues in Germany, France, Japan, Australia and more represented alongside England and the US. The FM26 database currently consists of more than 36,000 players, and the studio now has a 40-strong team of researchers working exclusively on building it out further, with additional playable competitions planned.
The off-the-field differences between the men’s and women’s game are also reflected, taking into account the typically shorter contracts in women’s soccer, and fewer release clauses that can be activated in the transfer market. Sports Interactive also used real-world data to inform the average recovery rates for various injuries where they might differ between men and women.
For a full rundown of all the new additions, click here. Football Manager 26 launches November 4 on Xbox and PS5, with a mobile version via Netflix arriving on the same day, and FM26 Touch for Nintendo Switch releasing digitally a month later.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/football-manager-26-will-feature-womens-soccer-for-the-first-time-145658807.html?src=rss