Career The Diego Maradona Challenge - Career FMM20 {COMPLETED}

[FMFanatic20]

Yo guys, somehow stumbled on this challenge...

Here we go: 

- I was clear in my head to sign Dybala. One, for being the 'next Maradona' after Messi and secondly, it will weaken the goal-scoring options from Zebre (Juventus) - our main rivals 

- With a very little budget of 25m assigned - it was indeed a tough task to sign Dybala whose value in the first season stands at 140m 

- So, I sold Piotr Zielinski to AC Milan for around 50m and then got Dybala for 70m + Elmas 

- Tough 1st season as I tried a lot of tactics for him to play with Mertens, Insigne, Milik, and Fabian 

- My defense was good with Manolas and Koulibaly at the helm

Competitions: 

- Serie A: 2nd, winners were of course Zebre (Juventus)  

- Italian cup: Semi-Final 

- UCL: Ro16 (lost to Bayern Munich) 

In terms of scoring, Dybala scored a lot of goals - I played him either as the second striker or complete forward. 

Attaching some screenshots.   

Will continue this thread... for next 6 seasons...

Edited June 12, 2020 by FMFanatic20

[broodje kip]

Nice one. Good luck

[FMFanatic20]

Season 2 : 

It was time to adjust some positions and get the best players around... Sold a lot of deadwood and generated good money to buy Ferland Mendy from RMFC and Ricardo Periera from Leicester 

Also, loaned in Mason Mount and William Saliba as backup options 

Result: Won the Scudetto by a significant margin on 2nd placed Juventus 

As far as Europe - it was a tough group where Napoli got relegated to the Europa League and did some giant-killing by beating the likes of Ajax, Man city before getting knocked out in Semi-Finals to Valencia 2-1 on aggregate. 

Italian cup was a disappointing one, we reached QFs and lost to Zebre on penalties. 

Dybala was the top scorer for team scoring 21 goals in the league and missing the top spot to CR7 by just 2 goals. 

He also won the Series A best player award. 

Screenshots attached.  

Stay tuned for Season 3... 

Edited May 20, 2020 by FMFanatic20

[FMFanatic20]

Season 3: 

So, now the competitions ahead of me were the Serie A title, Italian Cup, Suppercoppa, and UCL. 

PSG came knocking the door for Kalidou Koulibaly and took him away for 98m. 

Thought of making some high profile signings and I raided Liverpool's Van Dijk and Alisson to strengthen my defense. Got them for reasonable prices 

Results:

- Won the Super cup against AS Roma 3-1 (Dybala scoring a brace) 

- Won the Italian cup on penalties against Inter - "nerves of steel" 

- Lost the Serie A title to Inter by 4 points 

- UCL was again damn disappointing as I lost to PSG in finals 1-0 (Mbappe :/). Really screwed!!  

In terms of scoring goals, Dybala was slightly underwhelming scoring 16 goals in the league. His teammate Milik scored the same and got Napoli in a respectable position. 

Attaching Screenshots of the season. 

 

[FMFanatic20]

Season 4: 

Well, completed half of the challenges listed in the original post.  Now, it was getting Dybala another SerieA title and some European glory. 

Another thing was to get him to become the league's top scorer. 

So, here we go...

Tweaked my tactics a little and got some pacy guys in the squad which is in the form of Moise Keane from Everton and David Neres, who in the game was playing in Hamburg SV, as replacement of outgoing Hirving Lozano. Added some steel in midfield by getting Llorente and Renato Sanches.

Results: 

- Won the Serie A title scoring 99 points and with a 20 points gap between second-placed Inter (won the title 4 games early) 

- Napoli also won the Super Cup again in a tough match against Inter

- Lost the Italian Cup to Lazio in final

- UCL was unlucky, as we lost in QFs to Arsenal 😕 

Dybala was in some sensational goal scoring form - as he finally became Serie A's top scorer by scoring 23 goals in League, and overall scored 37 goals in all competitions. Also won the UCL top scorer. He literally scored 4-5 goals in some matches.

He also won the Serie A best player of the season and Europe's best player leaving Paul Pogba in 2nd and Mbappe in 3rd place.  Got his name in World's best XI. Not bad! 

Screenshots attached. 

Edited May 21, 2020 by FMFanatic20

[broodje kip]

Looking good. Maybe you also should attach how many goals he’s scored

[FMFanatic20]

3 minutes ago, broodje kip said:

Looking good. Maybe you also should attach how many goals he’s scored

Hey, thanks buddy... you mean season after season? 

[broodje kip]

1 minute ago, FMFanatic20 said:

Hey, thanks buddy... you mean season after season? 

Yes

[FMFanatic20]

10 minutes ago, broodje kip said:

Yes

Sure... will attach once i complete season 5...

[FMFanatic20]

Season 5:

This season was pretty underwhelming.

Lost a lot of key matches against bottom table teams and some of the dark horses like Atalanta, Lazio etc.

Sold Moise Kean to Chelsea for some good money and extended Dybala's contract for a couple of more years to fend off interest coming from clubs like Barca, Chelsea and Man City.

Results:

- Serie A: 5th, Marginally lost the 4th position to Ac Milan by a couple of points (winners were Lazio :P)

- Italian Cup: Winners against Juventus

- Super coppa: Winners against Lazio

- UCL: We reached Semis and got knocked out by Barca by a last-minute goal...

Overall, a disappointing one but Napoli really had a chance next season for some European glory as they will be playing in the Europa League.

Dybala throughout the season played well by being the club's high scorer by scoring 27 goals and proving 8 assists.

[FMFanatic20]

Season 6:

This season, Napoli and Dybala were all set to go out and get the European glory.

Since we had a lot of good money from a couple of players' moving out like Moise Kean, and wonder-kid Gaetano moving to Sevilla.

We went ahead for some marquee signings - and got Erling Haaland for 100m + Dayot Upamecano.

33 y/o Virgil Van Dijk didn't agree the contract and Arsenal came and got him for a free transfer

We got some young defenders in the form of Malang Sarr and Valery.

Results:

Serie A: Winners

Italian Cup: Winners

Suppa Coppa: Winners

Europa: QFs (got knocked out by Barca again... don't know what the hell they were doing in Europa :/)

So, fairly a good season as Napoli won the domestic treble but to much despair, there is still no European glory.

Dybala played a multidimensional role by scoring 25 goals and providing 18 assists. Subsequently, winning the Serie A player of the season award.  

A good season but still a lot of business to be done...

Screenshots attached... 

Edited May 21, 2020 by FMFanatic20

[FMFanatic20]

Season 7 (Finale) :

Napoli as a team was all set - there is squad harmony and no weak areas in specific. In total, they were all set to give a competitive edge to big teams.

We got qualified for Club WC and got matches against teams like Liverpool, PSG, and then Barca again. We won all the games, all with fairly better goal scoring.

In terms of Transfers, there are not many improvements required - hell, a lot of players retired in this season like Pizzi, Ghoulam, etc. In the previous seasons too - Napoli saw the departure of Mertens, Ospina, Llorente, etc.

So, yea, we just got a free transfer of Emile Smith Rowe from Arsenal.

 The attack was spearheaded by Haaland, Dybala, Kulusevski, and Emile Smith Rowe. (Insigne is still at the club, he is 35 yr of age)

Midfield was Renato Sanches and Marco Llorente.  

The defense is Aaron Martin, Manolas (35 yr old), Malang Sarr/Konate, and Hakimi at RWB.

GK- 33 yr old Alisson.

Results:

- Serie A: Winners

- Italian Cup: Winners

- Suppa Coppa: Winners

- UCL: WINNERS!!!!!

A quadruple.... just wow!!

Well, at UCL we got decent matches against teams like Zenit in Ro16, Valencia in QFs, Liverpool in Semis, and then eventually beating Man City in Finals.

Dybala's second-best season where he scored 34 goals in all competitions and 20 goals in the league.

Haaland scored the most and became the league's top scorer.

With this, I think I managed to complete the challenge and had great fun playing Dybala as the modern age Napoli Maradona. And managed to get a fairy-tale ending for him... 

Total Trophies:

Italian Serie A - 4 titles

Italian Cup - 4 titles

Italian Super Coppa - 5 titles

UCL/UEL - 1 UCL 

Total goals: 201 (wow!!)

Sharing screenshots of the season and the season-wise goal-scoring + assists. Thanks for reading if you've been following this thread.

[broodje kip]

Congrats on your forst challenge completion mate. Hope to see more of you

[FMFanatic20]

4 minutes ago, broodje kip said:

Congrats on your forst challenge completion mate. Hope to see more of you

thanks buddy ! and yea - will do some more challenges here...