Career From Box-to-Box to GOAT: Bellingham‘s challenge - EC update!

PriZe · January 20

Well hello Vibe… it has been a while hasn’t it?

Some of the long-time members might actually remember me I’m the guy who used to post regularly back in the day and my biggest claim to fame? A a tactic called The Black Pearl that you might know.

But yeah… long time no see.

Life got busy, the game moved on, and I drifted away from the forum for years.

Recently though, I’ve been feeling that old itch again.

That feeling of starting a proper long-term save with a mission behind it — something to build, something to share.

So I’m back.

And I’m starting a new career.

Inspiration from the old school

This idea came from a proper classic career on this site:

@anfieldsquirrel– “The new Messi?”

That thread is a real blast from the past… and it just reminded me what makes these careers great:

It’s not about “winning stuff”. It’s about building a legend and watching the story unfold.

The Plan: One player. One career. Every GOAT benchmark.

This career is my take on that idea, but with a slightly different goal.

I’m going to take one player and chase the biggest football benchmarks ever set.

Not just “score goals”. Not just “win trophies”.

I’m talking about the record numbers that make you stop and go “How on earth do you even reach that?”

Career Targets

To keep this fun (and to give the save a clear direction), I made a target list with the biggest benchmarks from the modern GOAT era, plus a few historic classics.

Messi & Cristiano Ronaldo targets

Most goals in a calendar year: 91 (Messi)
Most goals in a season (all competitions): 73 (Messi)
Most UCL goals (career): 140 (Cristiano Ronaldo)
Most UCL goals in a season: 17 (Cristiano Ronaldo)
Most goals in a single UCL match: 5 (Messi)
Most international goals (career): 143 (Cristiano Ronaldo)
Most Ballon d’Or awards: 8 (Messi)
Most FIFA Club World Cup goals: 7 (Cristiano Ronaldo)

Club dominance targets

Win the domestic league title 10 times
Win the Champions League 5 times
Win the main domestic cup 7 times

Historic benchmarks

Most goals in a calendar year (club): 127 (Pelé)
Most league goals in a single season: 60 (Dixie Dean)

Tournament madness

World Cup

Most World Cup goals (career): 16 (Miroslav Klose)
Most goals in one World Cup: 13 (Just Fontaine)
Most goals in one World Cup match: 5 (Oleg Salenko)

EURO

Most goals in one EURO tournament: 9 (Michel Platini)
Most EURO goals (career): 14 (Cristiano Ronaldo)

International benchmark

84 goals in 85 internationals (Ferenc Puskás)

The main character

Now here’s the fun part. I’m not using a natural striker. I’m not picking the obvious goal machine. I wanted a career with a real arc, a transformation.

So I’ve chosen: Jude Bellingham.

He’s a midfielder. A runner. A leader.

The challenge is to take that and slowly shape him into something else, a player who ends up scoring like a striker, season after season, while still having the complete all-round game.

Messi and Cristiano didn’t start as classic #9s either.

They evolved.

So the mission is:

Turn Jude into a record-breaking goalscorer… and see how far this journey can go.

See you soon

The journey has started, but the opening post has ended.

If anyone has tips on how to develop Jude into a striker over time (training focus, roles, tactical setups), I’m all ears, I will need all the support I can get🤣

As always thanks for reading!

And please remember to leave a comment 👊

Edited February 3 by PriZe

Scratch · January 21

Woohoo! A PriZe career! Been waiting so so so so long for one of these. And what an ambitious one it is too! Good luck mate.

As for the lad: He's already yellow for striker so he should be able to retrain to ST eventually. He probably doesn't have much development left - I'd normally recommend getting his Aerial up if you can, useful for scoring from corners, but might not be much change. As for his role, he's a T for me, but I guess you'll need to experiment taking your tactic into account.

PriZe · January 21

Thanks mate! 😄

Yeah… you’re not wrong about the “waiting so so so long” part — it’s been ages since I properly played FMM/FM, so honestly I’ll take all the help I can get.

Appreciate the tips on the lad as well. His heading is decent, but he’s missing a lot of the complete package. And the funniest (read: most painful) part: he literally can’t score a penalty to save his life, and apparently he’s totally unconvincing on free kicks too.

That said… he did just pull this off in the Champions League, so maybe there’s hope yet 😅

Spoiler

I’ll definitely try retraining him to ST and experiment with the role (T vs others) depending on what fits the tactic best. And yeah, if I can still squeeze any Aerial improvement out of him through mentoring/training, I’ll go for it, corners are basically my only reliable set-piece threat right now.

Cheers again, more updates soon!

Edited January 21 by PriZe

fotakis276718 · January 21

The legend himself mr. Prize! Looking forward to everything you do at FMM!

PriZe · January 21

2 hours ago, fotakis276718 said:

The legend himself mr. Prize! Looking forward to everything you do at FMM!

Thanks my man! Hope this will be an entertaining one for you.

leedsunited87 · January 21

Welcome back @PriZe looking forward to seeing what you can do buddy even though I haven't managed Bellingham, hes a complete beast! The team you have available as well. You should do pretty well

PriZe · January 21

Good to be back @leedsunited87!

All the ingredients are there for a fun challenge at Real. Could use more squad depth, but let’s see if I can sell Mbappe for a decent profit🤣

berkyyuksel · January 21

can u share tactics bro

i will use fenerbahçe

PriZe · January 21

Season 1 Update – Jude’s transformation has started

Season 1 is in the books and honestly, I couldn’t have asked for a better start to this journey. The save already has the exact ingredients I was hoping for: Jude development, dominance, big matches, and a bit of rivalry drama.

Quick note before we go in: I am actively building a strong team around Jude, transfers, retraining players into multiple roles, mentoring, squad optimisation, the whole lot. But I’m not planning to turn this thread into a detailed transfer diary. If anyone wants specifics on tactics, roles, training, mentoring or recruitment decisions though, feel free to ask and I’ll share.

Jude Bellingham – Season 1 (What a start!)

First thing: Jude actually started the season injured, so he missed the opening stretch.

But once he returned… what a monster he's becoming!

Before I go into his development, here’s the headline...

69 goals in 50 matches! Not bad for a player who didn’t even start his career as a striker (and missed games early season), that is an unbelievable first year.

Development – turning Jude into a striker

This season was mainly about retraining him and building the attributes a top striker needs. The results already look absurd:

Aerial from 13 to 19
Shooting up to 18

For a player who didn’t start as a #9, these stats are very nice .

One interesting side note: even with these striker attributes, you can still tell he’s not a “natural #9”. In the highlights he makes different movements than a classic striker. He still drifts, links play, arrives late… more like a midfielder who happens to be lethal.

Which is great for the storyline, but it raises a long-term question... Will he become selfish enough to be a pure goalscorer? His teamwork is 17, so his default instinct is to still involve others.

Also: he started the season with a couple of challenges (he’s not great at penalties or free kicks), but the big upside is that his coaching profile says he is rarely injured. Outside of that initial injury at the start, he picked up no injuries at all this season. I often subbed him off around 80% fitness just to be safe but he stayed available all year, which is huge for a long-term record chase.

La Liga – dominance (with one rival exception)

Domestically, this season was absolute control. 3 draws and just one loss with 21 points ahead of Barcelona

The only team that managed to beat us… was Barcelona.

Of course it had to be them.
That Real-Barça rivalry always finds a way into the season.

Copa del Rey – trophy secured

We also won the Copa del Rey, beating Zaragoza in the final. And yes, Jude did what a main character should do, he scored in the final..

Champions League – huge run, big moments, and a city derby final

This Champions League campaign was special.

Early in the competition Jude already produced a ridiculous moment: he scored 5 goals in a single Champions League match. That instantly ticked off one of the GOAT targets in Season 1, which I honestly did not expect this early.

From there we kept building momentum and had a really strong run to the final. The only time it got properly tense was against Manchester City, where it was genuinely close and could have gone either way.

But we got through.

And then the final delivered the perfect storyline a Madrid city derby against Atlético.

Final vs Atlético Madrid, and Jude stepped up like a star. Two goals, and basically killed the game himself.

Champions League trophy secured. And he ticked off his second UCL target, most goals in a season!

GOAT Challenge Progress – Season 1 (tracker)

Below is the full target list, with Jude’s current numbers after Season 1.

A) Messi & Cristiano Ronaldo records

Spoiler

Most goals in a calendar year (Messi – 91)
Status: Not yet

Most goals in a season (all competitions) (Messi – 73)
Current: 69
Status: Not yet

Most UCL goals (career) (Cristiano Ronaldo – 140)
Current: 23
Status: Not yet

~~Most UCL goals in a season (Cristiano Ronaldo – 17)~~
Current: 23
Status: Completed (record broken)🥳

~~Most goals in a single UCL match (Messi – 5)~~
Current: 5
Status: Completed (matched record)🥳

Most international goals (career) (Cristiano Ronaldo – 143)
Current: 0 (not started / no international tournaments yet)
Status: Not yet

Most Ballon d’Or awards (Messi –
Status: Not Yet

Most FIFA Club World Cup goals (Cristiano Ronaldo – 7)
Current: 0
Status: Not yet

B) Club dominance targets

Spoiler

Win domestic league title 10 times
Current: 1 / 10
Status: In progress

Win Champions League 5 times
Current: 1 / 5
Status: In progress

Win main domestic cup 7 times
Current: 1 / 7
Status: In progress

C) Historic benchmarks

Spoiler

Most goals in a calendar year (club) (Pelé – 127)
Status: Not yet

Most league goals in a single season (Dixie Dean – 60)
Status: Not yet

D) International tournament records

Spoiler

Most World Cup goals (career) (Klose – 16)
Current: 0
Status: Not yet

Most goals in one World Cup (Fontaine – 13)
Current: 0
Status: Not yet

Most goals in one World Cup match (Salenko – 5)
Current: 0
Status: Not yet

Most goals in one EURO tournament (Platini – 9)
Current: 0
Status: Not yet

Most EURO goals all-time (Cristiano Ronaldo – 14)
Current: 0
Status: Not yet

E) International benchmark

Spoiler

84 goals in 85 internationals (Puskás)
Current: 0
Status: Not yet

What's next?

Looking ahead to Season 2, the focus is simple, turn this great first season into consistency. Ticking off 2 major goals in his first season means a promising start.

Targets for next season:

push past the big scoring benchmarks (73 in a season, 91 in a calendar year)
keep stacking Champions League goals towards the long-term totals
and hopefully, now he’s more settled as a striker, improve penalties and set pieces so even more of those chances get converted

I’m also hoping we can finally win the Ballon d’Or this year. We just missed out last season, finishing behind Harry Kane, so that one is definitely on the radar.

Next up is the World Cup. Fingers crossed a national team job opens up if they underperform, because I’ll need that sooner rather than later to chase several of the international and tournament records on the list. If I miss the window now, it might be a while before another chance comes up.

Stay tuned!

Proof

Spoiler

Edited January 22 by PriZe

Woody · January 21

Great start to the career mate., trophy hoarding from the get go. 😜

Can't see your images though.

Says can't be viewed in my region. May be my end but I'm not running a VPN.

leedsunited87 · January 22

Yeah I can't see the images either 😕 but great write up you have unleashed a beast!

PriZe · January 22

6 hours ago, Woody said:

Great start to the career mate., trophy hoarding from the get go. 😜

Can't see your images though.

Says can't be viewed in my region. May be my end but I'm not running a VPN.

Greedy little bugger, he doesn’t share🤣

Weird on the pictures, but will upload them again later today, see if that fixes it!

2 hours ago, leedsunited87 said:

Yeah I can't see the images either 😕 but great write up you have unleashed a beast!

Couldn’t have asked for more with this start! Will fix the pictures later today 🙂

PriZe · January 22

@Woody @leedsunited87 did I manage to fix it? Or is it showing I’ve been away to long and lost my skill to post pictures online?😅

Buhhtio · January 22

How did you get his Aerial so high. I tried to do with all my strikers, but I get a few bumps only

I hope you will share training tactics later down the line!

Amazing challenge though, looking forward to seeing it unfold

leedsunited87 · January 22

No still same buddy haha 😆 😂

Woody · January 22

2 hours ago, PriZe said:

@Woody @leedsunited87 did I manage to fix it? Or is it showing I’ve been away to long and lost my skill to post pictures online?😅

All fixed mate 👍👍

PriZe · January 22

2 hours ago, Buhhtio said:

How did you get his Aerial so high. I tried to do with all my strikers, but I get a few bumps only

I hope you will share training tactics later down the line!

Amazing challenge though, looking forward to seeing it unfold

Good question.

Here’s what I did to get Bellingham’s Aerial up that high:

Mentoring with Giroud
I bought Giroud (obviously strong in the air) and set him as Jude’s mentor. The key thing is that mentoring can trigger attribute bumps, and in this case it consistently pushed Aerial. Every time I got a message that mentoring was having a positive effect, I stopped the mentoring and started it again. I repeated that cycle until it eventually started giving Leadership upgrades instead. Even when the game suggested mentoring had less effect, I kept it running for a bit and it still gave a few extra Aerial bumps before fully switching to Leadership. Then I stopped.
Training focus
I retrained Jude as a Target Forward and set his training focus on Aerial. With the amount of goals he scored, the development speed was really strong as well.
Coaching setup
I also ran the classic/known “ideal staff setup”: myself as motivation coach, one attacking coach, and the rest fitness. That setup generally helps maximise physical development, which supports the whole aerial/jumping profile too.

That combination basically accelerated his Aerial growth massively.

added 0 minutes later

1 hour ago, Woody said:

All fixed mate 👍👍

Awesome! You sure you are not on a blacklist @leedsunited87?😜

Scratch · January 22

3 hours ago, PriZe said:

@Woody @leedsunited87 did I manage to fix it? Or is it showing I’ve been away to long and lost my skill to post pictures online?😅

It's because you're using Imgur which doesn't work in the UK:

Works fine here in Australia.

PriZe · January 22

9 minutes ago, Scratch said:

It's because you're using Imgur which doesn't work in the UK:

Works fine here in Australia.

Well i will either use the upload function of the forum going forward or other imagehoster

leedsunited87 · January 22

47 minutes ago, PriZe said:

Awesome! You sure you are not on a blacklist @leedsunited87?😜

Must be my phone lol 😆 😂 🤣 it's a oldie haha

Buhhtio · January 23

On 22/01/2026 at 12:13, PriZe said:

Good question.

Here’s what I did to get Bellingham’s Aerial up that high:

Mentoring with Giroud
I bought Giroud (obviously strong in the air) and set him as Jude’s mentor. The key thing is that mentoring can trigger attribute bumps, and in this case it consistently pushed Aerial. Every time I got a message that mentoring was having a positive effect, I stopped the mentoring and started it again. I repeated that cycle until it eventually started giving Leadership upgrades instead. Even when the game suggested mentoring had less effect, I kept it running for a bit and it still gave a few extra Aerial bumps before fully switching to Leadership. Then I stopped.

Training focus
I retrained Jude as a Target Forward and set his training focus on Aerial. With the amount of goals he scored, the development speed was really strong as well.

Coaching setup
I also ran the classic/known “ideal staff setup”: myself as motivation coach, one attacking coach, and the rest fitness. That setup generally helps maximise physical development, which supports the whole aerial/jumping profile too.

That combination basically accelerated his Aerial growth massively.

added 0 minutes later

Awesome! You sure you are not on a blacklist @leedsunited87?😜

you are a genious, I will steal these ideas definately!

doesn't the start top mentorship hamper morale, or because you restart it it is fine. Have you tested to understand if that has better results than just keeping with it. I assume so of course.

Finally, the coaching staff - you only get to choose your speciality in the beginning, right, meaning I cannot copy this in my save now (sorry, new to the mobile world of FM). And also - I am curious why no defence coach - does that not help defenders?

Edited January 23 by Buhhtio

PriZe · January 23

6 hours ago, Buhhtio said:

you are a genious, I will steal these ideas definately!

doesn't the start top mentorship hamper morale, or because you restart it it is fine. Have you tested to understand if that has better results than just keeping with it. I assume so of course.

Finally, the coaching staff - you only get to choose your speciality in the beginning, right, meaning I cannot copy this in my save now (sorry, new to the mobile world of FM). And also - I am curious why no defence coach - does that not help defenders?

I notice no negative effects of ending it and restarting it.

And yeah, unfortunately you can only pick your specialty at the start!

Lastly, yes you are absolutely right on the defender side, it would help. But I prioritize they physical, mental, attacking stats with my coaching setup above defending.

Blessing Panashe · January 23

What tactic are u using?

PriZe · January 23

1 hour ago, Blessing Panashe said:

What tactic are u using?

One that I created, but it hasn’t been tested with smaller clubs or weaker squads so for now not really thinking of releasing it

PriZe · January 24

International update.

Jude’s first club season had just finished and straight away we rolled into the World Cup. For this save, that tournament was huge, because it could mean an early national team job… or years of waiting.

When I saw England’s group, I have to admit I thought… this is going to be to comfortable. One of those groups where you expect them to cruise through without too much drama.

But the group stage still managed to get interesting. In the final group game against Jamaica, Ramsdale got sent off and Harry Kane picked up a knock. 😬Suddenly things didn’t look quite as smooth, and my hopes of a managerial change started creeping up.😎

Then came the knockout round against South Korea. England took it to extra time… but in the 115th minute South Korea scored and knocked them out.

That result cost Tuchel his job.🥳

And not long after that, I was appointed England manager.

Which is massive for this career, because it now gives me a real shot at chasing several of Jude’s international and tournament records.

Stay tuned for S2 update soon.

Thanks for reading🙌🏻

leedsunited87 · January 24

Wayyy I can see the screenshots now

awesome news regarding the England job!

PriZe · January 24

44 minutes ago, leedsunited87 said:

Wayyy I can see the screenshots now

awesome news regarding the England job!

😂😂 changed host!

Lucky with that Jamaica game! Kane was on fire before that😬

PriZe · January 25

Season 2 Update – Jude goes nuclear

Alright time for the Season 2 update!

If Season 1 was a breakthrough year… Season 2 was Jude Bellingham going absolutely nuclear.

And now that I’m also England manager, this career has opened up on a whole new level.

Jude Bellingham – Season 2 numbers

Let’s start with the headline:

Jude finished the season with 82 goals for club and 17 goals for England.

That’s 99 goals in total this year.

So close to 100… but still an insane return. For a player who started this save as a midfielder, this is just ridiculous.

He did have a setback though. In February he suffered a damaged shoulder that kept him out for about a month. That probably cost him a few more goals… and maybe that magical 100 mark.

Still, what a season.

Individual honours

This was the year he got the recognition as well.

Jude won the Ballon d’Or, finishing ahead of Ousmane Dembélé and Achraf Hakimi. PSG were heavily represented in the voting, but Jude’s numbers were just too much to ignore.

One Ballon d’Or down, seven more to go for the GOAT challenge.

Real Madrid – absolute dominance

La Liga

We dominated again.

Only one loss all season… and yes, once again it was Barcelona. The rivalry is alive and well. But the gap to second place was huge, and the goal difference tells the real story. This team is just ridiculously strong defensively and going forward.

Copa del Rey

We won the Spanish Cup again, beating Villarreal in the final. Jude opened the scoring and Vinícius Júnior added the second. Another final, another big Jude moment.

Spanish Super Cup

We also lifted the Super Cup against Zaragoza. Jude scored four times in that game, although two were ruled out. Could easily have been even more madness.

UEFA Super Cup

We beat Copenhagen to win the UEFA Super Cup as well. Another trophy in the cabinet.

Champions League

And yes… we won the Champions League again.

Final was a Spanish clash against Sevilla. The game ended 3–1. Sevilla even helped us with an own goal, and Jude scored twice including one in the 91st minute to seal it.

Big game. Big moment. Again.

GOAT Challenge Progress – Season 2 Summary

Another incredible season for Jude, and this time it wasn’t just about trophies and big performances, it was a proper record-breaking year. He smashed the all-time record for most goals in a single season and also went past the legendary 91 goals in a calendar year. On top of that, he kept building towards the long-term milestones, adding heavily to his Champions League career total and getting his international goal tally properly underway now that I’m in charge of England.