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Name: Jackson Martínez Age: 27 years old Nationality: Colombian Position: S C Role: Advanced Forward/Target Man Starting Club: FC Porto If you're not looking for someone for a 1000 goal challenge, you can get Jackson Martínez for your team. Look at that average rating and the insane amount of goals on his first season! He won't go cheap, unless you get him at the start though...

This will be my attempt at my own challenge, and at the same time my first posted career for FMH14. And of course, I could only go with the great FC Porto, right? Lets see how long will it take for me to complete this and prove, for once and for all, which team is the best in Portugal and the world. Hope you accompany me in this journey and I hope you like it and get involved with comments, suggestions, etc. So lets get on with the show! Season One creating the mould My first main concern with this career is to try and emulate in the best way possible how FC Porto plays in real life, and I also expect to replicate their current starting team, at least straight off the bat. This does not mean that some adjustments won't be made, because I'm sure they will, and if I'd like to develop further in this career, some players will have to go, despite what they represent to me in real life. Managing your real life club is hard, has most of you know, so I hope to do the best I can. As we start FC Porto has two players in the defensive midfield position, two inside forwards in each wing and an advanced playmaker. Well, that's wrong, at least for me. While I'll remain with a defensive midfielder, Fernando, playing as a ball winning midfielder, I'll need on player in the center midfield and I won't use inside forwards. The picture below will show you my starting eleven for the first season and their respective roles. You'll notice that there's a player missing in the DC position. This is because I rotate the player who occupies that position. It can either be Otamendi, Reyes or Maicon. The rest of the players will play as represented, whenever they're fit. Because of MerlionMaple's influence in last years game, I use Josué on the left wing as an advanced playmaker, to take the role left empty by James Rodriguez' departure to AS Monaco. building a team Since I want to replicate the real life club I didn't invest a lot in the first team, with most of my transfers looking to reinforce the B squad so I can have some more options in the future. Several players didn't have a place on the team or I would have a surplus of talented players for that position and I can't play them all. Kléber and Walter, brazilian strikers, left for FC Lorient and Marítimo. Marat Izmailov is getting older and he's very injury prone, but I managed to sell him to FC Kobenhavn for €3.2M. Abdoulaye was sold to Olympique Lyonnais for €6M (sad to see him leave but I have a lot of options for his position) and Rolando was loaned to Gil Vicente for the time being. Although you won't see it in the picture below, several B team youngsters were also out on loan so they could play a bit more. This year the B team has a lot of players and we can't have them all standing still for most of the season and, although some may never become good/decent players, one can never know for the time being. Better play it safe and get some loans out. As for players joining the team, Marko Pavlovski, already on the B team on a loan was bought and promoted to the main squad. To take his place in the B team, Bernardo Silva from our rival Benfica. He''ll probably be a future star on the team. We also signed Pedro Silva, a keeper from Sporting, Victor Garcia on a free transfer (he actually belongs to FC Porto in real life...no idea why he starts as a free transfer...) and you can also have a glimpse of two Bosmans who will join the team for season 2, Alexandre Frade and Jimmy Cabot. getting on with the show The first game of the season, is, as always, the Portuguese Supercup. In this chapter we have the upper hand against Benfica, having 16 more Supercups than our rivals. This season we would be facing Vitória SC and try to have one more cup added to our collection. After a great official debut for Juan Fernando Quintero, we won the game with a 3-0 victory and our first trophy of the season was won. The League Cup is a trophy that has been avoiding us since its creation. In real life that's easily explained. Our club doesn't really like that competition so, most of the time, our starting lineup is made up of backup players and some from the B team. But that is no excuse and we should try and win it all. I wanted to do that and get our first trophy in this competition but I got unlucky in the group stage so...farewell League Cup. In the Portuguese Cup, a competition I'll have to win at least 9 more times to come out on top (if Benfica doesn't win another, that is) we did better. Facing Sporting in the final, the game ended up being decided on a penalty shootout, and we were luckier. But to be honest, we diserved that win. Just look at the shooting stats! To conclude the national part of the competitions, we managed to become early champions, in March. We ended up having 34 more points than Sporting and 36 more than Benfica, who came out in the fourth position. The B team did good in the bottom tier, coming second, right after Benfica B. This means that I have quality backup youngsters and I like it. We also managed to get a Youth Academy so hopefully our ranks will increasy with quality youth. On the continental side of things, we managed to get to the quarter finals of the Champions League, facing Barcelona. After a 1-0 victory at home we had high hopes for the second leg but the disallowed goal from Jackson Martínez and Neymar's late goal wouldn't allow us to go through to the semi finals. season summary Unfortunately Benfica won the League Cup which means our goal is now updated to 5 Portuguese League Cups which we must win to overcome Benfica. PSG, while not being managed by anfieldsquirrel (sorry!) won the Champions League, defeating Ronaldo's Madrid in the final. A spanish final in the Europa League, similar to the Portuguese final a few years back, with Valencia coming out on top. For the next season I hope to see Porto's name six times in the above season summary! Jackson Martínez was the league's top scorer with 40 goals, while Josué came out on top with the most assists. Martínez was also the Liga Zon Sagres Player of the Year, and Josué winning the Youth Player of the Year award. Sadly for Ronaldo, Messi took the grand prize (although I hope Ronaldo gets it in real life, which is more than diserved!). I won the Manager of the Year award. I still have a long way to go, as far as my managerial stats go, but the board appreciates my work during this season. The player harmony was green just before the loans came back to the team. Now they wish to be promoted. Some will, some won't. Jackson Martínez did great as far as goals go, scoring 68 times this season. Our second best scorer, Quintero, only had 20 goals. Josué lead in the assists department, closely followed by Quintero and Varela. In fact, if I have to name some players who were most important to the team this year, they would have to be Jackson Martínez, Juan Fernando Quintero, Josúe and Silvestre Varela. I hope I can hang on to these players, but usually Varela starts declining very early so I'm not really sure about him. And usually, clubs like Barcelona, Chelsea or Real Madrid come after Jackson Martínez in the second season so I'll have to keep them happy with me and performing like they did in this first season. facing our rivals It is now time to do the math and see how we fared against Benfica. Below are the three games we played against them, twice for the league and once in the Portuguese Cup. After one season, the competitions/stats are as follows: Note to self: - Porto has 3 consecutive games scoring, 1 consecutive games conceding, 3 consecutive games winning, 3 consecutive games without losing, 0 consecutive games losing, 0 consecutive games without winning, 0 seasons without losing, 3 consecutive league wins (considering we won two seasons in a row in 2011/2012 and 2012/2013. - Benfica has 1 consecutive games scoring, 3 consecutive games conceding, 0 consecutive games winning, 0 consecutive games without losing, 3 consecuting games losing, 3 consecutive games without winning, 0 seasons without losing, 0 consecutive league wins.

Name: Josué Age: 22 years old Nationality: Portuguese Position: AM/M RLC (after retraining) Role: Advanced Playmaker/Winger Starting Club: FC Porto Josué is a product of FC Porto's youth system. He had been on loan for some seasons to Penafiel and Vitesse and 50% of his rights were sold to Paços de Ferreira. After a couple of good seasons at Paços we got him back. Still very young and can play on any side. As you can see, his average rating in the league is great. He could be your main option for your starting eleven or a very useful backup.

THE PORTUGUESE CLASSIC Although there are three clubs in Portugal known as The Three Greats, one of those clubs (Sporting) hasn't been so great in the last few decades, leaving the league glory to the other two remaining clubs of the trio, FC Porto and SL Benfica, with the first being a dominant force in the last two/three decades. The rivalry is so great that sometimes surpasses the world of football, translating into some kind of war between North (where Porto is located) and South (Lisbon, for Benfica). This challenge can be done in two ways, although if you go with the eagles, it will be a longer challenge. The purpose of this challenge is to be the best club in every way possible, when comparing both teams. This means you'll have to win more domestic and continental competitions and you'll also need to come out on top in stats related to matches between both teams. Below there's a list of the competitions won by each club and the stats as well. Take into consideration that some are extinct, like the Intercontinental Cup. It's very simple really, win more competitions of each type than your rival. The Intercontinental Cup gets replaced by the Club World Championship and if you win a Champions League, it can count as an Europa League (or else you'd have to fail on purpose in the group stage just to get relegated to the Europa League). Concerning stats, you must come out on top in EVERY SINGLE STAT. This means you need to have: more wins more goals better average goal vs rival more games with goals most consecutive games scoring least consecutive games conceding most consecutive games winning most consecutive games without losing least consecutive games losing least consecutive games without winning most seasons without losing most consecutive league wins Also, the above stats will be updated after each season, so this means you'll have to update your stats target at the end of the season, and this is why you'll need to post visual evidence of every single game between both teams, excluding friendly games. And like I said at the start, this takes longer if you play with SL Benfica because FC Porto have the upper hand when it comes to the Portuguese Supercup, with 16 more than SL Benfica. Hope you enjoy this challenge and give it a try! So, a few rules: You can only manage FC Porto or SL Benfica. No unlockables allowed unless you unlock them during this challenge. No use of text changes (for transfers only, since there's nothing wrong with editing the name of clubs or competitions) or save editor. No cheating, so this means you can't reload to win a cup final or get a better result against your rival. A posted career is mandatory with proof of who won what and each game between the two rivals (friendlies excluded!). Own tactic only, with visual proof. If requested you must upload your save so the coaches can check no cheating has taken place via the save editor and failure to do this will result in you being rejected from the leader board. Other rules can be added in the future, if needed.

Oh look, it's 11 players from FC Porto! What could this mean?! Is it possible that Graveluth will attempt the new challenge on the block with his team? Yes, it is possible. The players I've picked are those shown above in the picture. If you don't know them (and you should because they're the world's best ), let me introduce them to you. In the top row we have Helton, the Brazilian goalkeeper that will win your heart with his amazing reflexes and sympathy; Fernando, the ball winning machine, know as "The Octopus" because he seems to catch every single opposing ball; Danilo, the young right wing back; Jackson Martinez, the Colombian who had the hard task of replacing Falcao; Mangala, the french tower and Otamendi, the Argentinian bulldog who is insecure about his height so he stands on the tip of his toes for the picture (such a sissy!). In the bottom row there's João Moutinho, the heart of the team, who will never give up until the final whistle; James Rodriguez, the Colombian Advanced Playmaker on the Wing©; Lucho Gonzalez, El Comandante, who will lead the team in the field, Alex Sandro, looking menacing for the camera and finally Varela, known in Portugal as Caparica's Drogba (Caparica being a location near Lisbon). To sum it up, here are the stars of the show: Helton, 34 years old Alex Sandro, 21 years old Eliaquim Mangala, 21 years old Otamendi, 24 years old Danilo, 20 years old Fernando, 24 years old João Moutinho, 25 years old Lucho Gonzalez, 31 years old James Rodriguez, 20 years old Silvestre Varela, 27 years old Jackson Martinez, 25 years old I'll do this like WallyWonka, only selling the first player in January, as I think it makes more sense. While it isn't as hard as playing in England, you'll have to keep in mind that I won't be able to sell my players for massive amounts of money, so I'll most likely have to buy cheap substitutes. Lets see how this goes. Please vote in the above poll to pick who goes away in January.