The passionate FIFA Career Mode fan base have been frustrated in recent years with the lack of progress and changes to their favourite mode, but with the latest FIFA 20 announcement, they may finally have something to get excited about.
Although still not as in-depth as the likes of Football Manager, there are some new features dropping that should give Career Mode players not only a more enjoyable experience but also a new level of authenticity and detail.
So after taking on board a lot of the feedback given to them over the FIFA 19 cycle, here's all the changes EA are making to Career Mode in FIFA 20.
Manager customisation and female managers
A real sticking point with previous Career Modes is the lack of customisation for managers. In FIFA 19, you were given a dozen or so pre-created manager avatars to pick from and could pick from a very small selection of outfits.
For FIFA 20, however, you'll be able to customise everything about your manager. You'll be able to sculpt the way they look using a system similar to the one you would create your virtual pro with and there are lots more new clothing items to get the look you really want.
You'll also be able to play as a female manager for the first time ever as EA attempt to include the women's game more and more each year.
Morale system and press conferences
Press conferences were always something of an after-thought in FIFA 19 and didn't add anything at all to the Career Mode experience.
Now, however, new manager and player press conferences will have have a direct impact on both individual player and team morale, with different responses giving different reactions.
Morale will effect the stats of your players, so it's important to attend these press conferences and give the right answers to keep your players motivated and happy.
You can also effect morale through player conversations. In FIFA 19, you'd get the naggy, moaning messages from a 59-rated, 18-year-old youth prospect who believes he's owed a shot up front in a crucial league game.
The only way to stop him from feeling disenfranchised and eventually leave would be to force yourself to play him. Now, a text message-style player conversation screen allows you to directly address your player's requests with different responses, all of which will alter their morale in certain ways.
This newly revamped system of morale, press conferences and player conversations now gives you more flexibility and different approaches to dealing with unhappy players than just simply giving them game time.
Dynamic player potential
This is a big one. In previous Career Mode's, a player's potential was pretty much set in stone, with exception to if you put them through enough training exercises and consistently scored a tonne of goals with them.
There used to be a rough ceiling that a player would reach and then as soon as the player would hit 30 or 31 years of age, that rating would begin to fall, regardless of their performances.
The new potential system will still likely have predetermined potentials but is now more impacted by how much you play certain players and how they perform on the pitch.
This would mean you may struggle to reach a wonderkid's potential rating of 90 if you don't play him enough in his early career, and that a 35-year-old who is still putting in a lot of good shifts for your club won't decrease in rating as they would have last season.
Other improvements
New interface
There has been a redesigning of the team management screen to make it easier to select and compare different players in your squad.
Negotiation backdrops
Rather than same boring office that all of FIFA 19's transfer and contract negotiations were set in, you will now be able to meet agents and players in settings such as restaurants or rooftop lounges to discuss business.
News feed
The best moments of your career will now be shown in the News Feed with new live screenshots of in-game moments, such as winning goals in previous matches.
Written by Bob "Marshall Gunner" Oberon. Translated from French by Millenium
