FC 26: All New Changes in Manager Career Mode

Hello, football fans! EA Sports FC 26, released on September 26, 2025, brings what many players consider one of the biggest overhauls to its Manager Career Mode in a long time.

If you are into single-player experience, you won’t want to skip FC 26’s career mode. This year's career mode introduces new features like "Manager Live", "Manager Market" and "Unexpected Events", all of which make managing your career way more fun and engaging.

Today, LDShop is here to walk you through the key changes and what they mean for your gameplay experience.

Manager Live

• One of the headline additions is Manager Live, a hub of challenges that run weekly and seasonally.
• Some challenges align with real-world football, like frenzy of transfer windows or the UEFA Champions League knockouts.
• These aren’t simple trophies or stats counters, but a series of scenarios that test different managerial skills—tactical, financial, motivational, etc.—often with special constraints (e.g., achieving certain league positions by a date, managing with a restricted budget, or developing youth players).

• The heart of Manager Live is the Hub, a centralised space where you access all Manager Career scenarios, including Full Careers, Live Starting Points, and Challenges.
• Players will be able to connect with friends to share Challenges and tackle the most popular ones directly from the Hub.
• Players can earn exclusive kit rewards by completing challenges to use in Manager Career, and this Challenge completion enables players to progress through the Season Pass to earn game wide rewards, including ICON and Heroes.
• As you set up your Career, you will be able to fill your squad with any ICON or Hero that you have earned so far. And with the Ultimate Edition, you will receive three more ICONs at launch to kick-start your Careers.

 

Manager Market

• Perhaps the most game-changing feature is the introduction of a Manager Market. For the first time, managerial positions aren't static.
• Managers can now be poached by other clubs, sacked for underperformance, or even choose to leave for a new opportunity.
• Club boards now evaluate managers not only by trophies but by meeting objectives, tactical fit, reputation, and club identity.
• This adds tension and realism—your job security depends more directly on what you achieve, and the managerial landscape becomes more alive.
• Clubs will appoint managers using the same principles in football, approaching candidates with similar pedigrees and tactical styles.
• While Manager Market will be your go-to place for all manager news and info, you'll also hear commentary as you enter matches that alert you to managers in trouble, making their debut, and more.

 

Authentic & Competitive Gameplay Presets

• To better match player expectations, FC 26 separates gameplay styles.
• For offline modes like Manager Career, there is now Authentic Mode, which aims for realism—slower pacing, more tactical nuance, more significant effects from things like weather, player fatigue, and injuries.
• Rebounds, blocks, and bounces will all be governed by physics to create more authentic and sometimes unpredictable moments.
• Your AI teammates will keep tighter defensive lines and be more compact in the midfield. Tackles, headers, and corners will feel true to real-world success rates.
• Every detail has been geared towards that feeling of immersion, making sure that Authentic Gameplay lives up to its name and your feedback for how Career should play.

• For online modes, there’s Competitive Mode, tuned for responsiveness and a faster pace. This dual-preset approach helps avoid a one-size-fits-all feel.
• you'll still be able to toggle your Career experience between the two different gameplay presets.

 

Icons and Heroes in Manager Career & Rewards via Season Pass

• FC 26 allows managers to now unlock and use ICONs and Heroes—legendary players from past eras—in Manager Career mode.
• Some ICONs are available immediately (depending on edition or preorder), while others are rewards via the Manager Live Challenges or the Season Pass.
• This gives long-term saves the potential to build fantasy lineups mixing current stars and football legends.
• Each season introduces a new exclusive roster of ICONs and Heroes to discover, unlock, and add to your dream squad at the start of your next journey.

• You can choose to relive football history by creating your own version of classic teams.
• The more ICONs and Heroes you unlock, the more options you will have to recreate a classic line up.
• You can also add ICONs and Heroes to your favourite team alongside today’s stars, building a fantasy squad that reflects your personal vision of football greatness.

 

 

Unexpected Events & Narrative Depth

• To break the monotony and simulate the unpredictability of real football, FC 26 adds “Unexpected Events”—random occurrences that challenge managers beyond match results.
• These could be financial crises, sudden player retirements, injuries, boardroom issues, etc.
• Combined with the challenge system in Manager Live, these make every single season feel more distinct.
• Each Unexpected Event is an opportunity to step up and make the right choices to navigate whatever comes your way.
• It's important to note, however, that Unexpected Events are optional. When you start a Career, you'll be able to choose how frequently they happen or turn them off entirely.

 

Deep Simulation and Data-Driven Scouting

• A core update to Career Mode in FC 26 is the introduction of Deeper Simulation. When starting a new Manager Career, you can now select up to five additional leagues to simulate, on top of your main one.
• You can also focus on regional rivalries or emerging leagues, tailoring the simulation to their interests or career narrative.
• There are also enhancements in how club identity and manager philosophy are handled. The choices you make—from scouting preferences and youth development to tactical style—impact how your club evolves over seasons.
• The game also introduces player/manager archetypes, which give more flavour to characters in your managerial career and affect how you approach matches and team building.

Quality-of-Life Improvements

• Beyond the big features, there are smaller but meaningful tweaks: improved UI, more intuitive contract renewals, better scouting tools, balance in squad building, and more realistic behaviour by AI coaches and rival clubs in markets.
• This help smooth the managerial experience so you spend less time navigating menus and more time making real decisions.

 

What it means to players?

• More Engaging gameplay over time: the new additions make long careers less predictable, pushing you to balance expectations, adapt to surprises, and plan strategically for both the short and long term.
• Greater replayability: with diverse challenges, unique paths, and random events, each career feels different, encouraging fresh tactics and strategies even with the same club.
• Balancing realism vs. fun: authentic mode and live events give players the realism they crave, while others can adjust features to set their preferred balance of challenge and fun.
• Learning curve: committed players will find the newly added systems more fun than past games despite the complexity.

 

Conclusion

FC 26’s updates to Manager Career Mode represent a whole new way to play. This year, it is less about simple topping the league table and more about shaping your club’s journey, dealing with surprises, and balancing the demands that come from all sides.

The new systems add a layer of depth that makes the mode feel more alive and rewarding, especially if you enjoy thinking a few steps ahead. Not every feature will be everyone’s favourite, but taken together, this feels like the most meaningful Career Mode upgrade we have seen in years.

Top up the FC 26 Ultimate Edition at LDShop now to get ICONs in Manager Career, plus FC Points and a range of Ultimate Team™ benefits, including a debut ICON at launch and an ICON today in FC 25.