Head back to the glorious 1986/87 season on Football Manager 2024 and re-discover all the legendary football players you only have heard of, but never seen playing, either because you were too young to remember or yet to be born.
Enter a managerial career where football legends such as Roberto Baggio and Gary Lineker exists on Football Manager 2024, & get the chance to re-live 39 years of football history on Football Manager.
Dive into the transfer market and buy / sell future world class players who emerged in the late 80’s but are now dominating in the media as journalists or football experts, or made a name as a manager after hanging up their boots. This throwback database let you experience all the teams across 9 different European nations and get the correct leagues, squads and players as in the 1986/87 season on Football Manager 2024.
This means you’ll be able to change the faith of Coventry or Sampdoria and take control as their new manager in a quest where you hunt for titles in a much simpler time.
Re-write nearly 40 years of football history on Football Manager 2024 by experiencing the immersive 1986/87 retro database for Football Manager 2024 by tHe MadSCienTiSt FM.
Key Takeaways
About the Football Manager 2024: 1986/87 retro database by The MadScientist FM
After the release of 1994/95 retro database, MadScientist FM has finished his third throwback database for Football Manager 2024! Then we said it’s nearly an impossible feat creating two retro databases per year, but with Football Manager 2025 cancelled, more time and availability opened up, letting you experience another incredible throwback database by the MadScientist FM.
This time, he let you head back to the end of the ’80s.
The 1986/87 database for Football Manager 2024 will be the third time in MadScientist’s entire career as a retro database creator he goes beyond the Championship Manager series or the FM universe. Not since FM19 when he created a 1966/67 database we’ll turn back time where there are none or minimal information about player’s attributes and abilities to simply copy over to the latest retro database.
This means the 1986/87 retro database for Football Manager 2024 has been created entirely from scratch and current abilities, player attributes and skills of footballers within this throwback database is set based on the creator’s subjective judgement, unless the player features in one of the earliest CM editions.
This retro database takes place at a time when Steaua București had just won the club’s first and only European Cup as they won 2-0 on penalties against Terry Venables’ Barcelona.
In Ukraine, legendary manager Valeriy Lobanovskiy were in his second spell as Dynamo Kyiv manager – steering them to an incredible treble as he won the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup 1986, the Soviet Top League and Soviet Super Cup featuring standout striker Oleg Blokhin.
In the English top flight, Kenny Dalglish had just taken over as player-manager for Liverpool and managed to guide the club to an amazing double after the tragedy at the Heysel Stadium in 1985 when 39 spectators died and hundreds injured.
The English First Division featured traditional clubs as Sheffied Wednesday, Coventry, Luton, Watford, Queens Park Rangers, Oxford and Wimbledon, meanwhile current Premier League teams Fulham and Brighton was found in the third division.
Discover some player profiles from 1986-87 database
At the start of the 1986/87 season, Barcelona had just improved their squad with Mark Hughes and Gary Lineker – although it wouldn’t be enough to reduce the dominance of Real Madrid who would go on to win 5 consecutive La Liga trophies from 1985, two consecutive UEFA Cup titles from 1984 – featuring an attacking line of Mexican Hugo Sanchez, Emilio Butragueño and Jorge Valdano.
At Ajax, the club was led by Total Football legend Johan Cruyff. The squad featured wonderkids and breakthrough players such as Marco van Basten, Dennis Bergkamp, Richard Witschge, Frank Rijkaard and Aron Winter. Their fierce rivals PSV included newly signed Ronald Koeman, Frank Arnesen and Ruud Gullit. What a time to be alive!
By downloading the 1986/87 retro database for Football Manager 2024 there will be many football legends like them we have mentioned above. However, there are many more to discover!
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, who were playing for Internazionale at the time. Portuguese wonderkid Paulo Futre, Rangers legend Ally McCoist, Italian wonderkid Roberto Baggio, a 20-year-old Eric Cantona years before he finally made his breakthrough at Leeds, or the greatest player of them all Diego Armando Maradona in the peak of his career at Napoli.
As you head into your career, the players have just entered back from the 1986 FIFA World Cup held in Mexico, where Argentina won, Gary Lineker became the topscorer, Diego Maradona was honoured as the best player of the tournament, whilst Enzo Scifo became the young player of the tournament.
In the fierce battle of a semi-final place, Brazil and France knocked heads in one of the most thrilling World Cup matches ever! Michel Platini against Socrates and Zico – legends that would any kid watch the match in awe.
Although it may be only names for many of you as you don’t have the same relationship as our fathers, uncles or other relatives, being able to re-live the 1986/87 season and change nearly 40 years of football history in Football Manager, isn’t an opportunity that comes often!
However, this is your chance to build a relationship with some of the greatest football legends as you dive into the transfer market, set up training and guide your club to new honours in the FM24 1986/87 retro database for Football Manager.
The Playable Nations & Leagues of MadscientistFM’s FM24 1986/87 Retro Database:
The Football Manager 2024 1986/87 retro database enables you to pick a team to manage across 9 European nations. You will have 11 different leagues available and thousands of players and staff -bringing you one step closer to experience the reality of 1986/87 season on FM24!
- England: 1. Division + 2. Division
- Italy: Serie A & Serie B
- Spain: La Liga
- Germany: Bundesliga
- France: Ligue 1
- The Netherlands: Eredivisie
- Scotland: Premiership
- Portugal: Primera Liga
- Belgium: First Division
Today we are proud to present the opportunity to download the 1986/87 Retro Database for FM24 by tHe MAdSCienTiSt.
Download the Football Manager 2024 1986/87 Retro Database
Re-live history in Football Manager 2024. Re-experience the glorious 1986/87 season in Football Manager 2024. Download this brand new retro database and watch your all the greatest football legends of the 80s blossom in FM24.
Version: 1.0
Published: 30.05.2025
Last Updated:
How to install the 1986/87 retro database for FM24
To download and enjoy the 1986/87 retro database on Football Manager 2024 you’ll have two different options; either installing the save game file, or playing with the .fmf editor database file.
1. Installing the Save Game File
The save game file has everything loaded, every playable league and all created players.
- Click the download button above
- Move the file into:
Your Documents/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2024/Gamesfolder - Start FM24 – Select Load Game – Select the 1986/87 DB file
USEFUL TIP! When asked to save your career, make sure to select another name than the default otherwise the database will be overwritten and you need to download it again.
2. Playing with the FMF Editor file
The fmf file can be opened with the editor or to setup a custom career. It’s a viable option to the save game file.
- Move the file into:
Your Documents/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2024/Editor datafolder. - In FM24 Start a new career. Then click the button at the top right corner saying DATABASE. Then click on the 24.3.0 button and select the Football Manager 2024 database instead.*
The 86/87 database does NOT WORK with any updated FM databases. - Tick ‘The 1986/87 DB’ box – Make sure no other editor data files are ticked!
- Click Confirm and Choose Advanced Setup
- Choose your preferred leagues out of the playable leagues.
- Then press Approximate Player Count and choose ‘Advanced’
- Select the nations you want to load players from besides the active leagues, to make sure that as many players as possible will be loaded.
- Tick the boxes saying Players Based in Nation – Even if your computer says that the number of players exceeds the recommended level it will only load the approximately 16.000 players which is created in the DB.
- Finally, press Start Game and enjoy the nostalgia trip.
Hope you’ll enjoy this retro database for Football Manager 2024!
IMPORTANT NOTICE!
The Football Manager 1986/87 db .fmf file is ONLY compatible with the latest updated Football Manager 2024 database aka FM24 14.3.0 db. IF YOU CHOOSE A FM24 DATABASE WITH AN UPDATE, IT WILL CONFLICT WITH THE 1986/87 DB.
Social Medias & Credit
Huge thanks to the tHeMAdSCienTiSt Fm for giving us permission to showcase his amazing work to our audience. Despite the database is provided for free, he spends thousands of hours to recreate the footballing world for your pleasure, so show him your gratitude.
Make sure to support him by making donations to either Paypal or by subscribing to his Patreon.
For the latest updates, announcements of future projects or additions to the database, make sure to drop a follow to MadScientist and his associates down below.
►Follow on X – @MadScientistFM
►Follow on BlueSky – https://bsky.app/profile/themadscientistfm.bsky.social
►Website – themadscientistfm.wixsite.com
►Watch my Livestreams on Twitch – http://www.twitch.tv/themadscientistfm
►Browse my Steam Workshop Library – Steam
►Subscribe on YouTube – The Mad Scientist
►Support on Patreon – ThemadscientistFM
►Join my Discord – tHeMAdSCienTiSt
Huge thanks to MrTini23 for his dedication and help to finish the 1986/87 database before the end of the Football Manager 2024 cycle!
– Follow on X: @MrTini23
– Follow on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/mrtini23.bsky.social
– Support on Patreon – MrTini23
