The Hardest Football Manager 2023 Challenges that will test your abilities | FM23 Clubs to Manage

Football Manager 2023 release is fast approaching and it’s time to decide on who to manage for Football Manager 2023. To help you decide on your long term save for Football Manager 2023, we have compiled a list of some of the hardest Football Manager 2023 challenges you could embark on.

There’s nothing more rewarding than taking a minor club from the lower leagues to European glory. You have spent months on your Football Manager career game to turn a club at the bottom of the pyramid into a club of your liking.

On the way, you have faced ups and downs but the project has slowly progressed until you win the championship, or gets promoted to the premier division after years of battling through the lower league levels. It’s even more rewarding when the club’s finances, facilities and squad abilities is far behind the rest and makes the challenge of a quick promotion even tougher.

FM23 Lower League Clubs to Manage | Two different types of Football Manager 2023 Challenges

When selecting the FM23 clubs to manage, it’s easy to simply look at clubs in the top divisions, instead we will guide you through some of the lower league clubs to manage on FM23 . Without further ado, let us take a look at the hardest Football Manager 2023 challenges you should try for your long-term save.

5 Teams to Manage for Zero to Hero Football Manager 2023 Challenges

Completing the Football Manager 2023 Zero to Hero Challenge is all about aiming to get a club promoted from the bottom of the pyramid to the premier division. Whether you start off with no coaching badges, poor reputation and take on the challenge to improve your managerial profile by taking coaching courses is all up to you but it’s the basic idea behind the zero to hero Football Manager 2023 challenges.

Your career will certainly be harder simply by starting off as a manager with no past playing experience and minimal coaching attributes. It will be harder to attract players, harder to motivate your team and basically a bit more difficult to develop players as your ability to coach a specific area of the game is poor.

Here are a few suggestions of lower league clubs to manage – those clubs with little to no money, poor training facilities and/or low stadium capacity that makes generating income harder and more difficult for the long-term running of the club.

Below you’ll find five teams to manage in the lower leagues – perfect for a zero to hero Football Manager 2023 challenge!

FC Borgo – French Championnat National

Dethroning the French super-club Paris SG must be one of the hardest challenges in Football Manager at the moment with their financial super powers. When the club is newly established as late as 2017, in the small Corsican village of Borgo, with a population of around 9000 habitants, i might seem like an impossible task turning one of the youngest and smallest clubs in France into European champions.

The Football Club Borgo, previously known as Bastia-Borgo, is a merger between CA Bastia and Borgo FC. FC Borgo got one off the smallest stadiums in Championat National with its capacity of 2000, and is a semi-professional club currently competing in the French third tier – Championnat National.

Your objectives by managing FC Borgo on FM23 are many. You could aim to turn the club into the biggest club on the Island of Corsica, try to win the club’s first Coupe the France trophy, or try to grt the club into Ligue 1, and eventually qualify for European trophies while dreaming of major trophies as you build the club from the ground up.

Training facilities: Adequate

San Donato Tavarnelle – Italian Serie C

Tuscany is probably most known for its Chianti wines, the cultural landscape, artistic legacy both at Florence, Pisa and Lucca. Glorious places on the UNESCO World Heritage List. However, the region has two well-established clubs fighting in the top division; ACF Fiorentina and Empoli.

Actually, the region hosts around 50 minor clubs playing in Serie C or below. While some are founded at the start of the 20th century, a few have been refounded or newly established. One of these clubs is San Donato Tavarnelle. 

Founded in 2006, and from the village of San Donato in Poggia, the Italian lower league club managed a historical promotion to professional football by getting promoted to Serie C ahead of this season (2022/23).

Your objective for FM23 could be to build a club that becomes the best in the Tuscany region by topping Fiorentina’s six Coppa Italia trophies, three Serie B champions and two Serie A trophies.

Training facilities: Basic

Buxton – English Vanarama National League North

For all your Anglophiles, we have the perfect lower league management save for you. Buxton Football Club has never, at least to my knowledge, played higher in the English non-league pyramid than after their promotion to Vanarama National League North prior to this season, despite being founded in 1877.

Situated 28miles south of Manchester, Buxton is described as being in the center of England. The football club on the other hand has never won a major trophy. In fact, their best performance in the FA Cup was achieved in 1951-52 by getting to the third round, whilst they have reached the FA Trophy quarter finals two times in the beginning of the 70s.

The English lower league club plays their home matches at The Silverlands – a stadium with a capacity of 4000 people. In fact, it’s the highest ground in the pyramid, situated 1000 feet above sea, and one of the oldest and finest in the league.

Unfortunately, regardless of the standard of the club’s stadium, it will be a difficult task avoiding relegation in the first season in National League North. Getting the club into the top division of England will definitely be a gigantic challenge that could take decades.

Training facilities: Poor

Hallescher FC – German 3.Liga

The German third division host a number of former successful clubs like 1860 München and MSV Duisburg – two clubs perfect for a restore the glory save. On the opposite end of the scale, we have clubs who have never won a major trophy, like Hallescher FC.

Located in Halle in the south of Saxony-Anhalt, Hallescher FC have remained in the German 3.Liga since 2012 and is currently the club who have been there the longest at the moment. However, they have never managed to compete for a play-off place to 2. Bundesliga. Their best position happened in the 2018/19 season when they were 4 points away, eventually ending on a fourth position.  

Getting promoted to the Bundesliga will definitely be a historical achievement in Hallescher’s 66 years club history. Winning it, or playing in one of the European competitions will definitely top it all!

Training facilities: Adequate

ABC – Brazilian Serie C

Establishing a lasting legacy on Football Manager is something we all desire regardless of which nation or league you’re managing in. While most look to the lower leagues of the top five European nations, a travel above the Atlantic Ocean can bring you as much excitement and challenge, by looking at a team to manage in South America.

The newest promoted team to the lowest playable league in Brazil on FM23 is ABC Futebol Clube. The Brazilian lower league club is nicknamed The Most Beloved (O Mais Querido), or The People’s Club (O Clube do Povo). Since being founded in 1915, ABC have never won a major trophy but been ranking up 57 Campeonato Potiguar trophies, which is the state league of Rio Grande do Norte. That’s also the most state championship titles in Brazil.

The challenge for FM23, is to compete for the record of holding the most successful titles in the entire nation. Currently Palmeiras got the most national titles by winning the Brasileiro Série A 10 times – the last time in 2018. Overtaking Palmeiras, Santos, Cruzeiro or São Paulo might seem like a distant dream. Therefore, the aim must be to build the club from the ground up, putting effort into establishing a great youth academy to produce future players for the Brazilian national team with the hope of enhancing your club’s finances to eventually compete with the top Brazilian clubs.

In any case, you’re looking at a long-term project bound for some ups and downs.

Training facilities: Adequate

Restore the glory Football Manager 2023 challenges you should try

Recreativo de Huelva – Spanish Segunda División RFEF

Despite being the oldest football club in Spain, you would think Recreativo de Huelva, a club founded in 1889, has a long and pride history to look back on. In many ways they do. They participated in the Primera División on five occasions. The final time so far, was for three seasons between 2006 and 2009. In fact, throughout the most of their club history, they have been a regular participant in the first division before hitting rock bottom by getting relegated to the Segunda División – third tier of the Spanish pyramid.

Earlier this summer, the club celebrated their 19th anniversary for their best performance in the Copa del Rey when they reached the final but lost to Samuel Eto’os Mallorca 3-0. With only one trophy in cabinet – winning the Segunda Division in 2005/06, getting the club promoted from the fourth tier of the Spanish pyramid to La Liga is one of the greatest but most doable Football Manager 2023 challenges.

With their great training facilities, a stadium capacity of over 21000 spectators and holding a professional status it becomes easier to both recruit players and develop them to later sell for profit. Having good youth facilities will also help you to nurture your own talents, possibly reshaping the club into a copy of Las Palmas.

In fact, regardless of the project and club vision you want to install, restoring the glory of Huelva in Football Manager 2023 could be a fascinating journey just waiting on you.

Training facilities: Great

Dinamo Bucuresti – Romanian Liga II

One of the fallen giants on Football Manager 2023 can be found in the second tier of the Romanian football league pyramid. Dinamo 1948 Bucuresti have played their entire life time in the Romanian top division – 74 years – until they lost last season’s relegation play-off.

Despite on a decline for the past 9 years after getting declared insolvent twice and thereby changes in ownerships, Dinamo Bucuresti is one of the most successful clubs in Romania.

It was the first Romanian club to reach the semi finals of the former equivalent of Champions League, the European Cup. That happen in 1983/84 meanwhile five years later they reached the semi final of the Cup Winner’s Cup.

Domestically, the club have won Liga 1 18 times and become runners-up 20 times. They became champions the last time in 2006-07. Additionally, the have won 13 Cupa Romaniei trophies with their latest coming in 2011/12.

With such a long and pride history, it’s time to get back Dinamo 1948 to the premier division and compete yet again against FCSB for future championships and European glory by taking advantage of the club’s great youth development program.

Training facilities: Good
Youth facilities: Good

Ruch Chorzów – Polish Fortuna 1.Liga

When looking at teams to manage in Poland, it’s easy to get blinded by the success of Legia Warzawa, and Lech Poznan in recent years. In a historical perspective, Wisla Krakow, Gornik Zabrze and Ruch Chorzow is considered as the big five clubs in Poland.

In the case of Ruch Chorzow, the last five years have been like a rollercoaster ride for the club. Back-to-back relegations three years in row followed, by back to back promotions from III Liga to 1.Liga ahead of this season, paints a picture of a phoenix club.

The club based only 9km outside Katowice, had their golden eras in the 30s, 50s and 70s winning 14 Polish championships, 3 Polish Cups and finalist in the UEFA Intertoto Cup 1998 as well as reaching the quarter finals of the European Cup 1975 and UEFA Cup 1974 is some of their merits.

Quite a large gap to the club’s current position.

A side mission when managing Ruch Chorzow on FM23 could be to hunt for Ernest Pohl’s all-time top goalscorer title by getting one of your youth products to score more than 186 goals in the Ekstraklasa, or top the most appearances for one of your newgens by surpassing 559 appearances.

Training facilities: Adequate

Rot-Weiss Essen – German 3.Liga

For 13 consecutive seasons, Rot-Weiss Essen have been playing in the fourth division until they managed a promotion to the 3.Liga ahead of this season. Rot-Weiss Essen made the remarkable achievement becoming runners-up in the 1993/94 DFB-pokal as a 2.Bundesliga club.

But we need to head all the way back to the 50s for the club’s golden era when they won the German Cup 1953 and the German Championship 1955 making them able to participate among 15 other European domestic champions in the first season of the European Cup.

The challenge for FM23 is to make the club compete in the Bundesliga against their fiercest rivals Schalke 04, and later see RWE compete against the best clubs in Europe.

To awake the sleeping giant you might want to rebuild the club from ground up by focusing on youth development. They can take advantage of their location in North Rhine-Westphalia by securing the service of talents failing to make the grade at Borussia Dortmund, Schalke 04, Bayer 04 Leverkusen and Borussia Mönchengladbach, among others.

Training facilities: Average

Halmstads BK – Swedish Superettan

Over the years I’ve recommended both Norwegian football clubs like Fredrikstad FK, Swedish IFK Gothenburg and Danish Vejle BK for restore the glory saves but this year the opportunity opened up for a great Swedish hunting glory save, when Halmstads BK was relegated to Superettan ahead of this season.

After being founded in 1914, Halmstads BK have been a regular Allsvenskan team except from the last 8 years, when they have bounced up and down between the two top tiers. Their best performance in the Allsvenskan in modern history came in 2006/07 when the current Swedish National team Manager Janne Andersson led the club to a 7^th place.

Their most successful eras came in two periods: between 1976 – 1979, and 1997 – 2000 when they became Swedish champions in those exact years. Their only Svenska cup title came in 1994/95 securing a spot in the European Cup where they faced Parma – one of the best clubs in Europe at that time.

The club have also made a remark in youth production over the years. From Fredrik Ljungberg to current rising local talent Kazper Karlsson (2005). Current Ligue 1 regular Gabriel Gudmundsson is also a product of HBK.

Managing Halmstsds BK is a Football Manager 2023 challenge where you can aim to become the biggest club in Scandinavia. The objective must be to beat Rosenborg’s 11 consecutive participation in the Champions League, which is the highest to my knowledge of Scandinavian clubs.

Training facilities: Good
Youth Facilities: Good

Image used in thumbnail by Shri ram from Pixabay