We’ve all had those times in Football Manager where you just fall in love with a player and this Wonderkid Watch comes off the back of a 5-2 victory over Boavista where Franco González came off the pitch with a 10.0 average rating, 2 goals and 2 assists oh, and that comes off the back of a 10.0 training rating for the week.
González was a player I had been keeping an eye on in my Famalicão save, I knew about him in real life, had seen him in the game previously and thought that he’s the type of player that would suit a move to a smaller European league where he could hone his skills and look to reach his potential. As he is a natural attacking midfielder he didn’t fit into my current system so I wasn’t rushing to bring him in, that was until, when in Season 3, Bayer Leverkusen decided to pluck my IF(S), Oscar Aranda from me meaning I not only had the cash to flutter under the Peñarol board I also had a gap in my squad where I thought he could do a job.
£3.5m was all it took to do a deal with Peñarol and I think if you look at González’ attributes you would agree that this is not only a bargain but it is the kind of transfer where we have the potential to make a serious profit on him later in the save.
His contract was reasonable for the level, £12,500 per week, £2,500 Appearance Fee and £1,000 for every goal scored, I didn’t add a release clause in this first contract as I am certain that his agent will be asking for a bigger deal when ‘he’s a better player than when he signed this contract’ and when that time comes I’ll negotiate a bigger deal and make sure we secure a nice hefty release clause. *NB - make sure you discuss contract with the agent prior to talks, especially for high prospect players, I’ve noticed that when they tell you their demands and add a release clause you can actually talk them out of it with some success.
On signing González I immediately got him training to play in the Inside Forward - Support role so he could replace Aranda and with that he went straight into the starting eleven playing in that role position but it didn’t start well, he played 6 times as an IF(S) and had an average rating across those games of 6.83 and that included a Cup game against Penafiel where he assisted twice and had an 8.0 game. I was starting to think I had made a mistake, maybe cutting in from the left wasn’t for him and I would have to go back to the drawing board but as the FM gods would have it Chiquinho picked up a serious injury which lead to me playing him on the right as a Winger on Attack duty and that’s where things changed.
10 games playing on the wing, an average rating of 8.02, 8 goals & 7 assists, that’s the kind of form you would want from a £35m player, let alone one that you have signed for £3.5m!
The dilemma I face now is that Chiquinho is returning to fitness, he’s our highest paid player and one of the best players in the league, my heart says keep González on the wing and play Chiquinho as the IF(S) but hey, there’s worst things to worry about than which really good player to select.
His stand out attributes are his Finishing 16, Flair 15, Work Rate 15, Pace 15 & Acceleration 15 which lends himself to being a wide player and I would probably draw a comparison to another diminutive winger, Pablo Piatti - yes he was left footed but you know what I mean.
If you listen to the 5 Star Potential Podcast you’ll know we take a weekly Adventure in Wonderkid-Land where we take a look at a young player who has been doing the business in real life and look at the type of player Football Manager have made them, well González hasn’t made the list yet but he has played for the exciting Uruguay U20’s 27 times & he’s played 30 times for Penarol since joining them in August 2023.
Overall verdict: Franco González has the potential to be one of the best bargain wonderkids in FM24 where he is already one of the top young attackers in Portugal in my save game and I’m excited to see if he can become another gem that makes it in real life and we can tell everyone down the pub that we knew about him at 19. Bargain wonderkids are becoming rarer and rarer when it comes to Football Manager, so if you find yourself in need of an attacker on a budget, you’ll do well to find a better prospect in this year’s game. Let us know if you have had González in your save or if you have experienced him from the opposition bench this year in the comments below or @5StarPod on Twitter/X
Thanks for reading, I will update my save progress when I get the chance but you can get regular updates on the 5 Star Potential or over on my Twitter @FridayNightFM
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