FC 26 is all set to release on September 26, 2025, with the whole Football and FC community getting more desperate to experience the upcoming title in the franchise. EA has been providing consistent updates about the title, along with the pitch notes, to give fans a better view of what they will be getting from FC 26. Most recently, EA has released the Pitchy Notes for Career Mode Deep Dive that will give the FC community an insight about the exciting events, improvements, Archetypes, and more. Let's find out about all the new elements and updates that you will be experiencing in FC 26.

Manager Live: Redefining Manager Career

EA FC got numerous feedback about the Career mode, as they needed more variety in it. Well, the developers worked on this aspect and brought new and unique challenges. In FC 26, they have also introduced the Manager Live, filled with fresh content and tasks for you that will change throughout the season.

The Manager Live Hub: Your Gateway to Football Management

In the Manager Live, you will be getting a hub to access all elements like Full Careers, Live Starting Points, and Challenges. This will give you a more personalized experience.

Onboarding: Building Your Manager Profile

You can completely customize your Manager avatar and add key details to shape your virtual journey better. In fact you can even take the pitch just as the real world managers and bring out your own style.

How the Hub Works

The Hub is designed to make your navigation through tabs easy. The layout is very neat, which will not complicate things for you, and you can find the scenarios that interest you. Below we have mentioned how it is structured.

Permanent Tabs

These tabs will give you instant access to features like Tactics, Squad management, and transfers, while making sure that important tools are always in front of you. Moreover, it will also feature challenges shared by your friends, including the ones they have completed.

Dynamic Tabs

These tabs will feature current events, challenges, and themes from leagues including UEFA Champions, Premier Leagues and some specific challenges like Road to Glory-Style.

Challenge Parameters: Customising the Experience

The Challenge Parameters will let you tailor your career with several customizable parameters available, giving you a more authentic experience.

Start Date

The Start Date will show when the challenge begins. It can be either at the start of the season or in the midseason.

Team Selection

With over 20 teams available from different leagues and countries, consisting of excellent rosters, you can choose any of your choice, according to your playstyle.

Create Your Club

You can create your own custom club with different kits, logos and even stadiums. Build it from scratch and take it to the top.

League and Country Selection

Pick any country or league of your choice, from the European to the Argentinian League, and go on to compete and win.

Cup Competitions

The parameter will show you which competitions are currently active in the challenge. Each of them carry valuable rewards.

Feature Settings

This parameter will allow you to adjust gameplay features accordingly, turning the whole experience more personalized.

Parameters

This will allow you to set parameters for several elements like difficulty, Referee Strictness, Transfer negotiations and more. This will help you shape your FC career for efficiently.

Team Management Limiters

This will introduce specific restrictions like the unavailability of injured and suspended players. If you try to start a match with a squad featuring invalid players, an automatic notification will pop up to make changes to the lineup.

Transfer Limiters

The transfer limiters will modify your transfer activity that will bring changes to the signings of players. This means you will only be allowed to sign players from specific teams, leagues, or countries.

Tactical Limiters

Tactical restrictions like formation locks will bring new challenges to you to push your adaptability to the strategies and situation.

Job Limiters

This will bring realistic targets for you, which you are required to complete within the given limited number of seasons. You can't move on to the next before excelling in your current club.

Objectives

Each challenge will require a number of objective to be completed, from scoring a specific numbers of goals to winning trophies.

Challenge Types

The game will be full of tons of challenges across all seasons that will keep you engaged to the game.

Midseason Scenarios

These scenarios will take you to the high-pressure situations, like saving a team from relegation or turn around a mid-table side.

Dynamic Scenarios

These are quite interesting as they are adapted based on real-life football events.

Historical Achievements

You can create iconic historical records and moments from the past, such as going unbeaten in a season or scoring a specific number of goals.

Time-Limited Challenges

Some challenges are time-specific and are available only for a limited time with exciting rewards.

Celebrating Success and Progress

This interface will make your every achievement and celebration significant, just like real-world football.

Objective Notification

Whenever you fail in completing a challenge or complete it, you will be notified, helping you check your progress.

Challenge Details: Stay Informed, Stay Focused

The Objective Section will always feature the details of your challenges that will help you track them and motivate you to compete further.

Completion Flow

The central screen displays your milestones and rewards if you complete the challenge, that too with a celebratory theme.

Rewards

Completing each challenge will give you unique rewards such as retro kits, customizations and even notable boosts.

A New Era for Manager Career

The Manager Live will turn the career mode into a more dynamic and immersive experience that will make the customization more enhanced.

Manager Original

In FC 26 you can create a manager with an intense backstory and personality that will make every decision feel personal.

Manager Career with ICONs and Heroes

You can add legendary Icons and Heroes to your squad or even face them as rivals. The legendary players include names like Bale, Zidane, Puskas and more.

Manager Market

Now the managers can no longer be fixed to a single club. They can be sacked or choose to explore new opportunities. You can hire new staff and coaches from the manager market, plus you will get regular updates in your inbox about the new additions.

Deeper Simulation and Data-Driven Scouting

The new Deeper Simulation update will let you select up to 5 additional leagues, apart from the main one. This will help to tailor the simulations according to your interests. Moreover, the data-driven scouting has also been enhanced.

Authentic Gameplay: The True Football Experience

EA has really taken the community feedback quite seriously and made the gameplay more authentic with added mechanics that will let you choose the type of gameplay you want to experience the match in.

Custom Sliders: Build Your Own Experience from Authentic Foundations

Using the Custom Sliders you can make your gameplay better by adjusting the difficulty, AI behavior and more according to your playstyle.

Unexpected Events

The unexpected events will make your experience more thrilling, just like real-world football.

Emerging Scenarios: There Is Always More To Football

Be ready to face unexpected scenarios that might be injuries, ultimatums from boards, addressing rumors, anything.

Decision Points: Choices That Define You

Now taking crucial decisions will shape your career, reputation and the team morale.

Additional Features/Quality of Life Improvements

EA took the community feedback into account and made notable changes to existing features along with adding new improvements.

20+ Leagues in Live Starting Points

You get to choose from over 20 leagues, featuring real-life rosters.

Contract Renewal Updates

Players cannot ask for contract renewals during their tenure with the club. Instead, they have to reach out to you and talk. While the new squad hub option will dismiss the renewal tasks.

AI Lineup Logic Improvements

The newly improved AI lineup will now make wiser decisions based on certain factors.

Match Importance Influence

AI will prioritize key players for crucial matches, just like the real-world strategies.

Form Influence

The performances of every player will directly impact the AI lineup decisions, adding more depth to the gameplay.

Transfer Logic Improvements

Transfer negotiations will now become more authentic.

Loan Freshly Bought Players

Both users and AI can arrange loan deals for newly brought players that will add more depth to the squad management.

Tactical Vision Increased Flexibility

The new Tactical Vision will let you experiment with different setups that will let you adapt to any situation.

Sharpness, Energy, and Training Plans for National Teams

With new tools for energy, training, and sharpness, you can manage the National Teams well.

More Customisation & Retro Kits

More options for customizations and retro kits are added that can be unlocked by completing specific challenges.

Customisable shortcuts

Navigating the new features will become easier, as the developers have added new shortcuts that will let you quickly explore the hub.

Improved Navigation: Smoother Exploration and Fewer Accidental Exits

Navigating through menus will become easy all thanks to the new streamlined interfaces.

Player Potential in Scout Reports

Scout reports will come with player potential that will allow you to make a long-term plan.

Board Objectives Cleanup & Manager Sacking Logic Tweaks

Board Objectives have been refined, making your experience more engaging.

Accurate Second Position Recognition: Improved Out-of-Position Alerts

You will get accurate alerts for players who are out of position, with more enhanced recognition for secondary roles.

New Squad Hub Option: Dismiss Contract Renewal Tasks

Managing contract renewals will become easy with a new dismiss option available in the squad hub.

Save File Timestamps: Stay Informed at a Glance

Save File Timestamps will let you track your progress and check the in-game date you have reached in the Career mode.

Injury Integration in Gameplay

Moving on forward, injuries will now realistically impact your gameplay, strategy and the whole squad management.

Youth Tournaments Substitutions

You can make substitutions in youth tournaments if things are not going your way.

Improved Youth Tournament Stadiums

The youth tournament stadiums have been upgraded for a better and authentic experience.

Argentinian League with Authentic Format

The Career mode will now feature the Argentinian League with an authentic atmosphere and structure.

UEFA Women's Champions League Updated Format

This league has totally been refined with an updated format, new rules and knockouts.

Onboarding Revamp

The onboarding process will make your career start stress-free and more enjoyable.

Team-Colored Emojis in Social Media Posts

You can interact with fans via social media posts, featuring vibrant team-colored emojis.

Manager Date of Birth in Avatar Creation

To make your avatar more personalized you can now even add the date of birth of your manager.

Inbox Notification: Staff Market Coach Refresh Updates

You will always be updated about the new additions in the staff market through notifications.

PLAYER CAREER

The Player Career mode has also been totally revamped, with players getting better control over their football journey.

Player Archetypes

With the addition of Archetypes, you can unlock and progress, along with developing 13 different archetypes.

Archetypes' Specialisations

Each Archetype has a unique specialization, from strikers and defenders to aggressive midfielders.

New Progression System through Archetypes

All of the 13 Archetypes have different strengths, abilities, and weaknesses that will help you unlock skills and attributes as you move further.

Training Drill Redesign

You can master your skills with revamped training drills that will offer you more ways to improve your abilities.