Name database and appearance of youth academy players

Hi!

I’ve noticed an issue that I believe many players who have experience with previous EA Sports FC titles, and even earlier FIFA games, have also encountered. I’m referring to the database of names used for randomly generated Youth Academy players, which has remained virtually unchanged for many years.

Surprisingly, I believe this is one of the easier issues to address. Simply updating and expanding the databases of first and last names assigned to individual nationalities would already make a significant difference. This problem is particularly noticeable in countries that receive less attention from the developers.

Let me use Poland as an example. The database of Polish surnames seems to have remained almost identical since FIFA 17. After just a few seasons of scouting in Poland, it’s entirely possible to build a team consisting almost exclusively of players with the surname “Wieczorek.”

Of course, I understand that this is far from being one of the game’s biggest issues. Nevertheless, for players who enjoy casually playing Career Mode without having to invest as much time and attention as Football Manager requires, it can be quite frustrating. This is especially true for those who want a realistic experience without having to install additional mods or patches. What makes this even more surprising is that each new installment introduces much more complex changes, while such a basic aspect of the game has remained practically untouched for years.

Another issue worth mentioning is the appearance of randomly generated Youth Academy players. I also see considerable room for improvement in this area. In my opinion, the game should aim to make the appearance of generated players more accurately reflect the actual demographic diversity of each country.

I believe many players have noticed that Youth Academies in certain European countries generate a disproportionately high number of players with very similar physical features, often resembling people of South Asian descent, particularly from India. I want to emphasize that this observation is not motivated by any prejudice against a particular nationality or ethnic group. My point is simply that the appearance of generated players should more realistically reflect the population and diversity of the countries they represent. For example, I get the impression that this system works considerably better in England.

I understand that improving this particular aspect of the game might require more development work, but I still believe it is worth addressing.

However, I would prioritize expanding the first and last name databases. From my perspective, such an update should not require a particularly large amount of work, yet it could significantly improve the overall Career Mode experience. Nowadays, with the development of large language models (LLMs), it is possible to generate hundreds of realistic first and last names for individual countries, verify their accuracy, and then implement them into the game.

To sum up, I would really appreciate it if the developers could take an interest in this issue and consider making the necessary improvements. Although these changes might seem relatively minor compared to other aspects of the game, I believe they could have a meaningful impact on the overall enjoyment of Career Mode. Immersion and realism are, after all, among the most important aspects of Manager Career Mode, and small details like these can make a surprisingly big difference.