Player Nationalities
When you discover Apprentices and Schoolboys you must give them a Nationality. The names given to your players should reflect the Nationality chosen to give the game a more realistic flavour. A Spanish `Smith’ is not likely to catch anyone’s imagination and will be ignored!
You may discover players who are European nationalities as well as from the home nations, plus SOUTH AMERICAN (SAM), ASIAN (ASI), NORTH AMERICAN (USA) or AFRICAN (AFR) as well (no individual nations from these countries are allowed however). This means that there is a concentration of players over a few nations, which allows the computer to generate a set of National Squads which can compete on even terms for the World Cup competition.
(Hint - If a National team seems under-strength or a particular Nation does not appear, then it may be wise to discover Apprentices and Schoolboys of these Nations. Your players will then have more chance of gaining International recognition and thus earning your club money in the future. However, think about this carefully, as it’s no use you selecting, say, Swiss nationalities, if you are going to have the only eight Swiss players in the league! Try to stick to the stronger footballing nations, and you’ll be more likely to get your players into an International squad).
There are important advantages of your players being selected for International and Representative Squads in that they have extra chances of becoming STAR players in the process, and will gain both experience and Caps for their part in these games. STARS are very, very important and advantageous for your side, and the chance of them turning STAR outweighs any disadvantages, like the chance of picking up injuries and bookings in international and representative games by a wide margin! As you can expect, the experience gained by a player who participates in such high-prestige games is far greater than someone who regularly plays his games in the 4th division.
See also…