If you change three letters in the word God, you will get Aga. Oscar Aga. My FM21 phenomenon and God in one. There are too many Norwegian players/wonderkids/talented players in real life and in the game too. The FM21 save with Valerenga and Norway national team by FM “underscore” Samo is absolutely the best example.
Tjaland, Ødegaard, Berge, Strand Larsen, Hauge, Normann-Williamsen, Haaland... I don’t think I have to name them all. But I had any of these great players in my FM21 save despite I spent it in Sweden and I had a lot of opportunities to sign a couple of them.
Instead of that, I spent nine from my ten seasons with GAIS by watching Oscar Aga.
Chris had him not only within his Valerenga side in FM21 but also with Vitória in FM19. In FM21, Aga spent some time on loan and I think he didn’t make it through to Samo’s regular team. It only shows how every save can be different.
I’m sure that if I would sign, for example, Tjaland (that guy who almost everyone had or wanted to have), he would be successful within Sweden. I’m sure other Norwegian players would be great within Allsvenskan too. But Aga? I’m not sure he would be good enough for someone else as he didn’t make it for Samo’s Valerenga and I didn’t see him across FM21 saves.
I used a couple of 3-5-2 variations during this save. But one thing remained always the same. The biggest issue was to find the right player for the PF(S) role. Oscar Aga was one searched/scouted/analysed and considered players during the first season of the save.
I'm not biased only about the key/preferable attributes so I always do some exception(s). I used the PF(S) role mainly during the first five seasons. I tried to switch the role duty to attack, I tried using two Advanced Forwards together, I tried Regista. But it ended with DLF(S), as always while playing the 3-5-2.
But back to the main point. I signed Aga because I thought he will be a good pressing forward in comparison with 1) what I already have in the squad and 2) what I was able to afford within the transfer market.
Some of his key attributes for the PF(S) role like Anticipation or Bravery was 14/15 already so I was 100% sure he will be able to improve other attributes like Passing or some physical attributes.
Oscar Aga in December 2020 before joining GIAS from Grorud with selected attributes for PF(S) role.
I signed him from Grorud IL. He was wanted by several Norwegian clubs at the end of 2020 but he signed for us and he became the best-paid player of the squad before Wayne Rooney signed later in the 2021 season.
He started great and scored several goals during the pre-season and the Svenska Cupen group stage. But the more the season continued, the more it was clear that the PF(S) role won't be the right one. Or better said, he would surely not become a legend of the club.
He made 12(11) appearances in Superettan 2021 when won the promotion to the top tier. He scored 8 goals and made 2 assists. Both these numbers were not good enough in my eyes. I expected much more.
The decision was made during the pre-season 2022 when I signed a winger Vladimir Rodic and I decided to play him as our main PF(S) because his Aggression, Bravery and other mental attributes were good enough for it. And that was the reason when I moved Oscar Aga to the Advanced Forward role.
Oscar scored 16 goals in 11(1) appearances during the pre-season. Five goals in 6 cup games and he scored 23 league goals in 30 matches. And we won the league title in our first season in the top tier.
He showed me that I should not play him in some complicated role. That was the main reason why I ruled him out of all other roles until the end of the save.
Oscar Aga in December 2022 after his first season in the Swedish top tier with the selected attributes for AF.
Likes To Try To Beat Offside Trap
Oscar already has the trait likes to try to beat offside trap when he arrived at GAIS. It was great to follow how it worked together mainly with the Deep Lying Playmaker but also with the CM(S) player who usually has the take more risks instruction or tries killer balls often trait. It led to simple passes through the centre or to the long passes from our half and Oscar started his run at the right time.
There were very nice assists from the right side of the pitch where Victor Blixt beat his opponent and made a simple pass behind the opponent's defensive line and Oscar Aga was faster and in the right position to beat the possible offside trap. It happened also quite often after a short throw-in at our half.
Likes to lob keeper
He learned also the knocks ball past opponent and likes to lob keeper traits during the save. The first one was very useful mainly against the worse opponents and also during the counters - mainly after corners.
The likes to lob keeper trait turned in some deviation during the second part of the save. Almost every second/third goal he scored was after a lob when he was alone ahead of the goalkeeper. He was able to do it almost every time.
Both traits together.
Oscar was very close to scoring 50 goals during one season but he missed two goals and he scored "only" 48 goals in 47(4) appearances. It was during the 2024 calendar year when he scored 25 league goals but he also added 19 goals in 20 games in the Europa Conference League and Europa League.
It almost felt like I'm using some exploit because I was sure he will score in every match.
The season 2025 was almost the same but he scored "only" 44 goals in 46 matches including 9 goals in the Europa League.
When I say the worst one, you should not expect some disaster, but when he scored over 20 goals only in the league four seasons in a row, you expect he will continue. But the season 2028 was influenced by some factors that resulted in only 15 league goals by Aga.
I think he was fatigued because we made it to the Europa League final again and he didn't play too much in the league during the autumn part of the season when I wanted to earn some points in the Champions League. There were also two months during which he didn't score in the league.
He still ended the season with 24 goals and he was our best goalscorer. The last season, 2029, was a top one again. We were knocked out of the Europa League in the 2nd knockout round already by Tottenham and he was enough time to concentrate on the domestic league.
The result? 28 league goals in 29 appearances and 8 goals in 6 Champions League appearances in autumn = 35 matches and 36 goals in the last season.
Oscar Aga - FM21 goals
As the save progressed and Aga was the goalscoring machine, I decided to play at least until he will beat the club record in terms of goals scored in the league. The record-holder was Karl-Alfred Jacobson, the only club legend at the beginning of the save. He scored 145 goals for GAIS in the league.
Oscar Aga scored his 145th league goal for the club in the last match of the 2027 season against Hammarby. It means we had to play more despite I didn't have too much time to continue and I had to create reasons why to continue. If Aga wouldn't be here, I would not play until 2029.
It happened straight at the beginning of the next season when he scored against GIF Sundsvall in the opening Allsvenskan round. It was his 146th league goal and he became the club best goalscorer.
As I said already, he scored 28 goals in Allsvenskan in the 2029 season. That means he scored 188 goals in 236 league appearances within 9 seasons.
There is probably some new favourite thing within FM by the AI. When you have some very good player, he is ignored by his national team. Oscar Aga made one appearance for the Norwegian U21 team and scored one goal. He played against Slovenia U21 in September 2022 when he made it to the pitch in the 83rd minute and scored in the 90th minute.
And that's it in terms of his national team involvement within this save. He never was called up to the senior national team.
When I check the Norwegian national team at the end of 2029, there are players like Erling Haaland (Manchester City), Noah Jean Holm (Al-Gharafa) or Emil Ceide (Fulham) who are around the same or similar age as Aga. And yes, some young newgens with all these green attributes (check THIS ONE).
I would say this is connected to the previous point about not being selected for the national team. There is a Norwegian Players’ Dream Team of the Year award. I checked it backwards through the whole save and Oscar aga is in this team in every season between 2023 to 2029, both included.
He is here together with Haaland, Ronningen Jorgensen, Odegaard, Kristoffer Ajer and more. And he had the most goals scored from all players in this team in all seasons.
I think I can say that I found another player thanks to the Football Manager that I will try to follow in real life because it was really great save also thanks to this unknown player.
It’s not too common that I would follow someone on social media just because of Football Manager. It’s usually about the moment when I check how he is doing in real life (Matt O’Riley for example from this save) and that’s it. Maybe I will take a look in the next edition. Probably only Danny Loader was the main exception and most of you who read my blogs will remember him and you also like to mention him quite often. But Oscar Aga probably has a very interesting future ahead of him.
I followed him on Instagram and watched some goals he scored with his former club already. It’s not so long when I see a tweet where someone was surprised he is still with Grorud IF. Two weeks later he signed for IF Elfsborg for €500k (via Transfermarkt) so he will play in the Allsvenskan from 2022. He also made his Norwegian U20 national team debut and he scored against Germany during a 1:1 draw.
Oscar Aga at the end of 2029
Good bye, Oscar!