This hitz-chasing blog title is because I wanted to show off some of my top player finds from Africa on FM23. I reckon they’ll make you want to load up all players from Africa on your next save.
Oh, and I’ll also be walking through my third season, the 2024/25 season, at FC Nordsjælland for those that stick around. Let’s go.
African Player Recommendations on FM23
Nduka Junior
Nduka Junior was a £450k signing from Nigerian side, Remo Stars. He became a key player for the side over the past few seasons, after initially playing a bit-part role when he first signed in season one.
While he might slightly lack in some of the desired attributes for central defenders, in particular his strength and concentration, the 6’0” Nigerian international more than makes up for it in other areas. He’s aggressive, strong in the tackle and has a great combo of 15 in both decisions and positioning. While it’s maybe not high up on others lists for attributes for centre backs, I love mine to be quick too.
He made 96 appearances since his January transfer window signing in 2023, but come the end of the 2025 summer transfer window he was off. Fulham bought him for £9m and we’ll also get 20% of his next transfer. Some might say that’s Moneyball at its finest…
Lamine Camara
Lamine Camara arrived from Génération Foot in Senegal in January 2024 for just £110k. I think I initially underappreciated him, only giving him three starts and six appearances off the bench in the second half of the 23/24 season.
With his elite level first touch, passing, technique and vision, he’s been really fun to watch as he was unleashed this season. He’s a real beauty, slotting into either one of my central midfield roles, or he could even sit in front of the back four as our chief playmaker. This season he mainly played on the left hand side of the midfield two as our Mezzala on support. We scored a fair few goals this season, and Camara managed to bag 10 of them. Two of those came in the Champions League, and this one in particular is a great example of his season.
Yeah, I’m playing in 2D, what of it?
I love this goal. Aune Heggebo, our Pressing Forward on support has dropped deep vacating the space for our midfielders to run into. Ernest Nuamah (#17) and Sindre Walle Egeli (#11) are our Inside Forwards on attack and they’ve become a front two up top, terrorising Sparta Rotterdam’s defence. Heggebo lays it off to Edvard Tagseth and he turns on his playmaking charms from deep in midfield to find that cracking run in behind of Camara playing as a Mezzala. A beauty.
Amadou N’Diaye
N’Diaye joined at the same time as Nduka Junior, and is now a full Senegalese international alongside his clubmate, Lamine Camara. The left back joined from AS Pikine for just £200k, I think you might be starting to spot a pattern here. He’s an incredible bargain option for anyone looking for a roving full back option.
For the first season and a half of his time at the club, he had to play rotational option, with Daniel Svensson being first choice. However, this season he overtook Svensson which led to the Swede being sold for £2m at the end of the season. He went from 12 starts to 33 starts in all competitions and he’s now made 74 appearances overall. Similarly to Nduka Junior, he was the subject of interest at the end of this season but no club stumped up enough to secure his services.
Would you sign him?
More Recommendations…
There’s been a fair few other players that I’ve brought to the club that haven’t quite made the breakthrough yet in comparison to the three I’ve detailed. If you do end up loading all players from Africa, you might fancy checking their names out on your save too.
Rauf Salifu (£180k from Accra Lions)
Ebenezer Akinsanmiro (£200k from Remo Stars)
Abdoulaye Djiré (£230k from RC Abijan)
Libasse Ngom (£100k from Guédiawaye)
Bangs Nentaka (£475k from Nasarawa United)
Each of the players I’ve mentioned in this post are ones that I’ve found manually (aside from Rauf Salifu, he was a recommendation on Twitter from FM Bhikkhu). So load them up and dive in to the clubs across the continent.
FC Nordsjælland also have some incredible African players already on the books of the club that I’d definitely recommend you check out. I’ve spoken about Mohammed Diomandé and Ernest Nuamah on Twitter already and I’d add Emmanuel Ogura to that list too. The Ghanian goalkeeper quickly established himself as my number one, and he’s been incredibly consistent between the sticks for me.
Domestic Duty
It was some season at the Right to Dream Park. Our best one yet domestically.
I’ve completed FM23. We completely dominated the Danish Superliga this season, going unbeaten, and I’m actually looking back feeling gutted we didn’t score three more goals for the century. Our goalscoring prowess was what set us apart, scoring 28 more goals versus last season and setting a new Superliga goalscoring record in the process. Five of our players scored 10 league goals or more this season, which I think is a cracking stat. Heggebo top scored for us with 16 in the league, while my four rotational Inside Forwards got 44 between them (include Sindre Walle Egeli who I highlighted at the end of my last post, an amazing first season for him at the highest level), with Diomandé getting 10 as the main CM(A).
Last season was all about the defence, whereas this season we conceded 13 more in the league compared to last season. I’m not too worried about it considering what we achieved, but it could be one thing to watch going forward.
The gap to 2nd place increased even further, as we turned last season’s two losses into draws. Am I enjoying completely dominating domestically? Yeah, yeah I am. Let it continue.
It continued into the Danish Cup this season. We got over last season’s fourth round exit by regaining the crown and doing the domestic double. Brondby were beaten in the semi final double header, while we rolled FC Midtjylland over in a repeat of the 22/23 final, 4-0.
On the Continent
The Champions League changed format, moving to the big 36 team league where you’re randomly draw to play eight matches against a selection of the other teams that qualify. We sailed through two rounds of qualifying to make the big one, starting really well as well, with four wins and a draw in the first six, including a brilliant 4-3 win away in Italy against Fiorentina. Bayern handed our arse to us on matchday seven while we bounced back with two corner goals against Spurs to finish a very respectable 13th out of 36.
What followed was a couple of brilliant performances at home against Atleti and Lazio to make the quarter finals. PSG, who’d topped the 36, would prove a step too far despite another massive fight in the home leg to grab a 3-3 draw. A first leg Mbappe goal knocked us out, but that run to the quarters earnt us £52m in prize money and £3m in TV money. Outrageous.
Looking Ahead
There’s already been some hints at some big changes at the club. I mentioned Nduka Junior left for Fulham in a £9m deal. Our two best players, in my opinion, Diomandé and Nuamah, also left for the bright lights of the English Premier League. Diomandé left for Arsenal for a club record £17m while Nuamah headed for Aston Villa for £12m. Oliver Villadsen, my first choice homegrown right back, also left for £2m to Bournemouth. These four first team player sales totalled £40m, coupled with the Champions League money, means we’ve got more money than I know what to do with.
There’s players at the club, previous rotational options and young prospects, who are pushing for more first team minutes. My aim is to continue to integrate them into the squad and make sure they’re developing. That includes a few of those African players on the bullet point list I highlighted.
So that’s that for now. Cheers for reading again. If you want to follow along I’m probably more likely to be Tweeting or updating things on FMSlack, so if you don’t already follow me on Twitter or you aren’t joining in with all 12 of us over on FMSlack then rectify both of those things right now.