FIFA 20 Career Mode guide: scouting
There's nothing quite like the feeling of finding the next superstar of world football. Sure, you could just go out and buy Vinícius Júnior and Erling Håland and call it a day, but everyone knows about them. No, it's far more satisfying to assemble your own team of future stars that you've scouted from the far corners of the earth.
Fortunately there's no need to go watch a bunch of kids lumping a ball around on a cold, rainy Tuesday night in Stoke, but you still need to know what you're doing. Where are the best places to scout? And how do you tell a wonderful world-beater from a future flop?
That's what my guide is here for. I'll take you through the ins and outs of scouting in FIFA 20, and before you know it you'll be putting La Masia to shame.
Picking the right scout: experience vs. judgment
First things first, any scout is capable of finding incredible players. That said, the worst scouts will take a lot longer to do that, and will fill many more reports with chaff than the best scouts. If you want to save yourself a lot of time and effort, don't be tight-fisted – buy the best scouts you can afford.
There are two indicators of a scout's ability: his experience rating and his judgment rating. EA has helpfully labelled these in FIFA 20 when you go to hire a scout:
- “Experience: A more experienced scout will find a larger number of players.”
- “Judgment: A scout with better judgment will find higher quality players.”
Regarding experience, what is meant by “a larger number of players”? Well, scouts with five stars in experience will bring back five to seven players on each report; one-star experience scouts will only give you one to two players each month. The more players you get on each report, the better the chances of a gem being nestled among them.
Experience does something else, though – it determines how likely the scout is to find the type of player you're after. If you tell him to find attackers, for example, you don't want him to come back with a bunch of defenders.
There's a big difference here between the best and worst scouts. A scout with five stars in experience has an 80% chance of finding the right type of player. That drops to a puny 30% chance for a one-star scout, meaning more irrelevant players and fewer of the ones you actually want.
So what's judgment? As the note above says, higher judgment equals higher quality scouted players. FIFA 20 divides players into four categories: platinum, gold, silver and bronze. The best scouts have a 10% chance of finding platinum players (those with potential between 75 and 95), while the worst scouts only have a 1% chance. All scouts will therefore struggle to find the guaranteed future stars (and rightly so), but there's enough of a difference to make forking out for a top-rated scout worthwhile.
What's the best place to send your scouts?
When it comes to scouting, not every country is equal – some have a better chance of producing the next generation of world-beaters than others. That means it's important to know where to send your scouts so you don't waste time looking in the wrong places.
It should come as no surprise to learn that the best two countries to send your scouts to are Brazil and Argentina. The birthplaces of Pelé and Maradona are almost guaranteed to churn out outstanding talents in FIFA 20.
Where are the next best places? Well, here are the top five regions to scout, in order:
1. Brazil and Argentina
2. Italy, Spain and Portugal
3. Central Europe (including Germany, Holland and France)
4. The rest of southern Europe (Croatia, Greece and Turkey)
5. The 'Rest of Europe' region (such as Poland, Czech Republic and Serbia)
It's simple: get a good scout and send him to one of these regions for the best results.
What to look for in scouted players
One month after you sent them on their way, your scout will return with a list of players to choose from. But how do you know which of these are worth keeping and which should be discarded?
Above all, you should look at each player's potential range. This is usually something along the lines of 60-80, or 72-94. The player's actual potential lies somewhere within this range. If you want the absolute best scouted players, you'll need to sign the ones whose potential range tops out at 94.
If you're not sure what a good potential range looks like, try taking the middle value in the range as a guide. For example, a potential range of 75-91 has a middle value of 83, meaning his potential is around that. If the average rating of your starting lineup is 83 or below, this player is likely to become an excellent player for your team. Sign him up!
It's also important to find players with good current ability (or 'OVR' in FIFA 20), as it means they'll be able to reach their potential much more quickly. In this instance, the best players will have a range starting in the 50s and ending in the 70s, such as 54-72.
Once you've promoted a youth player, FIFA has its own way of indicating that he has a lot of potential. Go to the Squad Hub under the Squad tab and browse through your players. Keep an eye out for any of the following statuses:
This is a great little reminder in case you forget which are your most gifted young players. It also applies to players on other teams, so look out for these statuses when you're dipping into the transfer market.
Showing great potential
Not every team can afford to go out and buy already-established players, but scouting can be a much more affordable way of boosting your squad for the future. Even if you're rolling in cash, scouting is still a hugely satisfying process as you find and nurture talented players from prodigies to superstars. Whatever situation you find yourself in, make sure you don't miss out!
Find more great FIFA 20 career mode guides at FIFAscoutingtips.com.
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