Football Manager 2024: A guide to the best wonderkids and free transfers

Some Football Manager 2024 players are happy to take the reins at Man City and lead that prepackaged squad of dominating superstars to glory. Most players are going to want to assemble an upstart team of their own, though. That’s where wonderkids and free transfers come in.

Below, we detail how to turn your team into a powerhouse by picking up tomorrow’s best players—and getting one last hurrah out of yesterday's too.
 

The best wonderkids in Football Manager 2024

The term "wonderkid" (from the German wunderkind) refers to a young football player of prodigious talent, and for as long as the Football Manager series has existed, fans have trawled the database for youngsters with high potential ability (PA) who’ll grow up to become the superstars of tomorrow.

The benefits of securing wonderkids for your own team are numerous—bragging rights, the option to sell them in a few years for a massive profit, or the chance to get many seasons of high-level play out of them.

Problem is, the footballing world’s wise to those benefits, and that’s made these talented young players extremely expensive and difficult to sign.

So what we’ve curated here in this guide is a list of six wonderkids in each position—three with the absolute highest potential ability in the database, and three whose PA is still very high but who are also on wages below 5K/week and might actually sign for you.

In some cases, the outright best wonderkids in a position are also the cheapest. For instance, Rome-Jayden Owusu-Oduro has the highest PA stat of any goalkeeper, and he’s earning £500 a week at AZ. In most cases though, there’s a compromise between identifying the very brightest talents and those you can afford.

Note that the wages listed are the player’s current wages, not the salary they’ll accept to play for you. Also note that in addition to the Football Manager 2024 database itself, we’re using info from FMScout’s wonderful wonderkids guide.

Best wonderkid goalkeepers (Name, Age, Club, Nationality, Salary)

• Bart Verbruggen - 20, Brighton, Dutch, 20K/week
• Guillaume Restes - 18, Toulouse, French, 11K/week
• Dennis Seimen - 17, Stuttgart, German, 7K/week

Cheap wonderkid goalkeepers

• Rome-Jayden Owusu-Oduro - 19, AZ, Dutch 0.5K/week
• Jack Thompson - 16, Derby, English, 0.2K/week
• Bartosz Zelasowski - 18, OGC Nice, Polish, 0.1K/week

Best wonderkid central defenders

• Giorgio Scalvini - 19, Atalanta, Italian, 24K/week
• Levi Colwill - 20, Chelsea, English, 75K/week
• Castello Lukeba - 20, RB Leipzig, French, 66K/week

Cheap wonderkid central defenders

• Chadi Riyad - 20, Real Hispalis, Moroccan, 3K/week
• Jorrel Hato - 17, Ajax, Dutch, 3K/week
• Martin Vitik - 20, Sparta Prague, Czech, 3K/week

Best wonderkid full-backs (left)

• Valentin Barco - 18, Boca, Argentina, 5K/week
• Alejandro Balde - 19, Barcelona, Spanish, 123K/week
• Amar Dedic - 20, RB Salzburg, Bosnian, 7K/week

Cheap wonderkid full-backs (left)

• Matteo Ruggeri - 20, Atalanta, Italian, 1K/week
• Harvey Araujo - 18, Fulham, English, 0.4K/week
• Alex Valle - 19, Levante, Spanish, 2K/week

Best wonderkid full-backs (right)

• Ivan Fresneda - 18, Sporting CP, Spanish, 25K/week
• Rico Lewis - 18, Man City, English, 25K/week
• Tino Livramento - 20, Newcastle, English, 65K/week

Cheap wonderkid full-backs (right)

• Filippo Missori - 19, Sassuolo, Italian, 0.9K/week
• Michael Kayode - 19, Fiorentina, Italian, 0.2K/week
• Arnau Martinez - 20, Girona, Spanish, 3K/week

Best wonderkid defensive midfielders

• Eduardo Camavinga - 20 Real Madrid, French, 127K/week
• Warren Zaire-Emery - 17, PSG, French, 78K/week
• Stefan Bajcetic - 18, Liverpool, Spanish, 8K/week

Cheap wonderkid defensive midfielders

• Adam Wharton - 19, Blackburn, English, 5K/week
• Giacomo Faticanti - 18, Salento, Italian, 2K/week
• Marc Bernal - 16, Barcelona, Spanish, 0.7K/week

Best wonderkid central midfielders

• Jude Bellingham - 20, Real Madrid, English, 329K/week
• Pedri - 20, Barcelona, Spanish, 148K/week
• Gavi - 18, Barcelona, Spanish, 124K/week

Cheap wonderkid central midfielders

• Archie Gray - 17, Leeds, English, 1K/week
• Assan Ouedraogo - 17, Schalke, German, 4K/week
• Joao Veloso - 18, Benfica, Portuguese, 3K/week

Best wonderkid left wingers

• Ansu Fati - 20, Brighton, Spanish, 129K/week
• Andreas Schjelderup - 19, FC Nordsjælland, Norwegian, 18K/week
• Samuel Iling - 19, Juventus, English, 31K/week

Cheap wonderkid left wingers

• Mikey Moore - 15, Tottenham, English, 0.1K/week
• Joao Rego - 18, Benfica, Portuguese, 3K/week
• Kendry Paez - 16, Independiente del Valle, Ecuadorian, 0.1K/week

Best wonderkid right wingers

• Nico Williams - 20, Athletic Bilbao, Spanish, 33K/week
• Yeremy Pino - 20, Villareal, Spanish, 24K/week
• Badredine Bouanani - 18, OG Nice, Algerian, 5K/week

Cheap wonderkid right wingers

• Lamine Yamal - 15, Barcelona, Spanish, 0.1K/week
• Shea Lacey - 16, Man Utd, English, 0.1K/week
• Ben Doak - 17, Liverpool, Scottish, 3K/week

Best wonderkid central attacking midfielders

• Jamal Musiala - 20, FC Bayern, German, 90K/week
• Arda Guler - 18, Real Madrid, Turkish, 4K/week
• Noah Darvich - 16, Barcelona, German, 8K/week

Cheap wonderkid central attacking midfielders

• Estevao - 16, SEP, Brazilian, 0.2K/week
• Jano Monserrate - 17, Real Zaragoza B, Spanish, 0.3K/week
• Junior Kroupi - 17, FC Lorient, French, 3K/week

Best wonderkid strikers

• Youssoufa Moukoko - 18, Dortmund, German, 58K/week
• Victor Roque - 18, ATP, Brazilian, 12K/week
• Marcos Leonardo - 20, SAN, Brazilian, 10K/week

Cheap wonderkid strikers

• Endrick - 16, SEP, Brazilian, 3K/week
• Gabriel Silva - 16, Sporting CP, Portuguese, 0.1K/week
• Enzo Sternal - 16, OM, French, 0.6K/week

The best free agents in Football Manager 2024

Free agents are players whose contracts have lapsed with their previous clubs. The reasons are myriad—greedy agents trying to gouge the club for undue fees, greedy players looking for unrealistic wages, long-term injuries, advancing years, and so forth. Point being, free agents aren’t always beyond salvaging.

In fact, taking this list of the top 20 players arranged by ability and reputation, you’ve got a pretty good first team squad in itself.

If you’re managing a top flight side, you’re realistically only going to get one or two useful seasons from players over 30, so you should plan accordingly. But the temptation to pick up the likes of Lingard, Pastore, Quagliarella, David De Gea, and Jerome Boateng is strong.

Keep in mind that free transfers aren’t really free. You don’t pay a transfer fee to the player’s previous club, but you are adding wages to your club’s overall wage bill. In addition, you might also be asked to pay the player—and the agent—a signing-on fee.

Free agents worth considering (Name, Position, Age, Nationality):

• Jesse Lingard - AMLC, 30, English
• Javier Pastore - AMC, 34, Argentine
• Fabio Quagliarella - Striker, 40, Italian
• Luan Silva - FC, 24, Brazilian
• Diego Perotti - AMR, 34, Argentinian
• Jose Campana - MC/AMC, 30, Spanish
• David de Gea - GK, 32, Spanish
• Brian Fernandez - Striker, 28, Argentine
• Marlos - AMR, 35, Ukrainian
• Shkodan Mustafi - DC, 31, German
• Salvador Rodriguez - DLC, 20, Mexican
• Jozo Simunovic - DC, 28, Croatian
• Xeka - DM, 27, Portuguese
• Clifford Aboagye - ARMC, 27, Ghanaian
• Jerome Boateng - DC, 33, German
• Helder Costa - AMRL, 28, Angolan
• William de Camargo - AMRL, 23, Brazilian
• Imoh Ezekiel - ST, 28, Nigerian
• Hacen - DM, 24, Mauritanian
• Timo Horn - GK, 29, German

Think you have what it takes to lead a team to the top? Pick up Football Manager 24 on the Epic Games Store.