FIFA 22 Career Mode: new features, updates, and more

Ah, Career Mode. Once the jewel in FIFA’s crown, now overtaken by Ultimate Team as EA’s favourite child. It had received a bit of a revival, backed by FIFA Youtubers and streamers who put out Career Mode content in between FUT updates, drawing big views as they bring tiny clubs to the top. Career Mode die-hards felt as if they’d been left neglected by EA for several games in a row, stuck with transfer and kit updates whilst other modes got huge new features. FIFA 22 Career Mode changed things up for the better.

FIFA 22 Career Mode brought updates to both the player and manager career paths, plus an all-new Create a Club mode. This was on top of the updated FUT details, Pro Clubs improvements (including being a female virtual pro for the first time), and all-new HyperMotion gameplay technology for players on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and the now-deceased Stadia.

Here were some of the biggest changes in FIFA 22 Career Mode.

FIFA 22 Career Mode new features

Firstly, Career Mode took advantage of the updates to gameplay across FIFA 22, with HyperMotion technology, true ball physics, new attacking tactics, and a goalkeeper rewrite.

There was new commentary too, with a small but significant update to Career Mode. Ex-England and Arsenal ace Alex Scott was the first female English-language FIFA commentator, taking over the live goal updates from across the league as you played your Career Mode matches. Derek Rae and new addition Stewart Robson delivered the match commentary.

EA also updated Career Mode cutscenes for FIFA 22. This included the ones for transfer negotiations, plus more pre- and post-match cutscenes, including in the dressing room for the first time ever.

Keeping FIFA as authentic as possible, the UEFA Conference League was added: UEFA’s new third-tier European competition. This sat nicely alongside the Europa League and Champions League.

The game also celebrated your career achievements and highlights with you, with milestone matches, games won, outstanding debut seasons, goal records, manager of the month awards, and more serialized in-game and in the news section. While it sounds small, this was a nice upgrade.

Also new in FIFA 22 Career Mode was the ability to create your own club. Customization reached whole new levels in FIFA 22, so we took The Loadout FC all the way to the Premier League.

All of these new features added to the immersive experience that FIFA 22 Career Mode aimed to deliver.

FIFA 22 Career Mode create a club

One of the most wished-for additions to FIFA was finally been delivered upon in FIFA 22; you could create a club in FIFA 22 Career Mode. There were no half-measures when it came to the implementation, either. Players were able to build their club from the ground up, with countless customization combinations at their fingertips.

You could jump right into any league and replace a team of your choice with your created club. The club you replaced moved to the Rest of World league in your FIFA 22 Career Mode save, so you were still able to buy players from them.

Create your club identity including name, crest, and even the nickname the commentators would call you in-game. Then to create your all-important kits, you could select primary, secondary, and tertiary kit colors for your home and away strips. There were dozens of templates to select from.

Creating your stadium was familiar for those who played FUT 21. The customization options for color, seats, pitch lines, goal net colours, chants, and more were editable from the generic stadiums already in the game.

Even if you weren’t creating a club in Manager Career Mode, if the club you chose had a generic stadium instead of a licenced one (we see you Ivy Lane, Molton Road, and O Dromo), you could use the stadium building features too. Previously, you could only update the realism by changing the name, but now, you can make your ground feel even more like home.

Establishing your team meant selecting your nation and league, team star-rating, average age, domestic rival, transfer budget, and board priorities to add the right philosophy for your playstyle.

Then, all you needed to do was hunt for glory.

FIFA 22 Player Career Mode updates

The player career in FIFA 22 Career Mode benefited from big updates, adding new depth and challenges to your journey to superstardom.

You could now come on as a sub in your player career, where you could start as a young footballer. The all-new manager rating system allowed you to build your way up in your manager’s eyes. Earn enough manager rating to get yourself a spot in the starting lineup. Fail to hit your match objectives, and you were at risk of being benched, dropped, or even transfer-listed.

How quickly your player climbed up (or fell down) the ranks was based on the team around. You could opt to play for Manchester City or PSG, but there was stiffer competition there. It was easier to hold on to a starting shirt at a lower-ranked team with fewer superstar players around you.

Match objectives were more dynamic than ever in FIFA 22 and were based on:

Your playing position, and if the manager was playing you out of position (eg CM instead of CAM)
The significance of the match: you could expect to show up and show off in preseason games against easier opponents and your rival clubs
The formation you were playing in and against: if you were a lone striker, you wouldn’t get objectives for assists.

You could take an even tougher challenge by enhancing your match objectives for an extra ‘player growth’ award.

Player growth was determined by XP, which you earned by playing matches, completing training (you got more for manually doing this rather than simming), and completing objectives. XP unlocked skill points, and skill points went into a wide and deep skill tree.

The new skill tree had noticeable effects on player attributes and traits in-game. Previously, created players grew universally based on matches, but with the new skill tree, you got more of a role in the development and playstyle of your pro.

Finally, EA introduced all-new perks into Player Career Mode. You could equip three in a game and they worked like power-ups; you could boost your skills and abilities using perks, or even the players around you. Depending on the importance of the match ahead, you could even mix and match to suit.

Of course, once you had won it all and decided to hang up your boots as a player, FIFA 22 allowed you to take the reins of your club and become the boss, with an easy progression into Manager Career Mode.

So, that was all the major changes and new features that came in FIFA 22 Career Mode, which finally gave the underappreciated mode some love.