FM23 Best Directors of Football to Sign for Your Team

What Is a Director of Football? What Qualities Do the Best Directors of Football Have?

Your assistant manager, your coaches and your scouts aren't the only staff you need in your technical team — unlike them, the director of football role isn't mandatory. Football Manager players have plenty of responsibilities to take on in-game. From setting up training schedules to signing young players on loan, from pre-match team talks to managing your technical staff's contract negotiations, there's a lot of work to be done.

In-game, there's a screen where you can delegate almost all of these tasks to different staff members on your team. Under the club staff menu, when you open the responsibilities section, you can review the roles automatically assigned to you and your staff based on the choices you made at the start of the game, and make changes wherever you see fit.

Your director of football is part of this staff structure too, with a job description covering various responsibilities of his own. In FM23, your director of football's duties can be summed up as offering players you want to sell to other clubs, handling negotiations with your players whose contracts are up for renewal, finding and completing transfers for new players you can add to your senior and youth squads, managing your scouts, and taking on responsibility for the youth team if it doesn't have another manager.

There are three key traits that define a good director of football:

• Judging Player Potential
• Judging Player Ability
• Negotiating

However, depending on which responsibilities you delegate to him, you may want your director of football's Staff Judgement, Tactical Knowledge and Working with Youngsters attributes in FM23 to be above a certain level as well.

FM 23 Best Directors of Football 2023

Monchi

The legendary name of Spanish football is a top candidate for anyone in Football Manager looking for a director of football for their team. Monchi has more than enough of the attributes required for the role, but you'll need to set aside a serious budget to bring him to your club. You'll also need a certain amount of club reputation to be able to sign him. Monchi's scouting knowledge is focused on Italy and Spain. If your transfer policy involves signing players from these regions, we definitely recommend working with him.

Rouven Schröder

Schröder, who knows the player markets of Germany, France, Austria and Switzerland closely and whose attributes we could call top-tier across the board, is ideal especially for those looking for players from central and western European regions. His annual wage demand isn't as high as Monchi's, but it's worth noting that he can still ask for a considerable amount and may reject your offer out of concern for your club's reputation.

Marcus Mann

If you're looking for a name with top-tier attributes and a low chance of causing problems over wage demands or club reputation, Marcus Mann is the best option. That's why he also ranks near the top of many best director of football lists. The one feature we could consider a weak point for Marcus Mann is his scouting knowledge. FM23's beloved director of football only has scouting knowledge for the Germany region. However, that makes Marcus Mann an ideal option especially in the later years of the game for those playing with Turkish clubs. Given the foreign player limit in Türkiye, having a director of football who knows Germany well is a serious advantage when scouting regions with a large expatriate population.

Michael Edwards

Michael Edwards, who starts the game without a contract with any club, has scouting knowledge limited to English football. Edwards, who could be a good pick especially for those wanting to manage a team in the Premier League, can join your club without any compensation fee, and he impresses with his abilities.

Paul Mitchell

Mitchell, who has scouting knowledge of France, England and Germany — three of Europe's top five leagues — starts the game as Monaco's director of football. Mitchell has more than enough of the attributes required for a director of football, so you should set aside a serious budget and knock on his door with at least Monaco-level club reputation.

Leonardo

France, Italy, Japan, Brazil, Portugal and Spain... The list of countries covered by Leonardo's scouting knowledge is quite extensive. Leonardo, who could be said to know world football inside out, is an ideal director of football for teams looking for players across a wide range. Although his attributes fall slightly short of the other names on our list, his knowledge alone can double your club's player database. On top of that, he also starts the game without a contract with any club...

Luis Gonçalves

The 69-year-old veteran director of football starts the game at FC Porto. Luis Gonçalves stands out for his scouting knowledge of talent-factory countries like Brazil and Portugal, while also knowing the player databases of Ukraine, France, Argentina and Colombia closely. Note that he may demand a serious budget to join your club, and he'll expect at least a national or continental level of club reputation.

FM 23 Best Turkish Directors of Football 2023

The director of football model, which many clubs in Türkiye have tried before, generally failed to catch on due to tensions between the head coach and the director of football. While this is still the case, our FM 23 Turkish directors of football list is naturally quite short. There aren't many names that stand out in FM23's database for their director of football abilities, but this can change as you progress through the game. As current players retire and the game adds new characters over the years, the talent pool for the director of football role expands, but unfortunately your options are quite limited at the start.

Gökhan Göktürk

Gökhan Göktürk, who serves as director of football at Adana Demirspor, falls a bit short of world-class directors in terms of attributes, but he's the best name you'll find in Türkiye. Göktürk, whose scouting knowledge is focused on Türkiye, also has quite reasonable wage and reputation expectations, especially for Turkish clubs.

Serkan Reçber

Serkan Reçber, whom football fans may recognize from Kasımpaşa, doesn't stand out in terms of attributes compared to the other directors of football in the game, but he's among the best directors of football in Türkiye. Reçber, who has scouting knowledge of Türkiye, won't cause any difficulty when it comes to wage expectations and reputation demands.