The Comprehensive Guide to Media Description in Football Manager

Cultured midfielder, unpredictable midfielder or midfield orchestrator ? We have all seen variations of these descriptions in our FM saves, and most of the time they give little or no clue at all as to what they mean. However, I will today sift through the various descriptions and give their respective meaning.

What Does Media Description Mean in Football Manager ?

The media description in football manager is tied to a combination of various factors, including but not limited to a player’s age, his reputation and also his hidden attributes in the FM database. 

The media description can also give you a small insight into a player’s ability when scouting a transfer target. You shouldn’t however invest on a player purely because his media description is “wonderkid as we will see below”.

A list of Various Media Descriptions found in Football Manager

The following are the media descriptions you might meet in your FM save game;

Media Description for Goalkeepers

1. Legendary Goalkeeper
2. World Class Goalkeeper
3. Commanding Goalkeeper
4. Elite Goalkeeper

Media Description for Defenders

1. World Class Centre Back
2. Elite Fullback
3. Commanding Centre Back
4. Decisive Centre Back
5. Enthusiastic Centre Back
6. Strong Centre Back
7. Towering Centre Back 
8. Strong Full Back
9. Enthusiastic Full back
10. Decisive Full back
11. Explosive Full back
12. Attacking Full back

Media Description for Midfielders

1. Cultured midfielder
2. Elite Midfielder
3. Enthusiastic Midfielder
4. Tenacious Midfielder
5. Tireless Midfielder 
6. Industrious Midfielder
7. World-class Midfielder
8. Legendary Midfielder
9. Midfield playmaker
10. Midfielder Entertainer
11. Midfield General
12. Unpredictable Midfielder
13. Midfield Orchestrator

Media Description for Wingers

1. Flamboyant Winger
2. Elite winger
3. Diminutive winger
4. Cultured Winger
5. Enthusiastic Winger 
6. Explosive Winger
7. Dynamic winger
8. Confident winger

Media Description for Strikers

1. Cultured Striker
2. Powerful Striker
3. Explosive Striker
4. Flamboyant Striker
5. Clinical Striker
6. Towering striker
7. Nomadic striker
8. Pacy hitman
9. Elite striker
10. Rangy forward
11. Wily Forward
12. Showy Forward
13. Creative forward

I might have missed a few media descriptions found in FM above, while some of them are only found in older versions of football manager, and have been replaced by new ones, therefore there might be some overlap in their explanations below;

The Meaning of Football Manager Media Description

1. Wonderkid – Probably the one that gets most of us excited, this media description is only assigned to players under the age of 21. It is also tied to their reputation and current ability (CA) but not their Potential Ability(PA). Therefore, it is very possible for a wonderkid to never amount to much if his starting Current Ability is high relative to his age mates but the Potential Ability (PA) is not high enough, leading him to stagnate and ultimately surpassed by his peers. 
2. World Class xxxx – Media description assigned to players who have exceeded a certain CA and also have a high reputation.
3. Legendary xxxx – Same requirements as a world-class player, but must be over 30 years old
4. Elite xxxx – Given to players with a high reputation, and just at the cusp of being world-class. 
5. Experienced xxxx – This media description is tied to age, and players  above 30 years can have it.
6. Decisive xxxx – Only assigned to players with a high decisions rating
7. Towering Centre back –  Assigned to extremely tall centre backs with good heading
8. Solid Centre back – An all-rounder with a high rating of greater than 15 in heading, tackling, pace and strength. 
9. Commanding Centre back/Full back – A commanding presence at the back with a greater rating than 15 in heading, tackling, strength and determination
10. Midfield General – Found in older editions of football manager, A player had to have a rating of higher than 15 in passing, tackling, technique, determination and strength
11. Flamboyant xxxx – An attacking player with flair, technique, passing and dribbling all being higher than 15
12. Clinical striker – As true to the word, finishing must be higher than 18 while long shots and decisions should be above 15.
13. Enthusiastic xxxx – must be younger than 22 with teamwork and work rate being higher than 15 
14. Rangy striker – Given to tall and thin strikers, think of someone similar to Peter Crouch
15. Unpredictable xxxx – Given to players with low consistency in their hidden attributes, therefore their performances will wildly vary from game to game.
16. Tenacious midfielder – Given to midfielders with a high work rate.
17. Tireless midfielder – Given to midfielders with high stamina and work rate.
18. Cultured midfielder – I have only seen this assigned to players with slightly lower flair, less than 15 but a high rating of more than 15 in technique, passing, vision and long shots
19. Pacy hitman – Assigned to players like Origi and Werner who have very high acceleration and pace while still having decent finishing and off the ball movement
20. Powerful striker – Assigned to strikers who have a high rating in strength. 
21. Nomadic striker – Assigned to strikers at the tail end of their career and have played in several clubs.

The list above isn’t by all means exhaustive and there are some media descriptions I have missed as I’m not 100% sure what they mean, or I just haven’t come across them in game yet. (The beauty of FM eh?). In the same vein, if you notice a wrong description or two, let me know in the comment section below, and I will definitely update the media description and its requirement.