Eredivisie FM26: Best Players & Wonderkids

For many football fans, the long wait is over. This week the new edition of the immensely popular Football Manager game was released. Together with Jeroen Thijssen, the Dutch head scout of the game, Voetbalzone discusses the best Eredivisie players, the greatest Dutch talents and the most important innovations of FM26.

The new edition ultimately took two years to appear. At the beginning of this year, developer Sports Interactive reported that the 2025 edition of Football Manager was permanently canceled. The reason for the cancellation was simple: the game did not meet the quality standard that players expect from the series.

With the arrival of a revamped engine, the official FIFA license, the addition of women’s football and more advanced tactical features, FM26 marks the long-awaited new chapter for the series.

Thijssen is Regional Research Manager and is responsible for, among other things, the Dutch research of the game. He examines the assessment of thousands of players, staff members and board members in our country. Two years ago, Thijssen talked in detail about his special position and how he ended up at Sports Interactive. Now he discusses the most important innovations in the game and gives tips for your own save game.

Hi Jeroen! FM26 has been officially released, so football fans can finally enjoy themselves again. How happy are you with the end result?

“We have been a bit tense. Football Manager 2025 has of course not been released, and FM26 has gone through a lot of changes. It had to be a good game. I have only been able to play the game a little myself, because I have been extremely busy doing research.

In FM you have the user interface: what do you do when you are playing the game, how do you get from A to B? That is really different from FM24, but really an adjustment after many years! In addition to the user interface, you of course have the game itself. The game runs on the Unity engine for the first time — that’s a really big change. In my opinion the match engine has received a huge boost. Of course there are some small bugs here and there, but if you look at the whole thing and see how the game has improved graphically, then that is an enormously positive development. You now get more realistic tactical behavior because there are more than forty new player roles and new tactical systems, with separate formations for ball possession and when losing the ball.”

Are there any other notable innovations besides the improved match engine and the new user interface?

“There is an integration of women’s football. In addition, there are official licenses for the Premier League and the FIFA World Cup for clubs, and there is a new transfer system via TransferRoom that ensures more dynamics in negotiations. The purchase and sale of players had to become a bit more realistic, but of course no one wants to answer emails for six hours. You can’t take every call from an agent, so that is a bit of the dividing line we are looking for.

TransferRoom is a platform used by professional football clubs. In the game, players are given two options: they can express their transfer needs by specifying position, role and desired age profile, after which other clubs will immediately offer players who meet those criteria. In addition, surplus players can be actively offered to interested clubs. This ensures a more realistic and efficient sales process.”

Is the game also easy to play for football fans who want to purchase Football Manager for the first time?

“In terms of the user interface, everything has been completely redesigned. In FM24 the foundation was still thirty years of coding, but Sports Interactive started from scratch and completely redesigned the interface. I think parts of the interface are even more accessible to new players than before. A common ‘complaint’ within the football world is that people played Football Manager for days on end ten or fifteen years ago, but now have a serious job, a partner and children, so they can make less time for it.

Of course, FM has a lot of depth, so if you play Football Manager, you just have to put time into it. At EA Sports FC it is easier to play one or two games and then do something else. You can of course also play one match per gaming session with Football Manager, but it’s actually great if you can sit down and do it in a few hours.”

Which players are among the greatest Dutch talents in Football Manager 2026?

“Then you end up with names that everyone already knows. Jorrel Hato is the best proven talent. He is difficult to steal from Chelsea, unless you start a new team in FM. Givairo Read from Feyenoord is of course also known. If I really look at potential in a younger age group, I end up with Kees Smit from AZ. He is really a top prospect. I should also mention Sami Bouhoudane, a seventeen-year-old striker from PSV.

At Ajax you have Abdellah Ouazane. I think he will ultimately opt for an international career with Morocco. In February I went to Morocco for the African Under-17 Cup. Ouazane was so good there, a real winner. Of course you have to keep in mind which opponents he is playing against, but every now and then you saw him do things that made me think: that boy plays so easily. The way we assessed him, he will make the national team. That could be the Netherlands, but Morocco is more likely. He is interesting for both countries.

Rayane Bounida and Sean Steur are other Ajax players who I like. You also have Quenten Attigah, a talented goalkeeper from AZ. Kiano Dyer may not be Dutch, but someone to keep an eye on. He is rented from Chelsea by FC Volendam this season. There is also Elvis van der Laan, who has been under contract with FC Groningen since last summer and, in addition to a Swedish passport, also has Dutch nationality. NEC of course has a few nice players, such as Sami Ouaissa and Kodai Sano.

And at Sparta you have Ayoub Oufkir and Marvin Young. The latter was recently in the picture at PSV. Those types of players are already top players at their clubs. Depending on your save game, they are also interesting to check if you play with Ajax, Feyenoord, PSV or perhaps even a larger foreign club.”

The selections of Ajax, Feyenoord and PSV have all been overhauled. Was it therefore more difficult for this edition of FM to rate the players of the Dutch top clubs?

“A lot has indeed happened at the top Dutch clubs. Players are also being recruited from abroad who I know only a little, or not at all. Then I have to rely on the other researchers. You also come across players of whom you think: these need to be scrutinized again.

Malcom Jeng, a central defender of Feyenoord, is unfortunately now injured. I have seen him work two or three times, including in a European competition. He played very well then, so I already upgraded him. But a boy like Gonçalo Borges… I can’t say much about that. For example, I have not rated Alassane Pléa. He went to PSV and is basically a good player, but was immediately seriously injured. So you can’t do much with that.

Esmir Bajraktarevic is another great example. He came to PSV at the beginning of this calendar year and was an unknown name at the time. I wasn’t immediately impressed with him. He came from America, and they were not immediately enthusiastic there either. Now he has already shown some nice things this season. Yet there is still a question mark behind his name: is he a top prospect in the making? I have assessed him properly, but I cannot yet say with one hundred percent certainty exactly what kind of potential he has.”

How do the traditional top four selections actually compare to each other in Football Manager 2026?

“The ones from PSV and Feyenoord are quite equal. Then there is a small gap to Ajax, and then back to AZ. In my experience, the PSV starting eleven is slightly stronger, but Feyenoord actually has a broader selection. Just look at the midfielders: Quinten Timber, Luciano Valente, Sem Steijn, In-beom Hwang, Jakob Moder, Oussama Targhalline – and they could also possibly include Shiloh ‘t Zand draw up.

At right back you have Read, Bart Nieuwkoop and Jordan Lotomba. The last two may not be great football players, but they are perfectly fine for the Eredivisie. PSV has Sergiño Dest and Kiliann Sildillia in that position, and then the third right back is actually Eus Waayers. Feyenoord still has Justin Bijlow in goal behind Timon Wellenreuther. I think he is the best goalkeeper in the Netherlands, but he is always injured. That’s just a very sad story.”

Which three players have the highest current ability got into the Eredivisie?

“Ivan Perisic is in first place, Quinten Timber is in second place, and Ismael Saibari and Jerdy Schouten are in a shared third place. After our deadline, Saibari suddenly started scoring big, haha.”

And how did you assess Oscar Gloukh, Ajax’s top signing?

“It is a little lower, but it does have a high one, for example potential ability. With his current ability he is like a basic player at Ajax. Kenneth Taylor has the highest at Ajax current ability. It is difficult to estimate, because under Francesco Farioli things went very well over an entire season with a selection that was not spectacular. That’s still not the case by Ajax standards. I have the feeling that John Heitinga was not an ideal match as a trainer either.”

Finally, do you have any interesting bargains for the game’s avid gamers to consider snapping up?

Unfortunately I’m not allowed to mention names, I would have liked to. But I can certainly give you advice to look for transfer-free players – especially if you start a save game with, for example, a club in the Kitchen Champion Division. Then there is still a lot of fun to be had. Even a number of (former) internationals.

Football Manager 26 is now available on PC, mobile and consoles!