Football Manager 2021 Xbox Edition

You need to have managed a player for 10 years before they retire.

I was City and Laporte retired just after my tenth season which was about two months short. Frustrating. But, it means you're likely going to have do at least 11 seasons.

To maximise your chances of getting this early alongside the ten manager of the season awards, I suggest a few things.

- Try and win everything especially with clubs like Man City as they are fickle and will sack you for anything less than perfect.

- 35 years old seems to be an average age within the game for retirement for an outfield player. So, use this to your advantage and sign players in your first season at about the age of 23-24. This is so they retire at the end of the eleventh season (Rodri, Laporte, Jesus and Charlie Austin all retired at 35 for me (Austin being well within the 10 year period but he was a good early indicator))

- The most important bit (for me anyway) is timing the contract of the player. Ensure that they have enough years on the contract to get to the age of 37 as a safety net. Make sure you're playing them often before offering the contract. I had Jesus who left me at the age of 34 and then he retired the year later because of no contract.

- The next most important part is the player's ending seasons (age 34-35), don't play them. Just bench them so they go unhappy. Rodri retired on mine due to lack of play.