EA FC 26 players have stumbled onto one of the coolest glitches in years: the ability to turn FUT Legends into fully fledged Career Mode managers, opening up a completely new way to freshen up long-term saves while you plan your next squad upgrade or even buy fc 26 coins for other modes. This temporary loophole lets you start a player career with an icon from a classic team, trigger an instant retirement, and then take over a club job with that legend as your touchline boss. It is almost certainly going to be removed in an upcoming patch, so anyone who loves experimental saves, narrative careers, or YouTube-ready series ideas needs to act fast and lock in as many manager careers as possible before EA closes the door.

How the icon manager trick works

The entire setup is done from the main menu using squad editing and player career, and it relies on the fact that classic players can be moved into the standard club database. By placing an older, high-rated icon at a specific club, starting a player career with them, and retiring immediately, the game generates manager job offers that effectively turn that FUT Legend into a Career Mode coach. Because the system matches job offers to your current club’s level, choosing the right temporary club for your icon is crucial if you want realistic or challenging opportunities.

Once the icon retires, you simply select one of the available jobs and sign the contract to begin managing as that legend. From that point on, the save behaves like any other Career Mode file, meaning that as long as you create it before the glitch is patched, you can keep playing with that iconic manager all year.

Step-by-step setup overview

The basic workflow starts with going into Settings from the main menu and opening the Edit Teams section, then jumping into the transfer editor. In player search, you run a detailed search with an age filter of 32+ and a minimum overall rating of 85 to quickly find eligible icons from the classic teams.

Next, you assign the chosen icon to a club that matches the level of job offers you want later. For example, putting someone like Peter Crouch at Manchester City will cause the game to treat you as an elite-level player for job generation, whereas assigning him to a smaller club would open mid-table or lower-tier opportunities. With the icon placed, you start a new player career, select “Use Custom Squads” instead of downloading the latest, and pick that legend from the squad list.

In the career itself, you skip all onboarding and head straight to the player actions tab, then choose to retire. The game then generates a list of manager job offers, which will vary based on the club you initially joined and the underlying reputation systems.

Limitations and eligible icons

This trick only works with classic players drawn from the specific officially licensed classic teams in the game. That currently means icons connected to Liverpool, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Juventus, and Real Madrid, rather than every club featured in the classic leagues. As a result, beloved figures from Roma or Barcelona, such as Francesco Totti or certain other legends, are unavailable as manager options because those clubs do not have corresponding classic squads.

Even with that restriction, there are still dozens of iconic names to choose from, including recent retirements and fan favorites who never had a proper managerial stint in real life. This creates a sandbox for “what if” universes in which technically gifted legends or cult heroes guide clubs through rebuilds, promotions, and European campaigns.

Save ideas and narrative potential

One of the best ways to use this glitch is to build full narrative saves around a legend’s history, playstyle, and emotional connection to a club or region. For instance, starting Tony Kroos at a lower-division German club tied to his roots and climbing the ladder until he eventually receives offers from Bayern Munich and the national team can produce a long-running storyline that reflects his real-world trajectory in reverse.

Similarly, icons with deep ties to academies or golden generations are perfect for youth-focused rebuilds. Turning Ajax back into a powerhouse under a former legend, or giving an English lower-league club an iconic Real Madrid or Manchester United figure on the bench, can transform routine Career Mode grinds into unique, highly personal sagas.

Why you should act quickly

This functionality clearly wasn’t intended to be widely available, and its similarity to an older “Classic XI” oversight suggests that EA is likely to close it in a title update. Once patched, new saves using this method will probably be blocked, but existing files should continue to work, which is why creating a library of icon-manager careers now is so important.

Players who enjoy experimenting with tactics, youth development, and roleplaying will find that these saves add longevity to EA FC 26 beyond Ultimate Team grinding or standard Road to Glory careers. With a small amount of setup time, this glitch can extend the life of the game across the entire cycle and give you a set of unique stories that nobody else in your friend group is telling.

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