The KAISER of the Year: The Game's Own Best Player Award

Every Dynasty and Career season ends with an awards night. Once the final table is in and the season-end screen is done, before the next campaign begins, KAISER crowns the best player in the world that season: The KAISER of the Year. It is the game's own award, judged on form, trophies and the stage a player performed on, and your own players can win it.

How the night works

Three names make the shortlist. You see them side by side, each with his position, his club's crest and his rating, and then you tap Reveal the winner. The winner's card takes the stage over the other nominees, and if he is one of yours the game tells you so. If one of your players was nominated but missed out, you are told that too: maybe next season.

The result is computed once per season and kept with your save, so reloading the game never changes the winner, and the same run always crowns the same player. No more than two nominees can come from the same club, so one superteam cannot fill the whole shortlist.

Who is in the running

The field depends on the mode you are playing:

• Career ranks the real world. The best players from every edition's squads that season are in contention, with their ratings aged year by year, so as your career goes on the young stars of today become the contenders of tomorrow.
• Dynasty ranks the all-time pool, the same legends you can sign, so you are up against the greatest names of every era.

In both modes, every player in your squad is a candidate as well.

What the judges look at

Every candidate gets a score built from a handful of things:

• His rating. The foundation. A great player has a head start.
• The stage. The strength of his team. Starring for a powerhouse counts for more than starring for a minnow.
• Trophies. Winning the league adds to his case, and so does winning a continental cup.
• His position. Like most real awards, it leans toward the players who decide matches. Strikers and attacking midfielders have the edge; a goalkeeper or a centre-back has to be truly exceptional.
• Season form. A touch of variety from season to season, so the same name does not win on rating alone.

Previous wins count against a repeat winner. A legend can win it more than once, but each win makes the next one harder, which keeps the award moving around the world.

How your own players are judged

Your players are judged on the season they actually had in your team. Their average match rating, their goals and their assists all count, so a striker who scores freely and rates well every week builds a strong case. Two things can sink it:

• Too few appearances. A player who was injured or sat on the bench for most of the season is not a contender, whatever his rating. He needs a proper run of at least ten appearances.
• Your finish. The team's season weighs on its players. A bottom-half finish costs a little, and relegation costs a lot, so a relegated side will not flood the shortlist.

How to win it

• Build around one star. Give your best attacker the minutes. A great player rotated out of half the season cannot win.
• Win the league. A title is the single biggest boost your players can get, and a continental cup adds another.
• Play him where he is best. His match ratings decide much of his case, and a player out of position rates badly.
• Look after the whole squad. The team's finish counts, so a star in a struggling side is fighting the odds.
• Grow your own. In Dynasty and Career your academy graduates develop with playing time. A homegrown winner is the rarest honour of all.

The KAISER honours

The award has its own honour category, shared by Dynasty and Career:

• On the Shortlist. One of your players is nominated.
• Kaiser Maker. One of your players wins The KAISER. It also unlocks the Kaiser Maker title to wear beside your name.
• Kaiser Factory. Two different players of yours win it.
• Hat-trick of Kaisers. The same player of yours wins it three times.
• Homegrown Kaiser. A graduate of your academy wins it.

Each season's winner stays on record in your save, so a long Career or Dynasty builds its own history of the world's best players, and with luck a few of them are yours.

More: Career mode · Dynasty mode · honours and titles. Start a career →

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