For years, PES fans have relied on deep, immersive career modes to spend hundreds of hours building their perfect squads, taking lower-league teams to global glory, and growing a custom player from youth prospect to global superstar. When Konami rebranded the franchise to eFootball back in 2021, long-time players immediately started asking one key question: does eFootball 2022 have career mode? The answer isn’t as straightforward as you might think, especially if you’re used to the robust Master League mode from older PES titles. We’ve spent dozens of hours testing every single mode in eFootball 2022, digging through official patch notes, and checking community feedback to give you the full, unfiltered breakdown of what’s available, what’s missing, and how you can get a similar progression experience if the mode you want isn’t there.
Does eFootball 2022 Have Career Mode? The Short Answer
No, eFootball 2022 does not have a traditional dedicated career mode or the fan-favorite Master League mode that was a staple of earlier PES releases. eFootball 2022 launched as a “platform” rather than a full annual release, so Konami cut most legacy single-player modes to focus on core gameplay and online features for its free-to-play launch. I pre-ordered the premium edition of the game specifically for the promised post-launch Master League DLC, and like thousands of other players, I was left frustrated when the mode was pushed back indefinitely and never released for the 2022 version of the game.
Konami never explicitly stated that career mode would never come to eFootball 2022, but all development for the 2022 platform stopped once the 2023 update rolled out, so there’s no chance the mode will be added retroactively. That said, you don’t have to abandon the game entirely if you prefer offline, progression-focused play, as there are several workarounds and existing modes that can fill that gap if you’re willing to get a little creative.
What Single-Player Progression Modes Are Available In eFootball 2022?
While you won’t find a labeled career mode in the main menu, eFootball 2022 does have a handful of offline modes that support long-term play and progression, especially when combined with community-created tools and rulesets. The most popular options for players who want a career-like experience are:
- Dream Team: While it’s primarily designed as an online mode, you can play Dream Team matches against AI opponents to earn coins, level up your players, and build a custom squad without touching PvP. Progression here is tied to player cards and in-game rewards, rather than dynamic league movement, but it’s the closest you’ll get to long-term squad building in the base game.
- Training Mode: If you want to build skills with a specific player or test new tactics, the advanced training mode lets you run drills, practice set pieces, and refine your gameplay without the pressure of competitive matches. It doesn’t have built-in progression tracking, but it’s a useful tool if you’re new to the franchise and want to get comfortable before starting a long-term playthrough.
- Offline Friendly Matches: You can set up custom leagues or knockout tournaments with real teams, adjust difficulty settings, and play through full seasons manually. There’s no built-in transfer market, player growth, or dynamic story elements, but many players use spreadsheets or external tracking tools to create their own DIY career mode experience this way.
Most players are surprised to find that the offline version of Dream Team is actually really generous with rewards. You won’t run into pay-to-win barriers if you only play against AI, as you’ll earn more than enough coins to sign top players and upgrade your squad just by winning matches and completing weekly objectives. I put over 80 hours into an offline Dream Team save last year, and I never spent a single cent of real money on the mode.
The custom league feature is also more flexible than most players realize. You can mix teams from different leagues, set your own fixture list, and adjust rule sets like match length, injury frequency, and transfer windows to match your preferences. The only missing pieces are the dynamic systems that track progression automatically, which you can easily add yourself with free community tools.
Why Did Konami Cut Traditional Career Mode From eFootball 2022?
A lot of players assume Konami cut career mode to push players toward the monetized online Dream Team mode, but the real reason is a lot less malicious. The 2022 launch was meant to be a foundational release for the new eFootball platform, which Konami built from scratch using Unreal Engine after ditching the old engine it had used for PES for over a decade. The team underestimated how much work it would take to rebuild all legacy modes like Master League, Become a Legend, and offline career mode for the new engine, so they decided to launch the game with a limited feature set to get feedback from players early.
The initial launch of eFootball 2022 was also notoriously buggy, with broken animations, bad collision detection, and frequent crashes that made the game almost unplayable for many users. Konami had to shift all its development resources to fixing core gameplay issues for the first six months after launch, which pushed back development of all promised post-launch modes even further. By the time they fixed most of the major bugs, they were already starting work on the 2023 update, so they decided to move all new mode development to future versions instead of releasing them for the 2022 platform.
I know multiple people who went back to PES 2021 for two full years just because they didn’t want to give up their Master League saves, and I don’t blame them. The decision to launch eFootball 2022 without a career mode was a huge misstep for Konami, and it alienated a large portion of the franchise’s core offline fanbase. The good news is that newer versions of eFootball have since added Master League as paid DLC, so you can upgrade if you want a built-in career mode without workarounds.
How to Get a Career Mode-Like Experience With eFootball 2022
If you’re dead set on using eFootball 2022 specifically (maybe you prefer the gameplay, or you don’t want to pay for a newer version), there are a few workarounds that the community has tested and refined over the years to make the game feel like it has a fully functional career mode. These take a little extra setup, but most players agree they’re worth the effort if you want to stick with the 2022 version.
First, try the DIY career mode route that thousands of offline players swear by. Start with a lower-league team from a country you’re familiar with, and set yourself strict rules for progression. For example, you can only sign players from the same country for the first two seasons, you have to sell one player every time you buy a new one, you have to promote at least one youth player to the first team every season, and you can only spend a set “transfer budget” based on how many matches you win each season. You can track all of this in a free spreadsheet, and you can even add custom story beats like sacking your manager if you get relegated, or selling your best player if you get a big offer from a top club.
If you play on PC, you can also download custom mods that add full career mode functionality to eFootball 2022. Modders have built tools that add dynamic transfer markets, player growth tracking, realistic injury systems, and even story elements that make the mode feel almost identical to the old Master League. Make sure you only download mods from trusted community sites to avoid malware or account bans, and keep in mind that modded versions of the game only work for offline play, so you won’t be able to use them if you also play online Dream Team matches.
You can also combine the base game’s custom league feature with a free mobile progression tracker app made by the eFootball community. These apps let you input match results, track player stats over multiple seasons, manage your transfer budget, and even simulate matches that you don’t want to play manually. I used one of these apps for a 12-season DIY career with a League 2 English team last year, and it felt just as immersive as the old Master League mode, if not more because I got to set all the rules myself.
At the end of the day, the answer to does eFootball 2022 have career mode is no, at least not in the traditional Master League or dedicated career mode format most long-time fans expect. That doesn’t mean you can’t get hundreds of hours of enjoyable single-player progression out of the game, especially if you’re willing to try out community workarounds or build your own custom career rules. If you’d rather have a built-in career mode without extra work, you might want to upgrade to a newer eFootball version or go back to PES 2021, which still has one of the best career modes in the entire franchise. No matter what you choose, the core gameplay of eFootball 2022 is still solid, especially for offline play, so don’t write it off completely just because it’s missing one core mode.