Football Manager 2024 free agents: Best unattached players to sign on FM24

Football is not only about scoring goals, it's also about stopping balls from getting into the back of the net and when it comes to free agent goalkeepers in Football Manager 2024, there are plenty of quality options.

If you have the coffers, David de Gea could prove vital to your team throughout the season after parting ways with Man United. Statistically the best free agent available, the reigning Premier League golden glove winners' reflexes and handling are elite. The downside is that the 32-year-old is not particularly suited to playing it out from the back and his attributes are only likely to get worse.

If you’re looking for an affordable sweeper keeper, Tim Horn and Oscar Linner could be an excellent picks, and are one of the younger options available to you with significant resale value. Both are quick off their line, decent one-v-one shot-stopper, and boast a vast range of passing to boot.

Attackers win you games, but defenders win championships, as the adage goes. The important defensive attributes differ depending on whether you’re after a centre-back or a fullback, but at all times you should sign a player with good marking, tackling, and anticipation stats. Physical attributes are important, and here is where some older free agents tend to fall short, so keep a look out for those when scouring.

Jerome Boateng is a very experienced centre-back defender who can bring his top-level know-how to the team. With decent versatility, former Leicester City defender Ryan Bertrand and Aleix Vidal are the stand-out option when it comes to right-back.

Whether you need someone to pull the strings from the centre of the park, a box-to-box midfielder, a pure defensive destroyer, a hard-hitting deep-lying playmaker, or a creative wizard mezzala, there are plenty of unattached midfielders to pick from in the game.

If you're looking for someone to rack up assists and occasionally contribute on the scoresheet, Xeka is a great player and at 28, has his best years ahead of him when selected in a playmaking role.

M'Vila has some excellent stats for a defensive midfielder, and his mental and physical attributes makes him a top signing for a manager. At 27, Peter Etebo offers nice resale value and so could be the smartest signing while you spend the first season searching for a long-term option.

23-year-old Matty Longstaff, meanwhile, scored a dream debut goal for boyhood club Newcastle against Manchester United back in 2019, but hasn’t hit anywhere near the heights expected of him since. He’d be a solid squad option or stop gap for plenty of mid-table European sides, or in the lower reaches of English football.

Good strikers are a precious commodity and there are not many top-level goal-getters who are out of contract in Football Manager 2024. The options are fairly limited. Former Crystal Palace striker Connor Wickham is available for free in the game, as is journeyman veteran Ryan Babel, but you may find injury issues with both.

There are some very good quality wide-men, though, from whom you can get a decent output. Jesse Lingard's financial demands aren't as much on FM24, so he'll make a great addition to a mid-table Premier League side looking for goals, while Karim Bellarabi and Andre Ayew have all the basic tools needed to be an effective winger for any team, the latter can also do a job as a striker.

However, if you're a second-tier side looking to build a squad around young players, 20-year-old Serbian left-winger Nemanja Jović and 22-year-old French winger Tanguy Coulibaly could prove to be a great investment.