WE ARE FOOTBALL 2027 Review: Is It Worth Buying in 2026?

WE ARE FOOTBALL 2027 asks €19.99 for a football manager with 200+ playable countries, a new creative mode and an expanded negotiation system — and five days after launch, 82 percent of its Steam reviews say that is a fair deal. This page collects what actual players praise and complain about, so you can decide whether it fits the kind of manager you want to play. Every number below is a snapshot: review scores move fast in a game’s first weeks, and all figures here were taken on 21 September 2026.

The Steam Score Right Now

Two things to keep in mind when reading that table. First, the sample is small — 83 reviews is five days of a niche release, not a settled verdict, and the percentages will drift as the count grows. Second, the gap between the German and English pools is itself information: the game’s natural audience is German, the German base is five times larger and reviews it as the heir to a manager tradition they grew up with, while the much smaller English base contains more players who arrived from Football Manager and judge it against different expectations.

What Players Praise

The most consistent positive theme is pace. Reviewers keep describing a season that fits into one long evening, a weekly flow that never buries you in menus, and a game you can play “just one more week” of late at night. If you found Football Manager’s micro-management exhausting, this is the alternative reviewers explicitly recommend.

The second theme is price. At €19.99, multiple reviewers call it a bargain for the content — one calculates it against the roughly €60 premium managers and concludes there is no fairer deal in the genre. The third is the new Kreativmodus, the creative mode that lets you reshape the game world: more spectators for your village club, more talents in the pool, altered competition rules. Early reviewers treat it as the feature that justifies the annual upgrade on its own.

Beyond those three, the praise clusters around the expanded multi-stage negotiations (“makes transfers more realistic”), the sheer size of the world, the built-in editor and the fact that a real-names database exists for it — our real name database patch guide covers that side. Several reviews also name the lineage directly: the studio around Gerald Köhler goes back to the classic Anstoss era, and for German players that heritage is a large part of the appeal. If you are starting from zero, our beginner guide walks the first season.

What Players Complain About

The criticisms are just as consistent, and you should weigh them before buying:

• It looks like 2024. Multiple reviewers note that on the surface almost nothing has changed visually. The upgrades live in systems — faster weekly processing, more scenes, deeper negotiations — not in a new coat of paint.
• Launch bugs. The most damaging reports concern the external editor, where several players say the database merge step aborts and transfers nothing — a real problem if original player names are your main reason to buy. Isolated crash reports and slow database performance on some setups round this out; our installation and first setup guide collects what helps on first launch.
• Injury frequency. Several reviewers report two or three key players getting injured in the same week, every week, and red cards arriving despite instructions to avoid them. Whether that is a tuning problem or bad luck varies; our medical and injuries guide explains the systems you can actually manage.
• Short contracts. One detailed negative review describes youth players signing for a single year and becoming unhappy immediately after — contract management seems to be stricter than in 2024, which our contract negotiations guide breaks down clause by clause.
• No licences, no tutorial. Club and player names are fictional out of the box, and there is no in-game tutorial — community videos and guides like the ones on this site fill that gap.

Who Should Buy It

WE ARE FOOTBALL 2027 is an easy recommendation if two or more of these describe you: you want seasons to move fast rather than simulate every detail; you manage on a budget and €20 feels right; you enjoy tinkering more than watching — editor, database edits, creative mode; you played the classic Anstoss managers and want that feeling back; or Football Manager burned you and you want something lighter until the genre settles. Sandbox-minded players should also look at the cheats and trainer guide, which covers the modes where you can simply experiment.

Who Should Skip It

Skip it this year if you need any of the following: officially licensed clubs, players and competitions; a modern 3D match engine to watch; ultra-realistic simulation depth with scouting networks and data hubs; or a polished day-one experience with zero bugs. None of those exist here, and reviews say so plainly. If your PC is a laptop or a machine you are unsure about, read our system requirements and compatibility guide before buying — that is a cheaper disappointment to avoid than a refund.

The Verdict

The snapshot verdict on 21 September 2026: WE ARE FOOTBALL 2027 is worth its €19.99 for players who want a fast, honest football manager and do not need licences or looks. The German community — the game’s core audience — rates it Very Positive at 91 percent, and even many critical reviews concede the price is fair for what is inside. The English score is Mixed, but on 13 reviews it is noise, not signal. The most sensible reading of the whole board: a solid annual iteration with genuinely new toys (Kreativmodus, negotiations) sold at a budget price, held back at launch by editor bugs and tuning complaints that patches may address.

If that description matches what you want from a manager, buy it, install the real-names database, and start with our beginner guide. If it does not, no review score will change the two things the negative reviews keep returning to — the dated presentation and the fictional names — so decide with those in mind.