Although not a surprise at all, the official announcement of Football Manager 2011 managed to make me happy (and I’m sure that it stands for quite some gamers!): Sports Interactive confirmed that the game will be released by Christmas 2010 and Miles Jacobson shared some of the upcoming features of the game via a video.

If you don’t feel like checking out the entire video, here’s a summary of the new features that have been announced:

– “Live” contract negotiations for players, and the introduction of player agents into play. Therefore, managers will now have to please the agents too – and SI promised different types of characters for the agents, meaning that we should approach them depending on their character type. Which sounds interesting!
– Improved training system with the introduction of the “match preparation” area. This means that now managers can give their team specific areas to focus on in the lead up to a match. Also, when it comes to regular training, there are more basic schedules for players, and 14 different individual skill areas that you can focus your players on.
– Player interactions will also be expanded (and private conversations will become available), while there will be a new board interaction as well: request a new stadium!
– The 3D Match engine will also be improved with new player animations and better details
– A new league reputation system will make the game be even more realistic since now it will be a possibility for leagues to increase their reputation (and probably see it lowered as well)!

Even better, Sports Interactive promise that these are not all the improvements we’ll see in Football Manager 2011, which is a really great thing – however, I am sure that these are the most important changes. Quite impressive list, though, which got me really excited.

If you’re curious, you can also check out Miles’ announcement of Football Manager 2011 below: