Thanks to Football Manager 2022 facepacks and the series’ dedicated community, getting proper player likenesses into your game can be achieved in minutes. Not only do packs turn each player profile from a lifeless generic silhouette into a thing of beauty, they also add authenticity to a game that can feel sterile in places without some major licenses. Follow our step-by-step guide and you’ll have all the FM 2022 facepacks a manager could ever need.
How to install Football Manager 2022 facepacks
There are two things you need to do before you even think about downloading and installing facepacks on Football Manager 2022.
First up, download WinRAR. Then, go to My Documents > Sports Interactive > Football Manager 2022. Here, right click and create a ‘Graphics’ folder. Head into that Graphics folder and create another sub-folder within called ‘faces.’
Now, get to downloading those facepacks. We’ve got a few interesting options in the section below, but if you’ve already got them, keep on reading.
Open up the facepack folder with WinRAR and extract them to your new ‘faces’ sub-folder. That’ll take up to 20 minutes, depending on the size of your facepack.
Once that’s done, load up a save game (or start a new one from scratch) and click the ‘FM’ button in the top right of the screen. Select ‘Preferences’ in the drop-down menu and another menu will pop up.
Search ‘Skin’ in the navigation bar and untick everything except ‘Reload skin when confirming changes in Preferences’ ticked.
Press the purple ‘Confirm’ button and, give or take a minute, then you should all be done. Occasionally, you need to restart your game for this to take effect, but that’s not always the case. If the confirm option is greyed out, just click ‘Reload Skin.’
Once it’s done, your player profile pictures should look like the screenshot below – compare and contrast with the image above. Admittedly profile pics are a little smaller this year, but it really does add an extra touch of class to your FM saves.
The best Football Manager 2022 facepacks
As ever, DF 11 (opens in new tab) remains the absolute gold standard for facepacks. Their mega pack includes over 150,000 faces with players at their new clubs, with new looks and (more often than not) with new hairstyles.
It’s a hefty download – 15 GB this year – but is well worth it for the sheer amount of depth involved. You’ll be surprised at how even the most obscure player has a Panini-esque face beaming back at you. It’s a nice touch.
This year, the most recent (and frequently updated) alternative FM 22 facepack can be found at long-running FM site Sort it Out SI (opens in new tab). It’s slightly more cumbersome to get everything together thanks to its download being split into 17 parts, but it’s just as good.
Whatever you choose, be aware that these packs are constantly updated and you should check back often – especially around the January transfer window.
Want real badges to go with your proper player faces? Then you now need to switch over to our Football Manager 2022 logo packs guide.