Football

EA Sports FC 24: Top 100 rated players

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7m ago

Sep 15, 2023 / 4115 Views

The name may have changed but the debate created by the annual release of the most popular football video game is very much alive and well.

Thiago Silva had a knowing smile on his face when he joked that the creators of EA Sports FC 24 - the latest version of what was known as FIFA 23 last season - are "not watching any games". Chelsea's wizened centre-back - who made his debut on the game in FIFA 10 - has his overall score dropped from 86 to 84 over the summer.

What the Brazilian clearly felt to be an unwarranted downgrade has nudged Silva out of the 100 highest-rated players in the new version of the game.

Here are the footballers that made the cut for this year's elite crop - although it may still include some unhappy individuals.

Top 100 rated players in EA Sports FC 24

For the second consecutive season, Paris Saint-Germain's Kylian Mbappe and Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne are the highest-ranked players in the game with a score of 91.

Both wholly warrant a place among the elite. Mbappe claimed the Golden Boot at the mid-season World Cup, including a hat-trick in the final which his France team lost to Argentina, while De Bruyne was the creative hub of a Manchester City team that won the European treble.

Of the 28 goals which De Bruyne created last season, Erling Haaland scored 11. City's ruthlessly prolific forward also boasts a 91 rating.

Barcelona Femeni's Alexia Putellas is the highest-rated female player with the same lofty score. Spain's World Cup winner claimed consecutive Ballons d'Or between 2021 and 2022 but a knee injury prevented her from making a single league start last season. Putellas was only brought off the bench in the 90th minute of the final against England in Sydney but the quality which she clearly possessed before the layoff - rather than her understandably stilted cameos since - has ranked her above the rest.

Rank	Player	Club	Rating
1.	Kylian Mbappe	PSG	91
2.	Erling Haaland	Man City	91
3.	Alexia Putellas	Barcelona	91
4.	Kevin De Bruyne	Man City	91
5.	Lionel Messi	Inter Miami	90
6.	Sam Kerr	Chelsea	90
7.	Robert Lewandowski	Barcelona	90
8.	Harry Kane	Bayern Munich	90
9.	Karim Benzema	Al Ittihad	90
10.	Thibaut Courtois	Real Madrid	90
11.	Caroline Graham Hansen	Barcelona	90
12.	Aitana Bonmati	Barcelona	90
13.	Marc-Andre ter Stegen	Barcelona	89
14.	Neymar	Al Hilal	89
15.	Casemiro	Man Utd	89
16.	Virgil van Dijk	Liverpool	89
17.	Ruben Dias	Man City	89
18.	Alex Morgan	San Diego Wave	89
19.	Alisson	Liverpool	89
20.	Ada Hegerberg	Lyon	89
21.	Kadidiatou Diani	Lyon	89
22.	Rodri	Man City	89
23.	Vinicius Junior	Real Madrid	89
24	Mohamed Salah	Liverpool	89
25.	Mapi Leon	Barcelona	89
26.	Antoine Griezmann	Atletico Madrid	88
27.	Ederson	Man City	88
28.	Jan Oblak	Atletico Madrid	88
29.	Bruno Fernandes	Man Utd	88
30.	Joshua Kimmich	Bayern Munich	88
31.	Bernardo Silva	Man City	88
32.	Alexandra Popp	Wolfsburg	88
33.	Debinha	Kansas City	88
34.	Irene Paredes	Barcelona	88
35.	Wendi Renard	Lyon	88
36.	Guro Reiten	Chelsea	88
37.	Victor Osimhen	Napoli	88
38.	Patri Guijarro	Barcelona	88
39.	Fede Valverde	Real Madrid	88
40.	Christiane Endler	Lyon	88
41.	Marie-Antoinette Katoto	PSG	88
42.	Sophia Smith	Portland Thorns	88
43.	Manuel Neuer	Bayern Munich	87
44.	Son Heung-min	Tottenham	87
45.	Luka Modric	Real Madrid	87
46.	Marquinhos	PSG	87
47.	Mike Maignan	Milan	87
48.	Martin Odegaard	Arsenal	87
49.	Frenkie de Jong	Barcelona	87
50.	Lautaro Martinez	Inter	87
51.	Gianluigi Donnarumma	PSG	87
52.	Lena Oberdorf	Wolfsburg	87
53.	Beth Mead	Arsenal	87
54.	Ewa Pajor	Wolfsburg	87
55.	Gregor Kobel	Borussia Dortmund	87
56.	Lina Magull	Bayern Munich	87
57.	Rose Lavelle	OL Reign	87
58.	Sandra Panos	Barcelona	87
59.	Lucy Bronze	Barcelona	87
60.	Fridolina Rolfo	Barcelona	87
61.	Paulo Dybala	Roma	86
62.	Cristiano Ronaldo	Al Nassr	86
63.	N'Golo Kante	Al Ittihad	86
64.	Sergej Milinkovic-Savic	Al Hilal	86
65.	Joao Cancelo	Barcelona	86
66.	Ilkay Gundogan	Barcelona	86
67.	Nicolo Barella	Inter	86
68.	Christopher Nkunku	Chelsea	86
69.	Sadio Mane	Al Nassr	86
70.	Toni Kroos	Real Madrid	86
71.	Marco Verratti	Al Arabi	86
72.	Trent Alexander-Arnold	Liverpool	86
73.	Andy Robertson	Liverpool	86
74.	Selma Bacha	Lyon	86
75.	Lauren Hemp	Man City	86
76.	Jamal Musiala	Bayern Munich	86
77.	Rafael Leao	Milan	86
78.	Ronald Araujo	Barcelona	86
79.	Pedri	Barcelona	86
80.	Jude Bellingham	Real Madrid	86
81.	Eder Militao	Real Madrid	86
82.	Khvicha Kvaratskhelia	Napoli	86
83.	Mary Earps	Man Utd	86
84.	Bukayo Saka	Arsenal	86
85.	Kim Little	Arsenal	86
86.	Sandro Tonali	Newcastle	86
87.	Lea Schuller	Bayern Munich	86
88.	Jill Roord	Man City	86
89.	Grace Geyoro	PSG	86
90.	Wojciech Szczesny	Juventus	86
91.	Riyad Mahrez	Al Ahli	86
92.	Matthijs de Ligt	Bayern Munich	86
93.	Vivianne Miedema	Arsenal	86
94.	Sakina Karchaoui	PSG	86
95.	Dani Parejo	Villarreal	86
96.	Mallory Swanson	Chicago Red Stars	86
97.	Ousmane Dembele	PSG	86
98.	Lindsey Horan	Lyon	86
99.	Ashley Lawrence	Chelsea	86
100.	Cristiana Girelli	Juventus	86

Putellas is one of nine players from Barcelona's women's team to rank among the top 100 highest rated players in EA FC 24. No other club, whether it be the men's or women's branches, can boast as many players in the elite century.

Barcelona's Caroline Graham Hansen and Aitana Bonmati both carry the hefty score of 90. Bonmati was crowned the best player at this year's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand and is expected to end Putellas' reign as Ballon d'Or holder when the winner is announced at the end of October.

Chelsea's Sam Kerr (90) and Guro Reiten (88), along with Beth Mead (87) of Arsenal, are the only three representatives of the English Women's Super League ranked above 86. Mead finished second behind Putellas in the vote for the 2022 Ballon d'Or but wasn't even nominated for this year's gong after sitting out the vast majority of the season with an ACL injury.

Thibaut Courtois (90) famously complained it is "impossible" for a goalkeeper to win the Ballon d'Or. Real Madrid's outspoken number one will have to be content with his status as FC 24's highest-rated goalkeeper - just one rating below the leading quartet in the Game - but has himself fallen foul of a season-ending knee injury.

Intriguingly, there is not a single teenager included in the game's top 100 highest-rated players. Jude Bellingham, Jamal Musiala and Pedri were all 20 and ranked at 86 when the ratings were released at the start of the season.

Karim Benzema is one of the headline figures in the expanding Saudi Pro League / Francois Nel/GettyImages

Saudi Arabia's extravagant spending during the summer transfer window has been reflected in EA's ratings. Clubs from the country's aggressively expanding Pro League spent more on transfer fees than their counterparts in Germany, Italy or France. Consequently, the SPL boasted seven players in the top 100, more than the Bundesliga (six), Serie A (six) or Ligue 1 (four) could offer.

The reigning Ballon d'Or holder Karim Benzema is the highest-ranked player plying their trade in the Kingdom but he is not the only 90-plus rating outside of Europe.

Al Ittihad's well-paid new striker once said: "He who criticises Messi knows nothing about Football." What Benzema makes of the decision-makers at EA remains to be seen after they bumped Lionel Messi's overall score down from 91 to 90 following his move to Inter Miami.

For the first time since FIFA 18, Messi (90) is not the highest-rated player in the game. When he was nudged into second place six years ago, Cristiano Ronaldo predictably claimed top spot. However, for the latest iteration of EA's flagship game, Ronaldo has been given a lowly score of 86 - the same figure as Villarreal's Dani Parejo. If anybody is going to kick up a fuss about their rating this year, Ronaldo would be a prime candidate.