A FIFA influencer has made a list showing the best games from every single country since FIFA 07, including some big surprises.
While many are looking ahead to EA Sports FC 25, which was revealed in greater detail last month – including its cover star and the release date of September 27 – one fan wanted to look back at the football simulator’s entire history.
In particular, they wanted to see which players had the highest skill ceiling, from each country that has had a player registered in the FIFA database, between FIFA 07 and EA Sports FC 24.
The list is intended to show which players have the highest potential score and that’s meant some surprising names have made the cut, while others have been left out.
FIFA influencer RaatjeFC posted six maps of different regions of the world on Reddit, showing the best player from each country based on their potential – which determines how good the player can become.
The data crowns superstar Kylian Mbappé (95 potential score) as the best player from France since FIFA 07, while, unsurprisingly, Erling Haaland (94) and Cristiano Ronaldo (95) have the highest potential of any Norwegian or Portuguese player, respectively.
Other players worth mentioning are goalkeeper legend Oliver Kahn as the best to come out of Germany (93), Ronaldinho for Brazil (95), Zlatan Ibrahimović for Sweden (93), and, a little surprisingly, David Villa (94) for Spain.
Most surprising, however, is that Manchester United flop Jadon Sancho is the English player with the highest potential (94) in the last 18 editions of the game. You’d think Jude Bellingham, Harry Kane, or maybe Wayne Rooney would top it, but no.
Another surprise is that the highest potential score Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah ever got, who was essential to The Red’s success in recent years, was only 91.
The ratings also show how well-regarded some players were at one point, only to eventually disappoint, such as Barcelona and Mexico wonderkid Giovani dos Santos (91), former Arsenal and Morocco striker Marouane Chamakh (90), and bygone Colombian sensation James Rodriguez (93).
Which player has the highest potential in FIFA?
According to the list, the player with the highest potential in FIFA ever – and you might’ve noticed we haven’t mentioned him yet – is Lionel Messi, with a staggering score of 97 – which is two more than any other player.
RaatjeFC used the numbers from SoFIFA, which houses the official player data from the FIFA games going back to the 2007 edition.
He also said in his post that if two players had the same score (for example Ronaldinho and Neymar at 95), the player in the earlier edition of FIFA was highlighted.
It’s a fun list to check out if you want to reminisce about former greats. Or as a challenge to see how many you can guess without looking (it’s harder than you think).
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