With FUT, EA Sports releases various player cards throughout a season that have stats higher than their base rating. Over the last 10 years, FIFA’s annual releases have become more and more focused on maximizing profits for the microtransaction gambling of FUT, where players buy packs for a tiny chance to get a great player. So why does FIFA continue to rate Messi and Ronaldo below the maximum score? If you put a forward at winger, he’ll still be rated highly - play him at defense and his overall rating will plummet. But EA Sports already factors in positions for overall rating. Their defensive stats are never going to be very high and if you put either in goal, they’d be awful. I understand Messi and Ronaldo are not perfect players. If we’re going to rank players on a 1-99 scale, the best players of all time should at the very least be 97-98, if not 99 every single year. In EA Sports’ view, the two best players in the history of the game are not worthy of the highest rating in the game. In FIFA 21, Messi is a 93 and Ronaldo a 92.
Looking back at the last 12 years of EA Sports’ video game behemoth (from FIFA 10 to the upcoming FIFA 21), neither Messi nor Ronaldo has ever been rated above 94. So why then, if FIFA rates players on a 99-point scale, are Messi and Ronaldo not ranked 98 or 99 every year? We don’t need to go over all of their accolades because we’ve all watched them excel for the last 15 years. It’s Ronaldo, Messi, Maradona and Pelé, end of story. While their talents vary - Ronaldo has insane raw power to go with his technical skills while Messi is more serene and can create magic with the ball - there are only a handful of players in the history of the game who can match their abilities. Whether you’re Team Messi, Team Ronaldo or Team They’re Both Friggin’ Awesome, there’s no denying how great these players are.