In FIFA 22, average players are better than real legends – FIFA 23 needs to change that

Icons are one of the best cards in FIFA 22 – or at least they should be. But too many Legends just fall behind compared to other players.

The problem with the icons: Ronaldo, Maradona, Pelé, Cruyff, Ronaldinho and more – yes, there are some icons in FIFA 22 that are still pretty good.

The problem is: Compared to the “top icons”, there are unfortunately also many legends in FIFA 22 who simply can no longer keep up.

Alessandro Nesta. Dennis Bergkamp. Michael Owen. Ruud van Nistelrooy. Frank Lampard. Mirsolav Klose. Raul, Ballack, Schweinsteiger. The list of famous names that can hardly play a role in FIFA 22 is long.

Because even though these players have achieved great things in their careers, their strong playing style just doesn’t quite translate into the game. Andrea Pirlo, for example, was a great passer and assist, but his slow pace puts him second-rate in FIFA 22.

The same goes for Klose: A deadly goalscorer who just doesn’t exude the danger in FIFA 22 like the real-world record goalscorer of the World Cup did on the pitch.

On top of that, icons are very hard to come by. It takes extreme luck to pull them – and if you’re unlucky, you won’t get them until they’re no longer able to keep up. If any.

On the other hand, there are players who don’t necessarily excel in real life, but are among the most popular cards in FIFA 22.

Atal & Co. show: The legends in FIFA 23 need an overhaul

There are some players in FIFA 22 that are extremely popular in Ultimate Team. This is due to particularly great stats, high speed or skill stats, body types, and more.

Take Allan Saint-Maximin’s FUT Fantasy card, for example. The Frnazose is certainly a talented, good player in real life. But should he really have a 2,600,000-coin card that’s better than most of the attackers in the game – Legends included?

In the Premier League season just ended, he scored five goals and provided five assists for Newcastle. That’s okay, but not outstanding.

Another example: Youcef Atal from OGC Nice. The right-back is also a good, but not really outstanding player. However, his new Shapeshifters card is perhaps one of the best midfield cards in FIFA.

Other meta players in FIFA also come to mind. Players like Varane, Joe Gomez, Nabil Fekir’s special card, Vinicius Junior or even David Ginola’s new Hero Shapeshifter card, which is among the absolute best in the game.

These are all good, some great players – but should they really be better than most of the icons?

What could change? From year to year, the special cards in Ultimate Team get stronger, numerous events bring super players to super players. That already devalued the Team of the Week quite a bit – and some of the icons just can’t keep up anymore.

This is also discussed in the FIFA subreddit. The player “reznovelty” writes something like: “With all the power creep, I hope that icons will really be strengthened next year. Honestly, the Prime Icon Moments just does 95+ with insane stats. At least they’re real icons and not just some guy like Atal (no offense Atal if you’re reading this)” (via reddit).

In the discussion, however, the counterpoint also comes up: “The other way around, the power curve must be massively lowered,” says a user (via reddit).

Another suggests leaving the power curve as it is – but adjusting the entire rating system and starting the season with lower values ​​(via reddit): “You can do exactly the same promo schedule next year, but if you just started with base cards 5 total points lower, the curve would be a lot less severe.”

In addition, a new version of currently suspended icon cards would be conceivable. Then icons like Pirlo or Klose could perhaps get values ​​that fit better into the game and are not overtaken so quickly by other special cards.

The problem with the special cards has existed for a long time and was also an issue in FIFA 21 and FIFA 20. Will the icons even be able to keep up next year? how do you see it?

We will see it at the latest by the end of the year when the new FIFA comes out. You can find out everything about the FIFA 23 release here.