Insight

FIFA 21 player ratings: Who’s in and who’s out?

FIFA 21 player ratings were revealed on Thursday ahead of the launch of the highly-anticipated game later this year.

The usual suspects are back: Messi and Ronaldo managed to stay at the top of the list, joined in third place by Lewandowski, who’s moved up from 15th place last year. PSG’s Kylian Mbappé and Liverpool’s Sadio Mané join the top 10 for the first time in 8th and 10th respectively.

Explore how FIFA player rankings have changed over the years in the interactive visualisation below. Click the “Replay” button to restart the animation.

See how the players compare to last year’s top 10.

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Only three players that were in the top 10 in FIFA 14 stayed at the top in FIFA 21: Messi, Ronaldo and Lewandowski. Messi and Ronaldo have fought for the top player position for the past seven years. In the meantime, Lewandowski has swung from rank #35 in 2014 to #6 in 2018 to #3 in 2021.

Another three players have made a surprise entry into FIFA’s top 10 rankings. Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk entered the top 100 in 2019 at position #82 and leaped to #7 in 2020, keeping his position in 2021.

Mbappé and Salah have made similar leaps from #42 and #27 in FIFA 19 to #8 and #9 respectively.