FIFA 17 La Liga Team of the Season features 99 rated Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi FUT cards

What’s the story?

EA Sports recently released their version of the FIFA 17 La Liga Team of the Season featuring upgraded cards of the best La Liga performers of the season. The highest rated cards obviously were of the La Liga’s two prize assets, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, both of whom were given upgraded cards rated at 99, making them the best player cards in the game.

In case you didn’t know...

Every year, EA Sports release the Team of the Season for all of the major leagues represented in the ongoing instalment of the FIFA series. This post-season's latest release has been the La Liga team of the season which is a 23-man squad featuring upgraded cards of the best performers in the bygone La Liga season.

Heart of the matter

While the all-star squad features the likes of Neymar, Suarez and Antoine Griezmann, the undoubted stars of the show are Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo with their spanking 99 rated cards. Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo has had a rewarding season, winning both the Champions League and La Liga under Zinedine Zidane’s guidance at the Santiago Bernabeu.

The Portuguese’s updated 99 rated card features slightly unrealistic 98 pace and 99 dribbling ratings. The Real superstar also boasts a venomous shot rated at 99 while his passing comes in at 91. Ronaldo’s physicality rating is also above the 90 mark with 91. He is obviously defensively weak with a rating of 45, but that has never been his job anyway.

Ronaldo’s chief rival for the best player in the La Liga has been and remains Lionel Messi. Slightly slower than Cristiano Ronaldo with a pace rating of 97, his dribbling is equivalent to his Portuguese rival. Messi’s La Masia background also ensures that he has higher rated passing attributes at 98, but loses out to Ronaldo on the basis of his physicality, which is rated at 82. The two rivals also share the honours when it comes to defending and shot power where both are equally ranked at 45 and 99 respectively.

What’s next?

Now that the cards have been released, they are expected to be in high demand on the online FUT marketplace. Any team owner who manages to purchase these cards at the steep prices they will command will have a fearsome, world class attack at their disposal. Apart from this, FIFA users are also puzzled by the fact that midfielders like Luka Modric and Andres Iniesta have been left out while former Stoke man Steven N’Zonzi has successfully made the squad.

Author’s Take

EA Sports are often inaccurate in their ratings of players and this shows with some unrealistic ratings given to Cristiano Ronaldo in this edition of the La Liga Team of the Season. The Portuguese no longer possesses his fleet-footedness of old and certainly does have some a 99-speed rating. Even the fastest player in the game, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang does not possess such high speed ratings. While we understand the need to exaggerate ratings in the teams of the season, EA should look into their rating mechanism to at least maintain a semblance of reality in their annual team of the season offerings.