The embarrassing story behind Thomas Muller’s FIFA rating

What’s the story?

Thomas Muller is one of Germany’s best footballers with a rating of 87 on FIFA 17, but Michael Mueller-Moehring, the chief of EA’s player ratings revealed an embarrassing secret, saying that the German striker’s technical and physical attributes had to be bumped up to increase his rating as he was not especially good at anything.

Mueller-Moehring said, “The case is that Thomas Muller isn’t good at anything, really, apart from his positioning.”

Giving a reason for bumping up Muller’s ratings, Moehring said, “So if you rate Thomas Muller properly, he ends up with a rating that we say doesn’t make sense. It’s too low.”

In case you didn’t know...

The FIFA ratings are decided by a team of 9000 reviewers who watch as many matches as possible and estimate player attributes. This subjective data is then entered into a secure EA website and analysed to set up the FIFA ratings.

Muller, meanwhile, broke into the German squad in the 2010 World Cup where a young German side impressed in South Africa with the young forward winning the Golden Boot for his five goals in the tournament. The Bayern Munich star has been given the moniker “Der Raumdeuter (Master of spaces)” for his uncanny ability to be in the right place at the right time.

The heart of the matter

Mueller-Moehring, the man who controls EA’s ratings told ESPN that Muller’s rating would have been a lot lower had they not bumped it up.

The German stated that although the Bayern Munich striker always found the right spot to be in, he was not a great dribbler and his finishing and shot power were not particularly breathtaking, making it a nightmare to rate him as he undoubtedly is a world-class operator.

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Author’s Take

While Muller may be going through a bad patch at the moment, there is no doubt about the fact that he remains a world-class operator in and around the box. An 87 rating is on the higher side, though, in all honesty. It will also be interesting to see if EA have boosted other players’ ratings in a similar manner or if Muller is the only one to receive such treatment.