How women players are rated in relation to their male counterparts on FIFA 16

Alex Morgan (USA) is among the top twenty women players in FIFA 16

This month’s release of FIFA 16 is set to take the football fans all over the world by storm. The game is the first in the FIFA series to include female players and the newest feature in the football simulation video game as this could prove to be a smart move by EA to expand their audience. Twelve international women’s teams are set to appear on the game including USA, England, Germany and many more.

While some of us may be ignorant and unaware of the great women players in the sport, there are couple of them who are rated in the game at almost the same level with players in the men’s game like Ronaldo and Messi. For instance, Carli Lloyd - World Cup winner, sits at top of the list in female’s game with an impressive overall rating of 91. Whereas Lionel Messi pips Cristiano Ronaldo to top spot on 94, ahead of the Real Madrid star man on 93 in the newest release of FIFA series.

The Argentina and Portugal internationals are the only players in the men’s game to have a higher rating than women’s number one player, Carli Lloyd. It has been an incredible year for the 33-year-old who played a key figure in her nation’s World Cup winning campaign earlier this year. Lloyd netted 6 goals during the tournament and the highlight of her successful tournament was when she bagged hat-trick in the final against Japan – with the third goal coming from the center line.

You may argue with the shocking and unexpected rating given by EA on some of the players, but Luis Suarez along with two of Bayern Munich star players share the third-highest male player rating of 90. Much to everyone’s surprise, USA pairing Megan Rapinoe and Abby Wambach are rated at the same level with the above-mentioned male players, along with France international Louisa Necib.

However, the only disappointment and sad news for English fans is that none of their women players make the cut in the top twenty list despite making it to the semi-finals of the World Cup.

So here’s a look at the top twenty players in the women’s game:

#	Name	Country	Rating
1.	Carli Lloyd	USA	91
2.	Megan Rapinoe	USA	90
3.	Abby Wambach	USA	90
4.	Louisa Necib	France	90
5.	Nadine Kessler	Germany	89
6.	Christine Sinclair	Canada	88
7.	Marta	Brazil	88
8.	Hope Solo	USA	87
9.	Lotta Schelin	Sweden	87
10.	Becky Sauerbrunn	USA	86
11.	Nadine Angerer	Germany	86
12.	Dzsenifer Marozsan	Germany	86
13.	Celia Sasic	Germany	85
14.	Christie Rampone	USA	85
15.	Tobin Heath	USA	85
16.	Alex Morgan	USA	84
17.	Anji Mittag	Germany	84
18.	Rosana	Brazil	84
19.	Nilla Fischer	Sweden	84
20.	Caroline Seger	Sweden	84

EA’s rating of the women's game has been impressive showing patterns that are visible in the men’s ranking as well, for example, most players included in the list are from the footballing powers like Germany, France and of course USA, who are the current holders of the FIFA Women's World Cup.

Carli Llyod led USA women’s team to the final of World Cup 2015.

Comparing Top Five players from men and women’s game in FIFA 16

#	Women	Rating	Men	Rating
1.	Carli Lloyd	91	Lionel Messi	94
2.	Megan Rapinoe Abby Wambach Louisa Necib	90	Cristiano Ronaldo	93
3.	Nadine Kessler	89	Luis Suarez Manuel Neuer Arjen Robben	90
4.	Christine Sinclair Marta	88	Eden Hazard Zlatan Ibrahimovic	89
5.	Hope Solo Lotta Schelin	87	Neymar Jr.	88

EA has not come out and explained about their decision process on the rating of the women players and no criteria were mentioned by the gaming company. However, the move can be regarded as a good one by EA to promote the ladies game and encourage more involvement in it.