With the major European football leagues well under way for the 2014-15 season and FIFA 15's release date approaching, EA Sports has begun to announce the player ratings in the upcoming title.
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The developers are releasing the top 50 players according to their ratings, which began with those ranked 50 to 41 and moved on to the next set yesterday. Today EA Sports moves on to the next 10 players, who are all 86 overall.
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I have a bit of an issue with the way players are rated in the FIFA series, which you can read on the initial rankings post, but here are the newly announced players ranked 30 to 21 regardless:
86 Overall: Neymar, Mats Hummels, Mesut Ozil, Thomas Muller, Marco Reus, Di Maria, Sergio Aguero, Wayne Rooney, Yaya Toure, Xavi
A packed tier, with all 10 players in today's reveal falling within the same rating, but mostly a fair one across the board. If there were to be changes, I would likely rate Muller and Aguero higher for their unorthodox effectiveness and ruthlessly clinical nature, respectively. Di Maria and Yaya Toure had great seasons, as well, and bumping any of those players to 87 is pretty justifiable.
Xavi's age has seen his generational talents decline, while Rooney is touch and go in some areas of his game. I'm surprised Neymar isn't higher given the hype around the Brazilian prodigy, but I think this rating is accurate--he wasn't overly convincing for Barcelona last season. I'm not sure Ozil deserves to be higher than Fabregas (who is, again, rated too lowly at just an 84), but Hummels is probably in the right place. Check back for more player ratings as they come from EA Sports leading up to the game's September 23 North America release date.