The 35 male players with a higher EA FC 26 rating than Lionel Messi

As the years pass and Lionel Messi enters the twilight years of his career, his standing as one of the best players in the EA FC, formerly known as FIFA, games drops even further.

Gone are the days of the superstar forward being the 94-rated, best player in the game during his imperious phase in the 2010s.

Now 38 and playing in the MLS, it is little surprise that Messi is no longer in the top 35 players in the game. With an 86 rating, Messi is level with 15 players, and has 35 ahead of him.

One of those names is not Cristiano Ronaldo. It took until FIFA 21 for them to be separated in Messi’s favour, but the gap only got bigger as both their careers left Spain.

With Ronaldo having stints at Juventus and United, Messi left for PSG and was given a rating of 93 for his first season in Paris. Ronaldo’s rating meanwhile continued on a downward trend as he reached 91.

FIFA 23 marked the last season that both players were 90 rated and with the first edition of EA FC, Ronaldo took a huge hit to go down to 86.

The Portuguese icon is now rated as 85, one below Messi in this year’s game. Small consolation, we suppose.

Here, we have listed every player with a higher rating than Messi in EA FC 26.

Lionel Messi – 86
Yann Sommer – 87
Marquinhos – 87
William Saliba – 87
Declan Rice – 87
Kevin De Bruyne – 87
Jonathan Tah – 87
Cole Palmer – 87
Serhou Guirassy – 87
Viktor Gyokeres – 87
Moises Caicedo – 87
Jan Oblak – 88
Robert Lewandowski – 88
Lautaro Martinez – 88
Bukayo Saka – 88
Jamal Musiala – 88
Alexander Isak – 88
Thibaut Courtois – 89
Gianluigi Donnarumma – 89
Alisson – 89
Harry Kane – 89
Vinicius Jr. – 89
Florian Wirtz – 89
Federico Valverde – 89
Joshua Kimmich – 89
Pedri – 89
Vitinha – 89
Achraf Hakimi – 89
Lamine Yamal – 89
Rodri – 90
Erling Haaland – 90
Virgil Van Dijk – 90
Ousmane Dembele – 90
Jude Bellingham – 90
Kylian Mbappe – 91
Mohamed Salah – 91

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