5 rating drops to legendary players on the FIFA series
Over the years, football has been graced by certain players who have lifted the profile of the game, making it an ethereal experience to watch them in action, something like what the Santiago Bernabeu faithful did when they applauded Andres Iniesta off the pitch after his performance saw the Los Blancos lose to their arch-rivals at home.
Anyone who has the faintest idea about football will know that it takes something truly extraordinary for that to happen in an El Clasico which finished 4-0 in favour of the Catalans. But such is the effect legendary players have on the beautiful game that loyalties are forgotten and the usually partisan audience are reduced to mere spectators taking in and admiring the experience.
Unfortunately, good things cannot go on forever and it is always sad to see such stars lose their brilliance over time. The decline of athletes is inevitable and while some have the luxury of declining gracefully, others see drastic nosedives in form and fitness seeing them going out of favour with their clubs and national teams.
In this article, we use the ratings on the FIFA series to chart the careers of some legendary footballers who have seen sharp declines in form and fitness through the years after reaching the highest of highs with club and country.
#1 Ronaldinho
One of the most naturally gifted players to have graced a football pitch, Ronaldinho in his prime was one of those players who really made football look like the “beautiful game”. So precocious was Ronaldinho’s talent that apart from being the best player on the planet for a number of years, he was one of the select few players who had the honour of a standing ovation from the Santigo Bernabeu faithful after Real Madrid received a 3-0 humbling at home on the back of the Brazilian’s virtuoso performance.
There was a time in the mid-2000s when Barcelona’s No. 10 took teams apart with skills conjured up with such nonchalance that it made football look genuinely simple at the highest level. On the FIFA series, Ronaldinho reached his peak in FIFA 06, where he was the best player in the game with an overall rating of 95, one point higher than Cristiano Ronaldo’s rating of 94 which makes him the best in FIFA 17.
The Brazilian ruled world football for a couple of years after the release of FIFA 06, consistently being rated over 90 on FIFA. His decline saw his ratings taking a nosedive after FIFA 10.
Winding down his career, the Brazilian moved to Milan and later to his native Brazil as suitors on the European continent dried up. His last appearance on the FIFA series was in FIFA 15 with a rating of 78, a far cry from his heydey of consistent 90+ ratings.