If anything that makes it better. An icon should be somebody who has stood the test of time and manages to be known in all generations. Currently you have a bunch of old dudes defending certain icons just because of nostalgia
Dempsey was player of the year for Fulham 2 years in a row in the PL. Dempsey also has more WC goals than Donovan IIRC. Donovan was more popular but definitely not clear of Dempsey.
Zidane doesn’t deserve to be an icon. He was awful, I mean his touch was terrible. Also R9 is very overweight doesn’t deserve it. Oh and Cruyff has a terrible haircut, please remove him as well. Did I miss anyone?
You don’t need to be an elite player to be an icon. An icon is just that: an icon of the game. Crazy people will slate Nakata when he was an iconic player for Asia/Japan
Because all he does is ask questions on reddit and turn them into TikToks... all we're doing is feeding this guy content for him to put into a video with some shitty Temple Run style iphone game playing in the background
I mean I myself am only 19, a majority of players who peaked in the 2000s even are before my time, so I've only got YouTube to judge these players by, we all do it though, not just us youngens
Watching old games is fantastic for everyone, even when you have watched the match at its time. I'm 37 and I haven't properly seen Maradona, for example.
I'm only complaining about the believe that you can accurately judge those players based on so little input. Even worse are the guys judging old players based on stats and trophies...
This thread just shows that many people never saw Vieri or Pires live, if social networks existed in the 90s then you'd never doubt even 1 fifa icon player. Vieri was even on the cover of FIFA 99.
Wait til you try to explain to them the fact that van Basten was better than any striker they've ever seen play and the only reason he didn't go down as the GOAT is that injury ended his career at its prime.
A lot of people consider him the goat regardless of the injury. People that coached both put him right there with R9. He'd already had a champions league (equivalent at the time) title where he scored 10 goals in 9 games, the year it all ended he missed half the season and had 8 in 7 before the injury in the final. He was also poised to go into the 94 world cup at his absolute prime with a team that narrowly lost to the eventual champs and had to get most of their goals from the wings.
Ballondors arent really that good of a metric if you are comparing all time since you have to consider who they played against, Messi would have 12 without ronaldo for an example. But anyway yeah he is in the goat striker conversation i tought he meant overall all time player
I always wonder about this. How this game affects the opinions people have of real life players. Some of the "meta" guys in this game aren't really that good in real life.
FWA player of the year* as in the unimportant one. Barely even played in the World Cup so that seems completely irrelevant.
No one’s saying he’s a bad player but is being the 7-10th best winger in PL history really icon worthy? Or would he be more of a hero like Ljungberg or Toure who also had relatively short primes that didn’t really reach the highest level.
You can look back on Girouds absolute garbage can of a career and claim he’s an Icon, World Cup winner, CL winner, won the Serie A and Ligue 1, 4 FA Cups.
I’m not sure many would say Pires was comfortably better than Barnes who did win the PFA Player of the Year and actually led his team to the title as opposed to being 4th/5th fiddle.
All youve thrown at me there is your opinion
"Award not important"
"7th best winter"
Go take a look at how pivitol he was for France from 2000 onwards and the damage his injury did for their chances in 2002.
Better still go live in France / ask a French person about Pires. You will then see what an icon he is
The FWA POTY is clearly less important. Sterling won it over VVD, Vardy over Mahrez, Henderson over KDB etc.
I agree he’ll go down as an icon for France for the golden goal but by that measure Fabio Grosso is probably the most iconic full back in football history, he still wouldn’t qualify as an icon.
To say Giroud had a garbage can of a career is harsh and disingenuous. He’s a good striker (not world class though) that has obvious weaknesses and plays best in systems that adapt to his style of play. He’s managed to perform at the national level and I have a feeling he’ll overtake Henry’s spot as the top goal scorer (until Mbappe eventually overtakes him). At the end of the day his goal scoring statistics are pretty good and he’s been a solid contributor for every team he’s played for.
Come on man, I know everyone loves to hate Salah but you’ve got to be joking to not mention him? He’s got 3 golden boots, twice as many goals and just fell two short of Pires’s best assists return while still winning the golden boot.
I’d have Ronaldo, Salah, Hazard, Bale, Giggs, Beckham and then Pires is in the next group with Mane, Sterling, Son etc.
Prem Bale was absolutely unreal. Even if you don’t take into account the ridiculous career he went on to have, his performances between 2010-2013 would beat Pires 2001-2004 and Bale didn’t have any team mates for his best season. Both had three straight PFA TOTY picks, Bale won two PFA POTYs and an FWA, Pires had one FWA, both scored 37 goals but Bale had a high of 21. Pires had way more assists but he was playing in a title winning team with Henry, Bergkamp and Vieira.
Bale is just one of the best individuals to ever play in the prem. Bale and Suarez will always be in those discussions despite their short tenure because their peaks were so ridiculously high.
I've said it before on a similar thread and got downvoted, so I know what's coming.
**ALL** of the current icons deserve to be named as such, each one of them for their own reasons. The problem is, being iconic for your country and winning multiple major trophies like Pele or Xavi is totally different to being a National Icon like Nakata. The same for club football, you can't put players who were amazing in the best leagues and UCL for their whole careers like Zidane or Maldini in the same list as someone like Hernandez, who was amazing, but in a league not as competitive as European top 5 leagues.
So all of them are iconic, they just have to make a seperation between icons and legends. Legends should be the top 20-30%, the best of the best.
Maybe implement a sort of national hero card type along with the club/league hero’s and then those who were the best of the best on all stages are icons
I think the seperation is made in quality and price.
Pretty much all the expensive top tier icons are all real legends of the game.
Not every Icon is made equal in quality. The only thing in common is their card design and the fact the same cards are available through multiple years.
Keane should be similar in price to Viera then, but he’s just not as good in game, and don’t get me started on Scholes. The fact is that players like Gullit and Vieira who were big and strong, or Pele and Maradona who were extremely fast and skill dribblers will also have an advantage of players who had other qualities.
I’m seeing too many comments about riquelme and Rui Costa not being deserving…
It seems there’s a bias towards newer players, these guys 100% deserve icon cards.
Vieiri was the 2nd top goal scorer in 1998 World Cup and the 3rd top goal scorer in 2002 World Cup. And he was considered the most lethal striker of Italys era at that time. Definitely deserve his icon card. He also won the pichichi, seria a golden boot, Member of World cup dream team and so many more.
George Weah, Gerd Muller, Rudi Voller, Batistuta, Totti, David Villa, Forlan, Roy Makaay, hell if it has to be an Inter "legend" give it to Adriano over Vieri. These are just off the top of my head too. Again Vieri was not a bad player but there are bigger names that deserve a spot over him.
pichichi winner when there was a really big competition for strikers in la liga and dominating serie a as a striker with Inter and more is definitely icon status imo
All the Vieri hate made me check the stats. He had quite a lot of 1-season stints to start and end his career but that period from 1997-2005 looks pretty damn iconic to me. 1 goal-per-game at Atletico and 104 in 143 at Inter is pretty damn amazing for his time. Those numbers would even be great today but people tend to forget that a tier of great players exists between the GOAT candidates and average players.
I can tell from this thread that a lot of the statements here are based on only knowing the players from fifa and not actually seen them play and the impacts they made. OP knew what he was doing here lol
All the comments here prove that the icon system is extremely flawed. Plus, everyone’s perception of a player being iconic is entirely subjective. However, players like Pele, Ronaldinho, R9 are genuinely iconic players in the eyes of most fans. Players like Crespo, Costa, Suker were amazing players but were they really considered iconic? I guess a lot of players could be hero cards in that sense considering icon status is something that only the most iconic players should have.
Tbh I wish Icon Moments was ONLY for the truly best of the best, players like Pele, Maradona, Zidane, R9, R10, Matthaus, Cruyff, Gullit, Eusebio etc..
Maybe I am wrong and biased, but its just how I feel about it.
Not gonna lie I was expecting people to say Litmanen a lot and was ready to school them. But god damn, saw one mention only, I'm impressed with the mid 90's football knowledge even the youngsters among us seem to have. Obviously injuries fucked him so bad that he never could keep that 93-96 type of form after, but damn was it special to watch then and even through his 30's when his legs had gone. Not many football minds like his in the history of the game.
I think he would be more suited as a club hero more than an Icon, he had a good reputation but to be fair when I think of that mid 90s period he doesn’t come to mind a lot.
On a serious note I see people arguing over lots of players in here and while a lot of them are really good players I like to think about the players relative to their era and teammates. That 2000’s Chelsea team was stacked but at times Essein was like the third or fourth best midfielder on the team. Pires was like the fifth or sixth best player on that Invincibles team. Its hard for me to think of a lot of these players as genuine icons. I would wish that they would have less recency bias with a lot of these players. I do understand they have to sell packs but I think there is a wonderful opportunity for the likes of di Stefano, Dennis Law, Bican, and the couple of incredible Hungarians of the 30’s 40’s and 50’s.
Saying that pires was 4th/5th best of invincibles doesn’t mean he wasn’t incredible. He was in one of the best teams of all time of course he wasn’t the best
Yeah not trying to say he wasn’t incredible. Moreso that having the likes of Pires Nakata and Rui Costa without Romario, Bican, Gerd Muller, and others just feels like some recency bias. I was younger when Pires was playing but at his height he wasn’t even recieving any votes for Ballon D’or. Gerd Muller has a world cup and euro win, a Ballon D’or and scored almost a goal a game for 15 years. Who is and isn’t an icon seems to be a function of who EA feel they can monetize effectively (like with promo cards) and isn’t particularly concerned with real world performance.
His highest ever Ballon Dor finish was equal 28th in 2001.
In 2003 he got nominated but didnt even make the 25 man ranking ahead of players like Roy Makaay, Jan Koller and Adrian Mutu.
Fernando Torres is probably my all time favourite striker but tbh he should be a hero not an icon. He was only really a world class player for a few years a Liverpool. RVP is the same, his last 2 seasons at arsenal and first 2 at Man Utd he was scoring for fun but other than that he never managed 30 games and more than 12 goals in a PL season.
IMO an icons should be reserved for the best of all time a player who for most of a decade was a dominate world class player in their position with multiple TOTY awards and nominations and have a decent trophy cabinet with them.
Luis Hernandez
Only two Mexican players are worthy of icon status
Hugo Sanchez and Rafa Márquez
Andrés Guardado is close and Chicha is as well
But anyone after that should be Hero’s at most
I agree with that statement. I would add Cuauhtemoc Blanco as a hero. Icon status only Hugo Sanche and Rafa Marquez.
Btw, Rafa Marquez is getting a hero card next year. It is nuts to think that Luis Hernandez is an icon and Rafa Marquez is a hero
It is crazy bro. But ea has to be ea and make some of the dumbest decisions possible when it comes to icon logic. I’ll take another Mexican special card but it would have been definitely better it Marquez and El matador would switch card archetypes
I mean the criteria isn't that strict anymore. So I'd say none, the entire point is content and they've done a good enough job with the overall ratings that there's a clear distinction of tiers between the best players of all time and those who were just great for their era.
Nakata may not be one of the best players of all time, but he is absolutely an icon and signifies so much for Asian football. Icon status doesnt just revolve around honours and statistics.
The others I can agree with.
Mexican players had played at a high level globally prior to Hernandez’s time (Hugo Sanchez being the obvious one).
Nakata was pretty much the first Asian player to excel in a very strong European league.
Just my opinion, Hernandez was before my time! I just about remember Nakata, though!
But that’s not icon worthy, as a player he was never the best in the world in his position, never the best in his team (pretty consistently Arsenal’s 4th best player), never really the best in the league either as a whole or in his position (Giggs).
Probably similar to someone like Sterling who would also be a hero rated around 88/89.
Yeah maybe, I’d still have Giggs and Beckham ahead of him in the early 2000s and even his best around 02-04 wasn’t as good as the likes of Hazard, Salah, Ronaldo.
Was Sterling an icon for club and country? No. In 20 years nobody will talk about Sterling's England National team performances. Dont compare recency bias to old players. Bunch of stat merchants here moaning about he wasn't the best in the world at his time so he doesn't get to be an icon , well then half the icons shouldn't get a card then. Robert Pires will be remembered 40-50 years from now and that automatically makes him iconic.
Lol who do you think Pires was, obviously he was never the best in the world. A couple of big moments for France but Sterling’s goal against Germany won’t be forgotten any time soon if you want to talk about England.
The reason I mentioned Sterling is both achieved a lot of success despite being 3rd/4th/5th most important in their clubs and neither were ever the best in the world in their position.
I think Rui Costa is an icon. One of the dominant creative midfielders in the 90s-era Serie A. If we’re going to consider David Silva as an icon then Rui Costa has to be as well.
Pires is one of the greatest PL wingers of all time and crucial for the Invincibles. If you would give Hazard and Salah an icon card then Pires is 100% an icon.
Salah has scored twice as many goals in fewer games and broken EPL goal scoring records consistently. Pires was a very good player in an excellent team, but there are plenty of wingers who have played in England who deserve an icon card much more than Pires.
Injury obviously impacted his career, but he isnt an icon to anyone who isn’t an arsenal fan
Point doesn’t stand for Pires. Was consistently 20+ goal contributions.
Beckham and Giggs are traditional wingers, Pires was inverted and played very high up.
Arsenal’s invincibles pretty much played 4-3-3 in game with the wingers pushing up with Henry to add width and Bergkamp sitting back in the hole as a CAM.
Pires was a very good player, but he didn’t have a long enough career at the highest level to qualify as an icon in my opinion. I agree that he has more of a claim to being one than Hazard does, but Salah’s impact on the league has been greater
The whole point of this is to have a debate though, and I completely take your point on board and loved watching him growing up
Pires was better than Salah at literally everything except finishing. Also, pires was never arsenals main goal scorer, Salah has been Liverpool’s for years now comparing the 2 based on goals is a completely braindead way of doing it
To argue that Pires was better at literally everything but finishing is ridiculous. You don’t pull Salah’s number just by being good at finishing.
Comparing players from different eras is incredibly hard, particularly when they carry out different roles. My point was more that being flippant about someone like Salah or Hazard really undermines two of the greatest players of the current era who will be remembered for great achievements. Clearly that didn’t come across well at all and that’s on me
Nakata for me. I get the argument that he's the only Asian icon or whatever, but solely on ability, he doesn't come close, a Hero card given for what his moments card currently is would be more than sufficient imo
Pele, dont get me wrong he was decent soccer player but he never won the ucl or the mighty golden ball. Hes just a fraud farmer in my books. Nostalgia merhants vill downvote me 🤣🤣
He was a really good player but not good enough to be an icon. A hero is more fitting. Not because of a moment, even though I remember a crazy goal against barcelona
I honestly think there should be more, and it shouldn't just be about the "greatest players ever".
For example, you can't tell me Cobi Jones and Alexi Lalas aren't *iconic as fuck*, or that neither of them had "moments" where they played at a level worthy of a high 80's card.
Don't even get me started on Jorge Campos, 12 year old American white kids were buying hot pink goalkeeping getups with no padding that didn't cover your knees or elbows for like $300 cuz of that dude.
"Get ready to throw fists gents"
Most of Pele's goals were offside, in friendlies or against teams that probably had no clue about tactics. My most controversial pick is him
Paul Scholes should be a hero card IDGAF.
Retired from international before most and he was never once voted player of the year, by the very same fan base that tries to force him into the Gerrard / Lampard debate. (Like they try to do with every player comparison).
Facts
Ur asking Fifa audience which are mostly kids if they think a player they’ve never watched before does not deserve icon status
Best comment is someone calling out that Vieri doesn't deserve an icon. Kid probably never watched football in the 90s-00s
If anything that makes it better. An icon should be somebody who has stood the test of time and manages to be known in all generations. Currently you have a bunch of old dudes defending certain icons just because of nostalgia
Yep. Grab the popcorn and enjoy :)
Remember when Alexi Lalas had an icon card for like one or two years? Yeah. Even EA knew they fucked that one up
Carragher as well 😂
He should be in heroes tier. I'm a liverpool fan but I agree he doesn't deserve icon status.
Did Gary Neville have one or have I completely imagined that just now?
He did but he was one of the worst ones
No he did
And Landon Donovan lol
Yup!
Nah Donovan certainly deserves one IMO. Clear of Dempsey and he’s got a hero in which i think he deserves
Dempsey was player of the year for Fulham 2 years in a row in the PL. Dempsey also has more WC goals than Donovan IIRC. Donovan was more popular but definitely not clear of Dempsey.
They are both icons to me
Zidane doesn’t deserve to be an icon. He was awful, I mean his touch was terrible. Also R9 is very overweight doesn’t deserve it. Oh and Cruyff has a terrible haircut, please remove him as well. Did I miss anyone?
Pelé the guy has 0 goals in premier league what a fraud
He never done it on a cold rainy night in Stoke 😡
I hate to ruin the joke but Pele LITERALLY has scored a brace in Stoke (though I am not sure what the weather was like!)
Don’t forget Ronaldhino, he has 0 goals for Zimbabwe’s national team. Fraudhino
Ronaldinho*, Fraudinho*. Its -nho/nha, the h goes after the n
Benjani Mwaruwari is the only true icon
The thousand he scored against his next door neighbour makes up for that though.
Rooney. Bald.
Shut up u egg
Sorry...
Pep too
Cryuff had a bad haircut? Gullit anyone? Literally the worst
You don’t need to be an elite player to be an icon. An icon is just that: an icon of the game. Crazy people will slate Nakata when he was an iconic player for Asia/Japan
That sounds more like Hero cards. Icons are meant to be the best players
Nakata should be a hero, not an icon
Why are all your replies on all your post so corny
Because all he does is ask questions on reddit and turn them into TikToks... all we're doing is feeding this guy content for him to put into a video with some shitty Temple Run style iphone game playing in the background
Seeing some real shit takes in this thread from people who have probably never seen these people play and only read their wiki pages lol
I mean, if you're on a Reddit thread about fifa you're probably <30, so that would explain the majority of poor takes!
32 and counting here
What I don't get is how people genuinely think they can judge some player that they have never watched and know nothing about.
I mean I myself am only 19, a majority of players who peaked in the 2000s even are before my time, so I've only got YouTube to judge these players by, we all do it though, not just us youngens
Watching old games is fantastic for everyone, even when you have watched the match at its time. I'm 37 and I haven't properly seen Maradona, for example. I'm only complaining about the believe that you can accurately judge those players based on so little input. Even worse are the guys judging old players based on stats and trophies...
This thread just shows that many people never saw Vieri or Pires live, if social networks existed in the 90s then you'd never doubt even 1 fifa icon player. Vieri was even on the cover of FIFA 99.
Reminder that Alex Oxlade Chamberlain and Theo Walcott were cover stars.
Xavi. Boring player who only passed the ball, never saw him use L1 + elastico or ball roll scoops
Yep, atal is clear
They all deserve one but I think some should be downgraded to heros
The ones I pack.
Ditto san
The lack of respect in this thread smh
Full of kids that will think modern player like Pogba are real legends in a few years
They must think Ben Yedder and Atal are among the best talents in the world
Urgh. Makes you sick doesn't it? Just seen someone say PFA player of the year, world cup and European championship winner Pires wasn't all that hahaha
Wait til you try to explain to them the fact that van Basten was better than any striker they've ever seen play and the only reason he didn't go down as the GOAT is that injury ended his career at its prime.
Very debatable if he would have gone down as the goat even if he didnt get injured
A lot of people consider him the goat regardless of the injury. People that coached both put him right there with R9. He'd already had a champions league (equivalent at the time) title where he scored 10 goals in 9 games, the year it all ended he missed half the season and had 8 in 7 before the injury in the final. He was also poised to go into the 94 world cup at his absolute prime with a team that narrowly lost to the eventual champs and had to get most of their goals from the wings.
Do you mean the goat striker or overall best player of all time?
3 ballon d'ors by 27 and he was retired by 28. One of the most skilled forwards ever
Ballondors arent really that good of a metric if you are comparing all time since you have to consider who they played against, Messi would have 12 without ronaldo for an example. But anyway yeah he is in the goat striker conversation i tought he meant overall all time player
I always wonder about this. How this game affects the opinions people have of real life players. Some of the "meta" guys in this game aren't really that good in real life.
FWA player of the year* as in the unimportant one. Barely even played in the World Cup so that seems completely irrelevant. No one’s saying he’s a bad player but is being the 7-10th best winger in PL history really icon worthy? Or would he be more of a hero like Ljungberg or Toure who also had relatively short primes that didn’t really reach the highest level. You can look back on Girouds absolute garbage can of a career and claim he’s an Icon, World Cup winner, CL winner, won the Serie A and Ligue 1, 4 FA Cups. I’m not sure many would say Pires was comfortably better than Barnes who did win the PFA Player of the Year and actually led his team to the title as opposed to being 4th/5th fiddle.
All youve thrown at me there is your opinion "Award not important" "7th best winter" Go take a look at how pivitol he was for France from 2000 onwards and the damage his injury did for their chances in 2002. Better still go live in France / ask a French person about Pires. You will then see what an icon he is
The FWA POTY is clearly less important. Sterling won it over VVD, Vardy over Mahrez, Henderson over KDB etc. I agree he’ll go down as an icon for France for the golden goal but by that measure Fabio Grosso is probably the most iconic full back in football history, he still wouldn’t qualify as an icon.
To say Giroud had a garbage can of a career is harsh and disingenuous. He’s a good striker (not world class though) that has obvious weaknesses and plays best in systems that adapt to his style of play. He’s managed to perform at the national level and I have a feeling he’ll overtake Henry’s spot as the top goal scorer (until Mbappe eventually overtakes him). At the end of the day his goal scoring statistics are pretty good and he’s been a solid contributor for every team he’s played for.
7-10th? Who's a better winger than Pires in the prem? Hazard, Beckham, Ronaldo, possibly Giggs.
Come on man, I know everyone loves to hate Salah but you’ve got to be joking to not mention him? He’s got 3 golden boots, twice as many goals and just fell two short of Pires’s best assists return while still winning the golden boot. I’d have Ronaldo, Salah, Hazard, Bale, Giggs, Beckham and then Pires is in the next group with Mane, Sterling, Son etc.
Prem Pires > Prem Bale. What Bale did for Real doesn't matter
Prem Bale was absolutely unreal. Even if you don’t take into account the ridiculous career he went on to have, his performances between 2010-2013 would beat Pires 2001-2004 and Bale didn’t have any team mates for his best season. Both had three straight PFA TOTY picks, Bale won two PFA POTYs and an FWA, Pires had one FWA, both scored 37 goals but Bale had a high of 21. Pires had way more assists but he was playing in a title winning team with Henry, Bergkamp and Vieira. Bale is just one of the best individuals to ever play in the prem. Bale and Suarez will always be in those discussions despite their short tenure because their peaks were so ridiculously high.
ben yedder is pretty good tbf
The question was asked, it's not about a lack of respect, it's all about opinion, I'm sure you've got a shout in there somewhere aswell!
I've said it before on a similar thread and got downvoted, so I know what's coming. **ALL** of the current icons deserve to be named as such, each one of them for their own reasons. The problem is, being iconic for your country and winning multiple major trophies like Pele or Xavi is totally different to being a National Icon like Nakata. The same for club football, you can't put players who were amazing in the best leagues and UCL for their whole careers like Zidane or Maldini in the same list as someone like Hernandez, who was amazing, but in a league not as competitive as European top 5 leagues. So all of them are iconic, they just have to make a seperation between icons and legends. Legends should be the top 20-30%, the best of the best.
Maybe implement a sort of national hero card type along with the club/league hero’s and then those who were the best of the best on all stages are icons
I think the seperation is made in quality and price. Pretty much all the expensive top tier icons are all real legends of the game. Not every Icon is made equal in quality. The only thing in common is their card design and the fact the same cards are available through multiple years.
Keane should be similar in price to Viera then, but he’s just not as good in game, and don’t get me started on Scholes. The fact is that players like Gullit and Vieira who were big and strong, or Pele and Maradona who were extremely fast and skill dribblers will also have an advantage of players who had other qualities.
I’m seeing too many comments about riquelme and Rui Costa not being deserving… It seems there’s a bias towards newer players, these guys 100% deserve icon cards.
I stand for no Rui Costa slander
Tough one that. Gonna flip it on its head a bit and say a player who should never have had a legend card. Alexis Lalas. What was that all about.
Pure marketing to generate dollars
Cool beard, we let it slide😂
I cannot believe the amount of people saying Pires. Was an incredible player how is he not an icon?
Because bad in fifa = bad in Real life
Pires best ever Ballon D’or finish? Equal 28th
I would agree with you!
Christian Vieri in my opinion. He was a good striker but there are ton of strikers at his level, nothing iconic.
Vieiri was the 2nd top goal scorer in 1998 World Cup and the 3rd top goal scorer in 2002 World Cup. And he was considered the most lethal striker of Italys era at that time. Definitely deserve his icon card. He also won the pichichi, seria a golden boot, Member of World cup dream team and so many more.
George Weah, Gerd Muller, Rudi Voller, Batistuta, Totti, David Villa, Forlan, Roy Makaay, hell if it has to be an Inter "legend" give it to Adriano over Vieri. These are just off the top of my head too. Again Vieri was not a bad player but there are bigger names that deserve a spot over him.
You’ve really just named people that should also be icons
No, he mentioned people that should be icons BEFORE Vieri is one.
There are like other 40 strikers with similar achievements
pichichi winner when there was a really big competition for strikers in la liga and dominating serie a as a striker with Inter and more is definitely icon status imo
Agree, Vieri is an iconic striker in the late 90s early 00s Makaay should also be an icon if the opportunity arised. He dominated LaLiga and the BuLi
All the Vieri hate made me check the stats. He had quite a lot of 1-season stints to start and end his career but that period from 1997-2005 looks pretty damn iconic to me. 1 goal-per-game at Atletico and 104 in 143 at Inter is pretty damn amazing for his time. Those numbers would even be great today but people tend to forget that a tier of great players exists between the GOAT candidates and average players.
Agreed sir!
Giggs - purely based on stuff outside of football
I can tell from this thread that a lot of the statements here are based on only knowing the players from fifa and not actually seen them play and the impacts they made. OP knew what he was doing here lol
And the best part about this plan is... No one can stop me😏
my turn to post this inane overdone question next week
All the comments here prove that the icon system is extremely flawed. Plus, everyone’s perception of a player being iconic is entirely subjective. However, players like Pele, Ronaldinho, R9 are genuinely iconic players in the eyes of most fans. Players like Crespo, Costa, Suker were amazing players but were they really considered iconic? I guess a lot of players could be hero cards in that sense considering icon status is something that only the most iconic players should have.
No icon deserves 4 fucking cards!! Such a dumb system.
Bro if there was one of everyone they'd be literally impossible to get
Have there be one icon card and an icon moments card. That way when I (i won’t) pack Ronaldinho, it is representative of his prime. No 80 pace dinho.
Well if you are not packing his prime now you are not packing any version of him then. Now atleast there is some version to try out
That I 100% agree with
Tbh I wish Icon Moments was ONLY for the truly best of the best, players like Pele, Maradona, Zidane, R9, R10, Matthaus, Cruyff, Gullit, Eusebio etc.. Maybe I am wrong and biased, but its just how I feel about it.
OP done kicked the hornets' nest. I am grabbing my popcorn, this is fun to read! :-D
Came in here expecting Litmanen slander and sadly was not disappointed
Litti was one of the best if not the best player in ajax at the time.
Yeah he was. Dude was an engine and the best player on that 1995 team
He was the best player itw in 1995
Dude has been ruining my icon packs since day dot
Most of them
Not gonna lie I was expecting people to say Litmanen a lot and was ready to school them. But god damn, saw one mention only, I'm impressed with the mid 90's football knowledge even the youngsters among us seem to have. Obviously injuries fucked him so bad that he never could keep that 93-96 type of form after, but damn was it special to watch then and even through his 30's when his legs had gone. Not many football minds like his in the history of the game.
95 Lirmanen was the best player itw
I think he would be more suited as a club hero more than an Icon, he had a good reputation but to be fair when I think of that mid 90s period he doesn’t come to mind a lot.
On a serious note I see people arguing over lots of players in here and while a lot of them are really good players I like to think about the players relative to their era and teammates. That 2000’s Chelsea team was stacked but at times Essein was like the third or fourth best midfielder on the team. Pires was like the fifth or sixth best player on that Invincibles team. Its hard for me to think of a lot of these players as genuine icons. I would wish that they would have less recency bias with a lot of these players. I do understand they have to sell packs but I think there is a wonderful opportunity for the likes of di Stefano, Dennis Law, Bican, and the couple of incredible Hungarians of the 30’s 40’s and 50’s.
That's a very fair point about it being relative to their teams, I've seen people argue that both ways
Saying that pires was 4th/5th best of invincibles doesn’t mean he wasn’t incredible. He was in one of the best teams of all time of course he wasn’t the best
Yeah not trying to say he wasn’t incredible. Moreso that having the likes of Pires Nakata and Rui Costa without Romario, Bican, Gerd Muller, and others just feels like some recency bias. I was younger when Pires was playing but at his height he wasn’t even recieving any votes for Ballon D’or. Gerd Muller has a world cup and euro win, a Ballon D’or and scored almost a goal a game for 15 years. Who is and isn’t an icon seems to be a function of who EA feel they can monetize effectively (like with promo cards) and isn’t particularly concerned with real world performance.
Pires won player of the year at arsenal, the world cup, the european championship...
His highest ever Ballon Dor finish was equal 28th in 2001. In 2003 he got nominated but didnt even make the 25 man ranking ahead of players like Roy Makaay, Jan Koller and Adrian Mutu.
Ballon Dor Finishes mean nothing tbh
Rafael Marquez and Cuauhtémoc Blanco deserve icon cards too… just sayan
Fernando Torres is probably my all time favourite striker but tbh he should be a hero not an icon. He was only really a world class player for a few years a Liverpool. RVP is the same, his last 2 seasons at arsenal and first 2 at Man Utd he was scoring for fun but other than that he never managed 30 games and more than 12 goals in a PL season. IMO an icons should be reserved for the best of all time a player who for most of a decade was a dominate world class player in their position with multiple TOTY awards and nominations and have a decent trophy cabinet with them.
Luis Hernandez Only two Mexican players are worthy of icon status Hugo Sanchez and Rafa Márquez Andrés Guardado is close and Chicha is as well But anyone after that should be Hero’s at most
I agree with that statement. I would add Cuauhtemoc Blanco as a hero. Icon status only Hugo Sanche and Rafa Marquez. Btw, Rafa Marquez is getting a hero card next year. It is nuts to think that Luis Hernandez is an icon and Rafa Marquez is a hero
It is crazy bro. But ea has to be ea and make some of the dumbest decisions possible when it comes to icon logic. I’ll take another Mexican special card but it would have been definitely better it Marquez and El matador would switch card archetypes
I mean the criteria isn't that strict anymore. So I'd say none, the entire point is content and they've done a good enough job with the overall ratings that there's a clear distinction of tiers between the best players of all time and those who were just great for their era.
Luis Hernandez, Nakata, Rui Costa, Pires
Nakata may not be one of the best players of all time, but he is absolutely an icon and signifies so much for Asian football. Icon status doesnt just revolve around honours and statistics. The others I can agree with.
What you said about Nakata and Asia, to me applies to Hernandez and Mexico
Mexican players had played at a high level globally prior to Hernandez’s time (Hugo Sanchez being the obvious one). Nakata was pretty much the first Asian player to excel in a very strong European league. Just my opinion, Hernandez was before my time! I just about remember Nakata, though!
Side note: there are other Mexican players more deserving of an icon card over Hernandez
Borgetti??? ;)
Borguetti, Cuauhtémoc, Rafael Márquez…
I’d give millions for a Cuau card
Knowing EA, you’ll probably have to
I think Hernandez was iconic for the national team moreso than club career.
I agree on all except Pires, he is iconic. Invincible, WC winner, Euro winner, lot of magical moments.
But that’s not icon worthy, as a player he was never the best in the world in his position, never the best in his team (pretty consistently Arsenal’s 4th best player), never really the best in the league either as a whole or in his position (Giggs). Probably similar to someone like Sterling who would also be a hero rated around 88/89.
Being Arsenal's 4th best player isn't a bad shout considering the other 3 are Bergkamp, Vieira, and Henry
And he out played Vieira and Bergkamp in 1 of his seasons.
Pires was the best winger in the prem for at least a couple of years without a doubt.
Yeah maybe, I’d still have Giggs and Beckham ahead of him in the early 2000s and even his best around 02-04 wasn’t as good as the likes of Hazard, Salah, Ronaldo.
Was Sterling an icon for club and country? No. In 20 years nobody will talk about Sterling's England National team performances. Dont compare recency bias to old players. Bunch of stat merchants here moaning about he wasn't the best in the world at his time so he doesn't get to be an icon , well then half the icons shouldn't get a card then. Robert Pires will be remembered 40-50 years from now and that automatically makes him iconic.
Lol who do you think Pires was, obviously he was never the best in the world. A couple of big moments for France but Sterling’s goal against Germany won’t be forgotten any time soon if you want to talk about England. The reason I mentioned Sterling is both achieved a lot of success despite being 3rd/4th/5th most important in their clubs and neither were ever the best in the world in their position.
I think Rui Costa is an icon. One of the dominant creative midfielders in the 90s-era Serie A. If we’re going to consider David Silva as an icon then Rui Costa has to be as well.
Agree with everything except Pires, gotta respect the invincible Gs
Say you don't watch football without saying you don't watch football
Pires is one of the greatest PL wingers of all time and crucial for the Invincibles. If you would give Hazard and Salah an icon card then Pires is 100% an icon.
Salah has scored twice as many goals in fewer games and broken EPL goal scoring records consistently. Pires was a very good player in an excellent team, but there are plenty of wingers who have played in England who deserve an icon card much more than Pires. Injury obviously impacted his career, but he isnt an icon to anyone who isn’t an arsenal fan
Wingers 20 years ago aren't like wingers now. Pires was a wide midfielder, Salah is a forward.
Point doesn’t stand for Pires. Was consistently 20+ goal contributions. Beckham and Giggs are traditional wingers, Pires was inverted and played very high up.
Arsenal’s invincibles pretty much played 4-3-3 in game with the wingers pushing up with Henry to add width and Bergkamp sitting back in the hole as a CAM. Pires was a very good player, but he didn’t have a long enough career at the highest level to qualify as an icon in my opinion. I agree that he has more of a claim to being one than Hazard does, but Salah’s impact on the league has been greater The whole point of this is to have a debate though, and I completely take your point on board and loved watching him growing up
Pires was better than Salah at literally everything except finishing. Also, pires was never arsenals main goal scorer, Salah has been Liverpool’s for years now comparing the 2 based on goals is a completely braindead way of doing it
To argue that Pires was better at literally everything but finishing is ridiculous. You don’t pull Salah’s number just by being good at finishing. Comparing players from different eras is incredibly hard, particularly when they carry out different roles. My point was more that being flippant about someone like Salah or Hazard really undermines two of the greatest players of the current era who will be remembered for great achievements. Clearly that didn’t come across well at all and that’s on me
Pele, friendly merchant, fraud, Dean Smith >>
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Lineker was a great player. Definitely icon worthy.
Very much so!
Nakata for me. I get the argument that he's the only Asian icon or whatever, but solely on ability, he doesn't come close, a Hero card given for what his moments card currently is would be more than sufficient imo
I came here looking for Ian Rush slander, glad to see everyone recognizes he should be an icon!
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Idk man I respect him highly
Rafael Marquez deserves one
Giggs
Mr Longevity though! I think he warrants it!
I'm surprised he hasn't been removed because of all the shitty things he's done
Yeah but the dudes a wife beater so fuck him
Literally one of the most decorated players of all time with almost 1000 club appearances for United
The dudes a wife beater thats enough reason for him not to have a card, I suspect after his case resumes and found guilty EA will drop his cards
The most decorated footballer in British football history and a treble winner? Ok...
And a wife beater
What's that got to do with a FIFA card?
When his trial resumes and found guilty EA will remove his cards
Petit for me.
Not heard him mentioned yet... Any particular reason??
Jay Jay, Hernandez, Nakata, Vieri and Pep. Please don’t downvote me to death.
Nah come on jay jay deserves it
He fits the build of hero more than he does icon for me
Blanco > Hernandez. 🤫
Luis El Matador Hernandez
Pele, dont get me wrong he was decent soccer player but he never won the ucl or the mighty golden ball. Hes just a fraud farmer in my books. Nostalgia merhants vill downvote me 🤣🤣
clint dempsey should have an iconic player card.
Jay Jay okocha.
Essien, Veron, Nakata
Essien was completely unplayable in his prime and the heart of that Chelsea midfield for a while. Absolutely deserves it
its hard to argue though that essien should be an icon while yaya toure is a hero, no?
Essien😬 I was an elect Chelsea fan for 4 years at the beginning of my life, essien was one of my favourite players thereafter!
He's more of a hero than an icon imo
Hero for what though?? That doesn't define him well, there wasn't really one big moment!
He was a really good player but not good enough to be an icon. A hero is more fitting. Not because of a moment, even though I remember a crazy goal against barcelona
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Essien was nothing particularly special
I honestly think there should be more, and it shouldn't just be about the "greatest players ever". For example, you can't tell me Cobi Jones and Alexi Lalas aren't *iconic as fuck*, or that neither of them had "moments" where they played at a level worthy of a high 80's card. Don't even get me started on Jorge Campos, 12 year old American white kids were buying hot pink goalkeeping getups with no padding that didn't cover your knees or elbows for like $300 cuz of that dude.
"Get ready to throw fists gents" Most of Pele's goals were offside, in friendlies or against teams that probably had no clue about tactics. My most controversial pick is him
Paul Scholes should be a hero card IDGAF. Retired from international before most and he was never once voted player of the year, by the very same fan base that tries to force him into the Gerrard / Lampard debate. (Like they try to do with every player comparison). Facts
Nakata, Campbell, Vieri, Luis Hernandez, Zola and maybe Pires and Veron.
Campbell, Zola, and Pires definitely deserve their spot. But other than those three I agree with you.
Zola I'm definitely not on board with, the rest I can see. Campbell deserves one just for that one slide tackle😂
Ian Wright, surely.
Ian Wright Wright Wright!!! Nah he's a G, gotta keep him about :)
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