Player Review

The little Messiah is my favourite player and in my opinion, the greatest to ever grace the football pitch with his presence. I make it my goal every FIFA to buy the best Messi I can afford and score goals that only the little magician scores in real life as a way of showing appreciation to his talents. Safe to say then I'd been saving up for this card ever since the launch of FIFA 19 and let me tell you.. he does not disappoint.

CHEM STYLE: Hawk

RECORD:

Games Played - 200

Goals Scored - 235

Assists - 101

(All played in Division 3 and Weekend League respectively)

First thing is first - This guy is a luxury item and he WILL NOT change your losses into wins on his own. Your priority should be building a solid foundation of a squad instead of investing in one marquee player. 5 million for this guy is no joke and an amazing squad can be built for that money. I myself have 80% of my coins in Messi, with a largely untradeable squad around him (check squad link - switches to 4231 in game). Messi plays as the central CAM behind Flashback Ibrahimovic who i sub on at the start of each game in place of Rui Costa.

Now that we have the formalities are out of the way, let's get down to business shall we?

PACE - This guy is absolutely rapid. Hands down the fastest player I've used this year. Will literally blitz by defenders and leave them in the dust. The game mechanics often favour a defenders recovery this year but with 99 acceleration, defenders simply don't have the time to recover once Messi is past them. 10/10

SHOOTING - Absolutely magisterial. 99 Attack Positioning, 99 Finishing and 99 Long Shots. His weak foot feels like a 5* one and finesses still seem to fly in from outside the box into the top bins. Not much else to say here, absolutely lives upto his stats. 10/10

PASSING - Probably the best passer I've used this year. However, he will still be prone to making under-powered passes during slow and sluggish gameplay (as is the case with every player on this game) but will still pierce through deadly through balls to your attackers. His passing is pin point and is ALWAYS at the start and centre of my counter attacks. 9/10.

DRIBBLING - The ball sticks to his feet. (It's Messi, c'mon). 10/10.

DEFENDING - Normally I would say this is non applicable but due to the way the mechanics work this year, this guy as a central CAM can honestly do it all. He tracks back loads and makes some important interceptions for me during opponents counter attacks. Just don't expect to make any clean tackles with him. 7/10.

PHYSICAL - Now this one is a bit of a mixed bag. Whilst his stamina increase to 99 is nothing short of incredible and makes the few million coin difference between this card and his IF worth it, but his strength is also upped to a solid 82. But if i'm totally honest, his strength feels between 70-75 due to his small frame and the fact that body types make a huge difference in game. Don't expect a whole lot from this category, but it's Messi.. you expected it anyway! Jumping is 94 though and I feel it's important to add that he won me a lot of headers which surprised me a lot. 8/10.