FC 25 End of Era Varane Player Review - Cop or Flop

I certainly wasn’t expecting to see an End of an Era card this early into the game and it just doesn’t feel right. You would usually expect to see an EOAE card quite highly rated but of course, we can’t expect that this early on. But we have an 87-Rated End of an Era Varane and this card looks incredible. The design, the stats, and the playstyle+ all look great.

Sadly yes this is an End of an Era card for Raphael Varane who has sadly retired from professional football after countless injuries. But what a career this man has had. If only this card was released perhaps closer to Team of the Year time so that we could have been given a TOTY level card but regardless this card looks amazing for early game

So about this card, a nice +5 overall boost from his base card with a significant boost to the pace as well as +5s & 6s across the board. A nice boost overall. He has also been given the intercept playstyle+ as well which is very warmly welcomed as we are seeing a lot of cards released with no playstyle+ at all. For roles, he has also been given the Stopper++ so as a whole this card has been juiced and this may be early for me to say, but I think he will be everywhere.

Chemstyle of choice here just has to be the Shadow Chem Style. It takes him up to 90 pace and 94 dribbling. Despite the unusual pace split, this Varane item looks to be quite quick.

Here are the following segments to unlock the End of an Era Varane SBC:

France

# of players from France: Min 1

Squad Rating: Min 85

# of players in squad: 11

Pack Return: Small Prime Mixed Players Pack

Top Form

IF Players: Min 1

Squad Rating: Min 86

# of players in squad: 11

Pack Return: Jumbo Gold Pack

Serie A

# of players from Serie A TIM: Min 1

IF Players: Min 1

Squad Rating: Min 87

# of players in squad: 11

Pack Return: Mixed Players Pack

88-Rated Squad

Squad Rating: Min 88

# of players in squad: 11

Pack Return: Prime Electrum Players Pack

So 4 segments here and this SBC certainly isn’t looking to be cheap with it coming in at just shy of 400k of a cost. Honestly from face value with stats, playstyles, and roles considered at this stage of the game, I think whilst this is expensive it’s also very fairly priced. This will be a popular card and I can see him being in the current elite level of defenders.

How did he perform in-game?

+ Interceptions was the standout ability of this card, he pressed his man constantly and put a quick stop to a good amount of the oppositions passes, this is greatly due to the fact he now has the Intercept playstyle+

+ Strength holds up nicely too as he forced players off the ball nicely and was usually very difficult to get past.

+ Pace for a defender was also impressive as he tracked back fast on a counter attack and managed to chase down the opposing attackers to save the team from conceding

+ Standing tackles were also very effective being 90 rated in that stat

- Only downside to this card is that his balance wasn’t great, but as long as you quickly clear the ball you’ll have no issues there.

Raphael Varane - Cop or Flop?

I think it’s fair to say that currently, this might be one of my favourite cards to have used so far this year. He was incredibly impressive in-game due to how well he intercepted play. Having anticipate as well made him an absolute asset in defence. I would say he is on the level of Saliba & Virgil Van Dijk, if not possibly better.

It’s an expensive SBC to complete but a fair price at the same time. This card is elite and performs incredibly well in-game. We don’t want to see every single player be able to complete this SBC because he is of that level that can be the difference in how well your defence holds up in-game and likely saves the game for you. You also get 5 weeks in total to complete this SBC so plenty of time to work towards with champs/rivals/squad battle rewards if you really want to complete it. This is a great centre-back item and I would expect to see him in a lot of Weekend League games.

Verdict = COP