FC 26 87 Flashback Di Maria Player Review - Cop or Flop

The Festival of Football is upon us with Captains receiving special items in FC26 across this promo. Festival of Football kicks off a year-long celebration with Captains: The leaders who lift their nations, featuring enhanced chemistry to boost your nation-based squads. Some absolutely massive cards have been released with the likes of Mbappe, Ronaldo, Van Dijk and many more all landing themselves a special card. 

Today however, we are here to look at a Flashback SBC in the form of Angel Di Maria. This SBC is celebrating his win in the CONMEBOL Copa America 2024 final and what a card this is. It’s a shame this item doesn’t also come with the enhanced chemistry but regardless, he looks incredible. 

From his base version, this flashback item has received a +5 overall boost with some massive boosts to his pace, with +14, along with a +10 physical boost. He’s also been given a weak foot boost up to 3*. Shame not to see it higher but somehow I feel this won’t be an issue for him. For playstyles, he hasn’t gained any extras but he has been upgraded to the Technical+.

Chemstyle for me simply has to be the Hunter. His dribbling and passing are near perfect so we just want to provide those necessary pace and shooting boosts to finish this card off.

Here are the following segments to unlock the Flashback Di Maria SBC:

Argentina

Team of the Week Players: Min 1

Squad Rating: Min 83

# of players in squad: 11

Top Form

Team of the Week Players: Min 1

Squad Rating: Min 84

# of players in squad: 11

85-Rated Squad

Team of the Week Players: Min 1

Squad Rating: Min 85

# of players in squad: 11

3 segments in total for this SBC with a price tag of just under 80k to complete. Whilst this one doesn’t break the bank, i’m not overly fond of the need for informs throughout which of course has driven the price up. This card on the market would quite likely be 20-30k but in all honesty, if he performs well in-game then 80k is nothing to be concerned about.

How did he perform in-game?

+ His Dribbling of course, was perfect. He was incredibly agile when controlling the ball and with massive thanks to the Technical+, he was snapping ankles left, right and centre when maneuvering the box. He controls the ball with such flair that it felt almost impossible to depossess him. 

+ The passing also impressed. The incisive pass was particularly effective. Once you have finished making your way around the defence, a quick pass to the striker and it’s lights out.

+ He’s quick on the ball too and is capable of making bursts around fullbacks despite not having the desired playstyles.

+ He also positioned himself really well when creating an attacking play. Quick passes with the midfield to assist with the build-up play and then sprinting into space to finish off the attacking sequence.

/ His shooting was okay but massively saved by the finesse shot playstyle. He is capable at putting a lot of power in from distance but the accuracy could be a little hit or miss.

- Strength was the only downside to this card but is easily recovered by his dribbling ability.

Di Maria - Cop or Flop?

This card was a lot of fun and certainly performs at a high level in-game. He’s not elite tier but he’s good enough to compete with those meta players. The only downside for me for this card is the League/Nation as he can be a little difficult to link if you don’t happen to have an Argentinian icon in your squad. But if you can manage to make it work this is a great card and definitely worth trying out.

Verdict = COP