FIFA 23 Level Up Raul Jimenez Player Review - COP or FLOP?

It’s been quite the past few days within the community with a fair few major announcements coming from this year's next EA title “EA FC 24”. If you haven’t yet then be sure to check out our article breaking down the Trailer that was released during the EA FC 24 live event.

But back on “Fifa” we are in the final week of the Level Up promotion which of course means Team 2 is here. I was pretty vocal previously that this promo has been a bit of a letdown. I repeat what I have said before, this would have been excellent at the start of the year or at least near the beginning of the cycle. Not at the end of the game cycle when players typically are falling off actually playing a lot of the game.

But we move… A huge bunch of players were released today, at first glance the players selected feel a bit underwhelming. But actually, when you see the boosts, some of these cards are absolutely class. The obvious top-tier players such as Varane, Goretzka and Tchouameni look insane but some of the cheaper ones such as Malen, Kalulu and Atal actually look incredible. Amongst those is the player we are here to talk about today and it is none other than Raul Gimenez.

This card seems to come with an interesting twist in that upon completing the objectives to unlock the “Leveled Up” version, you earn a player pick to decide on what dynamic image you would like. A brilliant feature but again, this could have been brought in so much sooner! For me, I just had to go with the image with the Telescope as it stood out the most amongst the three but it would be interesting to hear which option you guys would choose in the comments section!

You can check out and preview the dynamic images of the card here!

Here are the following Objective Requirements you’ll need to unlock this card:

#1 - Quick Through
Assist with 4 Through Balls in Squad Battles on min. Semi-Pro difficulty (or Rivals and FUT Champions)

#2 - Premier League Threat
Score 10 goals using Premier League Players in Squad Battles on min. Semi-Pro difficulty (or Rivals and FUT Champions)

#3 - Mexican Flair
Score and Assist using a player in 3 separate Squad Battles on min. Semi-Pro difficulty (or Rivals and FUT Champions)

#4 - Winning Mentality
Win 8 Squad Battles on min. Semi-Pro difficulty (or Rivals and FUT Champions) while having min. 3 Premier League players in your Starting 11.

#5 - Level Up Raul Jimenenz
Score a Finesse shot in 5 separate matches in Squad Battles on min. Semi-Pro difficulty (or Rivals and FUT Champions) with 92 OVR Level Up Raúl Jiménez and exactly 5 Premier League players in your starting 11. Earn an Untradeable PP with 1 of 3 Action Shot Choice Raúl Jiménez.

What I really enjoyed most about this is the fact I am going to acquire at minimum two high-rated cards that at worst could be used as fodder for future SBCs if this card didn’t perform well in-game. The one letdown for me is that it feels a bit like these cards should have been a part of the Premium Level Up cards as there are no other Mexican links within the premier league which narrows down your choices to building a squad with Wolves players included (of which just aren’t good enough this late in the year) or Mexicans from other leagues, which again you are strapped for options that won’t hinder your entire squad. If they could give it to Zaha why not Jimenez?

I hadn’t played this formation often this year but I ran the 424 formation with Jimenez rocking the attack alongside fellow Level Up player Raheem Sterling, Shapeshifters TAA and Showdown Foden (Who has become a big favorite of mine this year). The chem style of choice for this card felt like it had to be the Engine as it gave the necessary boost to Pace, Dribbling and Passing. Shooting and physical just don’t require any further boosts in my opinion. 

How did he perform in-game?

+ Shooting was decent but often felt pretty slow to take the shot off which usually resulted in the keeper getting to the ball on time. But finesse shots and outside the foot shot seemed to be very OP on this card
+ Dribbling on the card was fantastic. he seemed to be able to burst around defenders with ease and having a 99 strength helped with that massively as under any pressure he pushed the opposition off him with ease
+ Positioning was near perfect as he always seemed to be getting ready to make an attacking run and remain in open space to receive the ball
- Pace really didn't feel amazing as most of the time other players were catching up to him fairly easily which meant he had to rely on his strength to counter that

Raul Jimenez - Cop or Flop?

To be able to say whether or not it’s picking up this card is more about looking at whether the time spent to complete this is worthwhile. For me with the first set of objectives for the Base card, they’re all very easy and likely to be completed accidentally bar the Mexican Objective. I must come back to the point that this card should have been a Premium Version because unless you are using him in a Premier League team, it’s tough to slot him into teams. Not impossible but due to the options from Mexican players and Wolves players, it doesn’t make it easy to slot him into a squad with minimal disruption to the rest of the squad.

But actually playing with this card I had a lot of fun, shooting could be a little inconsistent but finessing from outside of the box seemed to be pretty deadly. But on the side of all else, in comparison for what it can take to unlock these cards, you only have to play at minimum 5 games to unlock the upgraded version of this card and then you get the delightful choice of picking your dynamic image. You end up with at least a 92-rated card to use in an SBC and then a 94-rated card to either use or do the same with.

In terms of time spent completing these objectives too, it took me roughly 3-4 hours to rinse through this at a casual pace. So could absolutely be done quicker. So to me, this one is an easy cop for many of the reasons stated above.

Verdict: COP