Review - Prime Ronaldo (R9)

Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima, also known as ‘R9’, was a generational talent that gave Pele a run for his money. Known for being an extremely clinical striker Ronaldo never failed to score for every team he played for. This skillful and genetic talent was a joy to watch and somehow seemed to never stop scoring. Translated into FIFA, R9 earned himself a 96 rated card that drops jaws. There’s no doubt he’ll cost you an arm and a leg, so let’s see whether it’s better you keep your limbs or sever them for the greater good.

This review is based on 10 games using Ronaldo on Basic, and Architect chemistry styles. He was used in the following team:

 

PACE

97 acceleration and 97 sprint speed. Ronaldo is lightning fast and you seem to forget he’s 6 feet tall (183cm), he blasts off from a standstill like a dog after a squirrel. This barreling speed is immediately noticed when he touches the ball because pressing the spring button is like unleashing that dog. There’s really nothing much else to say here aside from that, his pace is outstanding and everything you could ask for, he can beat anyone on the pitch with ease and that’s that. One con though is when he’s sprinting he cannot keep the ball very close, R9 pushes the ball ahead of himself fairly far so you have some issues with losing control if you switch direction too often at his top speed.

RATING: 5/5

SHOOTING

I’ll begin with the stats again, 95 positioning, 98 finishing, 93 shot power, 90 long shots, 96 volleys, and 89 penalties. He does not miss, and that’s it. Every shot that Ronaldo takes is absolutely perfect, it feels like something is wrong…how can a card be that good? It’s really something I haven’t been able to say yet this FIFA but Ronaldo makes scoring easy and you don’t have to worry about missing. Whether he’s 30 yards out or face to face with De Gea, R9 will pick out the back of the net without a second thought. His shots are incredibly powerful, and everything seems to go into the very top corner as if to say ‘f**k you Fahrmann watch me slam this where you’d never touch it’. Every finesse, every low driven, every long shot, if it isn’t in the goal it’s slamming off the crossbar. Clinical is a word I’d like to use to describe him, but he’s so much more than that.

RATING: 5/5

PASSING

For a 96 rated card Ronaldo’s passing is pretty poor. For a striker card in this years FIFA Ronaldo’s passing is pretty good. He has 86 short passing, 81 vision, and 87 curve. He has no problem playing a careful through ball or dinking a pass over to the wing. You can’t ask for a lot from him here but he makes nearly every short pass easily and can send a player through on goal reliably. He’s not a playmaker but if necessary he’ll step up to the plate, oops wrong sport.

RATING: 3.5/5

DRIBBLING

I’ll highlight the first couple stats to begin with, 91 agility and 85 balance. On a 6 foot tall player, having that sort of agility and balance adds a whole other ‘wow’ factor to this card. He’s able to turn on a dime and make it feel fluid and pretty, but also knows how to stay on his feet so well! Next comes his 96 ball control, 97 dribbling, and 89 composure. His first touch is absolutely perfect and his precision dribbling is just as good as Messi. It seriously feels like I’m dribbling with Messi but in fact it’s a taller, faster, and stronger player. Like I had mentioned earlier though, once Ronaldo reaches his top speed he’s shoving the ball fairly far in front of himself, meaning he loses some control to gain speed. That can become sort of a problem when you’re trying to fly down the pitch and change direction too quickly/soon. Do I think he’s the best dribbler in the game? No, I’d say TOTY Messi or Neymar beat him, but he’s not too different to them.

RATING: 4.9/5

PHYSICAL

A surprisingly good category for R9 is his physical stats. He boasts 82 jumping, 81 stamina, and 85 strength. Now 81 stamina isn’t that great but for a striker that’s really all you need to go the full 90 minutes plus maybe a tad bit more, and that rings true in game. He never really feels tired or clunky, but I can’t speak for 120 minutes in as I haven’t used him past 90. But then we move down to that 85 strength, which to be quite honest didn’t feel that high. Ronaldo felt kind of weak to me, like he would get pushed off the ball easily even though he’s kind of tall and has that 85 strength. Don’t get me wrong he’s able to push back and give up a fight but most of the time I find him losing that battle and possession along with it. If I had to guess what his strength was without having seen it, just used him, I’d guess ~75 strength.

RATING: 4/5
 

MENTALITY

Ronaldo is the Swiss army knife of FIFA cards, five star skill moves and five star weak foot along with just about every trait and specialty in the game give you a world class card that has little to no weaknesses. Good height, both feet can shoot, every skill in the game, you can’t ask for much more. But you can ask for better work rates though. Medium/Medium isn’t optimal as you’d prefer him to be farther up in the attack, but I guess that’s probably asking for too much to have everything perfect. Don’t fear though as you won’t notice that and he’s always in the attack and where he needs to be. Ronaldo is essentially the perfect FIFA meta player.

RATING: 5/5

CONSENSUS

I’ll reiterate, Ronaldo is the perfect FIFA meta player:
 

· 6 feet tall (183cm) and 85 strength

· 5 star skill moves and weak foot

· Incredibly clinical (98 finishing)

· 97 pace

· Incredible dribbling and agility.

 

R9 ticks off all the necessary boxes and out comes the perfect striker to put all the others to shame. Of course he’ll cost you a fortune but I think he’s worth more than that. If I wanted to win every game I would trade in my entire club for this card, soon enough I’d have a full Icon team after Ronaldo leads me to weekend league rewards galore. This is a card that will tear up your opponent no matter who else is in your starting XI, he’s a one man army if he needs to be. I cannot rate this card any higher he’s simply astonishing and puts all other striker cards to shame end of story. If you can afford him I can’t recommend him any more, it’s activating a cheat code every game you get into. Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima is a perfect card and will take you to the next level.

RATING: 5/5

As for what chemistry style to use on him, I decided to work on his weaker areas and used ‘Architect’ which boosts his passing and physical. Ronaldo now has 99 strength and an overall 92 passing. This made him all the more broken and you could feel the improvement. There’s no need to upgrade pace as it’s already 97, shooting is incredible to begin with and doesn’t need an upgrade, dribbling like I had mentioned is great but could be upgraded still. That leaves passing and physical which is why I think ‘Architect’ will give you the best of R9.

 

Game Highlights: