This gives you two things to take advantage of - the players with the highest rating they can reach (spoilers - it’s Kylian Mbappé for another year!) and the players with the most growth over time, which is useful if you’re looking for some bargains in career mode. On this page: If you’re interested in specific positions, we have pages on the best FIFA 22 goalkeepers, best FIFA 22 defenders, best FIFA 22 strikers, best FIFA 22 midfielders, and the best FIFA 22 wingers. This means there are a lot of known players on there - Mbappé, Foden and Alexander-Arnold among them - which, incredibly, still have scope to get better. Ultimately, this is where you’ll find the absolute best young players - useful if you want the best young centre back with the highest potential rating, say, or the future best forward in the world. Note - we’ve ordered this table by highest max Overall rating, as opposed to the maximum improvement possible - though that is visible in a dedicated column (with Ansu Fati looking to have the biggest jump from their current to potential rating). These are known as hidden gems - lesser-known players which, if snapped up early and improved upon, can you give you a real bargain in the career mode. Every player in the below list will grow by at least 23 points in their Overall stat - a huge jump compared to the above table of wonderkids, where the highest growth possible is 14. These players will take a fair bit longer to reach their potential, but if you’re in it for the long run with your Career Mode saves, this will make for some incredible investments! Stuck for who to make up your team? We have pages on FIFA 22 Wonderkids, the best FIFA 22 goalkeepers, best FIFA 22 defenders, best FIFA 22 strikers, best FIFA 22 wingers, and the best FIFA 22 midfielders. For FUT fans, we have guides to how Chemistry works and a full Chemistry Styles list, too.
Remember that age is an important factor here. Whilst younger, lower-Overall players might come at a better price, if you can afford more developed players then often it’s a safer bet, and a faster one. You might not be fitting in four, five or six seasons into one Career Mode playthrough, after all, and so may never see a seventeen-year-old’s full potential.
For those longer playthroughs, we recommend players with a starting Overall ranking as low as possible to keep the cost down - which is where the hidden gems table above comes in handy. As always, be flexible with your positions. It’s more of a general tip for FIFA 22 anyway, but don’t forget that often, players have expertise in more than one spot on the team sheet, and it’s more about their technical attributes like Pace, Dribbling, or Finishing that make a difference. For bargains, think about the size of the club you’re buying from - are you more likely to get a good price from the likes of Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa, or would it be best to try and get Chicago Fire FC’s Chris Brady?
