FIFA 20: Mohamed Salah's FUT Card Through the Years
It has been quite the meteoric rise for Liverpool's Mohamed Salah over the last seven years or so, as the Egyptian has gone from an exciting talent at Basel, to a not so exciting talent at Chelsea, to re-emerging as one of the best in the world.
And while EA can often miss the mark when it comes to recognising talent, FIFA 20 can't be accused of any such indiscretions, as they have ranked the Premier League Golden Boot winner as the joint-fifth highest in the game, handing him a coveted 90-rated FUT card for this year's release.
It comes as a reflection of his stellar form in the Premier League over the last two seasons, helping Liverpool to a Champions League trophy and a club-record 97-point finish since joining from AS Roma two seasons ago.
And he's not the only one of Klopp's men to have been recognised as one of the best, with Ballon d'Or favourite Virgil van Dijk sitting tightly alongside him as another 90-rated Red.
It hasn't always been this way for Salah, though - in fact it is truly only in the last two editions the game that his card has come close to doing justice to the player we see today.
As recently as FIFA 17 - which seems like yesterday to some of us - he was rated as low as 81 upon the game's release, and that was given only a scarce bump to 82 when the winter upgrades rolled around. Harsh, considering he hit 19 goals in 45 appearances in the year of that game's release.
Yet while he's leaped up by nine points since, that humble 81 rating represented neck-breaking growth from what had preceded. Four years earlier, while first emerging on the scene at Basel, he was rated at 70, although 20 goal contributions saw that given a fair bump up to 73.
It wasn't as if progress from there was steady, however. His move to Chelsea didn't take off as expected, and he held at 74 throughout the duration of FIFA 14, although he was handed an upgrade to reflect his status as a Premier League player the following year - although that didn't justify itself until his subsequent loan move to Fiorentina.
Mohamed Salah Player Ratings Since FIFA 13:
Game | Club | Base Rating | Winter Upgrade |
FIFA 13 | FC Basel | 70 | 73 |
FIFA 14 | FC Basel/Chelsea | 74 | - |
FIFA 15 | Chelsea/Fiorentina | 76 | - |
FIFA 16 | AS Roma | 80 | - |
FIFA 17 | AS Roma | 81 | 82 |
FIFA 18 | Liverpool | 83 | 85 |
FIFA 19 | Liverpool | 88 | 89 |
FIFA 20 | Liverpool | 90 | - |
Upon moving to Roma, however, things took off. In the two years before his move to Liverpool, he'd score 34 goals in 83 appearances and earn his way into the 80s.
The rest really is history, and he has seen his in-game presence grow immeasurably while hammering them in at Anfield - as he jumped by five points between FIFA 18 and 19.
And if his form keeps with what he's shown so far in the early stages of this season, then he may soon have a card that rivals even the immutable Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
BEN STANSALL/GettyImages
Well, probably not, but we can hope.
