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10 bargain goalkeepers for FIFA 17 Career Mode
Looking to build a foundation on a world class keeper? We’ve got some real bargains for you.
Goalkeepers aren’t exactly the most exciting purchase you can make in FIFA 17, but pundits and players alike always go on about the importance of having a “good spine” in a championship winning team. That all starts with the man between the sticks, and it’s no coincidence that most of the great football teams we remember from history had world class number ones.
We’ve already talked through some fantastic value for money purchases for those looking for a deadly striker, a tricky winger, a midfield general or a dominant defender, but now it’s time to get to the nitty gritty: let’s find a goalkeeper to anchor your Career Mode squad for the next decade. After all, you won’t be winning anything if you can’t keep the ball out of your own net!
Yvon Mvogo
Swiss youngster Mvogo is exactly the sort of player many of us are looking for at the start of a Career Mode playthrough – fantastic potential without breaking the bank. Mvogo is already a gifted shot-stopper with 79 reflexes and 78 diving, but at just 22 years of age he has plenty of improvement left ahead of him, and he’ll hit a max overall of 84 with some time on the training pitch. With an international call-up under his belt, he’s fairly hot property, but still available for around €10 million from BSC Young Boys, which is a steal for a player with his potential.
Timon Wellenreuther
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – Germany should be your number one hunting ground if you’re after a good keeper. There’s an endless list of world class number ones you could go after – Manuel Neuer, Kevin Trapp, Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Timo Horn, just to name a few – but Wellenreuther is a great alternative if you’re looking for someone with top potential at a fraction of the price. Schalke’s young understudy is already a very serviceable backup, but he’ll grow to a potential of 81 overall in just a few years, and he’s available for around €5 million, as Schalke already have an established keeper in Ralf Fuhrmann.
Ruben Blanco
If you have a little bit more money to spend and you’re looking for a bona fide star of the future, take a look at Celta Vigo’s Ruben Blanco. A fixture in the Spanish national youth teams from Under-16 level onwards, Blanco has a good pedigree, and and he’ll be available for a good price if you can nab him before he inherits the number one spot at his current club. His reflexes are slightly below average, but that’s nothing you can’t mend on the training ground, and his 78 diving and 74 positioning make up for that. If you grab him early, he’ll only cost you around €7.5 million, and his wages are just €6,000 – a steal once he reaches his 84 potential.
Simone Scuffet
Once considered the heir to Gianluigi Buffon’s throne in Italy, Scuffet isn’t quite the darling of Career Mode players the way he was a few seasons ago, but he’s still an extremely solid purchase. Scuffet is a decent keeper who’s right on the brink of turning into a star, and despite his middling 74 overall rating, he’s already a top quality shot-stopper thanks to his 83 reflexes rating, which translates into some world-class saves on the pitch. A bit of friendly bartering with Udinese should secure his services for around the €9 million mark, and you can persuade him to sign up for wages around the €10,000 mark.
Kim Dong Joon
Looking further afield than the major European leagues can often net you a real bargain, not just in terms of transfer value but also in terms of wages. Kim Dong Joon is one such bargain, a young shot-stopper currently on the books of Seongnam FC. His 70 overall rating doesn’t look like much, and there are a fair few young keepers with more potential than South Korean, but he has lots going for him – he’s a solid all-rounder with all his stats coming in between 68 and 72, and he has a very respectable potential overall of 82. Combine that with his €4 million transfer value and his low wages of just €6,000 a week, and he’s a great bargain.
10 bargain goalkeepers for FIFA 17 Career Mode
© EA Sports
Gianluigi Donnarumma
Donnarumma is FIFA 17’s crown jewel of young keepers, with the young Italian stopper rated as the highest potential goalie in this year’s game. Donnarumma secured his place as AC Milan’s first team keeper at just 16 years of age, and now at 17, has already earned himself a call-up to the Italian national team, and cemented a place as one of Europe’s top keepers. Despite all this, he’ll only cost you €12.5 million in Career Mode, which is a fraction of the hilarious €150 million valuation cited by his agent. For your well-spent cash, you get a world class keeper for the next 15 years, with a potential overall of 88. Oh, and he’s already 6’5” tall with 84 reflexes and 78 diving. Convinced yet?
Mile Svilar
If you’re really feeling the pinch from tight purse strings and stingy owners, here’s an incredibly cheap option that could pay dividends in the years to come. Svilar is a young prospect at Anderlecht and still has a huge amount of development to come, but if you can spare a few years to get him up to speed, he’ll become a quality investment. He’s nowhere near first team ready yet, but his age and low overall rating mean he’s available for less than €1 million, and that’s peanuts for a player who will grow by whopping 20 points to 83 overall. As long as you can stomach the awful hairdo, there’s no reason not to pick him up – you can always sell him for a tidy profit down the line.
Cedric Carrasso
If you’re looking for a reliable stop-gap, or someone to hold the fort while you get an extra year or two of training under a young keeper’s belt, Carrasso may well be your man. He’s at the tail-end of his career at 34 years old, but he’s still decent enough to do a job for you thanks to his 82 reflexes, 81 kicking, 79 handling and 79 positioning. He’ll cost you around €10 million, which sounds like a lot, but you make that up easily on his €1,000 a week wages, and he brings important ‘leadership’ and ‘team player’ traits to the squad too, buying you some time to train up one of the younger prospects on this list.
Bartlomiej Dragowski
No FIFA Career Mode keeper list would be complete with Dragowski – the young Pole has been a top prospect for years now, and FIFA 17 is no different. He’s not quite as dirt cheap as he has been in previous years – Fiorentina snapped him up in the summer, and that means that he’s not available until the following transfer window and his price has gone up slightly to around €2.9 million. Still, well worth it for a keeper with 86 overall potential, and great positioning and reflexes. He still hasn’t played a game for Fiorentina, and if that remains the same for the next season, he’ll still be available on the cheap come summer 2017.
Alban Lafont
If you haven’t quite got the money for Gianluigi Donnarumma and you’re after a more ready-made first XI player than Dragowski, Alban Lafont is probably your man. Like Donnarumma, he’s been hugely undervalued by EA in this year’s Career Mode, and at 17 years old and 6’4” he compares very well to the big Italian. His kicking is a little subpar, but it’s easily the least important goalie stat in the game, and the rest of his numbers are top notch – 79 reflexes and 76 positioning, diving and handling. Best of all, he has a potential overall of 88, and his valuation at Toulouse is just €7.5 million.
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