Our suggestions for FIFA 18’s Ultimate Team Icons include former Manchester United, Real Madrid, Leeds United, Benfica and Botafogo greats.
Diego Maradona has already been announced as one of FIFA 18’s Icons
So EA Sports have announced that the ‘Legends’ that have featured on Ultimate Team since FIFA 14 will now be known as ‘Icons’, and for the first time, they’ll be available on PlayStation as well as X-Box. And whilst your chances of packing one are about as high as your chances of winning the lottery and being hit on by Angelina Jolie in the same day, it’s still probably enough to convince us to buy yet another edition of the game.
Diego Maradona, Lev Yashin, Thierry Henry, Ronaldo and Pelé are the first five Icons to have been announced for FIFA 18, although their ratings are yet to be revealed. In anticipation of FIFA’s latest new feature and the release of FIFA 18, HITC Sevens has compiled of list of legends we’d love to see on the new game.
Here are our top seven Icons we’d like to see on FIFA 18:
7. David Beckham
It could be debated whether David Beckham is a bonafide ‘Legend’ of the game, but now that FIFA has rebranded their greats of yesteryear as ‘Icons’, there can be no doubts that David Beckham meets the criteria. Probably the best-known and recognised footballer of all-time, Beckham retired from football in 2013 and is yet to have a legends card.
Becks would be a welcome addition for anyone who likes to have an English squad on Ultimate Team, given that man-of-the-match Theo Walcott was England’s highest rated right wing card on FIFA 17, with Wilfried Zaha and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain the joint highest standard cards.
The third most capped England player of all-time, Beckham starred for the likes of Manchester United and Real Madrid in a glittering career, and his free-kick stats alone would make him a seriously dangerous player on Ultimate Team.
6. Eric Cantona
Another former Manchester United star, Eric Cantona is also a real icon of the game. The Frenchman has been included on FIFA’s offline Classic XI for a while now, but is yet to have an Ultimate Team legends card. Perhaps he will be an Icon on FIFA 18 though, and it’d be interesting to see what stats FIFA would give him.
Cantona was a real artist with the ball at his feet, capable of producing pieces of magic at will. He joined Manchester United from Leeds United in 1992, and won nine trophies in five years at Old Trafford, although they were all domestic honours, with King Eric struggling to make an impact in the Champions League.
5. Rene Higuita
Surely it’s about time there was a goalkeeper with five star skill moves on FIFA! Well, if it’s ever going to happen, it will be if Rene Higuita is made an Icon on FIFA 18. Nicknamed, El Loco, Higuita was the man behind that famous scorpion kick save against England at Wembley, but he would sprinkle a touch of magic to every game he graced.
The eccentric Colombian shot stopper has been imprisoned for kidnapping and tested positive for cocaine previously, which may put FIFA off adding him to the game, but most of us thought they’d never include Maradona, so who knows.
4. Ferenc Puskas
What an addition to FIFA 18 this would be, particularly for those quirky Ultimate Team players out their who like to build a Hungarian squad… Ferenc Puskas is one of the greatest footballers to have ever lived. A lethal striker with wondrous technique, Puskas is the best remembered member of Hungary’s Magical Magyars, one of the greatest national teams to have graced the world game.
He played for Real Madrid between the age of 31 and 39, hardly the ‘prime years’ for most forwards, yet he bagged 242 goals in 262 games for Los Blancos, winning the European Cup three times, and we’d love to see the Galloping Major included in FIFA 18.
3. Garrincha
With Pelé and Ronaldo already confirmed as Icons on FIFA 18, and Brazil’s best current player Neymar being a left winger, you could create a quite devastating Brazil squad on Ultimate Team should FIFA add Garrincha to their list of Icons.
One of the greatest dribblers of all-time, Garrincha was nicknamed the Joy of the People, and some Brazilians consider him to be the equal of Pelé. A World Cup winner in 1958 and 1962, Garrincha won the Golden Ball in ’62, and was named the seventh greatest player of all-time by FIFA’s grand jury vote in 1999.
Brazil’s best right winger on FIFA 17 for both in-form and standard card was Willian. With the greatest of respect to the industrious Chelsea man, Garrincha would be an enormous step-up in class.
2. Eusebio
Eusebio’s physical stats would make him an absolute menace on Ultimate Team. The Black Panther was quick, strong and had devastating power in his right foot. Born in Mozambique, Eusebio represented Portugal at international level, scoring 41 goals in 64 games and winning the Golden Boot as Portugal finished third at the 1966 World Cup.
He scored a grand total of 580 goals in 575 games over the course of his career, the vast majority coming for Benfica, with whom he won eleven league titles and a European Cup. If Luis Figo is on the game once again, as he has been in the last couple of seasons, one could have a Portuguese trio of Cristiano Ronaldo on the left, Figo on the right and Eusebio through the middle.
1. Alfredo di Stefano
With Diego Maradona already announced as one of the Icon’s for FIFA 18, and Lionel Messi naturally among the best players on the game, it would be incredible to see Alfredo di Stefano make it a trio of Argentinian greats in a front three made possible on Ultimate Team.
Arguably the most complete footballer of all-time, FIFA may have a hard time picking a position for Di Stefano. We’ve gone for CAM, and his stats give an idea of just what a well-rounded player he’d be. Di Stefano would be the perfect player to build an entire team around and he’s the man we’d most like to see in FIFA 18’s Icons.