FIFA 13 | Lower League Gems – Goalscorers (Winter update)

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Welcome to the Lower League Gems series for the winter update to FIFA 13! If you want promising players for an absolute bargain, you’re in the right place.

These articles aim to highlight young, high potential players that are priced at £1m or less. The pre-winter update version of this series had 76 as the minimum potential, but there were simply so many eligible players this time round that I’ve had to up it to 77.

This year EA have been updating the game week by week. This means that player OVRs and potentials can change slightly depending on real world performances. As such, please note that the player stats on your game may slightly vary from those depicted in the table below. I tried to be as accurate as possible, but it’s conceivable that if you download the squad update in, say, two months time, some of the stats may be different.

Just remember that this year players can exceed their potentials if they play enough games and play well enough. Thus take this table to be a guide only. A player listed with potential 78 could reach the mid 80s (or even higher) if he consistently plays well!

As a final note, people have asked me what the ‘Avai?’ column is for. ‘Avai?’ is short for ‘available?’ (there is not enough space for the full word), and it refers to whether or not each player is available to buy in the first transfer window. ‘Y’ means yes, they are available, whilst ‘N’ means that they’re not. The number after the ‘Y’ or ‘N’ is the amount of years left on their contract. So ‘Y/2’ means that yes, they are available to buy in the first transfer window and that they have 2 years left on their contract. Similarly, ‘N/5’ means they’re not available to buy right away and that they have 5 years left on their contract. The ones to look out for are ‘Y/1’, as you should be able to get these players for less than their listed value. Players who are on loan will have a “-” in this column because information on their contracts is not available.

Lots of one year contracts in this article! To quickly find them, just type ‘Y/1‘ (without the quotes) into the search box at the top right of the table.

Anyway, here are my choices this time:

• Yassine Benzia
• Souleymane Coulibaly
• Edgar Salli

First up is a familiar name: Yassine Benzia, and it’s not hard to see why he’s so popular with many FIFA players. He’s quick with superb dribbling, he can finish from all angles and distances and is even decent in the air. He has 4 stars on his weak foot and skill moves, and is good at taking penalties. His OVR is also very high for his age, so don’t be surprised if you can get him much higher than his potential. This man has to be your number one choice.

Number two is Souleymane Coulibaly. Almost all of his physical stats are very good, but what really makes him stand out is his finishing. It’s fantastic for his OVR, so he should play much better than his OVR suggests in matches. With a bit of growth he’ll be able to outpace defenders, hold off challenges with his strength and finish with unerring accuracy, which will surely him a vital asset for any team.

Finally we’ve got Edgar Salli, and he’s a little different. Whilst his finishing is good, Salli would be best used as a centre forward playing just behind another striker. His speed, short stature and great balance make him able to dribble past opponents with ease. Indeed, his dribbling is already rated at 79 and he’s got four star skill moves. Use him to create chances and win penalties; opposition defenders just won’t be able to handle him.

The list in full is given below: