FIFA 14 | Best Free Transfers – Goalkeepers

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What better way to try something new before FIFA 15 hits the shelves than delve into the free transfer market? There are tons of high quality players out there that you don’t even need to pay a fee for, provided you make a move for them at the right time. If you’ve never tried it before you’re in luck, because I’m here to guide you through the best free transfers in FIFA 14, position by position.

How do I get players for free in FIFA 14?

It’s actually really straightforward to purchase players for free in FIFA 14 – at least, once you know who you’re looking for. They just need to be aged 23 or over when the January transfer window rolls around, and must have less than a year left on their contract (i.e. it will expire at the end of the season).

If you’ve identified the player you want, find them using the ‘Search Players’ option in the Transfer tab, click on them then click ‘Approach to sign on contract expiry’. You then just need to offer them a contract and wait a few days to see if they accept. If they do, they will join your team at the end of the season.

That’s the easy bit – the hard part is finding players who match those criteria. You can send your scout to find players in a certain country who have a year left on their contract and are 23 or older, but if you don’t have a very good scout you may not find many matching players.

Luckily I’ve done the heavy lifting for you. Simply browse the list below or have a look at the other articles in this series and decide who you want to go for, then follow my steps above to get them to join your squad. All the players in these articles will have a minimum potential of 75, so you know you’ll be getting quality for a fantastic price.

The OVRs listed here are true for the start of a career. When the player joins you the next year it is highly likely these will be different, as they can grow (or decline) during their first season. This can be great if they grow a lot, but just be aware that any player over the age of about 30 may well be worse than you expect when they arrive.

So now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s have a look at my goalkeeper recommendations for tonight’s article.

Recommendations

The elite option

While Victor Valdés may seem like the obvious choice, I’d actually suggest you go for Jefferson if money is not an issue. Although his OVR is one point less than that of Valdés, I don’t think that’s going to make a huge difference. What will make a difference is his wage packet, which is half that of Valdés. He’s also a year younger, and while goalkeepers can keep growing later than outfield players, that could still mean he declines a year later.

In terms of stats, he’s fantastically well-rounded. Though his kicking lags behind a little bit, all of his other goalkeeping stats – plus his reactions – are in the 80s, and his GK reflexes are superb at 87. This is the guy you want to go for if you want a complete goalkeeper who can compete at the highest level.

The mid-range option

If money is more of an issue then I would suggest making a move for Fabian Giefer. He’s 6’5″ and already has excellent diving and reflexes, so it’s going to be very hard to get anything past him. Though his handling is not as good, the beauty of signing players for free is that he will do a whole load of growing before he actually joins you. Players on AI teams often grow huge amounts – far more than would be possible on a human-controlled team – so by the time he arrives he should be a fantastic player.

His wages are very affordable at £20,000 and with any luck he should come to your team with an OVR in the mid to high 70s. Getting a player of that quality for free would be a major coup.

The budget option

However, if you’re playing with a lower league team then both of these players may be beyond your means. If that’s the case, try going for Benjamin Leroy. His wages are only £6,000 but his potential is 77, meaning you’ll be getting excellent value for money. He should feel like a cheap Giefer, with superb diving and reactions being his main assets.

And as with Giefer, while his handling is not as good as his other stats, this will receive a significant boost during his season at an AI team. A combination of his age and potential will help him grow rapidly at Tours FC, so by the time he arrives he should be an invaluable player with an OVR in the early to mid 70s.

NOTE: The wage entry for Brad Friedel is empty because I simply could not find it out. I couldn’t see it if I approached him because he was retiring in every attempt I made, while he was bizarrely not in Spurs’ squad list when I tried starting a career with them. I’ve still included him because it may be possible that he does not always retire after the first season, although I think that is unlikely.

Also, Silviu Lung’s wage and squad entries are empty because he is a free agent. Free agents with OVR or potential of 70 or higher are automatically assigned to a random team, and his wages are dependent on what this team is. If he is placed on an Argentinian squad then they are likely to be £750, but if he is at a Premiership team then they could be £20,000.

Furthermore, although his game code says he has a one year contract, this too is actually dependent on the team he ends up on. He may or may not be available for a free transfer in your career, so it’s worth checking him out just in case. Just search for his name or Romanian goalkeepers to find him.

Finally, although I mentioned earlier that players have to be 23 to be eligible, there may be some entries in these articles whose age is 22. That’s because they start a career aged 22, but by the time January arrives they are 23 and can be signed for free.

If there is a 22-year-old whose date of birth (‘DOB’) is given in the Notes column, this is because you can only sign him on or after that date. So if a player has ‘DOB: 27 January’ in the Notes column, you can only move to sign him for free on or after 27 January.

Now let’s have a look at the list in full:

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