FIFA 14 | Best Free Transfers – Central midfielders

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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.

Here are the central midfielders I’ve chosen to recommend.

Recommendations

The elite option

Though it may be tempting to recommend either Xavi or Andrea Pirlo as the elite option, their ages mean that by the time they arrive at your team they will be nowhere near as good as their starting OVRs. Another season and they will have declined even further, all the while taking in gargantuan wages. In my opinion, it’s not really worth it.

So let’s have a look at other options. As with the free transfers article on defensive midfielders, it was extremely difficult to find just one player to recommend here. It was between Perparim Hetemaj and Charles Aránguiz, with Hetemaj just pipping it. He makes for an extremely accomplished box-to-box midfielder and there’s very little he can’t do. Aránguiz is very similar, and while his passing is very slightly better, I felt Hetemaj’s superior tackling made him the more well-rounded option. Either way, you won’t go far wrong with either of these excellent players.

The mid-range option

If these two are out of your range then you won’t miss out, because Ros is an excellent replacement. Like Hetemaj and Aránguiz, Ros is an excellent box-to-box player. He is just as good tackling as he is dribbling, and his high stamina means he’ll be able to keep doing both all game. With his four star weak foot, he’ll also be comfortable whichever side of the pitch you decide to put him on.

Though he is strong defensively, I would place him a little further up the field to make best use of his passing and long shot abilities. With him just behind the strikers, you’ll find yourself with a player who can create and score goals at will, something that will seem even sweeter given his non-existent price tag.

The budget option

As you may have gathered, I like my central midfielders to be able to a multitude of different jobs across the pitch. Franco Zuculini is more than equal to those demands and, in fact, only has two red stats (volleys and penalties). He can pass, he can tackle, he can cross, he can shoot. With him on your team you’ll find you have a perfectly balanced player who is very rarely out of his depth.

Just make sure you go to the right team to get him! He plays for Arsenal in Argentina, not in England. With his low wage and very good starting OVR, he will be a blessing to all lower league teams who thought such players were out of their reach.

NOTE: 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.

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

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