FIFA 13 | Lower League Gems – Goalscorers

Follow @FIFAscouting

The idea behind these articles is providing quality players to teams limited funds. With that in mind, none of the players in these articles cost more than £1m.

As before, remember that player contracts have a huge impact. The fewer years left on the contract, the more likely you are to get a good deal. So if a player only has 1 year left on his contract you can get him for much less than his asking price. As such, I’ve added a column that says how many years are left on each player’s contract, and whether you can get him in the first transfer window. That’s the “Avai?” column (short for “available?”). To save space I’ve formatted it like this: Y/3 would mean yes, you can buy this player in the first window, and he has 3 years left on his contract. If it says something like “N/5? that means he has a 5 year contract and you can’t get him at first (the “N” is because he’s just joined the club), but you may be able to get them in the next window. The ones to look out for are Y/1 or Y/0, as some players only have months left on their contracts. Players who are on loan will have a “-” in this column because information on their contracts is not available.

This has been a great year for cheap players on FIFA. So much so in fact, that I’ve had to make the minimum potential 76 (last year it was 74) because there are just so many cheap, talented players out there! So the players on these lists will have a minimum potential of 76, will cost no more than £1m and will be aged no older than 25.

In the first of two pieces on strikers, in this article we’re going to look at goalscorers. These will be the guys getting the goals and winning games for you. Although they may not be as strong or good in the air as target men, they have fantastic finishing and ball skills and rely more on their technical ability than their physical presence.

Here’s who I recommend:

• Yassine Benzia
• Filippo Boniperti
• Tom Bradshaw
• Nicklas Helenius

I’ve had a lot of people come to me and say what a great player Yassine Benzia becomes. He’s quick and has great dribbling skills, so can easily play out wide on the wing. His finishing is good, both up close and from distance, and he’s even good at free kicks. Add to that his four star skills and weak foot ability, his brilliant potential and his low cost and you’ve got yourself a must-have player.

Filippo Boniperti is up next. Some players’ physical stats grow whilst their technical ones lag behind, and for others its the other way round, but with Boniperti both grow equally well. He becomes a speedster and an acrobat and gets 90+ stamina, but as well as that he gets great dribbling and shooting stats (particularly from distance). He grows quickly as well (OVR 79 at age 23 on my career with no signs of slowing), so is not to be missed.

Number three is an old favourite from FIFA 12 – Tom Bradshaw. He’s quick and agile, and with his four star skills and flair trait he can easily beat opponents. Not only that but he is able to finish the chances he creates. Seeing as he’s only got a year left on his contract you can get him for around a ridiculously-low price of £190,000.

My final recommendation is for Nicklas Helenius. He’s a bit more expensive than the others, but he has one of the best finishing stats of any player on this list at 74. He’s got a powerful shot, and at 6’5″ he’s big enough to win most aerial duels. For a big man he’s not too slow either, so give him a go if you’re looking for something a little different.

Players are ordered by potential, then cost, so it should be pretty simple to find someone who meets both your budget and ability/potential requirements.

Finally, if you’ve had any experiences of good players’ prices changing wildly (especially if their price drops), please post it in the comments!

Here’s the complete list: