FIFA 14 | Lower League Gems – Goalkeepers

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Welcome to the Lower League Gems for FIFA 14! If you want promising players for an absolute bargain, you’re in the right place.

If you’re not sure what these articles are all about, click the bold link below. Otherwise, let’s get straight in to the recommendations.

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These articles aim to highlight young, high potential players that are priced at £1m or less. Most articles will showcase players with a minimum potential of 78. However, in some cases I lowered the minimum potential to 77 to ensure there were a good number of players for you to choose from.

The ‘Cost’ column refers to the price your scout will bring back after he’s looked at the player. The ‘They want’ column refers to the price you will be quoted by the team if you enquire about their player. These enquiry prices are negotiable, so don’t be afraid to bid below what they want.

Sometimes teams will refuse to quote a price for their player because he has only just joined them. In these cases, I have not given a price in the ‘They want’ column. Where this is the case, I have included a player if their scouted price is £500,000 or less, as this usually equates to a price of around £1m being quoted by the player’s team.

The ‘Avai?’ column is short for ‘Available?’ and refers to whether the player is available to buy in the first transfer window. The first letter indicates this (Y for yes, they are available and N for no, they are not), whilst the number refers to the length of their contract. The ones to watch out for here are those with Y/1 or Y/0 next to their names. This means the player’s contract is about to expire, so you should be able to get them for a discount price.

Finally, because EA release update squads every week, this could mean that some of the players listed in the article below are slightly different on your game. Furthermore, players sometimes exceed their potential, while it has been noted that occasionally players don’t grow as hoped. Therefore these stats are a guide only.

I’ve picked out these three goalkeepers:

• Alphonse Aréola
• Rubén Blanco
• Miroslav Lobantsev

I’ve chosen Alphonse Aréola for a couple of years now and the reason is simple – aside from his excellent potential, he is a very well rounded keeper. Some goalkeepers excel at diving at reaction saves, whilst others have better handling, but Aréola is consistently well balanced across the board. This means he should evolve into a fantastic keeper able to handle whatever is thrown at him. He’s on loan in the first season, but once he’s back he should be a very affordable, highly promising young shot stopper.

Rubén Blanco is up next, and I’ve chosen him for his superb handling. Something that is of course absolutely vital for lower league clubs is to avoid leaking goals, and with handling 75 Rubén Blanco is a fantastic choice to achieve this. Couple with his excellent diving, he’s going to be able to reach all manner of shots and hold on to them too. You should be able to pick him up for around £450,000.

My final chice is Miroslav Lobantsev, who gets the nod because of his high OVR relative to his age. This gives him a real headstart over many players in this article, which should help him exceed his potential with some good performances. Like Aréola, Lobantsev is very well rounded, although he particularly excels at positioning, which should mean fewer soft goals being conceded by a keeper getting caught out of position. Thanks to his bargain price, you can probably get him for around £250,000 – £300,000.

Let’s have a look at the list in full: