West Ham United haven't just enjoyed one of their greatest-ever seasons on the pitch - it's also been one of their finest in the (relatively novel) history of football gaming, as well!
David Moyes' men's form on the pitch saw the players rack up a whopping eleven FIFA 21 Team of the Week nominations out of a possible 35 squads during the season.
What's more, an April Player of the Month card for Jesse Lingard, a Premier League Team of the Season card for Tomáš Souček and a 'Team of the Season Moments' card for Manuel Lanzini brought the number of 'Special' West Ham cards up to a Club record-setting 14 this season.
Lanzini's newly-released card - unlockable within the game until 6pm on Thursday 10 June - now stands proud as the joint-highest rated West Ham FIFA card of all-time, with an Overall (OVR) rating of 93/100.
But who makes up the rest of the list of the greatest in-game Irons in ten seasons of Ultimate Team history?
For fairness, we’ve not included ‘Icon’ cards – special items which celebrate former players and legends of east London – but we have included ‘Special’ cards, which can be released by EA to reflect popular players or special occasions.
We’re also excluding cards the personalised ‘Pro’ cards given to every professional footballer at the start of each season, which feature the maximum possible rating of 99 OVR (so if you ever come up against a 99-rated Declan Rice online, you know you’re taking on the real deal!).
Nos. 13-15 (86 OVR)
Scott Parker – FIFA 11
Manuel Lanzini – FIFA 19
Michail Antonio – FIFA 20
2010/11 Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year, and 2011 England Player of the Year, Parker received a massive four 'in-form' upgrades to his Ultimate Team card that season – a West Ham record, matched by Souček last month – with Parker going from an original 78 all the way up to 86 OVR.
Prior to his Moments card, Lanzini was already a popular pick in the FIFA Ultimate Team community due to his pace, flair and creative ability in a CAM role – common to many formations. This extremely handy Lanzini card from FIFA 19 was available as a Premier League Squad Building Challenge (SBC) in February 2019.
Antonio’s lethal Premier League Player of the Month card in FIFA 20 – for becoming the only player ever to win the accolade in the month of July, after eight goals in seven appearances – bagged plenty of players end-of-season strikes in Ultimate Team.
Nos 10-12. (87 OVR)
Javier 'Chicharito' Hernandez – FIFA 19
Tomáš Souček – FIFA 21
Jesse Lingard - FIFA 21
Although Chicharito had already bagged an 88-rated card during the 2018 World Cup – having been named in FIFA’s ‘Team of Matchday 1’ – our focus is on Club exploits, and his greatest achievement as an in-game Hammer being this ‘Flashback’ goal-scoring machine of a card released as an SBC reward in November 2018.
An instant cult hero in east London, meanwhile, Souček’s Team of the Week hat-trick this season saw his original FIFA 21 Ultimate Team card shoot up from a base rating of 81 to a brilliant 87 – leading to usage by a number of competitive FIFA players.
Lingard, meanwhile, was voted EA Sports Premier League Player of the Month for April after scoring four goals and assisting a fifth in his four appearances that month; his resulting FIFA 21 card was widely praised for its balance of incisive pace, passing, shooting and dribbling attributes.
Nos 7-9. (88 OVR)
Marko Arnautovic – FIFA 19
Declan Rice – FIFA 19
Angelo Ogbonna – FIFA 20
Often amongst the goals in 2018/19, West Ham forward Arnautovic was rewarded for a strong first half of the season – during which he scored seven times in 15 Premier League games – by being given a mid-season ‘Headliner’ card.
Also ranking highly was Rice’s 88-rated Premier League Team of the Season item in FIFA 19; the then-20-year old played 33 times in 2018/19, scoring twice and winning the Young Hammer of the Year award.
Following last season’s temporary suspension, EA kept supporters of England’s top-flight entertained with a ‘Flashback Ogbonna’ SBC – a brilliant FIFA 20 card, but one which required a huge amount of FIFA to be played - and a lot of skill with that - to obtain!
No 6. (90 OVR)
Dimitri Payet – FIFA 16
Named in the 2015/16 Premier League PFA Team of the Year by his fellow professionals, forward Payet was simply irresistible in the 2015/16 season.
The Frenchman recorded nine goals and nine assists in just 27 Premier League appearances – the kind of numbers which led to three upgrades during the campaign, and this brilliant Premier League Team of the Season card.
No 5. (91 OVR)
Tomáš Souček – FIFA 21
A popular Premier League player card got a whole lot more popular in May, when Souček was named in the FIFA 21 Premier League Team of the Season, capping a fine individual campaign from the 26-year-old.
In a review of the card's attributes, West Ham Esports pro FIFA player 'Papsity' explained: "The stats for his card are really well-balanced. It’s a really good card.
"There are a lot of defensive midfielders out there, but I think he’s really useful, and everyone loves building Premier League-based squads!”
Joint No 3. (92 OVR)
Felipe Anderson – FIFA 19 & FIFA 20
Twice named as an SBC reward, FIFA fans simply can’t get enough of the tricky winger Felipe Anderson in-game.
His high-ranking skill moves and razor-sharp attacking attributes saw Anderson released as a challenging SBC reward in FIFA 19, before the Brazilian maestro was picked by popular vote during lockdown for a repeat in the FIFA 20 Community Team of the Season So Far.
Joint No 1. (93 OVR)
Arthur Masuaku – FIFA 20
Manuel Lanzini – FIFA 21
We already know about Manu's spectacular card... but up alongside him, a surprise joint-No1? Not if you’re a Hammer.
It’s good to be the king – and Arthur Masuaku reigned supreme when, in flash polls over July last year, FIFA players were asked to pick between two players from opposing sides in a number of Premier League fixtures.
With the Hammers’ final game against Aston Villa chosen, ‘Summer Heat Masuaku’ beat out Villa’s Trézéguet, this card was released – and a top-class left-back was adopted by professional FIFA players worldwide.
That same adoption is now widespread with Lanzini's 'Moments' card, celebrating his incredible goal against Tottenham with a card featuring some unbelievable stats.
As a result, many FIFA players are hailing it as one of the greatest Objectives rewards ever seen in the game.
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