International soccer star Romelu Lukaku has a lot to say about his FIFA 21 player rating, and none of it is particularly good, as the striker took to Twitter to criticize the way the game franchise rates its player pool each year. FIFA 21 is the latest entry into the long-running franchise, which has been particularly dominant in the soccer simulation genre thanks to licensing rights. FIFA 21 is only a few weeks away from release, and that generally means it's time for fans to debate player ratings as they're released to the public.
For those unfamiliar with the process of how the FIFA franchise rates its players, it's actually a fascinating endeavor. EA outsources the process to what's called The Ratings Collective, which sounds like the world's most villainous assembly of soccer critics. Members of that organization evaluate dozens of different attributes for each individual player before coming together to discuss, rank, and ultimately implement those ratings into the game. The FIFA series has been frequently berated for its player rating system by the pros themselves, who often seem to have head-scratching decisions made about them despite statistics suggesting otherwise.
Such is the case with Romelu Lukaku, who took to his Twitter account to air his grievances with the FIFA 21 player rating system. In his tweet, Lukaku states that FIFA will "mess with the ratings" of players each year so that they start complaining about it on social media, which in turn gives them "more publicity." Lukaku's point is certainly well-taken - even if he's complaining on social media about it, unfortunately contributing to the problem he's identified - and it's especially pronounced for the Inter Milan star. His first season at Inter Milan saw him score goals by the boatload, and his play on the pitch certainly seemed to the casual viewer to be a marked improvement from his already stellar play.
Lukaku's Twitter post also prompted other stars to get involved and lament their own ratings, but Lukaku's is perhaps the best example of how impossible to discern the FIFA 21 player ratings process really is. Due to his strong play this year, Lukaku's stats have gone up in FIFA 21, with significant improvements to pace, passing, dribbling, and defence. In spite of this, however, his FIFA 21 player rating stayed the exact same.
In the grand scheme of things, FIFA 21 player ratings don't matter at all. But for so many international soccer stars, FIFA is their favorite game series - the soccer simulation that helped them play out their dreams online before they had a chance to do the same in real life. It makes sense, then, that so many of them - Romelu Lukaku included - take it personally when they're slighted by The Ratings Collective. In the end, though, it's doing exactly what Lukaku himself said it would, and people are discussing FIFA 21 more today than they were yesterday as a result.
FIFA 21 will release on October 6, 2020 for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Windows PC. A PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X launch will come later.
Source: Romelu Lukaku/Twitter