The full list of nominees for Team of the Year
The nominees for the FIFA 23 TOTY have been revealed and, as always, the list of nominees has sparked a lot of discussion, the biggest being Cristiano Ronaldo.
Fans can vote until January 17 to decide which players they think should make the best EA Sports gaming team. The Team of the Year will be announced on January 19, and selected players will receive special FIFA 23 Ultimate Team items and in-game stat boosts.
The full list of 100 nominees is broken down by position with 30 forwards, 35 midfielders, 25 defenders and 10 goalkeepers for fans to vote on. After looking at this year’s names, here’s a recap of the highlights.
Know your #TOTY appointed.
Voting will begin tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/8UKcZMRxua
— EA SPORTS FIFA (@EASPORTSFIFA) January 9, 2023
Ronaldo left TOTY
After enduring the most difficult years of his playing career, where he found himself on the benches of Manchester United and Portugal, Ronaldo suffered the further humiliation of not earning a place in the 30 nominated offensive players.
It is the first time that Ronaldo, who joined Saudi club Al Nassr last month after the end of his contract with Manchester United, has not appeared on the list of nominees since the team of the year was introduced in the EA Sports series for FIFA 09 Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Sergio Ramos are the only players to have made the FIFA 09 Team of the Year and are still active.
To make matters worse, the last time Ronaldo made the final selection was in FIFA 21. Last year he was ousted from the front line XI of Messi, Kylian Mbappé and Robert Lewandowski, although he was voted “12th man” afterwards, along with a separate list of honorable mentions.
City and Real dominate the list
Manchester City and Real Madrid can boast more players on the list of 100 nominees than any other club, as both clubs have eight of their stars named.
Overall, the list of nominees comes from seven different European leagues, with a total of 30 nominees in the Premier League, 21 in LaLiga, 20 in Serie A, 16 in the Bundesliga, nine in Ligue 1, three in the Portuguese Primeira Liga and one in the Dutch Eredivisie.
New TOTY nominees
The list of candidates for the election of the FIFA 23 Team of the Year includes several stars nominated for the first time.
Real Madrid winger Vinicius Junior, who scored the winning goal in last season’s Champions League final, and Martin Odegaard, captain of Premier League leaders Arsenal, are two of the players who have broken into the top echelon of world football in the eyes of EA Games.
Also making his first appearance on the list is Liverpool’s Uruguayan striker Darwin Nunez, whose first few months at Anfield have been characterized by goals, misses and erratic performances, as well as Eintracht Frankfurt goalkeeper Kevin Trapp, and Sevilla full-back Marcos Acuna.
The influence of the World Cup
In total, 16 nominees on the FIFA 23 Team of the Year list are listed as “World Cup inclusions”, meaning they earned their place through their impressive individual performances at the tournament.
Players like mischievous Argentinian goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez, French midfielder Antoine Griezmann, Croatian defender Josko Gvardiol, Moroccan duo Sofyan Amrabat and Yassine Bounou, Japanese super-sub Ritsu Doan and Portuguese playmaker Bruno Fernandes are all included thanks in their exploits in Qatar.
Although Argentina beat France on penalties in that thrilling final last month to win the World Cup, Les Bleus have more than double the number of nominees (19) than the new world champions (7).
The full list of FIFA 23 TOTY nominees
- Thibaut Courtois
- Gregor Kobel
- Mike Maignan
- Alison
- Ederson
- Wojciech Szczesny
- Kevin Trapp
- Yassine Bounou
- Hugo Lloris
- Emilino Martinez
- Marcos Acuna
- Marquinhos
- Cristiano Biraghi
- João Cancelo
- Jonathan Clauss
- Thiago Silva
- Alphonso Davies
- Jeremie Frimpong
- Eder Militao
- Ruben Dias
- Grimaldo
- Ashraf Hakimi
- Theo Hernandez
- Reece James
- Kalidou Koulibaly
- Nicolas Otamendi
- Gleison Bremer
- Niklas Sule
- Come on Tomori
- Kieran Trippier
- Virgil van Dijk
- Josko Guardiol
- Jules Kounde
- Christian Romero
- Dayot Upamecano
- Nicolo Barella
- Jude Bellingham
- Steven Berghuis
- Marcelo Brozovic
- Bernardo Silva
- Kevin De Bruyne
- Moussa Diaby
- Nabil Fekir
- Seko Fofana
- Peter
- Vincenzo Griffo
- Rodri
- Daichi Kamada
- Joshua Kimmich
- Filip Kostic
- Toni Kroos
- Merino
- Sergej Milinkovic-Savic
- Luka Modric
- Martin Odegaard
- even
- Lorenzo Pellegrini
- Declan Rice
- Bukayo Saka
- Aurelien Tchouameni
- Sandro Tonali
- Federico Valverde
- Casemiro
- Sofian Amrabat
- Bruno Fernandes
- Ritsu Doan
- Enzo Fernandez
- Ivan Perisic
- Adrian Rabiot
- Iago Aspas
- Wissam Ben Yedder
- Karim Benzema
- Rafael Leao
- Neymar Jr.
- Vinicius Jr.
- Ousmane Dembele
- João Felix
- Gabriel Jesus
- Phil Foden
- Cody Gakpo
- Erling Haaland
- Borja Iglesias
- Ciro Immobile
- Harry Kane
- Randal Kolo Muani
- Dejan Kulusevsky
- Robert Lewandowski
- Sadio Mane
- Lautaro Martinez
- Kylian Mbappe
- Lionel Messi
- Christopher Nkunku
- Darwin Nunez
- Victor Osimhen
- Mohammad Salah
- Son of Heung Min
- Martin Terrier
- Dusan Vlahovic
- Olivier Giroud
- Antoine Griezmann
