Team of the Year will soon hit FIFA 23 Ultimate Team, bringing us the most powerful cards to date!
The official full XI will be revealed on Thursday, 19 January, but that doesn't mean we won't have any idea who makes the final cut before that is shown off.
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Check out the leaked TOTY lists below to see who has been included and who has missed out!
Leaked Lists
Over the last couple of days, a few most-voted-for Team of the Year lists have surfaced on socials, giving us clear indicators of what to expect when the official selection is revealed.
In the case of the @FIFA23News list, the results were taken from 20,000 people voting on Twitter polls.
Their team looked like this:
- Thibaut Courtois
- Theo Hernandez
- Joao Cancelo
- Virgil van Dijk
- Achraf Hakimi
- Luka Modric
- Kevin De Bruyne
- Federico Valverde
- Kylian Mbappe
- Karim Benzema
- Lionel Messi
The account also revealed the percentages of their votes, which saw Jude Bellingham and Eder Militao just outvoted by Valverde and van Dijk
Theirs is obviously not the only list going around, with another notable one coming from @UTSources.
There were many similarities for the core of the side, but with a couple of switches, which were as follows:
- Thibaut Courtois
- Theo Hernandez
- Joao Cancelo
- Virgil van Dijk
- Achraf Hakimi
- Luka Modric
- Kevin De Bruyne
- Jude Bellingham (instead of Federico Valverde)
- Kylian Mbappe
- Neymar (instead of Karim Benzema)
- Lionel Messi
Missing Out
Although both lists carry very similar squads, there are still some huge names missing out.
Obviously, this will happen when 100 nominees get cut down to just 11, with Erling Haaland and Robert Lewandowski being the main names potentially not making the cut.
For fan-based voting, some of the players selected will be done so on who they would rather use in-game, rather than who they think has had the better footballing year, so that could explain some absences.
Ultimately, EA will have the final say on any selection, and we think the main change will happen in defence.
We don't see three full-backs being included in the back four, so one of them will be dropped, most likely for Militao.
The main aim of the TOTY campaign is to sell packs, so EA will be doing some fan service here in order to create a popular final XI.
Statistical Analysis
If you're looking for another take on the Team of the Year selection, then look no further than the data-led squad picked by @OptaAnalyst!
There are five names in their XI that haven't featured in a lot of other lists and who could well make EA's final cut.
The Opta Analyst TOTY XI is as follows:
- Alisson *NEW*
- Theo Hernandez
- Virgil van Dijk
- Bremer *NEW*
- Achraf Hakimi
- Rodri *NEW*
- Toni Kroos *NEW*
- Kevin De Bruyne
- Kylian Mbappe
- Robert Lewandowski *NEW*
- Lionel Messi
Alisson is included over any other keeper as he kept the most clean sheets in the top five leagues and his saves stopped nearly 13 goals more than the expected goals on target - better than any other nominee.
Bremer won the Serie A Best Defender award while playing at Torino, which secured him a move to Juventus, and during the year he made the most interceptions and won the most aerial duels of any Serie A player.
Rodri won possession back more often per 90 minutes than any other player in the top five leagues and was also one of three players to average more than 80 successful passes per 90.
Kroos was another to who averaged more than 80 successful passes per 90 (88.8), while also creating two chances every 90 minutes, completed the most passes in La Liga and the Champions League (with the best passing success rate in both), on the way to winning the two competitions too!
Finally, Lewandowski is included for his incredible goalscoring in both the Bundesliga and La Liga - with only Mbappe scoring more goals than him in the top five leagues in the calendar year - while also claiming the best non-penalty xG per 90 rate than any other player.
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