How FIFA 17's Rankings Are Calculated

A lot of people are involved.

By Matt Porter

Michael Mueller-Moehring, the man behind calculating the ratings of every player in EA's FIFA 17, has explained how it's done.

In an interview with ESPN FC, Mueller-Moehring goes into detail over how the 18,000 players in the game stack up against each other.

"We guess a little bit... until our people have seen the player in action," Mueller-Moehring said. This team is comprised of 9,000 members, including professional scouts as well as season-ticket holders of clubs around the world.

These people then submit the feedback on players to EA. "We have many leagues in the game; no stats provider could offer us data for all these leagues, teams and players," Mueller-Moehring said. "This is also the reason why we use this online database, because it's not possible to buy this data some way -- it just doesn't exist."

It's not just based on the stats though. A player who is in a team known for passing the ball a lot isn't necessarily a better passer than someone else just because they have more successful passes. "And when you look at attributes like trapping and ball control, there is data, but the data never gives you the specific situations. Same for tackling."

There's also a floor and a ceiling to a player's rating depending on where they play. Players in lower leagues will mostly be lower rated than those at the top. "If Messi were playing in the Irish league, his attributes would drop simply because he's not on the highest level anymore," Mueller-Moehring said.

5.4 million pieces of small information are put into creating a player's attributes. Overall rating is calculated by a formula that weighs attributes for each particular position. Some players may have intangibles which make them better, and their rating is artificially boosted to account for that.

FIFA 17 is out today in North America, and on September 29 everywhere else. IGN's review says "a terrific story mode and improved graphics make for a better game than last year though it’s behind PES on the pitch."

Matt Porter is a freelance writer based in London. Make sure to visit what he thinks is the best website in the world, but is actually just his Twitter page.

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