EA Sports FC 24: Top rated Liga F players

Spain are in the midst of an unprecedented cross-generational dominance of women’s football.

La Roja are the current holders of the World Cup at under-17, under-20 and senior level. Yet, the nation’s footballing landscape has never been more uncertain.

Luis Rubiales and his unsolicited kiss on the lips of Jenni Hermoso has served as a global flashpoint but the Spanish FA president’s deplorable actions are hardly a singular event.

Spain’s World Cup winners are still refusing to join up with the national team and the whole division was on strike for the first week of the new season in the country’s top flight, Liga F. However, with a new minimum wage belatedly agreed upon, the 2023/24 domestic campaign can kick off.

Here are the best players, according to EA Sports FC 24’s ratings, that will be fairly paid for once this season.

Barcelona Femeni’s former manager Lluis Cortes had a very simple piece of advice for those that he fielded alongside Alexia Putellas. “I always said to the players,” Cortes explained, “if you don’t know what to do with the ball, pass to Alexia and she will know. She is able to make the best decisions every time.”

With that unparalleled ease in possession, it’s little surprise that Barcelona’s captain is the highest-rated player not only in Liga F but across the entirety of FC 24, sharing the same 91 ranking as Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne.

While there’s little argument that, when fully fit, Putellas is the best player in the world – consecutive Ballons d’Or underscore that point – the talismanic midfielder was injured for almost the entirety of the 2022/23 campaign.

Stepping up in her place, Aitana Bonmati filled the void that Putellas left in Barcelona and Spain’s midfield. After trying with mixed success to completely replicate Putellas’ game, Bonmati began to thrive by modifying her own mesmeric, but unique, style.

Across 37 matches for Barcelona last season, Bonmati directly contributed to 38 goals. Crowned champion of Spain and Europe with her club side, the diminutive midfielder was awarded the Golden Ball while La Roja conquered the globe in Australia and New Zealand. Intriguingly, Bonmati is ranked marginally lower than Putellas at 90, the same score as Barcelona and Norway’s Caroline Graham Hansen.

Mapi Leon (89), Patri Guijarro (88) and Claudia Pina (83) watched Spain win the World Cup from afar. Or did they even tune in? All three Barcelona players were part of the 15 that boycotted the national team after Euro 2022 in a protest against the federation’s practices and remained unavailable throughout the summer. “It makes me sad,” Leon, the highest-ranked defender on this year’s game, said in March. “It’s going to piss me off a lot, but the values that I have come first.”

Barcelona’s goalkeeper Sandra Panos (87) put herself forward for the national team this summer but was pointedly left out by Jorge Vilda. Lyon’s Chilean shot-stopper Christiane Endler is the only female goalkeeper ranked higher than Panos in FC 24.

Spain’s opponents in that World Cup final, England, contribute two of the ten highest-ranked players in Liga F. Lucy Bronze (87) is the joint-highest rated English female player in the game, two points above her compatriot Keira Walsh (85) who reportedly broke the women’s transfer record when joining Barcelona in 2022.

The 13 highest-ranked Liga F players all call Barcelona home. Given their crushing dominance domestically – the Catalans have claimed the last five league titles, winning 110 of 115 matches – it’s a little surprising that their monopoly of the rankings is not more pronounced.

Real Madrid’s Caroline Weir has managed to elbow her way into the top 15 with an overall score of 84. The former Manchester City midfielder produced a league-leading tally of 12 Liga F assists during her debut campaign in Spain last term while also chipping in with 19 goals. Real Sociedad’s Nerea Eizaguirre (82), was the only other player to create a dozen goals in Spain’s top flight last term.

Alba Redondo (82) was Spain’s only starter in the World Cup final who had no history with Barcelona or Real Madrid. The Levante forward finished as Liga F’s top scorer last term with 27 goals and always knew what her calling would be. “My mother would get me boys’ games,” she remembered, “and everyone else would say: ‘Wouldn’t you rather have a doll?’ No, I wanted footballs, football shirts, shinpads…” The investment emphatically paid off.

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