What I Disliked About FIFA 09

FIFA 09 was a game I vastly enjoyed. It was a massive improvement over FIFA 08 and was a worthy recipient of the “King of Football Simulators” crown. Whereas Pro Evolution Soccer had ruled the genre during the days of the Playstation 2 and Xbox, FIFA has become the footballing game of choice for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Since 2007 and the development of the new engine, FIFA has gone from strength to strength. EA Sports saved a franchise that was in the doldrums after the last generation of gaming consoles. Regardless of all this though, the game still had space for massive improvements.

Transfers in Career Mode

Opposition Clubs never seemed to put in bids for your players, even if your players were all the best in the world. You only ever seemed to get bids for players who you openly put on the transfer market. This is no way mirrored real life, in which surprise bids for players who seem destined to stay with their clubs are common. One such example is the bid for John Terry from Manchester City. It may have been declined, but we didn’t even get bids like that in FIFA 09.

Speed of Player Development

In a single season with a middle-table team from La Liga or the Premier League, you could bring at least 3 players up to 97+ stats. That seems extremely simple. In two or three seasons, you were easily able to develop the 11 best players in the world, without having to buy anyone from another club. When Nicky Butt has a higher rating than Cristiano Ronaldo after 1 season (the 2008-2009 season), you know there is something a little off with the player development in-game.

Cost of Transfers

I remember when FIFA 99 used a “credits” system for transfers. You didn’t spend cash, you only spent credits. Thankfully, we now have a budget to manage, for buying players, selling players, paying wages and improving our clubs. Unfortunately, the only transfer fees that were in any way accurate were for the very best players in the game. Players like Sebastien Bassong (who recently moved from Newcastle United to Tottenham Hotspur for £8 million) would only sell for about £1.2 million, at most, in FIFA 99. Yet, Cristiano Ronaldo’s transfer fee remained remarkably close to the eventual figure of £80 million that Real Madrid paid Manchester United for his services.