‘FIFA 22’: The best strikers in Career Mode

Looking for someone to lead the line? Eager to know who the best strikers in FIFA 22 are for your career team? We've got you covered.

Whether you’re trying to drag your real-life heroes to glory or creating a brand new club from scratch, you won’t get far in FIFA 22‘s Career Mode without someone reliable to bang in the goals. Ideally, you want someone who can score for fun today, has the potential for future growth, and isn’t about to pack it all in at the end of next season either. You need one of the best strikers in the game, then.

Fortunately, there are plenty of good options. With FIFA 22 now available on every format under the sun, we’ve scoured the Career Mode database for the best strikers to turn your midtable battlers into European Super League apologists. Read on and, hopefully, you’ll find your ideal leading man.

FIFA 22 – Best strikers. Credit: EA
FIFA 22 – Best strikers. Credit: EA

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Kylian Mbappe
Club: Paris Saint-Germain
Age: 22
Current Rating: 91
Potential Rating: 95

Oh yes, we left no stone unturned in our hunt for [checks notes] World Cup-winning €160m PSG signing and Real Madrid transfer target Kylian Mbappe. How do we find these people?! Seriously though, Mbappe is pretty much broken in FIFA 22. The cover star has some of the best stats of any player, is still a frighteningly young 22 years of age, and has some of that special extra pixie dust that EA Sports likes to sprinkle on its ambassador players. He will cost your club a fortune, but you won’t need anyone else for years.

Erling Haaland
Club: Borussia Dortmund
Age: 21
Current Rating: 88
Potential Rating: 93

It seems barely conceivable that the most coveted striker in European football is still only 21 years old, but there we are. Son of the player Roy Keane once hobbled for being a bit mean to him, the younger Haaland is likely to spend one more season in Dortmund before being snapped up by a super club for absurd money. With the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Robert Lewandowski surely not too far from retirement, he and his French pal above will be vying for the title of best player in the world very soon. Get him and you’re laughing.

Romelu Lukaku
Club: Chelsea
Age: 28
Current Rating: 88
Potential Rating: 88

He doesn’t have much room for improvement in FIFA 22 Career Mode, for whatever reason, but the Lukaku who returned to Chelsea in the summer is undoubtedly the finished article, and at 28 he is very much in his prime with several years of fantastic goals ahead of him. There are better choices on this list in terms of future potential, but as Chelsea have proved since re-signing him, if you just need someone who you can plug in and automatically get a ton of goals in return, Big Rom is your man.

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Lautaro Martinez
Club: Inter Milan
Age: 24
Current Rating: 85
Potential Rating: 89

Lukaku’s erstwhile strike partner is another player who would probably have been snapped up by a big club in the summer, were it not for the financial challenges posed by the global pandemic and Inter’s reluctance to lose both frontmen in the same window. Lautaro is the real deal though, as anyone who has watched Serie A over the last few seasons can attest. Still pretty young with a lot of growth potential, he is a reliable choice for your Career Mode team, and he won’t cost as much as some of the others on this list.

Joao Felix
Club: Atlético Madrid
Age: 21
Current Rating: 83
Potential Rating: 91

It’s probably fair to say that Joao Felix hasn’t entirely delivered since his big-money move to Atleti, but the stat bods behind the FIFA 22 database clearly haven’t given up on him, because he remains one of the most appealing long-term investments up front for any club. Pick up the Portuguese striker and he could be with you for many years, climbing up the ratings until his stats resemble another rather talented fellow from the Iberian peninsula…

FIFA 22 – Best strikers. Credit: EA
FIFA 22 – Best strikers. Credit: EA

Gabriel Jesus
Club: Manchester City
Age: 24
Current Rating: 83
Potential Rating: 87

He tends to play out wide for his club and country nowadays rather than through the middle, but whatever his preferred position in real life, Gabby Jesus generally outperforms his stats in FIFA games, and this year’s is no exception. His latest Ultimate Team in-form looks like a monster, and its stats reflect the kind of growth you might see from the Brazilian goalscorer if you bring him into your Career Mode team for multiple seasons. And hey, he also has that incredibly annoying telephone celebration on speed dial.

Richarlison
Club: Everton
Age: 24
Current Rating: 82
Potential Rating: 87

The player known as The Pigeon comes complete with his signature celebration, which you will see quite often if you bring him into your FIFA 22 Career Mode team so he can terrorise defences. His base stats are a little middling, but he has strong potential and also has a five-star weak foot, which seems to be an important factor in this year’s gameplay.

Victor Osimhen
Club: Napoli
Age: 22
Current Rating: 80
Potential Rating: 87

At the lower end of the price spectrum, Victor Osimhen is fast and decent enough in front of goal straight out of the gate, but if you hang onto him across multiple successful campaigns then you will really unlock his potential. He could become one of the deadliest players on the continent with the right management. He’s certainly heading that way in real life.

Donyell Malen
Club: Borussia Dortmund
Age: 22
Current Rating: 80
Potential Rating: 85

Heir apparent to a player he is actually older than (seriously, Haaland is a glitch in the Matrix), Malen was signed to help Dortmund plan for a time without their current talisman. He has done well recently as that stand-in, and Dortmund look like a different, more balanced team with him involved instead of their Norwegian cheat code. He doesn’t have the highest potential in Career Mode, but for sheer pace and getting into goal-scoring positions, he will do a fine job, and his finishing should improve over time as well.

Moise Kean
Club: Piemonte Calcio (aka Juventus)
Age: 21
Current Rating: 79
Potential Rating: 87

Back in Italy after a topsy-turvy couple of seasons bouncing around Everton and then PSG on loan, one of the country’s brightest young players is a great investment in FIFA 22 Career Mode, offering pretty decent capabilities on day one and the potential to become one of the best things in the database later down the line. Hopefully that’s something he can achieve in real life too now he (hopefully) has more stability and support.

Honourable Mentions

There are absolutely loads of players we could have included here, so if none of the above appeals to you, we recommend checking out Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Timo Werner or Harry Kane from the Prem, Paulo Dybala and Tammy Abraham from Serie A, and Amine Gouiri from Ligue 1. They have similar profiles to players mentioned above but may be better fits, overall, for what you want and need.

FIFA 22 launched on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X, and Google Stadia on October 1.

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