Most people in the world have never heard the name Edson Arantes do Nascimento, yet he is arguably the greatest soccer player to have ever played the beautiful game. We are of course talking of Brazilian legend Pelé, whose birth name has long been overshadowed by the four-letter nickname that became known to every soccer fan in existence.
The world of soccer is mourning the loss of Pelé, who passed away on Dec. 29, 2022, at age 82. We all know that legends never die, and there are few legends more enigmatic than Pelé. To honor his memory, we will go to a place where Pelé will always stand tall: FIFA 23.
Nearly averaging a goal per game in a career that spanned 21 years and winning three World Cups with Brazil will always keep Pelé in the conversation for greatest ever. FIFA 23 can give that type of discussion a more definitive angle thanks to it using numbers to determine who’s good, who’s better, and who’s the best.
How good is Pelé in FIFA 23?
In brief, Pelé is very, very good in FIFA 23. Much more than just very good, actually: Pelé is the best player in the game.
Of course, being long retired, he doesn’t have a dozen different FUT cards with varying OVR ratings. Pelé is a real-life icon and that’s how we see him in FIFA 23. He appears in four different FUT Icon variations, each better than the next.
The lowest-rated Pelé item in FIFA 23 is his Base Icon, which sits at 91 OVR. If that sounds too low to anyone, 91 is the highest any active player was rated at the beginning of the FIFA 23 game cycle.
The other three Pelé cards are all within the top seven highest-rated players in the game. Pelé’s Medium Icon card is rated at 95 OVR, higher than any special item for any active player, and only outmatched by three players overall: Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, and Pelé.
Yes, it takes a Pelé to outdo a Pelé. The special World Cup Icon edition of the king of soccer shares second place in the FIFA 23 hierarchy with another legendary Brazilian striker, Ronaldo, and the man who won France its first World Cup in the year that Kylian Mbappé was born, Zinedine Zidane. These three cards are all well worth their 96 OVR rating.
No FIFA 23 player can touch the Pelé Prime Icon. Despite having the dubious characteristic of lacking a single maxed-out stat (several attributes are at 98), Prime Pelé is a 98 OVR Icon that can change any match with a single touch—just like he could in real life.
Pelé himself would likely agree that there aren’t many better ways to honor him than proving with numbers that he’s the best to ever do it. His legacy is sure to live on in FIFA 23 and beyond.
