The FIFA 23 Team of the Year is here to stay, at least for another week. After the announcement of the 11 regular members of the FIFA 23 TOTY last week, EA has now released 11 more items, dubbed the FIFA 23 TOTY Honorable Mentions. And some major exclusions immediately stand out.
The TOTY Honorable Mentions are, as the name suggests, players who just missed out on the original FIFA 23 Team of the Year. We’re not 100 percent sure if the 11 players chosen for this new FUT release were based purely on the original voting and are indeed the players who were closest to making it into TOTY via the fan voting. That may be the case, but the results are making us a bit skeptical on that front.
Before we discuss who is missing, it’s fitting to give the players actually selected as Honorable Mentions their flowers.
The FIFA 23 TOTY Honorable Mentions squad
- ST: Harry Kane – 92 OVR (Tottenham Hotspur)
- LW: Vinícius – 91 OVR (Real Madrid)
- LB: João Cancelo – 91 OVR (Manchester City)
- CB: Kalidou Coulibaly – 91 OVR (Chelsea)
- CM: Pedri – 90 OVR (Barcelona)
- CM: Federico Valverde – 89 OVR (Real Madrid)
- RM: Bukayo Saka – 89 OVR (Arsenal)
- GK: Mike Maignan – 89 OVR (AC Milan)
- LB: Alphonso Davies – 88 OVR (Canada)
- CAM: Nabil Fekir – 88 OVR (Real Betis)
- CB: Bremer – 87 OVR (Juventus)
The two players we knew for sure were making it are João Cancelo and Federico Valverde. They were TOTY 12th Man nominees, and after their defeat in that race to the eventual winner Erling Haaland, the Honorable Mentions were the obvious landing spot for them.
Most other TOTY Honorable Mentions will be universally agreed upon by the fan base. Vinicíus, Saka, and Pedri emerged as superstars in 2022, and Coulibaly and Kane are still among the best players at their position.
The rest of EA’s selection can definitely be questioned. It’s very difficult to vindicate having Bremer and Nabil Fekir as FIFA 23 TOTY Honorable Mentions when Robert Lewandowski and Casemiro, whom many people had on their TOTY ballot, are nowhere to be seen. Fekir is a FUT favorite and Bremer is a fine player, but you won’t find a soul who would claim they had a better 2022 than either Lewa or Casemiro.
The absence of the Polish legend is particularly noticeable when Harry Kane is the lone Honorable Mentions striker. Given Lewandowski’s history with the Ballon d’Or, he’s probably used to getting snubbed by now. We’re not sure how Casemiro is taking this news, though.
