Young players carry so much excitement because of what they can become. Hope is one of the most marketable tools in all sports and it’s no different in FIFA 23.

The Athletic has run the rule over the players with the highest growth potential in FIFA 23 to help you identify which young stars have the strongest chances to go on to join the football elite if you choose to sign them in career mode. The lowest potential rating of the players here is 89, the highest 95.

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For now, the focus is on those who can become the best in the world. We will also update this piece with more information about high-growth players as more information becomes available.

Meanwhile, you can browse our other pieces written ahead of the launch of FIFA 23 here:

Kylian Mbappe

• Age: 23
• Position: ST
• Starting rating: 91
• Potential rating: 95

Mbappe is one of five players to receive a starting overall rating of 91; in other words, he is one of the five best players in FIFA 23. Signing him on career mode won’t be cheap but if you can raise the finances, you need to get a deal done. You’ll be bringing in a 23-year-old with the ability to end up head and shoulders above just about every other player in the game.

Erling Haaland

• Age: 22
• Position: ST
• Starting rating: 88
• Potential rating: 94

Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool all missed the chance to sign Haaland over the years. Don’t make the same mistake. His pace (89), strength (87) and shooting (91) attributes are already among the best of all strikers in the game. He may even be a better option than Mbappe in FIFA 23 as he is stronger and taller than the Frenchman. There is nothing the video-game version of Haaland won’t be able to do once he reaches his full potential.

Pedri

• Age: 19
• Position: CM
• Starting rating: 85
• Potential rating: 93

Pedri is the highest-rated player under the age of 21 in FIFA 23 and with the right development in career mode could become the best midfielder in the game. The Barcelona youngster has drawn comparisons to Spanish legend and Camp Nou predecessor Andres Iniesta, and if you can nurture him so he reaches his 93 potential rating, you’ll soon have someone who unlocks defences with ease — just like Iniesta seemed to do on a weekly basis.

Phil Foden

• Age: 22
• Position: LW
• Starting rating: 85
• Potential rating: 92

Foden is still just 22 years old but FIFA 23 is already the sixth iteration of the game he has featured in. He was a raw prospect with a 65 overall rating in FIFA 18, the first year he was included, but in this year’s edition, he starts with a respectable 85 overall rating and plenty of potential to grow.

Vinicius Junior

• Age: 22
• Position: LW
• Starting rating: 86
• Potential rating: 92

There isn’t too much difference between Foden and Vinicius Junior as career-mode prospects in FIFA 23. They are the same age (Foden is less than two months older), play the same primary position, and both have a potential overall rating of 92. Because I’m a self-confessed pace merchant when playing FIFA, I’d pick Vinicius over Foden, because he’s faster. How much faster, I hear you ask? Allow me to defer to Carlos Abrantes, one of the Brazilian’s youth coaches at Flamengo, to answer that question: “They used to say that the only way to catch Vinicius was with a motorbike.”

Gianluigi Donnarumma

• Age: 23
• Position: GK
• Starting rating: 88
• Potential rating: 92

Manuel Neuer, Thibaut Courtois, Ederson, Jan Oblak and Alisson all have higher ratings than Donnarumma in FIFA 23 — but the man who saved the penalties that won the European Championship final for Italy last summer has the potential to surpass all his fellow goalkeepers in career mode. Italy coach Roberto Mancini once referred to Donnarumma as “the strongest goalkeeper in the world”. His in-game rating doesn’t back up that suggestion just yet but it could with the right development over time.

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Kai Havertz

• Age: 23
• Position: CAM
• Starting rating: 84
• Potential rating: 91

Havertz joined Chelsea in September 2020 thinking he would have a lot of fun playing an attacking brand of football under then-head coach Frank Lampard. Scoring the winner in that season’s Champions League final went some way towards justifying that belief but, outside of that, there is a feeling, two managers later, that a lot of his potential is yet to be unlocked. In FIFA 23 career mode, that shouldn’t prove too difficult.

Florian Wirtz

• Age: 19
• Position: CAM
• Starting rating: 82
• Potential rating: 91

Wirtz’s stock continues to rise as one of the Bundesliga’s brightest lights and the attacking midfielder has the quality to increase his overall rating by nine points in career mode. Wirtz and German countryman Havertz have the ability to be rated 91 out of 100 once they reach their full potential in FIFA 23. Given that Wirtz plays for Bayer Leverkusen, the club Havertz left for his move to west London two years ago, he would typically be the cheaper option than trying to prise away one of Chelsea’s most expensive assets.

Dusan Vlahovic

• Age: 22
• Position: ST
• Starting rating: 84
• Potential rating: 91

Before he joined Juventus in January, Fiorentina fans called Vlahovic a hunchback: the derogatory term they use to describe players who leave the club to join the Turin giants. But when you have a striker on your books who can score every type of goal imaginable and is still young, it’s only a matter of time before a bigger club swoop in. In FIFA 23, that means Vlahovic won’t be as cheap as he was in earlier editions now he plays for Juventus, but the Serbian is worth the investment as a cheaper alternative to Haaland or Mbappe.

Jude Bellingham

• Age: 19
• Position: CM
• Starting rating: 84
• Potential rating: 91

It feels inevitable that Bellingham will one day follow in the footsteps of Jadon Sancho and Erling Haaland from Borussia Dortmund to the Premier League. For now though, the Englishman is still on Dortmund’s books, which means his asking price in FIFA 23 won’t be as high as it perhaps should be considering how good he already is and how good he could become in a few seasons.

Ansu Fati

• Age: 19
• Position: LW
• Starting rating: 79
• Potential rating: 90

“The first thing to say is that Ansu is still very young. Let’s see where he is when he is 24 or 25.” Those are the words of former Barcelona youth coach Albert Puig when describing Fati as a 17-year-old in 2020. You can speed up those forecasts in FIFA 23 by signing a player who, according to the popular video game franchise, will become one of the best wingers in the world in the next six years or so.

Jamal Musiala

• Age: 19
• Position: CM
• Starting rating: 81
• Potential rating: 90

Musiala is similar to Foden in that he has already won multiple league titles at a young age and also featured at a major international tournament. Being able to cope with the demands of playing at a high level isn’t a factor in FIFA 23, but if it was, you’d have an excellent dribbler on your books who can also operate further forward in a No 10 role.

Rafael Leao

• Age: 23
• Position: LW
• Starting rating: 84
• Potential rating: 90

This Portuguese winger was last season’s Serie A MVP and is described by his AC Milan manager Stefano Pioli as a player who “has everything”. Leao’s 84 overall rating means he’d have no problem holding down a starting role in career mode and his 91 pace rating is music to the ears of anyone who refuses to operate with slow attacking players when they play FIFA.

Joao Felix

• Age: 22
• Position: SS
• Starting rating: 84
• Potential rating: 90

Felix has become a player known to thrive individually in big games that Atletico Madrid ultimately ended up losing. His €127million (£111m, $126m today) move to the Spanish capital from Benfica in 2019 has had its ups and downs, but his potential is there for all to see. If you think you can unlock his true ability in FIFA 23, he’s worth a punt in career mode, though he may come at a steep price.

Sandro Tonali

• Age: 22
• Position: CDM
• Starting rating: 84
• Potential rating: 90

Tonali has been labelled as the next Andrea Pirlo, but the 22-year-old AC Milan midfielder has a more fluid style of play than the great man and likes to occupy different roles in midfield. He can pick a pass and has enough speed and physicality to make sure he isn’t caught out too often. He has been on the radar as a high-growth prospect since his days at Brescia. Having moved on to Milan in 2020, he is now more of a complete player — but also someone who will cost more money to sign in FIFA 23.

Alessandro Bastoni

• Age: 23
• Position: CB
• Starting rating: 84
• Potential rating: 90

Bastoni, a life-long Inter Milan fan, was linked with a move to Tottenham Hotspur this summer but chose to stay at the club he grew up supporting. He is one of Italy’s best defenders and still only 23, which makes him an ideal signing in career mode in FIFA 23. Bastoni represents a cheaper alternative to going after the likes of Virgil van Dijk and Ruben Dias.

Trent Alexander-Arnold

• Age: 23
• Position: RB
• Starting rating: 87
• Potential rating: 90

Alexander-Arnold is the highest-rated right-back in FIFA 23 and still has room to add a few more points to his ranking. He won’t be cheap but that is to be expected given he’s won every trophy possible with Liverpool.

Ryan Gravenberch

• Age: 20
• Position: CM
• Starting rating: 79
• Potential rating: 89

“Ryan Gravenberch is a young, highly interesting player who lots of Europe’s top clubs would’ve liked to have signed,” said Bayern Munich chief executive Oliver Kahn upon Gravenberch’s arrival at the Allianz Arena this summer. Kahn is certainly not wrong in suggesting other teams wanted to add the midfielder, who featured more than 100 times under Erik ten Hag at previous club Ajax, to their squad.

Eduardo Camavinga

• Age: 19
• Position: CM
• Starting rating: 79
• Potential rating: 89

Camavinga needs little introduction after his exploits in the Champions League for eventual winners Real Madrid last season. A tough tackler who can glide past opponents with ease when he has the ball, the Frenchman should have no problem becoming one of the best midfielders in FIFA 23 within a few seasons.

Gavi

• Age: 18
• Position: CM
• Starting rating: 79
• Potential rating: 89

If I had to pick between signing one young midfield prodigy from the Real Madrid and Barcelona squads, I’d try for Camavinga, who is three inches (9cm) taller than Gavi and also has the higher physicality rating in FIFA 23. Still, you could do a lot worse than choosing to sign Gavi — a player who, once all is said and done, will be in the conversation for the best midfielder in the game within a few seasons on career mode.

Vitinha

• Age: 22
• Position: CM
• Starting rating: 79
• Potential rating: 89

Wolves had the chance to sign Vitinha for £17million ($19m) a year ago but chose not to exercise an option they agreed with Porto after signing him on loan. Paris Saint-Germain ended up landing him for double that figure this summer. He has been likened to Joao Moutinho and is a player of immense promise — as that potential rating of 89 in FIFA 23 would suggest.

(Top photos: Left to right: Rafael Leao, Phil Foden and Florian Wirtz; Getty Images)