Watching them grow from nervous teenager to a superstar of the future is a treat - and probably part of the reasoning behind the Journey seeming like such a great fit, so on this page you’ll find a list of the best FIFA 19 youngsters and hidden gems or, in other words, the highest potential young players in the game. Whether you’re looking to take the “Spurs approach” - by buying what feels like several hundred under-21 players each year, and selling on most of them the next - or simply find that one perfect replacement for your ageing superstar, the list below, sourced directly from EA Sports’ own rankings contains several dozen wonderkids with the highest potential ratings in the game. If you’re looking for the highest rated Overall players of all ages though, we’ve got you covered in our guide on FIFA 19’s best players and top 100 player ratings, and a list of FIFA 19 5* skillers and how to perform skill moves, too. We’ll also give our own advice on our personal picks for standout players from the list further below, so read on!
Of all the players of a potential rating higher than 85 Overall, FC Nantes’ Abdoulaye Dabo is the one with the potential to improve the most. The seventeen-year-old starlet starts at just 62 Overall in FIFA 19, meaning he can improve by up to twenty-five points in total. In terms of your Career Mode playthrough, it means he’s one of the very best long-term options, and could also be available for a pretty meagre fee if you’re lucky. Plenty of last year’s starlets, like Tottenham’s Marcus Edwards, the previous player with the potential to improve by the largest margin, drop off the list entirely this year. Remember that age is an important factor here. Whilst younger, lower-Overall players like Dabo might come at a better price, if you can afford more developed players then often it’s a safer bet - you might not be fitting in four, five or six seasons into one Career Mode playthrough, after all, and so may never see a seventeen-year-old’s full potential. For those longer plathroughs, we recommend players with a starting Overall in the 60s, to keep the cost down. The likes of Dabo, Chelsea’s Ethan Ampadou, Monaco’s Guebbels, Bayern’s Fruchtl, and Brescia’s Sandro Tonali are great options for huge long-term growth. For more instant hits - aside from the older players you’ll find in our FIFA 19 player ratings guide - look to the likes of Mbappe (who will probably be extortionate), Gianluigi Donnarumma, Man City’s Gabriel Jesus or Ajax’s Matthijs de Ligt, who have current Overall ratings of 87, 82, 83 and 80 respectively and can provide an immediate impact at just about any club. Don’t necessarily go straight for the highest-rated potential players. Although it’s great if you have the cash, often you’re better off doing a little searching around for players at smaller, more cash-strapped clubs outside of the top tier leagues to pick up a bargain. Do you really need to prize Kylian Mbappé from Paris Saint Germain in the same year he officially joined, when you could pick up Patrick Cutrone or Christian Pulisic instead? Be flexible with your positions. It’s more of a general tip for FIFA 19 anyway (and long-term players will remember the days of pace-abusers packing the team with speedsters regardless of position) but don’t forget that often, players have expertise in more than one spot on the team sheet. Marcus Rashford can play on the left as well as up front, for example, so expect him to be able to do a job for you there in FIFA 19, too.
