Football Manager 2023: Top 100 Best Players by Current Ability

Kevin De Bruyne tops this Football Manager 2023 ranking with a reported Current Ability (CA) of 189/200. Kylian Mbappé is second at 188, and Robert Lewandowski is third at 186. The list is a historical ranking of FM23 database ratings—not a current assessment of real-world footballers.

How this FM23 ranking was made

Lewis Barton’s Daily Mirror article, syndicated by inkl, says it extracted player data using the Football Manager 2023 in-game editor and sorted the results by Current Ability. The article’s publication date is not stated on the accessed page. Its ratings are game attributes, not an external evaluation of football performance.

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1		Football Manager 2024 (PS5)	$34.34	Buy on Amazon
2		Football Manager 2014	$7.25	Buy on Amazon
3		FOOTBALL MANAGER: The video game book that changed everything	$2.99	Buy on Amazon
4		Ultra Pro Fanzone Football Trivia Game - WHO is The Real Fan? Family Party Game Night, Sports Quiz...	$20.00	Buy on Amazon
5		Football Manager 2015	$24.74	Buy on Amazon

In Football Manager, Current Ability describes how good a player is in the game at the time represented by the database. Potential Ability (PA) concerns how good the player could become. Both are scored out of 200, but this ranking orders players by CA alone; it does not rank them by potential.

Who are the best players in FM23?

Here are the top 100 in the order reported by the source. Club affiliations are retained as displayed in that publication; they are historical snapshot details, not updated to present-day clubs.

#1 Best Overall

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What the ranking does—and does not—tell you

The reported top ten span attacking players, midfielders, a goalkeeper and a defender, reflecting the editor’s overall CA ordering rather than a position-by-position comparison. De Bruyne’s 189 is the highest rating reported in this list; Ronaldo appears at 100th with 158. The values belong to FM23’s database snapshot and can differ across database updates, platforms or editions.

Other FM23 player lists answer different questions: wonderkid rankings focus on potential, hidden-gem lists emphasize discovery or value, bargain lists focus on asking price, and free-player lists identify players without transfer fees. Those criteria should not be confused with an overall Current Ability ranking. FM Scout’s FM23 index groups these as distinct list types; it is useful for context, not verification of this top-100 table.

Rank #2

Football Manager 2014

• Football Manager 2014 PC & Mac. *English game play, on disc manual included English, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish* Printed manual in French. Includes ONE user activation code. BRAND NEW Factory Sealed DVD Box by Sega UK for worldwide use. Ship daily via USPS 1ST CLASS(4 - 7 Business days)w/FREE delivery confirmation & Shipment Notification. Platform: Windows XP/Vista/7/8. MAC OS X 10.6.8. PEGI: 3. System Requirements: OS: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, Processor: Intel Pentium 4, Intel Core, AMD Athlon, Graphics: NVidia GeForce FX 5900 Ultra, ATI Radeon 9800, Intel GMA X3100, 128MB VRAM, Direct X 9.0c compliant Memory: 1GB RAM, 3GB HDD. For Mac: Mac OS X 10.6.8, 10.7, 10.8 Processor: Intel Core, 1.8GHz+. Graphics: NVidia GeForce 7300 GT, ATI Radeon X1600, Intel GMA X3100, 128MB VRAM, OpenGL 2.0 compliant. Memory: 1GB RAM, 3GB HDD Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Linux Processor: Intel Pentium 4, Intel Core, AMD Athlon, 1.8GHz+. Graphics: NVidia GeForce 7300 GT, AMD Radeon HD 2400 Pro, Intel HD 3000/4000, 128MB VRAM, OpenGL 2.0 compliant Memory: 1GB RAM, 3GB HDD. Earlier cards or laptop chipsets may only display the match in 2D and are not supported. Online play requires broadband connection. Note: Computers with high-performance hardware will provide the best game performance. Requires Internet Connection and free STEAM account to activate. NOTICE: Product offered subject to your acceptance of the Steam Subscriber Agreement ("SSA"). You must activate this product via the internet by registering for a Steam account and accepting the SSA. Please see steampowered agreement from their web site to view the SSA prior to purchase. If you do not agree with the provisions of the SSA, you should return this game unopened to your retailer in accordance with their return policy. Please check software compatibility before purchased. NO OPENED BOX RETURN(Please read Amazon Software/Video game's return policy)
• The best-selling, incredibly realistic football management drives on with over 1,000 improvements and enhancements in Football Manager 2014. The 3D match engine has seen extensive improvements, including enhanced AI, improved lighting and player animation, individual player character and kit models, more realistic player reaction to on-field incidents and a range of optimisations which combine to make this the best looking and fastest FM Match Engine yet. On the pitch, redesigned tactics management makes the player roles and team strategies even more prominent. Improvements to rival managers’ AI allow them to adapt their tactics more readily over time.
• FM 2014 features a revamped transfer module where opposing clubs and managers adopt a more realistic approach when making or responding to transfer offers. In addition, a number of new ‘real world’ transfer clauses have been added, such as the facility to loan a player back to the club he’s just been bought from and the option to offer a combination of cash and loan players, as well as new contract clauses such as a sub bench appearance fee. On top of this, the old ‘turn-based’ system of transfer negotiations can now be done two ways, the tried and tested system and a new ‘live’ system, similar to that used in FM’s contract negotiations.
• The 3D match engine has seen extensive improvements, including enhanced AI, improved lighting and player animation, individual player character and kit models, more realistic player reaction to on-field incidents and a range of optimisations which combine to make this the best looking and fastest FM Match Engine yet. Major changes have also been made to FM 2014’s user interface. Key areas have been redesigned – including the training overview page, the transfer centre and the news homepage – while widespread changes have been made across the game’s user interface. The language employed throughout the game has also enjoyed a major overhaul and now corresponds more closely to the language of real world football.

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Playing Football Manager 2023 on a physical copy

For the physical edition, the official FM23 launch announcement says the pack contains a redemption code rather than a disc. The code enables play via Steam, Epic Games or the Microsoft Store. The announcement also reported a 47% lower packaging carbon footprint than FM22, attributing the change to removing the disc and notebook and refining the packaging; that figure concerns packaging, not the game’s total lifecycle emissions. Read the official FM23 release announcement.

Quick Recap

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Football Manager 2024 (PS5)

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Football Manager 2014

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FOOTBALL MANAGER: The video game book that changed everything

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Football Manager 2015

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Best Value

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Rank #4

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• A virtual game master does it all… It gives you the rules, manages the scores, and spices up the game. Keeps gameplay smooth and exciting with automatic rule explanations, real-time scorekeeping, and fun commentary.
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Rank #3

FOOTBALL MANAGER: The video game book that changed everything

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