In the history of FIFA Ultimate Team, there have been countless different cards with a variety of ratings. The players with an incredibly high overall rating are the ones that are most memorable.
At the end of the FIFA series and before the launch of EA Sports FC 24, we are turning the tables today and looking at the card with the lowest rating ever. For this, we need to go back a few years, to the early days of Ultimate Team.
In FIFA 10, when the Ultimate Team mode was just getting started, a card was released that set new standards. No one should ever be that bad again.
FIFA 10: The worst card in FIFA Ultimate Team goes to …
… Ian Baraclough: Remember this name, because this player will go down in the history of FIFA Ultimate Team. The former professional and later manager received a striker card in FIFA 10 with an astonishing rating of “25”! The recipient of the worst card played for several English clubs during his career, his last position as a player at Scunthorpe United was also his first coaching job.
In the following YouTube thumbnail, you can see the card in all its glory. Additionally, you can watch a work sample of the Northern Irishman in the video.
Remarkably: Despite a shooting stat of 88, Baraclough managed to achieve an overall rating of only 25. This made the card even more bizarre.
Why was the card so bad? The Northern Irish striker, with his strong shot, only received a miserable “11” in all other stats according to EA. If you wanted to play with this iconic card, the only tactic was to pass the ball to Baraclough so that he only had to shoot at the goal.
How did Baraclough get his card? Various myths surround the origin of the cards. One story suggests that while acting as a coach at Scunthorpe United, he spectacularly volleyed a ball from the coach’s bench at midfield into the goal.
However, there is no video footage of his sensational goal.
What could really be behind the rating of the card?
It’s possible that EA played a prank with Ian Baraclough’s card.
This also went the other way: Some players have their fun with EA Sports, as we reported in our article from 2020.
A similar incident happened in German football. For example, the equipment manager of Erzgebirge Aue received a bronze player card in FIFA 18 that was rated better than some professionals at Erzgebirge Aue (via derwesten.de).
Ian Baraclough’s career was certainly not harmed by the whole affair. In the meantime, the Northern Irishman even had the chance to coach his own national team. However, all FIFA players will remember him more for his dubious card.
We are curious if the FIFA successor FC 24 will also provide us with some stories of this kind. Some changes in Ultimate Team have already sparked plenty of discussion ahead of FC 24.
