The community has voted Cristiano Ronaldo as the 12th TOTY man for FIFA 22 Ultimate Team (FUT), with the Portuguese receiving the final full TOTY card.
Like almost all content in FUT 22, CR7’s TOTY item and thus his victory in the 12th man voting had been leaked days before the reveal. Consequently, there was no great excitement in the run-up to Friday evening, with EA SPORTS only able to release the Ronaldo object into the packs.
The choice of the attacker was nevertheless a small surprise for many fans. A large part of the community had expected Mohamed Salah. The Liverpool professional played perhaps the strongest half-season of his career in the 2021/22 first half. Meanwhile, Ronaldo has so far failed to match his previous glories at Manchester United.
Ronaldo top scorer twice
The 2020/21 season shows that the choice is justified from a sporting point of view: Ronaldo was the top scorer in Serie A with 29 goals while still wearing a Juventus Turin shirt. At the subsequent European Championship in the summer, the 36-year-old was also the top scorer with five goals.
The community was largely unanimous only on the third candidate: Karim Benzema was given hardly any chances from the outset, the Real striker apparently not having the charisma of his opponents. Ronaldo’s new special card is the last item with a full TOTY upgrade.
Consolation prize for the voting losers
With an overall rating of 97, CR7 can’t keep up with Robert Lewandowski (98) and Lionel Messi (98), but shares third place with Kylian Mbappé, Jorginho and Ruben Dias. EA SPORTS presents Ronaldo’s shot (98) as the highlight among the attributes, but dribbling (95), pace (93) and physicality (92) are also outstanding.
However, Salah and Benzema do not go completely empty-handed: The two voting losers appeared at the same time as the winner as Honourable Mentions in the TOTY promo. The two Bundesliga professionals Erling Haaland and Leon Goretzka as well as DFB defender Antonio Rüdiger also received this honour.