Career Mode is back for FIFA 22 with lots of new features, including the ability to create your own club from scratch for the first time, but the nicest crest and club anthem in the world aren’t going to keep the fans onside if you keep shipping goals to cloggers from the local Post Office Sunday league team, so it’s critical to make sure the man in goal can cope.
Whereas it tends to be best to focus on players 28 and (much) younger for other Career Mode positions, we can afford to give goalkeepers a bit more leeway as they tend to play on for longer than outfield players. We’ve rooted through the FIFA 22 Career Mode database for the best goalkeepers aged 32-and-under with a mix of good stats today and future potential.
FIFA Ultimate Team – Best goalkeepers. Credit: EA
Gianluigi Donnarumma
Club: Paris Saint-Germain
Age: 22
Current Rating: 89
Future Potential: 93
He’s a man who needs no introduction at this stage and will cost you an arm and a leg to secure, but if you need something close to the best goalkeeper in the game today with a bit of future potential to boot, Euro 2020-winning Italian stopper Donnarumma is the one. It still seems crazy that AC Milan let him leave on a free transfer, but such is the strange world of massive contracts and Covid-capped finances, we suppose.
Mike Maignan
Club: AC Milan
Age: 26
Current Rating: 84
Future Potential: 89
Mike “My Nan” Maignan, as content creator Danny Aarons would have it, went the other way from Ligue 1 to Serie A to take up the number-one jersey Donnarumma vacated, and by all accounts AC Milan have looked decent with him in net. As will your team on Career Mode, should you acquire him for the long haul in FIFA 22.
Pierluigi Gollini
Club: Tottenham Hotspur
Age: 26
Current Rating: 82
Future Potential: 87
Struggling to shift Hugo Lloris at Spurs for obvious World Cup winnery reasons, Gollini is coveted by Career Mode players for his great potential, although he isn’t quite the finished article when you sign him in FIFA 22.
Dominik Livakovic
Club: Dinamo Zagreb
Age: 26
Current Rating: 82
Future Potential: 87
We don’t see much of the Croatian league and its best teams around these parts, but usually when we do it’s because of some heroic rearguard action against a big name in European competition. Livakovic has certainly filled that role in recent years, and his profile might be ideal for your squad, with lots of headroom to grow and a low price-tag comparatively.
Unai Simon
Club: Athletic Bilbao
Age: 24
Current Rating: 82
Future Potential: 86
Spain has a lot of strong goalies in this, the year of our lord Luigi +7, but Unai Simon has risen pretty much to the top lately as David De Gea has endured some uncharacteristically inconsistent seasons for Manchester United.
FIFA Ultimate Team – Best goalkeepers. Credit: EA
Rui Silva
Club: Real Betis
Age: 27
Current Rating: 81
Future Potential: 84
Another strong keeper plying his trade in LaLiga, Portuguese stopper Rui Silva is a cheap option compared to most, but could be a good stopgap if you want to save your transfer budget for other areas initially.
Dean Henderson
Club: Manchester United
Age: 24
Current Rating: 80
Future Potential: 87
De Gea’s understudy, equal or superior — you decide, because Manchester United can’t quite seem to do so. Bring him in and he will be adequate today compared to a lot of more balanced keepers, but his future potential is what marks him out as special. With that said, his price tag comes with the inevitable he’s-at-Man-United tax.
Thomas Strakosha
Club: Latium
Age: 26
Current Rating: 80
Future Potential: 83
Another good stopgap possibility, Strakosha is reliable, but with limited potential to grow into the kind of keeper you need long term. The number one today and then a great reserve keeper later on, perhaps?
Gregor Kobel
Club: Borussia Dortmund
Age: 23
Current Rating: 79
Future Potential: 84
Another who might make a good number two goalkeeper for a big team, or else a promising grower for a team with a limited budget, Dortmund’s relatively young backup keeper is a solid choice who flies under most radars.
Alex Meret
Club: Napoli
Age: 24
Current Rating: 79
Future Potential: 86
Napoli’s Meret has massive potential for the future, but may be a little suspect in the initial seasons. If you can carry him through a few years of growth, however, he can be a solid anchor for a proper Career Mode dynasty.
Honourable Mentions
Honestly, the keeper position is one where you can buy older players with no real growth potential and be quite comfortable. If you can stump up the cash, go for one of the household names you see on Big European Nights(TM) all the time and let them grow old gracefully at the heart of your defence. That’s what the best goalkeepers do, anyway.
FIFA 22 launched on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X, and Google Stadia on October 1.
