FIFA ratings guru reveals the most difficult player attribute to determine

Ranting about FIFA player ratings is almost an obligation if you’re a fan of the series. It’s just what we do. Turns out determining attributes isn’t as straightforward as some guy on a couch saying Cristiano Ronaldo should have 81 pace. There’s a detailed process behind it all.

This process is orchestrated by EA Sports’ Head of Data and Licensing for FIFA, Mr. Michael Müller-Mohring, aka “Triple M”. He has held this position for 15 years, which may or may not certify him as an authority on the subject of FIFA player ratings.

Triple M sat down for an interview with The Mirror where he shared some insight on how the numbers are shaped behind the scenes. While the more technical aspects are not to be disregarded, we confess that one topic caught our attention more than any other: what is the most difficult player attribute to determine in FIFA?

Most of us would probably take a few seconds, if not minutes to come to a definitive conclusion. Not Triple M, who fired the answer in a split second. The hardest attribute to pin down for FIFA player ratings is jumping.

Not the first attribute that comes to mind, right? It makes a lot of sense, though. As Müller-Mohring explains himself, there are a lot of players that simply don’t jump in-game that often due to their position. Unless you’re present at their training sessions, how are you supposed to know if they have a 40-inch vertical leap?

In another interesting perspective on player attributes, the ratings guru said that acceleration is the most impactful attribute in FIFA. Can’t imagine there are many surprises in the audience here. Anyone who’s played a FIFA game within the last decade knows how game-warping acceleration and pace can be.

For the duration of the interview, Michael Müller-Mohring goes through many aspects of the job: how it takes tons of data gathering over a season to reach a final attribute number, how even height and weight can be difficult to nail at times, how some players that “aren’t good at anything” are a nightmare to rate, and how many footballers have approached him to say their stats are too high in the game. Spoiler on the last question: none.

All of that and more can be heard in the full 27-minute interview.