Lionel Messi’s cost has settled in at about 5-6 million 2k23 mt coins, according to FIFA 23. I don’t think I need to even really go over the merits of this card, or even what he’s good at. He’s a 99 overall, and it’s crystal clear why he’s great. He would be meta in any game, and it’s really just the extras that are not as “great” as they could be. He has four-star skills and a four-star weak foot, and he has low defensive work rates to go with medium attacking work rates. Those don’t change between cards, and it’s the “weakness” you have to live with on Messi cards.

It’s interesting to think about how you want to play this out if you truly want a Messi card. I think with most of these TOTY cards, you need to take the value proposition into account and figure out if the added stats are truly worth it. With that in mind, Messi cards are all the same to me at this point. He’s amazing on the ball. He will make great runs. He will cut on a dime. And he will not finish quite as well as you expect. I think you can get most of the value of Messi from the SBC if you already did it, or simply put an Anchor or Hunter on his base gold card and save tons of extra coins.

If you have not yet done the player objectives for Moi Gomez, which relate to scoring with La Liga teams in Rivals wins, this is a good way to perhaps double dip. If you have already done the Moi Gomez objectives (like me), there’s a little extra grind involved.

As for the card itself, getting a 91 overall via not the worst grind I’ve seen this year is not a bad deal. He’s got four-star skills and four-star weak foot, and is still a relatively easy link even with him being in the J1 League. Flashback David Villa immediately comes to 2k23 mt buy mind here, and overall Spain can really put out a great squad through the middle of the field at this point.