FC 25 94 Team of The Year Icon Zidane Player Review - Cop or Flop

Team of the Year is finally here! After what has mostly been a rather impressive gameplay update, the biggest promo of the year is here and for what is only the first day, we are off to an absolute bang. The Attackers are of course in packs and whilst for a majority these will be untouchable. That Vinicius Jr & Mbappe Combo would be an absolute killer duo.

However, what we are here to talk about today is actually a very surprising gift from EA and it’s in the form of a “free” TOTY Icon Zinedine Zidane. To secure your 90 OVR untradeable Zinedine Zidane Team of the Year 2002 ICON Player Item, all you need to do is play EA SPORTS FC 25 by 14 February and log in to Football Ultimate Team. On top of that you can also get yourself a free evolution to pair with this item that boosts him up to a 94-Rated card with the additional playstyle+ of Pinged Pass. 

So of course I got straight to work and earned myself this upgraded version of Zidane just to see if the grind is worth going through to obtain this card. For those wondering, in order to complete this evolution you need to play a total of 12 games whilst winning 8 games along the way. This is broken up into segments of “Play 3” and “Win 2” across 4 different section of evolution.

For Chemstyle here I opted for the Hunter whilst using the initial version and really I think it’s fine to stick with this chemstyle. Boost up the pace and keep the shooting high. This man will provide goals.

Obviously no coin value actually tied to this card but let’s break down what is required here and what you can compare it to. As mentioned you will have to play a minimum of 12 games to acquire this card. That being IF you are able to get the required wins within those games. I would recommend just heading for Squad Battles on Semi-Pro as that will guarantee you the minimum games. But looking at the other versions of Zizou in the game. There is a Base Zidane item that after taking a huge price hit with the release of this item, is now currently sitting at just under 800k and slowly decreasing. That puts this free item at a value of at least 800k with the stats being fairly similar. Then there is the upgrade which again if you compare to the Thunderstruck Zidane, is arguably better as it comes with two playstyle+’s instead of just the one with the stats being very similar. That item has also taken a massive dip in price but is currently sat at 1.6m. So realistically this “free” item will be worth roughly 1.5m to 2m if you consider what the market value could be. There simply is no way to put a negative spin on this, it might be one of the best releases EA has ever done. But all this weighs heavy on how he is in-game, but I feel this one may be quite obvious.

How did he perform in-game?

+ Physically he is incredibly dominant on the ball. Holds off the opposition well and is easily able to break down the walls of defense and burst through toward goal

+ Passing was also quite impressive as he is very clinical in finding his man and setting up some clean assists

+ Dribbling was also good on this card, paired again with the physicality he did very well to stick to the ball and move out of high pressure situations. Despite not having considerably high agility or balance, he was quite agile on the ball

+ Shooting was the least surprising as we knew he could pack some power in hit shots. He was also very clinical infront of goal and rarely missed.

+ He also has real good pace for a Centre Attacking Midfielder.

+ Positionally he was sound as he was constantly moving and rotating into space to pick up quick easy passes which allowed the play to move further up the pitch with ease.

Zidane - Cop or Flop?

12 games is of course a lot to grind through but realistically you don’t have to rush this whatsoever. You can also complete this in either SBs/Rivals/Champs with the base version being perfectly useable in itself. I’m gonna keep this short and sweet. This is an incredible card and of course you should go get yourself the upgrade!

Verdict = COP