Are you building your squad but you are not sure about which centre backs and full backs you should buy? Take our suggestions of the best FIFA 21 defenders for Career Mode.
How to choose the Best FIFA 21 Defenders
In this article we suggest the best FIFA 21 defenders for Career Mode that you should be able to use in your club. Keep in mind that the best players for us may not be for you. It depends on your club, other players, formation, transfer budget, wages budget, play style, preferences, etc…
To select the best players, we have mainly into consideration their stats, potential and age. That’s why a few old players are not in this list. Someone who will not be playing for more than two seasons in our club is not such a good buy as someone who will play for five or six seasons.
In our website we suggest defenders of two categories:
1 The Best of the Best
Ideal for unlimited wallets or for who wants the best.
2 The Best Young
Under 23 defenders with great growth. Potential future top players.
The Best Centre Backs for FIFA 21 Career Mode
01 VIRGIL VAN DIJK
Nationality: 🇳🇱 Netherlands
Club (first season): Liverpool
Rating: 90
Potential (1): 91
Age: 28
Value: €90M
Wage: €240K
Van Dijk is the best defender in the world. This centre-back has everything you need to keep your goal safe for many years.
02 MATTHIJS DE LIGT
Nationality: 🇳🇱 Netherlands
Club (first season): Juventus
Rating: 85
Potential (1): 92
Age: 20
Value: €47.5M
Wage: €76K
One day he will probably be better than Van Dijk. Can you imagine that? Insane!
03 KALIDOU KOULIBALY
Nationality: Senegal 🇸🇳
Club (first season): Napoli
Rating: 88
Potential (1): 88
Age: 29
Value: €60M
Wage: €140K
In this list, we have some young players who will be the best defenders in a few years. Older CBs like Sergio Ramos and Chiellini have no place in our choices. Koulibaly is in the middle of these two groups. It’s a solid centre-back, who play better than the young stars and is younger than the old experienced players.
04 RAPAHEL VARANE
Nationality: France 🇫🇷
Club (first season): Real Madrid
Rating: 86
Potential (1): 89
Age: 27
Value: €49M
Wage: €220K
There are so many good centre backs. Not all high-quality defenders achived this top 10. Marquinhos is one of the responsibles to left out Upamecano and other great talents out of this list. Varane should be proud.
05 MARQUINHOS
Nationality: 🇧🇷 Brazil
Club (first season): Paris Saint-Germain
Rating: 85
Potential (1): 89
Age: 26
Value: €51.5M
Wage: €120K
Marquinhos must be one of the first buys in any major club. As simple as that. He is already one of the best defenders but the most impressive is his potential. Besides that, he also plays well as a CDM.
🏆 BEST CENTRE BACKS
TOP 10
01 🇳🇱 Virgil van Dijk
02 🇳🇱 Matthijs de Ligt
03 🇸🇳 Kalidou Koulibaly
04 🇫🇷 Raphaël Varane
05 🇧🇷 Marquinhos
06 🇫🇷 Aymeric Laporte
07 🇫🇷 Clément Lenglet
08 🇸🇰 Milan Škriniar
09 🇩🇪 Niklas Süle
10 🇺🇾 José María Giménez
The Best Right Backs for FIFA 21 Career Mode
TRENT ALEXANDER-ARNOLD
01
Nationality: England 🏴
Club (first season): Liverpool
Rating: 87
Potential (1): 92
Age: 21
Value: €46M
Wage: €93K
Is incredible to see someone of his age as the best right back. You will love everything in him.
03 AARON WAN-BISSAKA
Nationality: England 🏴
Club (first season): Manchester United
Rating: 83
Potential (1): 88
Age: 22
Value: €28M
Wage: €87K
It isn’t easy to find a top-quality player with this age like Wan-Bissaka. If you want to hire more English players, you also have Joe Gomez, who isn’t a native right back but can play on that position.
04 RICARDO PEREIRA
Nationality: Portugal 🇵🇹
Club (first season): Leicester City
Rating: 85
Potential (1): 87
Age: 26
Value: €33M
Wage: €105K
Almost every year, Ricardo Pereira has been rumoured to move to a bigger club. He is ones of the best fullbacks money can buy.
04 JOÃO CANCELO
Nationality: Portugal 🇵🇹
Club (first season): Manchester City
Rating: 83
Potential (1): 86
Age: 26
Value: €34M
Wage: €130K
Cancelo is making part of our rankings for so many years. First, as a hot-prospect and now as one of best right-back money can buy.
04 DANIEL CARVAJAL
Nationality: 🇪🇸 Spain
Club (first season): Real Madrid
Rating: 86
Potential (1): 86
Age: 28
Value: €34M
Wage: €83K
They are all so young on this list. Carvajal is the exception. He still has many good seasons to play but his pace is not the same anymore.
🏆 BEST RIGHT BACKS
TOP 10
01 🏴 Trent Alexander-Arnold
02 🏴 Aaron Wan-Bissaka
03 🇵🇹 Ricardo Pereira
04 🇵🇹 João Cancelo
05 🇪🇸 Daniel Carvajal
06 🇵🇹 Nélson Semedo
07 🇫🇷 Nordi Mukiele
08 🇧🇷 Emerson
09 🏴 Kyle Walker
10 🇫🇷 Benjamin Pavard
The Best Left Backs for FIFA 21 Career Mode
01 ANDREW ROBERTSON
Nationality: Scotland 🏴
Club (first season): Liverpool
Rating: 87
Potential (1): 89
Age: 26
Value: €49M
Wage: €135K
Robertson had an another amazing season which help you the keep the top position he achieved last year. He is again the best left-back you can buy.
02 GRIMALDO
Nationality: Spain 🇪🇸
Club (first season): SL Benfica
Rating: 84
Potential (1): 88
Age: 24
Value: €29.5M
Wage: €18K
He is the type of player everyone loves. Balanced, fast, young and with a great potential, he is probably already in your list, right?
04 FERLAND MENDY
Nationality: France 🇫🇷
Club (first season): Real Madrid
Rating: 83
Potential (1): 88
Age: 25
Value: €21M
Wage: €120K
It is not normal to see so many young full backs with high potential. Ferland Mendy is just one of the best examples. With him in your team you don’t need anyone else. Hype!
03 ALEX TELLES
Nationality: Brazil 🇧🇷
Club (first season): FC Porto
Rating: 84
Potential (1): 85
Age: 27
Value: €31.5M
Wage: €23K
Alex Telles has been rumoured with many clubs and it’s easy to understand why. He’s talented and on the last year of contract. At least, add him to your watch list.
05 JORDI ALBA
Nationality: Spain 🇪🇸
Club (first season): FC Barcelona
Rating: 86
Potential (1): 86
Age: 31
Value: €35M
Wage: €220K
Alba is still a very good option for any team. He’s not as fast as he already was in the past, but he still has other great skills.
🏆 BEST LEFT BACKS
TOP 10
01 🏴 Andrew Robertson
02 🇪🇸 Alejandro Grimaldo
03 🇫🇷 Ferland Mendy
04 🇧🇷 Alex Telles
05 🇪🇸 Jordi Alba
06 🇨🇦 Alphonso Davies
07 🇪🇸 Reguilón
08 🇪🇸 Gaya
09 🇧🇷 Alex Sandro
10 🇧🇷 Renan Lodi
Notes:
(1) Potential is an average of estimated rating a player can reach. It doesn’t mean that you will reach that overall nor that you won’t overcome it.
Hello, the wording under Ricardo Pereira is the same as Cancelo.
Great list! I’ve been looking to shore up my defense in Career Mode, and your recommendations are spot on. I can’t wait to sign some of these players and see how they perform!