The FIFA ratings always cause a stir.

Year after year, EA Sports put their necks on the line by taking on the essentially impossible task of trying to objectively rank the world's best footballers and frankly, fair play to them for taking it on.

However, football being football, you're never going to please everybody and there are always a few decisions that get fans riled up with suggestions that the games company is biased or lazy.

FIFA 22 ratings

It's not a ham-fisted line of argument to which we subscribe - let's make that clear - but with Romelu Lukaku even accusing EA of trying to stir the pot last year, it's not completely without merit either.

That being said, regardless of the process that goes on behind the scenes with FIFA ratings, there's no harm in some friendly debate and we wanted to point out some of the stats that surprised us.

Whether that's upgrades, downgrades, overall ratings or FUT data, there were a few stats that stuck out for us that don't necessarily align with our own opinions on footballers compared to each other.

Liverpool - AC Milan Champions League Highlights (Football Terrace)

As such, we have chosen what we consider to be the 12 most shocking FIFA 22 ratings that have been released so far and yes, this is only my opinion, which is no more or less legitimate than yours.

And with so many leaks doing the rounds, we're only looking at ratings that have either been confirmed on EA's website, by the football clubs themselves or on the ever-reliable Futhead.com.

In other words, don't think that the absence of Mason Greenwood's reported 78 card has anything to do with us not being outraged by it because, yes, that has indeed baffled us too.

Most baffling FIFA 22 ratings

However, enough with the disclaimers, let's jump right into the action and talk through the reported FIFA 22 ratings that - in my opinion - were firmly wide of the mark:

1. Gianluigi Donnarumma shoots up to 89

This is generous, very generous, because although I highly rate Donnaruma and thought he was superb at Euro 2020, he's not the world's joint-third best goalkeeper with Alisson Becker in my eyes.

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Read more: FIFA 22 Ratings: Official Ratings So Far, Release Date, Ultimate Team, Player Ratings, Top 100 And Everything You Need To Know

2. Antonio Rudiger only given 75 pace

In the words of the man himself: "Come on @EASPORTSFIFA... 35,8 km/h top speed on the pitch and only 75 pace in FIFA22?! What do I need to get around 90 pace? 50 km/h?"

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3. Pepe quicker than Virgil van Dijk

Don't get it twisted, Pepe is an absolute animal at 38 years old, but to think that he's been given superior pace statistics to one of the world's quickest centre-backs in their prime seems a little off.

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4. Zlatan Ibrahimovic's 13 pace upgrade

There's no denying that Ibrahimovic is a freak of nature regardless of his age, but you'll forgive us for doubting that he's really improved his sprinting by more than 10% over the last year.

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5. Cristiano Ronaldo level with Neymar

Although Ronaldo being rated 91 isn't inherently infuriating on its own, the fact that he's barely level with Neymar - who scored just nine league goals last season - on the back of winning the Serie A Golden Boot just doesn't feel right.

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6. Edouard Mendy only rated 83

Really??? You can't get too overexcited about one fabulous season in isolation, sure, but Mendy being six ratings behind the likes of Alisson and Ederson feels like far too much of a gap.

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7. Kylian Mbappe equals Ronaldinho's dribbling

Assuming that Ronaldinho's 91-rated ICON card maintains the same stats that it did for FIFA 21, we have a predicament on our hands because we're not sure Mbappe has reached his level quite yet.

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8. Sadio Mane higher rated than Bruno Fernandes

Ok, sure, this is ultimately a matter of opinion but for my money, Fernandes is right up there as one of the Premier League's best players and his 88 rating - behind Mane or not - feels conservative.

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9. Jan Vertonghen's 15 pace upgrade

Whatever Vertonghen - who is now 34 years old - has been doing over the past year to elevate his pace rating from 59 to 76 clearly needs to be studied by doctors because it's clearly superhuman.

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10. Mohamed Salah gets a downgrade

Like... why? I don't know about you, but we can't work out why Salah has tumbled down from a 90 rating to 89 on the back of a season where he scored 31 goals in 51 appearances for Liverpool.

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11. Virgil van Dijk downgrade, but pace upgrade

Ok, fine, so Van Dijk has surely been downgraded because of his crushing knee injury last season but wait - what? - he's been given an upgrade to his pace in spite of that? We're lost.

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12. Toni Kroos better shooting than Olivier Giroud

I guess this is down to Kroos having a cracking long shot on him, but I'm sorry, the German has scored just 22 club goals since 2014 whereas Giroud boasts 107 strikes in the same timeframe.

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13. Ross Barkley level with Eduardo Camavinga

Sure, maybe this is a case of Camavinga passing Barkley - who has practically become exiled at Chelsea - on the way up at just 18 years old, but this still doesn't seem quite right to us.

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What do you think?

So, there we have it, fair play to the team at EA who take on the monumental task of writing about ten-gazillion different statistics for all these players because it must take forever and a day.

And it is, of course, inevitable that not everybody will agree with the final results whether that's the players themselves, fans on social media or your humble GIVEMESPORT writer.

Either way, there's no right or wrong answer to the debate, unless we're blissfully unaware that Vertonghen and Ibrahimovic have been going to sprinting courses together over the last year...

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