Myles Lewis-Skelly
Myles Lewis-Skelly
A video-game rating is not a scouting report. It is still a public number, and clubs notice when their teenager sits next to names they have already tried to buy.
Career mode rewards potential, not the team-sheet. A 19-year-old left-back with a high ceiling gets the same column as a winger who has already played for Spain.
The list stops at 20. Anyone younger than that only appears if the game already thinks they are close.
EA Sports FC 27 is out, and the career mode list of the best players aged 20 or under includes one Arsenal name. Myles Lewis-Skelly is rated 78, with a potential of 87, as a 19-year-old left-back.
That puts him level on potential with Jon Martin of Real Sociedad and one point above Jorrel Hato and Josh Acheampong at Chelsea. Pau Cubarsi leads the defenders at 86, with a potential of 91. Luka Vuskovic of Brighton is on 81, with 89 to come.
Lewis-Skelly has already started for England in this break, playing the first half of the 2-0 win in Czechia before Eberechi Eze replaced him. At club level he has moved ahead of Martin Zubimendi in the midfield pecking order and filled in at left-back. A game rating of 78 is behind his international status. A potential of 87 says the developers still think the jump is not finished.
The strikers Arsenal have been linked with are higher up the same list. Eli Junior Kroupi is the top young centre-forward, 80 now and 88 potential, at Bournemouth. Endrick is next, 79 and 88, at Real Madrid. Bournemouth will not sell Kroupi in January. Madrid are only said to be more open to an Endrick loan if his four La Liga minutes do not improve.
Elsewhere, Rayan is a 79-rated winger at Bournemouth with 88 potential, and the Cherries have already ruled out a January sale alongside Kroupi and Alex Scott. Lennart Karl, who scored against Arsenal for Bayern, is 77 with 88 potential. Lamine Yamal is in a different tier: 90 now, 95 potential.
No Arsenal goalkeeper makes the under-21 list. Max Dowman, 16, is outside the age cut-off used.
Lewis-Skelly’s 87 is the Arsenal line in the game. Kroupi’s 88 is the line on a player they cannot buy until 2027. The rest is a list of other team’s teenagers.