FIFA 23 players outraged by secret nerfs to FUT Centurions cards

Nathan Warby
Zlatan Ibrahimovic in FIFA

The FIFA 23 FUT Centurions promo conjured some seriously overpowered Ultimate Team cards, but players have been left confused after many of them were nerfed unexpectedly.

FIFA 23 Ultimate Team has provided players with a steady stream of promos all season, bringing a new team of special cards almost every week. These juiced items have allowed FUT fans to build some phenomenal teams full of football’s biggest names.

With Team of the Year looming, the first event of 2023 was FIFA 23 FUT Centurions, a celebration of the players who have stayed at the top of their game for many years.

However, days after the second team of FUT Centurions hit packs, players have noticed that their stats have been unexpectedly nerfed.

FUT Centurions Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the headline player from Team 2, had his stamina, balance and agility heavily downgraded, falling from 85 to 61, 82 to 58, and 85 to 76 respectively.

Zlatan wasn’t the only card affected, as players have also reported that Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold and PSG’s Marco Veratti have received a similar treatment, again with no announcement from EA.

The secret nerfs had a major effect, not just on gameplay, but also on the market value of the cards for anyone looking to sell them on. In the hours since the changes were noticed, Ibrahimovic fell by 700,000 coins on the FUT market.

FIFA 23 players were understandably outraged by the developers seemingly changing the stats on cards already owned in their clubs, after they had possibly spent real-life money to get hold of them.

“I’m so done with this joke of a company even if it’s a visual bug. It has ruined the price,” said DarthRaider666 on Twitter.

“I feel like there should be some sort of legal issue with this right?” agreed Nick Prifti. “They advertise a card, people spend money trying to pull said card and then they nerf it?”

It’s worth keeping in mind that this could easily just be a mistake on the developer’s part rather than a planned nerf. It could also be a visual glitch, as we’ve seen in the past, that shows the wrong stats without affecting the in-game performance of a player.

EA are yet to comment on the situation, but FIFA 23 players will be hoping that the apparent nerfs will be reverted soon. Especially those that invested millions of coins and are now facing huge losses on the FUT market.


For more, be sure to check out our predictions for the FIFA 23 Team of the Year and how to vote for the 12th Man spot.

Image credit: EA SPORTS