The best strikers to sign in FC 26 Career Mode
From Francesco Camarda to Jhon Durán, here's a curated of the best young strikers to sign on your FC 26 Career Modes
SCOUTED is a magazine about youth football. Turns out, all that knowledge is pretty useful for FC 26 Career Mode, who'da thought?
We’ve picked out a few of our favourite young strikers that would be suitable signings on your EA FC 26 Career Mode saves. From Francesco Pio Esposito to Mohamed Kader Meïte, these are some of the best young strikers in the game.
If you are looking for older players, we have you sorted too, with a collection of the ten highest overall centre-forwards at the start of your save. We scout players IRL, if you're a budding Director of Football - have a browse through the rest of our website for more young players to sign.
Let's find some bagsmen.
Who are the best Strikers (STs) in FC 26 Career Mode?
The best strikers in FC 26 Career Mode are those with the highest overall rating. Here's a handy list, including their overall at the start of the game, and their highest possible potential rating (in brackets):
- Kylian Mbappé - 91 (94)
- Erling Haaland - 90 (92)
- Ousmane Dembélé - 90 (90)
- Harry Kane - 89 (89)
- Alexander Isak - 88 (89)
- Lautaro Martínez - 88 (88)
- Robert Lewandowski - 88 (88)
- Serhou Guirassy - 87 (87)
- Victor Osimhen - 87 (89)
- Julián Álvarez - 87 (90)
- Viktor Gyökeres - 87 (88)
But the highest-rated players in the game are going to cost you an absolute fortune. The magic of Career Mode is finding the next big thing on the cheap, before the blow up, and handcrafting them into one of the best players on the planet. To that end, here's our list of the real best strikers to sign: the youngsters with massive space to grow.
The six best young Strikers (STs) to sign and develop in FC 26 Career Mode
For easy reference, here's our list. Don't worry - we'll dive into detail momentarily. As before, their rating is included alongside their potential (in brackets) and there should be a player for every Career Mode budget:
- Jhon Durán - 79 (86)
- Francesco Pio Esposito - 72 (84)
- Mohamed Kader Meïté - 70 (83)
- Nelson Weiper - 70 (84)
- Francesco Camarda - 65 (87)
- Artem Stepanov - 63 (83)
That's more like it. Let's get into the detail.
Jhon Durán
Position: ST
Club: Fenerbahçe SK
Nation: Colombia
Market Value: £32.5m
Jhon Durán is pure chaos. He's just as likely to get sent off as he is to score a 40-yard Puskás winner. Unsurprisingly, he lasted six months in Saudi Arabia before Al-Nassr loaned him back to a European club. Let's hope someone can tame his lethal left foot and help him reach his remarkable potential. Actually, no, he doesn't need to be tamed. He's a maverick. Enjoy it.
Jake Entwistle
If you grab him on Career Mode, you'll have a fast (85 Sprint Speed), aggressive (83 Aggression) and strong (83 Strength) centre-forward with a cannon of a left foot (86 Shot Power).
- Overall: 79
- Potential: 86
- Potential Growth: +7
Francesco Pio Esposito
Position: ST
Club: Lombardia FC (Inter)
Nation: Italy
Market Value: £5m
Francesco Pio Esposito is the youngest but also the largest of the Esposito brothers. He also has the highest potential in the family. If you want to develop a big man with a rocket of a right foot, Pio is the striker for you.
Jake Entwistle
His Jumping (78), Finishing (76), Strength (75) and Heading Accuracy (74) are the standout attributes to start. But that 72 Free Kick Accuracy suggests you could start whacking them in from dead-balls as well as crosses.
- Overall: 72
- Potential: 84
- Potential Growth: +12
Mohamed Kader Meïté
Position: ST
Club: Stade Rennais
Nation: France
Market Value: £3.3m
Mohamed Kader Meïté is the most exciting centre-forward prospect in Europe. He's massive, he runs in behind, he has an enormous leap and he can pin, spin and ragdoll centre-backs 10 years older than him.
Llew Davies
Our perception of his talent and potential is not quite reflected in FC 26. His 83 potential rating is not huge but his 83 Strength and 83 Jumping means he should be able to hold his own against the biggest centre-backs, especially considering those are his starting stats.
- Overall: 70
- Potential: 83
- Potential Growth: +13
Nelson Weiper
Position: ST, CAM, CM
Club: 1. FSV Mainz 05
Nation: Germany
Market Value: £3.5m
Nelson Weiper is one of many 1.9m German forwards that seem to have spawned out of nowhere. Weiper uses his jumbo frame to run the channels hard and throw himself into duels. Tall, mobile, instinctive, he gets all kinds of shots and cracks them off pretty quickly. If you want a young striker to invest stocks in IRL, Weiper is one of our recommendations.
Jake Entwistle
He's also a good option for your FC 26 Career Mode. The 84 Sprint Speed is exciting, the 81 Jumping is nice and the 72 Finishing will improve. He has all the makings of a complete centre-forward.
- Overall: 70
- Potential: 84
- Potential Growth: +14
Francesco Camarda
Position: ST
Club: Lecce
Nation: Italy
Market Value: £650k
Francesco Camarda made his Milan debut at 15 years old so it feels like he's been around for ages. In fact, he became the youngest debutant in Serie A history at 15 years and 193 days old when he made his debut in November 2023. Fast forward two years and he's just joined Lecce on loan with an option to buy. This should give us a good idea of his true potential.
On Career Mode, he's a slam dunk if you want a project nine. If he reaches that 87 potential, he'll become one of the best strikers in game and it won't cost you much to take on the challenge. Imagine the feeling of seeing his rating fly up by 22...
- Overall: 65
- Potential: 87
- Potential Growth: +22
Artem Stepanov
Position: ST
Club: 1. FC Nürnberg
Nation: Ukraine
Market Value: £1.2m
We first watched Artem Stepanov for Bayer 04 Leverkusen in the 2024/25 UEFA Youth League and were impressed by his speed and his ability to make defenders sweat with his movement and his physicality. We're keeping a close eye on his loan at 1. FC Nürnberg this season.
Tom Curren
IRL, he fits our Power Forward Archetype and you can see that in game as well. For a 63-rated player, he has decent speed which is augmented by 80 Strength. Sign him and get him bulldozing through defences until he reaches that 83 potential rating.
- Overall: 63
- Potential: 83
- Potential Growth: +20
That's that, them's them. Those are the SCOUTED-approved best young strikers to sign for you FC 26 Career Mode save. You could even check out the players that featured on last year's list, we've provided their rating (and potential) for FC 26 below:
- Endrick - 77 (91)
- Semih Kılıçsoy - 70 (81)
- Mathys Tel - 77 (86)
- Benjamin Šeško - 80 (88)
- Karim Konaté - 72 (85)
- Paris Brunner - 66 (79)
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