Key Bayern Munich players missing from FIFA 21’s Team of the Year Nominees

Earlier this week, EA Sports released their nominees for the FIFA 21 Team of The Year. As usual, there were some major names missing from the list. There was a clear lack of love for Bayern Munich in this year’s nominations.

Among the list of TOTY nominees, FC Bayern was represented by Manuel Neuer, Alphonso Davies, Joshua Kimmich, and of course, Robert Lewandowski. While five players might seem like a good representation, it simply is not enough for a virtually unbeatable, treble-winning team that broke several records over the span of 2020.

While I won’t discuss every name that should or shouldn’t have missed the list, there was some clear bias in the selections. Chelsea FC’s Mateo Kovačić and Borussia M’gladbach’s Lars Stindl were amongst the midfielders nominated this year. And while I am not saying that Stindl has not been great, he simply has not been close to the levels of Thomas Muller. And while David Alaba has not been perfect in 2020, there is no reasonable explanation that eighteen other defenders played better than him.

Thomas Muller was a major presence in Bayern’s squad all throughout 2020 and was a key reason for their success across all competitions. So why was he left out of the list of nineteen midfielders nominated this year? At BFW, we have a theory for this.

Back in September, we discussed some horrific ratings that FIFA gave the Bayern players, and it is evident that there is a clear bias at hand. We concluded that this is likely due to the fact that FC Bayern signed a long term deal with EA Sports FIFA’s competitors in Konami and PES.

While EA Sports might have been petty with their ratings and nominations, they should have some responsibility in their judgment towards players as these should be a much more accurate representation of the real-life players. As meaningless as it really is, it’s a bit annoying to see deserving players being overshadowed every year.