EA FC 25 TOTY: Salah, Mbappe & Vinicius form dream frontline

"Even when you're under pressure for results, you should never forget the concept of enjoyment," Kylian Mbappe once mused. "You pay to watch a spectacle and there are some players worth the price of the ticket."

The jet-heeled Frenchman certainly fits that brief. Alongside his Real Madrid teammate Vinicius Junior and Liverpool talisman Mohamed Salah, this lofty trio have created a spell-binding spectacle so routinely that they were included in the frontline of EA FC 25's Team of the Year.

Here's how these three star attractions rose above all their peers.

What Mohamed Salah achieved in 2024

• EFL Cup winner
• Liverpool Players' Player of the Season
• CAF Team of the Year

Salah's inclusion raised some eyebrows. There is no doubting the Liverpool forward's prolific start to the 2024/25 campaign, rattling in even more goals than cryptic barbs about his expiring contract.

However, this is a calendar-year award and Salah endured a sluggish conclusion to the 2023/24 season while nursing a serious hamstring injury he sustained on international duty at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Nevertheless, Salah's blistering form across the final five months of 2024 is enough to banish the memories of January through May. As Arne Slot gushed at the end of the year: "We didn't know Mo Salah could get any better, but somehow he has!"

What Kylian Mbappe achieved in 2024

• Ligue 1 winner
• Coupe de France winner
• UEFA Super Cup winner
• FIFA Intercontinental Cup winner
• Gerd Muller Trophy winner
• UEFA Champions League top scorer
• Ligue 1 Player of the Year
• Ligue 1 top scorer
• French Player of the Year
• UNFP Ligue 1 Team of the Year

The first half of Kylian Mbappe's 2024 was spent making a protracted farewell to Paris Saint-Germain. The club's all-time top scorer eventually sealed his much-trailed move to Real Madrid in the summer, fulfilling a childhood dream which had existed since a family friend gave him a model of the Santiago Bernabeu stadium. Mbappe brought that replica to the actual ground at his unveiling in July.

The divisive Frenchman marked his debut with a goal in a triumphant UEFA Super Cup final but struggled to feel his way in to a team that was already champions of Spain and Europe. By the time Mbappe scored in his second final for Madrid, helping the club win the inaugural Intercontinental Cup in December, the new number nine had settled in.

What Vinicius Junior achieved in 2024

• UEFA Champions League winner
• La Liga winner
• Supercopa de Espana winner
• UEFA Super Cup winner
• FIFA Intercontinental Cup winner
• The Best FIFA Men's Player
• The Best FIFA Men's 11

It would be easier to list what Vinicius Junior did not achieve in 2024. The Brazilian sensation couldn't cure cancer, he didn't manage to go more than three consecutive games without scoring a goal and he emphatically failed to let the disgusting racist abuse he receives get the better of him.

Vinicius may have missed out on the Ballon d'Or - by an exceedingly narrow margin - but was crowned The Best FIFA Men's Player of the Year. Even more pertinently, in what remains a team sport, Vinicius helped Madrid win a rare double of La Liga and the Champions League - scoring in the European final to down a defiant Borussia Dortmund.

The forwards that Salah, Mbappe and Vinicius beat to TOTY place

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